Road: Cyclo sportifs
Phil and Friends Challenge ride, Peak District, 13 August
Southern Sportive South Downs Cyclosportive, 10 September
Medio Fondo – Giro di Lombardia, Italy, 15 October
Sport Communication events, various dates

The 4th Bristol Bikefest saw ten of the London Phoenix mountainbike riders battling it out in what turned out to be a hot and sweaty, dust-fest. An excellent course at Ashton Court in Bristol, with plenty of swooping root-packed single track, an excellent bomb-hole descent through the quarry, oh, and a rather silly chicken wire bridge climb, had over 800 riders speeding along through the course in Saturday’s 30+ degree heat.

The Phoenix men’s 24 hr mtb team – Simon Pemberton, Nick Morrison, David Steele and Dan Jenkins – had their first taste of team racing and finished 23 laps in a solid 13th place, even with jumping gears and the odd pedal mishap. Team Phoenix Chix – Abi Armstrong and Kelley Campbell – put a sterling effort into 17 laps to finish 7th in the women’s event. Neil Simpson and Emma Wood, finished 11th after 20 laps, in the mixed race after a heroic effort by Neil – he’d already done 9 laps by two o’clock! Danny Berry and Ben Johnson had entered the fun race, and after punctures, slipping gear cables and racing on bikes really fit for museums finished 38th place in a field of 90 teams.

Even with all this fast paced action there was still time to catch some of the England game on the TV in the big tent. A day of racing was followed by a day of chilling out; Simon, David and Nick took advantage of some free entries we acquired for the Solo 12 hour event on Sunday and spun around the course for a few laps to stretch the legs, while the rest of us had a leisurely breakfast. An awesome weekend away, good company, fun racing and the occasional toasted sandwich.

Richard Marston reports on his latest Gran Fondo exploits! “The first gran fondo of the trip was the 210 km Nove Colli – at 36, one of the older, larger and best-organised Italian cyclosportive events, with almost 11,000 entries this year. To claim a good place near the front of the start grid meant being on the line up to an hour before the 6.30 am start – and breakfast at 4 am! A fast 20 km across the flat coastal plain preceded the first of nine climbs, as we entered Marco Pantani’s home territory of the hills between Cesena and San Marino. Relatively short climbs of 5 to 10 km, but sometimes with gradients reaching 15% or more, it was a race to complete as many as possible before the heat of the day. 7 hours later I hauled myself up the final 17% gradient and began the swooping descent back to Cesenatico where the event had begun. The final 20 Km were back across the flat, so groups formed and it all became more competitive as we raced into a stiff headwind through the final kilometres to the finish.

After spending the week in the Dolomites getting used to the altitude and watching mountain stages of the Giro d’Italia, I took part in the 170 km Granfondo DolomitiStars. This was like an Étape event, taking in some of the climbs that featured in this year’s Giro, including Passo Fedaia (a wonderfully bleak highland lake area with snow-streaked mountain peaks and including an exhilerating 60 mph descent) and the evil Passo San Pellegrinoe, a long climb that included a couple of challenging 15% sections. Only a few hundred entrants for this one. I briefly saw Julian at the start, who passed me in the first couple of kilometres, eventually finishing an hour earlier than my 7.5 hours. The area is wonderful cycling territory at that time of year – relatively little traffic, the scenery is spectacular and I found many routes to explore from my hotel base in Arabba. I’ll definitely be returning for more – well, actually the Maratona des Dolomiti in July.”

Phil Pearl & Liz Rice battled against a strong Mistral to complete the 170km Mont Ventoux Master cyclosportif. The prospect of the climb had been daunting, but our fears turned out to be unfounded as the ascent went well for us both – the real challenge turned out to be the sheer time in the saddle, and the seemingly ever-present headwind! It’s just a shame that in race conditions you don’t want to stop to take a photo, as the views of the Alps from the top were superb. Craig & Vicky at VeloVentoux did a wonderful job of organzing the trip and looking after us: we’d highly recommend them.