Ride a sportive
A friend has invited you to do this with them.
A sportive is a signposted, non-competitive road ride with feed stops, so you can take on a long route without navigating or carrying everything yourself. Most offer several distances, and British Cycling grades events so you can judge the difficulty beforehand.
DemandingUnder £100 / $130MonthsOutdoorsAlone or with othersUKSpring to autumn
Someone who has done it
How to start
- Browse British Cycling's sportives page and read its guide to sportive grading.
- Enter the shortest route at an event within easy reach of home.
- Build your longest ride up steadily and practise eating and drinking on the bike.
Where to go
We opened this link on 6 October 2026 and found it to be what we say. Dates, places and prices are on the official page, where they stay up to date.
Plan this
Pick a day, or a month, and we will set out how to get ready, step by step, with a date and a reason for each. Events have fixed dates and entry or ticket deadlines. Physical events add a training plan from our guidance engine, and its length is set by the engine, not by the date you would like.
Read next
No one left behind on the Expresso trail: fifteen years of Tuesday rides with Girls Outside
How a group of women in Colorado's Roaring Fork Valley turned a Tuesday mountain bike ride into a 15-year habit: the motto, the tailgate and why the group keeps them riding. How to start mountain biking on easy graded trails, or ride harder terrain with a group if you already ride.
Watching a swimmer from an exercise bike led Sola Alegbe from a lifelong fear of water to teaching it
How a Londoner who nearly drowned as a child learned to swim at 48, left her job at Transport for London and qualified as a swimming teacher. What the first lesson is really like, and how to start if water frightens you, or go further if you already swim.
More like this
Demanding
Take on the PARAS' 10
Demanding
Complete your first triathlon
Demanding · London
Walk a marathon at night at the MoonWalk
Demanding · London, South East England
Ride from London to Brighton