Tour of Cambridgeshire 2015

jimmythecuckoo

Mine today

johnny2names

ive entered this as well.

I'm a bit confused by the start time of the sunday mass start- It seems we only start at 12 noon, but everyone has to be all inside, parked up and registered by 10 AM. Are we seriously expected to stand there waiting for 2 hours?? Or will we be able to arrive later if already registered a previous day?

Pretty peeved if we have to wait around for 2 hours... not best warm up for a hammer fest!

On a positive note, the weather looks perfect- sunshine, high teens, low winds = fast time if you can stay upright. I'm hoping for sub 4 hours on a 2 bottle no stop strategy

thefilbertfox

Yep, they have given themselves a lot of time. I suppose unlike a normal sportive, having the fixed midday start time means that could see an influx of people arrive and register at the same time which could delay the start. Having the gap between end of registration and the start should ensure they can process everyone and get it started on time.

I’m going to register on Saturday and then turn up early on Sunday. Will then go for a relaxed spin around the area taking in the start of the route. This is all subject to me healing from a slight calf strain I received yesterday, god knows how but I’m thoroughly peeved :evil:

Looks likely to be ideal conditions. Just hope I will be in attendance, fingers crossed.

meanredspider

Yes. I guess the start time 2 hours after registration closes will encourage early reg

meanredspider

Well, I enjoyed it though lots of standing around before the start. Saw quite a few riders down - hope that they're all OK - not sure what caused them all - I guess somebody somewhere not concentrating.

cycleclinic

Lots of pinch points is what caused crashes. I did in in 3hrs22mins well happy with that. Felt like a proper race but longer that the 3/4 events i normally do. Quallifed too for the worlds.

meanredspider

thecycleclinic wrote:

Lots of pinch points is what caused crashes. I did in in 3hrs22mins well happy with that. Felt like a proper race but longer that the 3/4 events i normally do. Quallifed too for the worlds.

None of the crashes I saw were at pinch points. There was one at a bend at the bottom of a hill but that was the only one. All the rest (4 or 5) were on dead straight, even width, bits of road.

skinnygav

I had a nightmare, couple of early punctures meant i was lucky to finish. There was a generous rider on the broom wagon with a spare inner tube that helped get me back on the road, lots of friendly locals/riders offering assistance too.

I had fuelled for 40 miles but when i got to the feed station they had closed it! Not sure what happened with the organisation but it seemed a bit of a mess. Plenty of riders left on the road at that point. Had to rely on some locals who were filling up riders water bottles to make it to the one at 66 miles.

cycleclinic

I noticed lots of pinch point but I was in a large pack in the race. Roads did narrower and the group bunched up and slowed quite suddenly. Also turning of a wide roads onto a narrow one is a pinch point also tight turns are pinch points. Plenty of those on the magical mystery tour of the airfield.

As for feed stops I didn't care I didn't stop. Lost my full bottle on the airfield so did it on 1 litre of fluids and only needed 2 gels.

how many tubes did you take. Always take more than you think you need.

jimmythecuckoo

I really enjoyed both days.

There was an emotional ride through my birthplace and past the family home in Yaxley where the crowds were truly mental.

Loved Alconbury Hill and the support there.


I was loving Dave Harmon naming and shaming people trying to queue jump at the start... hilarious.

meanredspider

I always carry some instant patches to supplement the tubes. Saved us on a recent ride when 3 of us got 6 punctures between us.

Did anybody figure out the number and colour scheme? I saw numbers up to 13000s yet there was less than 5000 riders. Only idle curiosity.

I thought it went pretty well for a first event. Signposting for registration was poor on Saturday and signs from the M11 South wasn't great (compared with the North which were great). I didn't much like the narrow path 2/3rds of the way around - got wedged into a group of slower riders filling the road.

jimmythecuckoo

Dykemoor?

I think they put that in as its a key part of the Tour of the Fens pro race

stifflersmom

I think the numbers and colours were assigned to the different age categories; at least that's how it appeared for our group of 12 which spanned a number of age groups.
Really enjoyed it, good support from the locals and a fast ride in the sun. My only quibble...proper beer needed at the finish!

pastryboy

Any ideas when offical times will be posted?

The stacks of sheets of A4 system was terrible and I gave up looking for my name and went home.

I only got overtaken a few times and was passing people with ease the whole way round so thought I had done reasonably. Was pretty humbling to see all the times on strava afterwards with people having 25mph averages (I was just over 20).

Agree with the comments on here. Wasn't clear what to do/where to go at the start and felt like a lot of waiting around. I started after 12:30 and there was a few thousand behind me waiting to go. I like the route in general, very rare to get long clear straights to see how fast you can go, shame it was a bit windy.

pastryboy

thecycleclinic wrote:

I did in in 3hrs22mins well happy with that.

Very impressive, were you riding in a group for a lot of it?

mpatts

pastryboy wrote:

Any ideas when offical times will be posted?

The stacks of sheets of A4 system was terrible and I gave up looking for my name and went home.

I only got overtaken a few times and was passing people with ease the whole way round so thought I had done reasonably. Was pretty humbling to see all the times on strava afterwards with people having 25mph averages (I was just over 20).

Agree with the comments on here. Wasn't clear what to do/where to go at the start and felt like a lot of waiting around. I started after 12:30 and there was a few thousand behind me waiting to go. I like the route in general, very rare to get long clear straights to see how fast you can go, shame it was a bit windy.

