Tour of Cambridgeshire Chrono / Gran Fondo / Sportive 2018
Discussion
Gruffy said:
The race pens have always gone off hot. Given the numbers, the concertina effect is pretty strong at any of the turns and choke points. With lots of rookie riders going deep into the red, shoulder to shoulder, it can be damn choppy. I'd recommend getting into the front of your pen and working hard to stay in the front 25% of your bunch, at least for the first 20km until it thins out a bit.
I’ll just have to repeat the Chrono I think! The. Hope for the best on the rest.okgo said:
It will be remarkably easy if you just sit in.
The worry with these things is (they're far from races in both style and ability) is that you get people who are strong for the first 5 minutes and ride like total idiots, I'd never want to start anywhere else than near the front of one of these things. Some of the stuff I saw in Ride London was worrying. But sitting in the wheels once you have avoided the mad start will be pretty easy to nip along at 25mph, I think you'll be surprised.
While I've not raced in a group I'm reasonably confident in my ability to work around other people. After the mad stage at least. Not sure I'd spot some of the warning signs of stupidity that someone who has raced a few cat 4 crits would though. I think the closest I've ever come to crashing on a group ride was when the person in front decided to get out of the saddle and thrust their bike backward by the length of the top tube.The worry with these things is (they're far from races in both style and ability) is that you get people who are strong for the first 5 minutes and ride like total idiots, I'd never want to start anywhere else than near the front of one of these things. Some of the stuff I saw in Ride London was worrying. But sitting in the wheels once you have avoided the mad start will be pretty easy to nip along at 25mph, I think you'll be surprised.
I finished in 3:26 but really limped home in the last 13km. I was feeling tired but good as we hit that small climb in Yaxley. Then very bad cramp struck my left leg (still hurts now). Think that was related to dehydration. Shame really as I was on for 3:20 or just under. It doesn’t matter as I wouldn’t have qualified either way.
As my first experience of any sort of road race it was also quite an experience. A combo of nativity and plain inexperience probably stopped me from being higher up (pre-cramp anyway). I’m still not sure what happened but not far in I was sat at the back of the bunch, then it was suddenly a chunk up the road. I can only think they hit it hard at the front as it seemed to have fractured from there on. I chased down the first group up the road then bridges two more kindly dragging others along when I realised they weren’t or couldn’t do the work required. That was also the nativity aspect. I thought people would be more committed or at least more organised. We could easily have gone faster as a group. Looking at the average power of those well up the road from me we were very similar but their profile was very polarised and mine wasn’t.
As my first experience of any sort of road race it was also quite an experience. A combo of nativity and plain inexperience probably stopped me from being higher up (pre-cramp anyway). I’m still not sure what happened but not far in I was sat at the back of the bunch, then it was suddenly a chunk up the road. I can only think they hit it hard at the front as it seemed to have fractured from there on. I chased down the first group up the road then bridges two more kindly dragging others along when I realised they weren’t or couldn’t do the work required. That was also the nativity aspect. I thought people would be more committed or at least more organised. We could easily have gone faster as a group. Looking at the average power of those well up the road from me we were very similar but their profile was very polarised and mine wasn’t.
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