Today was the day I rolled up to the start line of the “Great Manchester Cycle”
A 52* Mile ride on closed roads, around Manchester
I wasn’t even sure if I was going to make the start line, see I have only been back on the bike 4 weeks due to having MAJOR SURGERY, I was also feeling a sore hip too, but I woke up feeling ready to roll and decided that, if people can fight on against cancer, then me going for a ride, while not really being fit, was nothing really.
It was COLD & quite windy but at least it wasn’t raining , I rocked up to the City Of Manchester Stadium at 7:30 and met with a good friend, Nick.
It was already BUSY early on
Nick & I lined up and , in the frigid Manchester cold, we waited and attempted to keep warm.
It wasn’t too long and we were off, another friend (Paul) was at the start line, waiting to go in the later event & managed to snap us as we went off.
The first lap, things settled down, the big boys were a good 10 mins ahead of us, shame as we both felt like attempting to keep up, but there is always next time.
Speeds were good, it was windy but it was GREAT to be cycling on closed road.
but then we hit the Salford Quays bit for the first time and our average went from 22mph, to under 19mph, there simply wasn’t enough room, there were TIGHT Turns, Gravel, bollards and seats sticking out, this was basically, a pedestrian zone, with 7000 cyclists flying through , CRAZY , and it was such a shame as the rest of the route was so well thought out.
Nick and I stayed together until a crash caused a split , as I hit the 3rd lap my hip was REALLY feeling it.
I managed to grind it out until the end, but by the end, I was really struggling, maybe down to having adjusted my saddle a little *Wrong* but hey, I made it all the way to the end.
The Results
Well, according to the website I was 131st in my age group…Chuffed, much, considering the surgery I have had and the lack of fitness.
Nick, Kudos to him, finished 4 mins ahead of me.
They even gave away a free T-Shirt
and here I am just after I finished
My Stats from my Garmin are as follows:
Distance: 50.33 mi
Time: 2:35:41
Avg Speed: 19.3 mph
Avg Bike Cadence: 78 rpm
Avg HR: 153 bpm
Split times
Lap 1 00:38:49
Lap 2 00:38:30
Lap 3 00:39:04
Lap 4 00:39:18
I finished 131st, in my age group , there were a total of 7000 riders
Again, not my fastest ride but a good training ride for better and bigger things later this summer.
, if you didn’t sponsor me yet, either because you wasn’t sure (Like me) if I would make the start line, or just because you didnt get round to it yet
Then PLEASE do so now , its a GREAT cause……!
JUST GIVING – The FORMER 39 Stone Cyclist
There should be some GREAT official photos on the way too, so check back to see them another time.
Goodbye for now, from “Team GB”
Great Manchester Cycle
Team GB consists of my kids (Above) and the best most supportive wife in the world, Julie, The one who takes the photos, the videos and stand there cheering for me at this finish, the one who drives me to the start line and away from the finish line, without her, I am simply nothing at all.
Edit, the above paragraph was not wrote by myself, however I will not remove it for now. Gaz
Hi Gaz,
Glad you made it to the end ok and a good time too.
You are right though, the section through Media City was MUCH too tight and not helped by having a mass start at 8:00. Letting people roll out when they turned up (as has been done at other rides, Cheshire Cat for instance) is a much better way. Still it`s the first one and went really well I thought.
Yup was tricky but great fun and settled down by lap 3-4 but the speeds were quicker and with “That” bench sticking out after the bridge there was an accident waiting to happen
As you say it can only get better and its already 95% of the way there
Excellent ride there! I did the 52 miler too. Quick question: do ou know how to access the full list of results so I can see where my time and position satin the whole list of finsihers – a pdf table of all finishers perhaps…? It odes not seem to be a fubnction on the official website results search page.
I thought for a first event it went really well although I always cringe at minor celebrities being wheeled in alongside some Olympic cyclists and accomplished sportspoeple too. It’s almost like in order to attract the general public to participate there is an assumption that they will only follow the Pied Pipers of celebrity-dom – pretty patronising in my book – the good british cyclist of any level or new to the sport is surely not that fickle…? The route was great for what the event was seemingly attempting to acheive and despite the slight swirls of wind on the Mancunian Way confusing me which was the wind-against and which wind-for direction of each lap – the conditions were condusive to enjoyable and some speedy rides.
The technical section some said was to give a breather to some of the less proficient riders but in fact I saw a really bad accident outside the Imperial War Museum – I know that area well and was surprised they threaded the technical section through there as there is a lot of unsigned/unmarked loose shale/gravel there, plus a seat jutting out on the second bridge that was unmarked until the second lap – some of the peloton/quicker club riders were screaming at people to let them through and whilst I realise that they were looking for good times they should have been a little more wary and considerate – after all this was a sportif and neither a criterium race nor a TT – that section could have caused some very nasty bottlenck accidents – poor planning and compromising safety of many of the riders on behalf of the course marshalls and planners. Dare I suggest that I err on the side of the more cynical view that the technical section was a concession to Salford City Council for running the event through the Quays and thus affording them some of teh glory of the whole event , and no doubt some of the funding and financial and commercial benefits plus the ubiquitous ‘service delivery’ box-ticking exercises.
Which brings me onto my final and bigest gripe. But first of all may I say the general bonhomie and organisation was superb and a hearty congratulations to all those paid and volunteer workers at the event who gave up their Bank Holiday to help make this a special innaugural Great Manchester Cycle – however yet my concern is the outsourcing of the route security/marshalling. G4S got the gig and from a few incidents and near-misses it appeared that this mainly consisted of people in high-vis jackets and G4S baseball caps who had little if any cycle/road sense or speed of response training. Upon arrival at 730 am I asked several of them how to get to certain facilities and the G4S ones were at best unbriefed and at worst rude and clueless. During the ride there were several occasions when I saw pedestrians being allowed not simply to cross but also to wander aimlessly into the road without looking both ways and obviosuly the classic case of not hearing cyclists lulled them into the false sense of secutity insomuch as they imagined thet they could amble slowly into the road and some ‘scallies’ even palying around and cyling on BMXs etc into the path of omncoming peloton etc. The G4S people wrere idly sat in bus shelters and on walls and neither anticipating nor dealing with these isolated yet potentially fatal incidents. Is this another case of outsourcing allowing money and profit eclipsing rider and spectator safety? Why were they not trained properly or even paired with British Cycling marshalls or volunteers?
See you next year Gaz!
Laurence
As its not a race I think thing the full list is viewable , i’d like to be proven wrong tho
Well done Gaz – great effort. Inspirational stuff as always
Thanks Man
Congratulations!I tip my biking helmet to you.
As far as the complications, remember that is an event. Did you think it would be uneventful?
Thanks :0)
No not at all but I am passing my thoughts on it just as others do, hopefully Nova change that section next year as the majority of the “Front runners” were saying the same, it was just too tight for fast cyclists
What an amazing accomplishment!!! I am so happy for you and how far you have come. You’re children are beautiful. I’m sure they are so proud of their father . Wishing you the best of luck in your next endeavour! -(Go 49ers)
Sounds great ride. Nice to hear Manchester encouraging cycling !
Yup
Lets hope for MORE !