Tour of Cambridgeshire 2017

The Tour of Cambridgeshire is a major cycling festival hosting over 10,000 competitors. In 2017, ToC is introducing a FGSS Gran Fondo over the full route of approx. 80 miles. The event takes place on fully closed roads, with a huge production set up at the Peterborough Arena and Showground. The FGSS event has it's own podium ceremony for both male and female riders.

Make a weekend of it by taking part on the Chrono on Saturday 3rd June 2017, make use of the onsite campsite, followed by the individual FGSS Gran Fondo being held on Sunday 4th June 2017.

Early bird entries are available at http://www.TourOfCambridgeshire.com.

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How much is the entry?

It looks like £58. Is that right? Is that the same price for all communities, cycle clubs, different classes of rider, etc?

Early Bird entry price is £68.00. This price is the same for all taking part in the Gran Fondo.

@Hefty - you up for this? Due to being piss-weak I fancy the leisure circuit...

This was pretty awful in 2016. Badly organised, shitty riding from other attendees. Will not go again.

@croft doesn't make it sound all that appealing tbh...

So @user66568 are fixie heroes riding separately from the mamils? Still on closed roads? Will we get red stripe at the stops instead of water?

If it rly is a separate event for FGSS bikes it might avoid the worst of the riding and will probably be lovely and quiet too.

June is far enough away to get fit for the 80 mile route.

Although @croft wasn't happy, I know @TheAdventureCapitalist rated it. Also interested in more details on FGSS side of things as I commute along the opening few miles

It's been one of my favourite events since it started. To put that into context: I try to be competitive in the race group, so I've no idea what the leisure/sportive experience is like. For somebody like me, who has never raced, the ToC is a chance to pretend I'm a pro for a day. The standard of riding at the front is higher than I expected (but I have no relevant experience to benchmark it against), but the race pen seems to be made up of experienced club riders and racers.

Here's my blog write-up from 2016's event. https://theadventurecapitalist.wordpress.com/2016/06/08/tour-of-cambridgeshire-2016/

^this. Skill level was good in the very front group, but understand further down the race pens it was pretty awful.

As a sportive though I would say it would probably get pretty boring given the long, straight and flat roads. Depends what you are into though, great if you like riding in Holland?!

long, straight and flat roads

Sounds ideal for a sweet ficksy. So long as it doesn't get windy.

It's the Fens. It's always windy.

Perhaps you're not old enough to remember The Great Still Day of '91.

I must've been out of town for that one. I do recall The Greater-Than-Usual Blowy Day of '87. A tree threw in the towel that night and landed on our front garden.

http://youtu.be/RPGH2j-360U#t=136

Oh. The start time doesn't work. It's 2m16 if you can be arsed.

Yes, the Fixie race will be apart of the Gran Fondo route, with another option of the Medio-Fondo route (shorter route) too. The Fixie community will have a separate start gate and follow the other communities. It will be held on the fully closed roads route.

We are always looking to improve our events so we have made quite a lot of changes to improve the rider experiences, including separating the ability of riders better @croft

Might as well clarify my comments:

1. Riders in all pens told to go and line up well in advance of the actual start. 1 hour sitting in the baking sun.
   
2. Atrocious riding by many in the race pen. Seemed that many had snuck in or just bought a license for the sake of being a pro for the day. Some embarrassing riding. Not helped by the desire of organisers to call it a race at every possible opportunity. Its not a race, there are no BC points available, don't kid yourselves. Sportive.
   
3. Terrible provision of food and drink. Supposedly two refuelling stops. Neither visible from the road. Dehydrated heavily, not assisted by my hour in the sun before things got going.
   
4. Absolute joke health and safety. Someone went down, knocked unconscious. No riders stopped and waited. Ambulance did not come for a ridiculous amount of time. Organisers had no idea what to do.
   
5. For all the above it is bloody expensive.
   
6. Boring route. Flat, windy.
   

The 1 hour loading procedure is a bit frustrating but I'm not sure how else they manage such a huge volume of riders. Ride London was the same. What's the London Marathon like for another benchmark?

It's demonstrably a race. Riders start together and try to beat each other to the finish, where they're ranked in finishing order. That's a race, whether BC points are available or not. For what it's worth I saw very little poor riding to call out but I'm only a sample of one.

I saw the feed stops but as I was racing I ignored them as I'd carried (or rather thought I'd carried) enough fuel to last me.

With H&S, I'd hate to be responsible for managing medical support on a 90-mile course for 10,000 people. I've no idea what is and isn't an acceptable response time. Something like the London Marathon, again, is probably where to look for a benchmark but even they have 1/3 of the route length to cope with.

It's expensive but it's rare to have closed roads and pelotons of that size, which is why I'm prepared to pay the price. I'd guess the costs involved in organising this, closing the roads and laying on the infrastructure on this scale are pretty high. I'd want the organisers to make some profit so that it's viable in the future too.

The route isn't the prettiest of rides but the wind more than makes up for the topographical meanness in terms of challenge.

I'm not trying to be antagonistic but we seem to have different perspectives so I figure the balance is useful.