I rolled in in 3.22, 47th in age group which I was v happy with (could have been higher but was too busy/unsafe to sprint really). The timings are on www.chiptiming.co.uk

pastryboy

Thanks. They should have linked to that from the main page or something as I had no idea it would be there.

I did some stops I didn't want to due to a mate. Even without them I don't think I'd have quite made the top 1/3 on chip times.

meanredspider

Just an aside, what distance did people record? My Garmin reckoned 133km. My poor brother, who I was riding with and had never done more than 50 miles before, was a bit dismayed when, at 129km on mine and over 80 miles on his bike computer, a steward on a bend said: "Only 2.1/4 miles to go". The elevations also seemed to be exaggerated - I barely got 50m or so as being the highest points. I think I know what 100m looks like (my house is 100m above sea level (I can see the sea from my window) and the hill behind it is a further 100m.

KnightOfTheLongTights

Was blasting round with a couple of amorphous groups at 23-24 average heading for a c.3.30-35 finish - until mile 74 roughly, when a rider who I'd earmarked as somewhat sketchy went down along with another right in front of me.
Hit the deck quite hard, but dusted myself down, had two or three attempts at getting chain back on, as a peloton of about 100 riders flew past, and eventually remounted and finished it off with a couple of others at a reduced pace.
3.42, Placed 590 overall, 115 in age group.

KnightOfTheLongTights

Recorded 82.5 miles, 3.5 more than advertised.

kingstonian

133.4km for me. Definitely a bit further than 80 miles.

Enjoyed the event, but could have done without the wind.

mikpem

I'm surprised people seem to be complaining about a couple of extra miles, I don't think an extra 3 miles in 80 is such a big deal. Surely no one had their legs/fueling tuned in to 78 miles so accurately that they couldn't make it to the end?

KnightOfTheLongTights

mikpem wrote:

I'm surprised people seem to be complaining about a couple of extra miles, I don't think an extra 3 miles in 80 is such a big deal. Surely no one had their legs/fueling tuned in to 78 miles so accurately that they couldn't make it to the end?

Not the point: people will have gauged their efforts and possibly emptied their legs by mile 79 only to find out they had 3 miles left.
ToC made a big deal about it being a race, not a sportive, and a UCI Amateur worlds qualifier - you would have thought under those circs, where efforts are carefully measured, that they could get the distance of the course right.

mikpem

KnightOfTheLongTights wrote:

mikpem wrote:

I'm surprised people seem to be complaining about a couple of extra miles, I don't think an extra 3 miles in 80 is such a big deal. Surely no one had their legs/fueling tuned in to 78 miles so accurately that they couldn't make it to the end?

Not the point: people will have gauged their efforts and possibly emptied their legs by mile 79 only to find out they had 3 miles left.
ToC made a big deal about it being a race, not a sportive, and a UCI Amateur worlds qualifier - you would have thought under those circs, where efforts are carefully measured, that they could get the distance of the course right.

But.... if you were taking it that seriously you would have looked at the route beforehand and realised it was slightly longer than posted and that when you were coming up to 78 miles you were nowhere near Bullock Road/A605 which you would recognise from going along them earlier in the day.

From some of the comments it seems people had their eyes set on their Garmin/other measuring device until they looked up at 78 miles and wondered where the finish line was.

fenix

3M out on that distance doesnt sound too bad to me. Did they have any 10k to go sign or anything ?

mikpem

I didn't see any but the final feed stop was at around 70 miles, it was a bit too close to the end anyway but if it was only 8 miles it would have been a bit of a waste of time being there.

KnightOfTheLongTights

Fenix wrote:

3M out on that distance doesnt sound too bad to me. Did they have any 10k to go sign or anything ?

As opposed to just er... riding it with a bike computer and getting it correct?
(No 10km mark - just a bloke at 80miles saying 'only two miles left')
Don't get me wrong, it was a great event - just seems an odd thing to get wrong.

paul2718

The map on the Gran Fondo web page is 'provisional' and suggests 79.26 miles. If you go to the detailed maps linked from the bottom of that page then the distance is quoted as 81 miles, and the variation through Washingley is clear. Where the other two miles went, who knows. Possibly the bit up and down the runway was hard to get right in advance.

But very detailed maps of the route were available for some weeks before hand, and I'd have thought that anybody serious about the event would at least have had a good look at the first few miles and the last few.

Paul

meanredspider

I think it's a bit of an exaggeration to say people are complaining about it - I just asked the question. As for taking it "seriously", my brother (like I suspect a lot of other people) had never done anything like it before - they're the people who are going to worry about the extra 3 miles. I'm doing 200k & 3500m of climbing (and a good proportion of the route off-road) next weekend - I don't care about 3 miles. That said, the press and TV reports also used 79 miles so if the detailed route had been "available for some weeks" it's a little odd that even the press releases and website hadn't been updated. 4% isn't much but, as above, it's not hard to ride it/drive it with a Garmin and get it right.

Any thoughts on the real elevation? I'm asking, not because it matters, but because I'm doubting my Garmin 1000. I can download the map I guess and check contour lines.

Anyhow, it was just an idle observation rather than a complaint.

jimmythecuckoo

I am still buzzing from riding through my hometown with the roads lined with people shouting and screaming.

Thanks to the group I was in I was allowed a couple of metres off the front (in true grand tour tradition) to wave to my kids.