Blog: Five things you probably haven’t thought about packing for a sportive
You’ve packed your helmet. You’ve filled your bottles. You’ve checked the bike.
So you’re ready for the sportive.
Probably.
Because the things that catch you out on a long ride are rarely the obvious ones. It’s usually the tiny, slightly random item sitting at home that suddenly becomes incredibly important when you’re 40km from the finish and something has gone wrong.
So rather than another checklist telling you to remember your shoes and a spare tube, here are five slightly less obvious things we think are worth finding space for.
1. A chain quick-link
It’s tiny, weighs practically nothing and could save your ride.
If a chain breaks and you’ve got a multitool with a chain breaker, a compatible quick-link can potentially get you moving again in a few minutes.
The important bit is making sure it matches your drivetrain. An 11-speed quick-link isn’t much consolation when you’re standing beside a 12-speed bike.
It’s one of those things you may carry around for years without using.
Until the day you’re very glad you did.
2. A pair of disposable gloves
Not exactly high-performance cycling equipment.
But anyone who has put a dropped chain back on, repaired a mechanical or wrestled with a filthy rear wheel before reaching into a jersey pocket for food will immediately understand the appeal.
A pair of thin disposable gloves weighs virtually nothing and keeps the contents of your drivetrain off the contents of your sandwich.
Very glamorous.
Very useful.
3. An emergency £10 or £20 note
Cards work.
Phones work.
Smartwatches work.
Until occasionally they don’t.
A folded note tucked permanently into a saddle bag gives you a useful Plan B when your phone battery dies, the village shop’s card machine stops working or you unexpectedly need food, drink or another way of getting home.
If you never use it, brilliant.
Just try to remember it’s there before putting the saddle bag through the washing machine.
4. An empty crisp packet
Bear with us.
A puncture is normally straightforward. But if you put a decent cut through the actual tyre casing, simply fitting a new inner tube may not solve the problem. Inflate it and the tube can start pushing through the damaged section of tyre.
What you need is something tough between the tyre and the tube.
A folded crisp packet can make a surprisingly effective emergency tyre boot and potentially get you rolling again.
A proper tyre boot is obviously better.
But a proper tyre boot doesn’t come with salt and vinegar crisps inside it.
5. Your route downloaded offline
Knowing that somebody has emailed you a GPX file is not quite the same as having the route available when you actually need it.
Download it to your bike computer before you leave home.
If you’re using your phone as backup, make sure the map or route is available offline too.
Mobile reception disappears. Batteries get low. Apps occasionally decide that precisely the moment you’re lost is the ideal time to ask you to log in again.
On a signed sportive you hopefully won’t need it.
But having your own route available is a useful additional safety net.
The good news…
You can get pretty much everything on this list at PAU.
Although we should probably clarify that we don’t currently sell empty crisp packets in the bike shop.
For that one you’ll need to go next door to PAU Café, buy the crisps and undertake the difficult but necessary preparation of eating them first.
We’re confident most cyclists will cope.
And that brings us to the important question.
Every rider seems to have one slightly odd thing that permanently lives in a saddle bag or jersey pocket because, at some point, they learned the hard way.
What’s yours?
Tell us the weirdest, cleverest or most unexpectedly useful thing you never head out on a big ride without. Pop an image of your answer on the socials with #ridestaffs
