Tour of Cambridgeshire questions?

on-yer-bike

Can anybody who did this last year answer these questions? Ive entered the Race community for 2016.
How fast was the 60-65 Race age group? or any of the age groups? I know the winner did it in 3.9 which is fast.
Do the racers who i understand start before the others get swallowed up by the faster sportive riders?
Are you allowed to draft riders from different age groups in the Race?
Did the different age group races tend to end in bunch sprints or breakaways?

Thanks

Mark RIDE IT

I did it last year in the race group. I don't know if they will do it differently this time but last year there was no age groupings at the start. You got categorised by age group in the results but all the different age groups started in one massive bunch so unless you could spot someone's number colour you didn't know who was in your age category or who you were racing against.

I started near the front although didn't have the legs to stay with the really fast riders when it started to split up. The first few miles must have been ridden around the 30mph mark and I ended up averaging 23mph for the full route which gave me a decent enough finish in my age category (40-45) and enough to qualify for the amateur world champs.

Overall I enjoyed it, the groups are way bigger than your average road race and as it's all abilities and ages thrown in together there were some pretty sketchy moments but probably nothing worse than your average 3/4 cat race.

paul2718

They are stating that the race start will be gridded by age group this year. Yes the faster sportive riders will come through. In this race they made no issue of mixing up the age groups, I image this won't change, it's impractical with the numbers to maintain so many different groups separately on the road. Last year the fastest 60-64 rider finished in 3h22.32, 180th overall. The second was only 20s but 70 riders later. So perhaps that qualifies as a bunch sprint? Or a bunch queue. Anyway all mixed up age and gender groups, even at the sharp end.

Breaking the race up a bit by age will be interesting. Quite looking forward to it now.

Paul

on-yer-bike

paul2718 wrote:

They are stating that the race start will be gridded by age group this year. Yes the faster sportive riders will come through. In this race they made no issue of mixing up the age groups, I image this won't change, it's impractical with the numbers to maintain so many different groups separately on the road. Last year the fastest 60-64 rider finished in 3h22.32, 180th overall. The second was only 20s but 70 riders later. So perhaps that qualifies as a bunch sprint? Or a bunch queue. Anyway all mixed up age and gender groups, even at the sharp end.

Breaking the race up a bit by age will be interesting. Quite looking forward to it now.

Paul

That's fast. Any idea how many took part in the 60-65 age group?

ugo.santalucia

on-yer-bike wrote:

That's fast. Any idea how many took part in the 60-65 age group?

I am in the same boat, too slow for my age, meaning I want to do the hour record, but the only category I could realistically succeed in is the over 80... just another 37 years of training...