Tour of Cambridgeshire Gran Fondo

colinsmith123

Anybody racing in this, other than me?

http://www.tourofcambridgeshire.com/Tour_of_Cambridge_Gran_Fondo.php

Mind you, the less riders taking part, the greater becomes my chance of winning. (In my dreams)

mpatts

I am!

jgsi

Racing elsewhere on the day.. but hope its a success.
Entry fee is a bit steep for us LVRCers but hey it is closed road and all that so should be 78 mile of fun!

maryka

Curious to know how this is going to work?

"At the finish you will be asked to divert if you are not at the front for your age category in order that a clean sprint between the contenders can occur."

Also, is it the same start pen for everyone with a BC race license, regardless of sex and race license category?

I haven't entered, til they have a women's-only version it doesn't really interest me... never been a fan of a race that is basically who can hang on to a fast-moving men's pack the longest... but I'm trying to understand how the finish is supposed to work (designed to prevent crashes I guess?)

jgsi

To be honest it isnt going to work like the organisers would wish it to. So it will be perhaps a free for all... but as everyone will be transpondered, happy days.
Thet are using transponders arent they?

colinsmith123

JGSI wrote:

Racing elsewhere on the day.. but hope its a success.
Entry fee is a bit steep for us LVRCers but hey it is closed road and all that so should be 78 mile of fun!

I don't disagree and normally I would be racing at Hogg Hill that day, but doing this as prepration for the LVRC C&D Nationals; the Maratona and the experience. Not sure how up to 2000 riders can race properly though.

Can you imagine this turned in to a massive through and off to chase a break of 20 down. Assuming every rider does 5s on the front it'd take 150 minutes before it was your turn at the front again.

paul2718

The race book is at http://tourofcambridgeshire.com/pdf_dow ... -Final.pdf it may clarify some stuff.

I'm racing. In fact AFAICT everyone is racing and it all starts at the same notional time, but if you have a licence you can go in the first pen, which will be gridded by age group and gender.

I think it's going to be fabulous.

Paul

colinsmith123

Transponders yes, but it is go from the gun as with any mass-start race.

anthonysjb

Have an entry to TT bike cant make it, anyone need one?

paul2718

They have a queue of reserves, so let the organisers know.

Paul

leechy12

Number received but no indication if i have a start in a race pen as requested. Have requested same but nothing as yet.

peteb0

The race book linked above states that numbers 1-1999 indicate 'race only'

leechy12

Thanks

KnightOfTheLongTights

Am entered for this but have let my race licence lapse so am going to try and get towards the front of he rear pen!
One slight annoyance - registration closes TWO HOURS before the thing starts, at 10am. Which means I have to get up at some ungodly hour for something that starts at midday, and then stand around holding my pecker for two hours or more after registering.

DavidJB

KnightOfTheLongTights wrote:

Am entered for this but have let my race licence lapse so am going to try and get towards the front of he rear pen!
One slight annoyance - registration closes TWO HOURS before the thing starts, at 10am. Which means I have to get up at some ungodly hour for something that starts at midday, and then stand around holding my pecker for two hours or more after registering.

Should try doing a stage race...

cycleclinic

I am doing the race too. Should be fun.

anthonysjb

paul2718 wrote:

They have a queue of reserves, so let the organisers know.

Paul

Believe me I've tried. Tried multiple times every day this week, no answer on the phone. Emailed 3 times, no reply. Shambolic

jgsi

so.. what was the verdict as to its 'race credentials' .. ?

colinsmith123

It was definitely a race, or at least for me for the first 20-30km and the last 15km or so. I got spat out the back of the front group as I lost the psychological battle with myself that if I didn't back off I'd never make it around. I then found myself in a small group of 6 doing turns until we caught a 20 or so riders and soon after we were caught by a fast moving group. As we came off of the airfield, we were on a good pace with riders doing through and off, with one guy in yellow doing most of the work through Ramsay St Mary's and Ramsay Heights, chasing a group of around 30-40 riders so our ranks swelled again. Unfortunately at this juncture the pace dropped off with nobody willing to stick their head in to the wind, and that is pretty much how it stayed until we reached Yaxley.

As we rose up the high street some big efforts to split the peloton were made, this caused a few riders near the front to go backwards, and some impatient and tired bike handing skills came to the fore as those much stronger tried to get past. At this point I decided the race for the line was now back on and I made my move to stay up near the front.

Or, at least I thought the race was on until we had gone through Hadden into the narrow lane and the pace dropped off again. As we turned on to the Oundle Road where another touch of wheels brought down riders behind me. The road opened up and accordingly the pace went up and at times we were barrelling along at a nifty 50kph, up to 10-15 wide across the road at times, as various riders fought to maintain position and various pace lines forming left and right. I had not realised how close to the finish we we were as we approached the roundabout, though I made every effort to stay out of danger as near the front as could be without sticking my nose out as I picked out rider's wheels to follow in my age group. We hit the roundabout, a big squeal of brakes in front and around me, the choice language faded as I stamped on the pedals trying to maintain position, a flick left and a right hander in to the finishing straight and across the line to a well deserved bottle of water.

So reviewing the results, I finished in the third large group some 11 minutes down on the winner. TBH, I was aiming for a top 15 finish in my age group, but 26th is not so shabby.

Great event, and for the most part well organised. What would I do different next time?

Post out race numbers to those not in the 1st pen, very few stood and watched the race briefing video anyway. Thus avoiding having to be there at least 2 hours beforehand. I don't think there was a traffic management issue on the day.
Portaloos for ladies and number 2 and a screened off trough inside Pen 1
Segregate by age group in pen 1 as was originally planned; there would be no need to line up one hour before. 10 mins; 15 mins max. I understand the UCI commissaire changed this. FFS,it is not his race, it is the organiser's race who set out what he thought was the best strategy. UCI stop meddling!

There was some dodgy bike handing skills at times and I witnessed more crashes in this event than in the last two years of racing, but I suppose that is to be expected in an event like this and kind of goes with the territory.

But more important than all of this was the fantastic support we received not only from those stood in the villages, but on the roadside corners pointing out direction to the peloton and in the hedge rows too. It really did give me that Tour de France feeling that I've not experienced when hoofing it around some road circuit at 9am on a Sunday morning somewhere out in the British Countryside.

KnightOfTheLongTights

Would agree with all of that Colin.
Including the erratic riding - I was brought down by a blokes stacking it in front of me: I'd had my eye on him and a couple of others in my group all day, and had resolved to stay in front of them. Hey ho.
Even thought we might have been in the same group but you came in well before I did.

DavidJB

sounds like a chopperfest.

colinsmith123

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19623445#p19623445]DavidJB[/url] wrote:

sounds like a chopperfest.

Well, personally I did not see anyone on a Chopper, but I did spend for the most part my time staring at the cassette on the bike in front so I suppose there could've been a few on Choppers.