Dartmoor Classic 2025 – ‘Race’ Recap

I’ve done the Dartmoor Classic (DC) a couple of times; the main reason is that I get to do it with some mates, one of whom just so happens to own a nearby house. It’s treated as a sportive rather than a race for me, which means cycling with friends and stopping together for equal doses of caffeine rather than crashing exhausted over the finish line.

For some reason, this year we decided to do the Medio route, which is just over 100km, rather than the Grande route, which is rather more challenging at over 100 miles. Still, the Medio is challenging enough with over 6,000ft of climbing. Enough to work up an appetite for some local Cornish/Devonish ale in the evening rather than needing an early night.

Pre-Race

This is one of the better-organised events I regularly attend. It’s noticeably well organised and needs to be, as they apparently deal with over 1,500 riders, although it seemed like more.

There’s always an event t-shirt, or mug, or something. The organisers seem to employ a rather good designer to produce the freebies each year – stuff that you might actually wear again, or use, at some point in the future. This year, it was a very subtly branded, teal(?) cycling top complete with a decent zip and pockets in the right place. The material seemed (is) technical enough to do the job that we lycra wearers need.

Weather

The weather is pretty good on the whole in the UK. It’s rained for about half an hour in England for the entirety of 2025.

For the Americans who think Londoners live in a permanent pea-souper fog-like condition, you are mistaken. That was about 150 years ago when we invented Western capitalism, joint stock companies, proper global empires and the like on the back of the Industrial Revolution and other less politically correct stuff. Apparently, Cornwall and  Devon (where the race is hosted) also invented the entire Bronze Age, being by far the biggest global producers of tin, c90%, a key ingredient in the smelter’s pot. (See Poldark).

I digress.

The weather on the day was awesome in the morning. The forecast was also awesome. I like awesome things. Especially weather. Naturally, I brought all my hot weather gear, lots of bottles and the like. I didn’t even bother with gloves and had my old carbon rims on some Hunt 36mm wheels. These brake reasonably well in the dry, less so in the wet. Well, they don’t work in the wet. At all.

HUNT 36 UD Carbon Spoke Wheels Review – Rim Brake, Aero Wheelset

That said, at the start line, I looked up the hill towards the Moor, and the cloud did look a greyer shade of black than I expected.

Tapped the Wahoo Roam 3 and off we went. I think I had the Magene P505 power meter cranks paired to that. I had Whoop MG and the Forerunner 970. I also think I had some power pedals (maybe the Assioma PRO RS, but oddly, power was recorded but with none of the metadata saying which sensor was used, oh well)

Race Detail

The race is usually close to the longest day of the year. This year, it was Sunday, 22 June, starting at Newton Abbot Racecourse, Devon (British Cycling, Dartmoor Classic). It has been organised by the Mid-Devon Cycling Club since 2007 in an open road format over 97% of the course. On the downside, there are cars and narrow lanes.

There is a single closed road segment for one hill challenge, happily coinciding with when my legs felt best over the entire day. I think I won the POM – Prince of the Mountain. A title you invent on the day, and award yourself if you beat all your mates. Which I think I did. Obviously, the ‘POM’ challenge is only open to English (Ask an Australian).

Entry was £60 (or £70 on the day), with free parking, good feed stations, mechanical/medical support, rider jersey, RFID timing with SMS updates, and full route marshalling.

Routes & Format

The Grande route is the iconic one to go for. I’m not sure it’s the most popular of the four on offer. It probably is.

Results

It’s not a race, but results are published.

Grande (107 miles)

• Winner: George King in 5 h 12 m 56 s; runner up Nicolas Roche
• First woman: Lara Cosford, 6 h 38 m 00 s. Second: Andrea Woolcott (F50) in 6 h 45 m 03 s

Medio (~67 miles)

• Male winner (M40): Tristan Vetta, 3 h 26 m 55 s; runner‑up Gerard Watts, 3 h 27 m 13 s.
• First woman: Holly‑Mei Jones, 3 h 50 m 12 s

Piccolo (~46 miles)

• Male winner (junior): Josh Ernest, 2 h 33 m 46 s; runner up (M50) Paul Harvey, 2 h 40 m 04 s.
• Female winner: Victoria Hindley, 2 h 53 m 17 s; runner‑up Rachel Malthouse (F40)

e‑Piccolo (e‑bike)

• Winner: Deborah Leatt, 2 h 37 m 27 s; secured £100 voucher as overall e‑bike KOM winner sponsored by Certini

Race Talking Points

There were a couple of nasty accidents. I’ve included the official race video, which shows one of them (a bit odd for a race video, oh well). Hopefully, the rider in question was okay. I passed that just after it happened. Another accident occurred later on the route where someone had an argument with one of the many cattle grids (been there, done that, admittedly in the less glamorous Bushy Park); the cattle grids invariably win and did so on this occasion too. Again, hopefully everyone was Okay.

I would say that the junctions were well-marshalled and safe. However, some quite nasty tight bends elsewhere were not marshalled at all and either relied on your looking at the map on your Wahoo and being aware of the likelihood of lots of gravel where it shouldn’t be.

There is also a very steep uphill section on a moderately busy road. Many riders were walking up that hill, often inconsiderately two abreast and causing a significant tailback of traffic that could not pass. This also impacted those of us who wished to keep riding but couldn’t safely overtake the slow cars, as the road was too steep and too narrow. Doh.

But you came for the pretty scenic stuff.

The scenery is barren but beautiful. If you’ve read Wuthering Heights (or seen Kate Bush’s video), it’s a bit like that, but further south, with a few more Range Rovers than necessary and no Kate.

There are lots of Tors, small hills. This is England’s equivalent of the Alps, and an even more lowly version of the Scottish Munros. Still, there are some nasty little hills to go up on less-than-perfect surfaces and some fantastically enjoyable and sometimes thrilling downhills. The final 10 miles down through the Teign Valley is one of my favourites anywhere; you can get up some nice speed without the peril of an Alpine descent.

At the halfway point, we stopped for some excellent sandwiches, coffee and cake. I had seconds (and thirds). Then it rained. #WTFmoment. The heavens opened and off we duly cycled on the ‘road’, which more closely resembled a river, covered with a sheet of water. I was totally unprepared for this, but being on a Moor, a) I should have been, b) the quicker you descend, the quicker you get out of the cloud, and c) remember to bring a wheel with disk brakes for the wet. On reflection, I’m not entirely sure why we just didn’t stop and have more coffee and wait for the rain to stop.

Final Takeaway

It’s probably a ride that only the most committed will treat as a race and ride flat out on their own.

The rest of us who wanted a decent day out, a good shirt and some excellent food stations were definitely not disappointed. It’s a good event.

Most people should be able to do the three easier rides with a bit of training. To enjoy the Grande, you need to be fitter than I am at the moment.

Sources and resources

• Official Dartmoor Classic homepage
• Dartmoor Classic Medio GPX route and elevation profile at Ride With GPS
• Dartmoor Classic Grande GPX route and elevation profile at Ride With GPS