Gold!

Gold medal, first place, awesome.

Well, that's what Mr Richard Todd would have said to himself as he blitzed round the 200km course in 6hrs 20 mins. Alas when he crossed the finishing line I was still 50k from the end...

I signed up to the Victor Ludorum 200k Challenge without really appreciating what it was, thinking it was just another random 200k ride. What it actually turned out to be was part of an internationally accredited, European wide race series, there were transponders, timing mats, the works. 360 people did the 200k ride, starting off in groups of around 50 every couple of minutes, intermingled in which were a number of national / league level riders from both the UK and Europe. For the first 50k I though there was something wrong with me as just a continual stream of packs just flew by me. Normally it's nice to try and hang onto the back of a pack for a few Km to get a bit of a tow but these guys were gone before you could even try.

The time that Richard did it in shows the difference between the bob-a-job riders like me and the serious amateurs, I have a small (5k) circuit I sometimes go out on for a blast, it's dead flat and if I really fly around it, maximum effort etc I can just about average 20mph over the 5k. He averaged 20mph over 200k, including some 3,500 metres of climbing over the course of the route.

So I eventually trailed in some 2 hours later but I was not displeased, I finished 255th out of 360 who did the 200k route, averaging 15mph (including pit stops etc, or 15.8mph average for actual riding time) which I'm pretty happy with over what was a pretty challenging course on a hot day. Of my "bracket" (male, 30-39) I finished 85th out of 120, the first one coming home in 6hrs 20, the last one in 9hrs 50.

Full results listings:

http://www.cyclegb.co.uk/index.php?main=results&sub=order&chal=long

The detailed information on the Etape is now published, including the cut-off times for the dreaded sweeper van - based on this weekends ride I think I'll be fine - I won't win any medals but I think I'll avoid being eliminated - the ride is basically 100k generally flat, for which the cut-off is 14.4mph average, a 23km climb of Tourmalet at 4mph average, a 20km descent off Tourmalet and then 20km flat to Hautacam, average 16mph, then a final 15km climb of Hautacam for which thankfully there is effectively no sweeper van.

http://www.letapedutour.com/2008/ETDT/presentation/us/itineraire.htm

4 weeks to go...