It is going to be a while before I get my Blog sorted for the ToC - so I thought I'd drop my "draft" Race Report on here now with a few pics. Apologies - it is quite a long post!
Since the UCI announced it in 2019, my long-term goal has been “Qualifying for and
being competitive” in the 2023 Gran Fondo World championships. Now I accept that “being competitive” is not very specific but I think I will know if I’ve achieved it.
To qualify for the Worlds, you have to be in the top 25% of an eligible event and in the UK that means the Tour of Cambridgeshire hence why the race this weekend was kind of a big deal for me.
I drove to Peterborough on Saturday and as usual stayed in the Park Inn which is about 5 miles from the event. I registered on Saturday afternoon and took advantage of the Ekoi stand, who were doing 50% discount on all their stuff at the show, to buy an Aer14 aero helmet. Brian Smith of Eurosport fame was on the stand but he was just sat on his phone so he didn’t get the pearls of my wisdom or witty repartee.
Our race was due to start at 09:18 and the pens opened at 8:30. Working backwards from that time in terms of how long before the race to eat, you can see that it meant an early start – my alarm was set for 5:50 a.m. but I was up before that anyway having gone to bed at 9pm.
I’d brought 200g of Muesli and a carton of cashew milk for my 6 a.m. breakfast and slowly got kitted up and ready. The race numbers were not very sturdy and mine had already ripped. I noticed many others looked the same way as the day went on.
I rode to the event doing about 9 miles as a warmup and went into the pen (G) as soon as it opened. I have a habit of not getting and staying near the front at the start of races which sometimes means I can miss an early break if there is one and I was determined not to make that mistake this time. I had a good chat with a few guys, one of whom was the eventual winner.
It was fairly chilly to stand around for 45 minutes but I had brought a dispensable sweatshirt with me which I wore in the pen intending to chuck it just before the start. Luckily some of our Warwick Lanterne Rouge peoples saw me in the Pen and took it away for me. Cheers all. The weather was forecast to be sunny and around 19 degrees. It was in fact a lovely sunny day and felt much hotter than 19 degrees when in the sun.
I looked around and I was in a small minority of people with a saddle bag. You were advised to carry a tube and pump and the organiser on the mike said he had no sympathy with people who punctured with no means of repair. I think most people decided to take the risk to save the weight/drag impact. I had changed my mind several times regarding whether to carry a spare but ended up with the 400g liability.
The flag dropped and we were off. It was quick but not manic and I stayed near the front. It was reasonably straight for a while which helped and no one broke away.
After a while it got a bit more rural and whilst there are few hills, there are quite a few turns, some quite sharp, and there is always a sprint out of them which can catch you out.
I think the biggest hill is Alconbury Hill which comes after about 32 miles. I know I worked really hard up there as I thought a break would go. I did a PR of 2:41 and 352W average which would have been quicker except it was directly into the wind this year.
I’m not sure how many riders had been shelled but there was still a very large front group. There had been a few attempts to break away but none stuck. With the flatness and the wind it would take a strong group to do so.
Around 50 miles in we were catching big groups from the younger categories and this made it hard to see where the front of our race was. I realised that I was no longer at the front and had to make a major effort to pass groups and chase onto our leaders. This was the hardest part of the race for me and I had to really dig in mentally to not give in. Once back on, I was pleased with how quickly I recovered.
The race followed the pattern of the race I did last week in that it became quite start/stop with periods where we were almost bimbling along and then an explosion of speed. This is okay in a normal race, but here we were also trying to ensure we qualified for the World’s and this is calculated from the top 25% of times in the Road Race and the corresponding age group Gran Fondo.
The final 10 miles have a lot of narrow and rutted lanes with quick rises and a few sharp corners. This was pretty sketchy as the group of about 40 were still together. I saw (and had) near misses but I didn’t see any actual crashes in our race.
The finish almost crept up on me. I was in a decent position, say 15-20th feeling ready for a sprint and came into the final roundabout. I hit it at pace and then some dickhead got it wrong and had to chop right in front of me. I didn’t crash but lost all my momentum and quite a few places. I jumped on the pedals and just went all out. I passed at least half a dozen riders in the final sprint and ended up 24th.
Now some stats:
Distance: 66.1 miles
My time was 2hrs 51:09 Average Speed 23.2 mph
Average Power 191W, NP 244W, IF 0.89 TSS 244
As my first race of the year was only last week, I was reasonably pleased with this performance. I now have a couple of months to get some more racing in and get more
“race-ready for World's.”
The Gran Fondo had started after the race so there was a bit of a wait to see what their times were.
The winner of the Gran Fondo was actually 13 minutes faster than us, but only 9 of them were quicker than us, so Qualification was secure.
The event had a large grassy square with exhibitors, race HQ and food outlets around the outside. As we all sprawled in the warm sun it was great to catch up with people from my club, Warwick Lanterne Rouge, mates I went to Calpe with and also Bridgy and Rich Averley from Cyclechat.
The UCI Qualification medals were given out after the podium awards. This was really badly organised but we got our medals in the end.
So, on to the Gran Fondo World Championships in Perth (Scotland, not Oz.) Who else is going?
In midst of the multi-day FRR events, I was dipping below 110 points, despite finishing 50th.
As far as I know it's never been used for anything useful apart from some category splits in DRS.
