35 - the RYE AND BACK TROPHY

The Rye and Back Trophy is awarded annually to the fastest club rider in the Rye and Back event.

The event is for solo, unaccompanied riders on standard road bikes (no aero TT bikes allowed) using the shortest total time for eight timed Strava segments to decide who wins. The ride starts (& finishes) at the café entrance (not the usual main entrance) to the Headcorn airstrip in Shenley Road and joins the A274 at Biddenden after a ride through the lanes towards Smarden. Then on to Tenterden, Wittersham, Iden, Appledore, back to Tenterden to retrace the route back to the Headcorn airstrip. 38.8mls & 1,152 ft. of climbing.

Find the routes here:

• RWGPS

• Strava

Trophy history:

The event was proposed by P. Hatcher and R. Bradley for a Maidstone to Rye and Back Time Trial and offered to present a Perpetual Trophy to make the event an annual one. The proposition was accepted.

It was run as an early season training event for solo riders, starting outside the Blue Door pub on the A274 Sutton Road on the outskirts of Maidstone and proceeding south to turn at the gates of Rye Hospital, where they would do a dead turn in the road to return to the Blue Door to finish. The route was entirely up to the rider, but most took the route via Headcorn, Tenterden, Wittersham and Iden to the Rye turn; the distance was reckoned to be 52 miles. Other options were going and/or returning via Appledore. In later years, a set course was introduced.  This meant the riders no longer reached Rye itself, instead turning left at Iden on the way out, then left again at the Military Road and back through Appledore.

The event often suffered poor weather, ultimately leading to its decline, and it was reallocated in 2018 to the fastest club rider in the club open 50 after one year of being presented as the best club finisher in the Sportive event.

This trophy was re-allocated in 2017 as the Rye and Back race was discontinued.

The Air Ambulance Sportive replaced the Rye and Back race, but as the sportive cannot be regarded as a race, it was re-allocated again in 2018 to the fastest club rider in the Club Open 50.