Gran Fondo Luciano - 8th of August

holybinch

Just registered for it, anyone else here doing it?
http://www.granfondoluciano.co.uk/

bigmat

Probably doing it - I'm hoping to do the Richmond Park tt in the morning then head on from there, could be a long day though!

By the way, good choice of charity for London to Paris - an issue very close to my heart!

xcorinmick

Did it last year and really enjoyed it ( did fastest time to my great surprise ! 8) ) shame am away that week end this year but should be great fun. Enjoy it !

Hibbs

Well, I won't be doing that again. £15 for a course that wasn't as good as one I created myself last time I was in London, far too many A-roads, poorly marked so quite a lot of people went off course and an organiser that puts an incorrect course on the website so you can't use a garmin, a feed stop consisting of cake, half bananas and water and I don't think there was any food or drink at the end (too frustrated to hang around to check) . Rubbish. Next time I'll just visit my family, do my own ride and spend that £15 on a curry.

FransJacques

Just got back - did 3:58 or so but I also cycleD 111kms so I'm not sure what the 106kms was about. Could be the Garmin kept dropping a signal in the trees? Not sure.

Well most of the stuff you mentioned was the same - no good food at the feed - just cake and water. No energy drink to be seen. Glad I brought my own as I alwys do.

I actually really enjoyed the course apart from the road surfaces - these guys really need to take white paint and outline the bigger craters. It was a sunny day and there's this thing with Surrey - when you're in the sun the road is always nice - it's just as you get under some trees before your eyes adjust that you hit the grand canyon of potholes. My Ardennes are not thanking me right now, will have to give them a once over with a spoke wrench before L-B-L next Saturday.

It's too bad that people generally don't like the store nor rate the sportive but they took us on some roads I've not seen before and I always appreciate that. It's tough to plan a sportive route - you know where the good roads are but at the end of the day you have to link them up - that's the tough part.

Thanks to Nick in his New Zealand shirt who dragged me around the first half of the course. Great riding with you and hope to catch up again!

Gazzaputt

Complained last year about the lack of food and water at the finish so that fell on deaf ears. Did they have warm coke again?

Route last was excellent though but again lack of signs caused a lot of of course detours.

I saved my money this year.

FransJacques

The 1 feed stop was manned by 2 nice folks with plastic chairs with platters of 2 types of cake, orange quarters, and banana halves on them. The only thing to drink was bottled water.

The above was fine for me since I carry ZitFit pouches in my pockets for refills.
But seriously, thinking about it now, who decides that dry sponge cake is good riding food? You'd think that someone putting on a ride would have a clue as to what constituted riding food - you just have to browse the BR nutrition section... Cake is for having with tea with your gran - it's NOT riding food, sorry, so it was easy to forgo that. I saw a lot of "nice bike shame about the legs" folks diving into the cakes.

holybinch

Found the route really nice, took me to some places I didn't know.
A bit hard on the legs for me, I'm not yet fit enough for something like that, but I'm getting there.

Cake stop: well, I came prepared, so it was a small plus, nothing to rave about, but hell...

Only down point was my saddle clamp bolt breaking in two parts 2-3 miles from the finish.
Having to cycle these standing on the pedals when my legs were screaming wasn't easy

Hibbs

True, on the plus side, everyone I saw there were friendly and sociable.

Was talking with my g/f last night and we were wondering where the £2,250 (Approx) they raked in went though (about 150 riders at £15 each). I might put on a sportive next year - use the route I created earlier this year, put on a proper choice of energy foods and drinks at the stop(s), then have my locally famous lasagne, chicken risotto, paella and tuna/lemon pasta at the finish for people to go to town on. I'd probably still have £1.5k left over after that, too!

FransJacques

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/gran-fo ... t-capacity

It went on the Ferraris of course...

FransJacques

And another thing - they promised photos and we had to put those silly numbers on our handlebars - like we're cars with license plates...and no photos.

It's not on the guy's website as one of the events he covered.

Euskadi

I did the GFL and really enjoyed it. Don't rely on food stops, bring your own. I thought the red arrows marking the course all way around were really effective and we were hardly on any main roads. It was a really good route, and most of the riders were just out for a good hard days cycling. Obviously there is a spreadsheet somewhere that prescribes what bike you are allowed for your power wattage or something. Cycling is a challenging but rewarding and enjoyable activity, try and have some fun. WTF. Will definitely be doing it again next year, and I hear Dudley from Luciano Cycles is adding another couple of hills on at the end for next year's event.