UCI Gran Fondo World Championships, Poznan, Poland - 2019

In 2018 I lined up in Varese, knowing my body was still broken after a crash 4 weeks prior and 7 days climbing in the Alps in my legs. I finished that race but knew I had unfinished business and would be heading back in 2019.

One year on and my body is not broken, can I do better than 186th….

Stood on the start line with almost 200 riders and for the first time in a long time I am really nervous at the start of a race. Time to focus on my goals for the race; finish, be better placed than last year and then ultimately finish in the top 50%, hopefully this will calm me down.

And we are off, yesterday’s recce is allowing me to take deep breaths and just focus on riding my bike. Nerves are evaporating as we fly along, looking down at my Garmin and wow 54kph and i’m not even pedalling……..

The first 15miles we do in 37mins, including 2 sets of speed bumps, which is an experience and a half at 24mph. So thats 6 squeaky bum moments and didn’t have to wait long for the next one. 5 miles later and there is the dreaded sound of a crash in front, not only that but its in the middle of the peloton, time to brake hard, concentrate on avoiding the carnage in front and try to not get distanced by the front of the peloton.

Few, I’m through unscathed but damn it the peloton has split and having to go fully off the road and in to the gravel has left a big gap. Question is can it be bridged, do I have the legs and will others work…..

The next 15miles I’m in a small group of 5 and however hard we try that gap is not diminishing, even though we are averaging 26.1mph and can see them on the long straight sections and blasting through, as best we can, the poorest road conditions I’ve ever raced on. I’m a light rider so being thrown about all over the place, but you can also hear pinch flat punctures and bottles left, right and centre, some poor guy lost not only one of his bottles but the bottle cage along with it

As we go up the only climb of the day, 1.7miles at an average of 1% (yes you are reading that right, it was that flat a course), there is a realisation that the race for a great place is done and now it’s about finishing in one piece and making this a learning experience.

My new skill of the day is to learn how to grab a bottle through the feed zones at race pace, the first one I grab easily and after dousing my head and legs, sharing the remainder with Aussie Matt and a rider from the Russian Cycling Academy. The next 2 attempts don’t go so well, ooops, but it’s great to see so many people out on the course helping the riders as the heat continues to climb, its 11am and its already over 30 degrees celcius.

Over half way through, we have a nice rhythm to the group, tapping out a consistent 24-25mph, then we can see an older age group heading towards us on the shorter course and making a left as we make our right, the 2 groups combine, but drastically slow and we are back in a larger peloton that is jittery. One guy crashes off to the right, another ends up in the grass (but upright) on the left. The peloton surging, as some racers brake too hard, sending a cascade through the peloton. All the riders in my age group are hoping for the road to widen and allow us the opportunity to get past, as now we are pacing at 21-22mph. This was the pace for the next 14miles, as the older age group peloton swamped the road, damaging any hope of an average speed of 25mph+.

Finally with 10miles to go the road was wide enough to get past and allow chance to enjoy the remainder of the race. Not knowing how far up the road any groups were or how many riders were in front of me, meant the mindset to push deep and race to the finish had gone, there was a couple of difficult turns remaining and then it was a straight run to the finish line, where I had decided I wasn’t going to sprint but lay back off the back of the group by a few seconds and enjoy crossing the line in one piece.

In the event village riders were sat together recounting stories and reliving the last few hours. Watching the faces, listening to the stories being told and seeing all the national jerseys being worn with pride, made me realise that us cyclists are a crazy bunch who collectively love to make new friends and suffer together on the bike.

So I finished 103rd in the end, out of 179 starters in my age category. Although I didn’t achieve all 3 of my goals I set out, I did complete 2 of them, plus learned how to grab bottles at race pace (well sort of, 50% success rate on my first attempt) and I made some new friends along the way. I now feel I have vanquished the demons of last year and that I gave all I could in the race.