‘Big J’ is Joel Wainman, a highly regarded former member of Hull Thursday Road Club who has been diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease. Joel has two young sons, and a friend of his has set up a Just Giving page to help during this terminal illness. Sunday 21st August 2022, is the date of the Big J Sportive, organised by Hull Thursday Road Club.
I’ve ridden two Hull Thursday Road Club sportives and I hope to ride this one next month. So I revisited the now defunct web pages I blogged back in 2013 and 2016 to remind myself of both events. I reproduce them below in case they might be vaguely useful to anyone thinking of entering any of the 2022 distances. I understand that the routes for the Big J will follow those of the Big G, but they don’t appear to be detailed as yet on the events pages. So I’ve included my Garmin Connect and Strava activities should anyone wish to view either the 100km or 150km routes. (Note that my ride from 2013 was from the old event headquarters in Molescroft; subsequent rides set out from Bishop Burton.)
100km Big G Cyclosportive 2013
Yesterday, I finally managed to take part in the Big G Cyclosportive after illness, holidays, a wedding and other distractions prevented me from giving it a go in previous years. This was only my second sportive after completing the Heart of the Wolds back in April. Once again I was unprepared and carrying a bit too much weight, but I enjoyed a dash around the Yorkshire Wolds with some faster, younger cyclists.
I quickly latched on to a group of riders from the Beverley Knights and Hull Thursday clubs. As with my previous sportive, the help of others in sharing the work would prove invaluable; I was rather optimistically hoping for ‘Gold’ in this event. Thankfully, the weather provided a break from the recent heat wave; a few minutes after I had applied sun cream we found ourselves getting rained on as we left Molescroft.