Gran Fondo 2017

It might well be arduous, but what a privilege it is to take part in a sportive organised by the people behind one of the world’s biggest bike races.  

Especially so when 2017 heralds the event’s landmark anniversary, the centenary of Italy’s grand tour[i] the Giro d'Italia.

The Gran Fondo is the Giro's legacy promotion.

In May 2014 the opening three stages of that year’s Giro took place in Northern Ireland before the race returned home to the land of la dolce vita.  

As part of the deal to say thanks for being good hosts, it was agreed that a Gran Fondo would be organised in three consecutive years for amateur cyclists here, beginning in June 2015.  This would provide participants with the novel experience and a sense of racing on roads closed to normal traffic.   

So, being year three of the deal this was too tempting an opportunity to miss.

Roll out of Gran Fondo 7 a.m on 4 June 2017 at Parliament Buildings Stormont (Photo: Gran Fondo)

I recorded my impressions about the 2015 Gran Fondo at that time[ii], having previously composed a series of shorter blogs about the Giro’s 2014 visit to our shores[iii]. I spectated as a volunteer marshall on each of its three days at points in Belfast, Ballymena, and Markethill.

 

Marshalling at May 2014's Giro

Predictably, the number of entrants rose for this swansong Fondo to a record number of some 4,600. That is an awful lot of cyclists and a 50% increase on the 2015 turnout.  Approximately 1400 chose to cycle the shorter 56 kilometre route around Strangford Lough and the rest of us tackling the 174k route to the Mountains of Mourne this time round. 

This author exits Stormont for the Mourne route (Photo: SportCam Ltd)

Having taken part and managed to finish the long course two years ago in its inaugural guise, I was hopeful of getting round again.  Even though my legs were a couple of years older, crucially I would be equipped with a more modern bike.
The hype provided at the pre-race exhibition as well as event publicity helped build an eager sense of anticipation and excitement. 

16 page GF guide published in the Belfast Telegraph 2 June

The Giro trophy on display at the Gran Fondo exhibition on 3 June

  
The staging of a major sporting event like the Giro d’Italia provides fantastic publicity for the hosts, not least because the sport of professional cycling is such a visual spectacle.   

What the Gran Fondo may lack in terms of professional prowess, it more than compensates in the scale of the event with 23-times more participants taking to the roads.

But one aspect that strikes me as a participant is what it says about our community.  I can think of little better an advertisement for County Down than the sight of so many people coming out early on a cool Sunday morning to cheer for thousands of amateur cyclists who are largely unknown to them.  

For example, when we reached Ballygowan, the first village on the course, at approximately 7 30 a.m. groups of local people were already up and about yelling their encouragement.  So welcoming.

The same happened all day, not just in towns and villages from Rathfriland to Rostrevor but even on isolated farms.  Some even organised family picnics as we raced along, feeding off their support.  Garden fences were festooned in pink, the colour of the Giro’s winning jersey.   

This Fondo occasion is indeed a great advertisement for the true spirit and togetherness of our community.

It’s also important to acknowledge the priceless back-up support that the police provided, particularly at road junctions.  A private thought occurred about whether or not this is a cost-effective use of police manpower and time, but I kept that one to myself.  It cannot be pleasant having to inconvenience the public by closing many roads.  The job of policing complicated and dangerous junctions must seem humdrum for a professional member of the force.  

A vital service, however, and one for which we are grateful, keeping us safe on often hazardous roads.

On which subject, a feedback comment from one cyclist remarked that the route bypassing Leitrim village was dangerous and unfit for a cycling sportive.  Whether or not this is because of several years of austerity cuts to public spending including the roads budget, but it was noticeable that a number of surfaces were uncomfortably rough and bumpy.  This was dangerously so on some of the steeper (and terrifying) descents.

On one later section, a minor road approaching Saintfield, a police out-rider slowed down my group very substantially much to everybody’s annoyance as the prospect of finishing was beckoning.  The group of twenty soon multiplied to a group of at least one hundred.  Being forced to cycle so slowly created safety issues for the growing group.  The reason for the enforced slow-down eventually emerged as being the approach of a junction made tricky by a number of potholes.

We were lucky with the weather conditions.  In case the rain that was forecast for the early afternoon was to appear, I had invested in an overpriced and seemingly-flimsy cape.  Less than ninety minutes from the finish, I started to fantasise about getting round dry, free from attack by precipitation.   

Alas, skies slowly began to darken and eventually to look ominous.

With less than twenty miles to go, a drizzle had the temerity to appear, soon transforming itself into a heavy downpour.  At this stage, wet and aching, it would be easy to become demoralized.  Never, however, having recorded a DNF in any athletics event, I wasn’t going to deliver one now.  Having survived the steepest climbs and copious scary descents, fifteen minutes of heavy rain was not going to deny me a place in the sun crossing the finish line at our imposing Parliament.

No inconveniences, however irritating, can spoil the thrill of taking part in such an event.  Apart from road surfaces, there are other issues that the organizers might have predicted and thought out more efficiently.  One is the safety dangers posed by the volume of traffic on narrow roads.

On the very first categorised climb some 25-30 miles into the route, Dree Hill near Dromara, the ascent assumed a more dangerous edge as a multitude of cyclists had to crawl its way up the narrow 2 metre wide little road.  Some cyclists near me fell off their bikes, others had to dismount.  I joked to a colleague that I didn't bring my bike to take it for a Sunday morning walk up the hills.  By contrast, in year one this same climb was not a voluminous problem for us.

The other logistical problem and one which provoked most feedback was food stops.  In year one of the event, there were complaints about no such stops.  This year two were announced in the course instructions.  In spite of which, there was no food left at the Hilltown stop on my 10 a.m arrival (which was reasonably early).  The promise of such a provision removes the necessity to bring personal supplies of bananas or power bars. Without fuel, any cyclist will struggle to perform properly.

But it’s the positives recollections that count the most.  

I achieved my basic objectives.  In particular and what pleased me most was surviving the distance without either injury or mechanical mishap, I negotiated all five categorised climbs and descents like Slieve Croob and Spelga, and got to the finish line without injuring myself or wrecking my bike. 
And, according to my Endomondo satellite tracker, I burned 5600 calories.

On the climb of Spelga dam

The scenery was magnificent when I took time to look and the public support was humbling.  The photographers did a good job too.

Climbing Slieve Croob

Above all, I didn’t come in last.  Whereas this year’s official results[iv] (unlike year one) didn’t categorise 60+year-old riders separately, I calculated that about 25% of the overall field came in behind me.   

Crossing the sunny finish line, cape on due to earlier rain

So from this participant it’s an extravagant grazie mille and arrivederci to the Giro d’Italia Gran Fondo.

©Michael McSorley 2017

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[i] http://www.giroditalia.it/eng/news/i-numeri-del-giro-ditalia-100/

[ii] http://michaelmcsorleycycling.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/gran-fondo-2015.html

[iii] http://michaelmcsorleycycling.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/the-teams-arrive-in-belfast.html
 http://michaelmcsorleycycling.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/the-opening-ceremony-team-presentation.html
 http://michaelmcsorleycycling.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/la-grande-partenza.html
 http://michaelmcsorleycycling.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/dont-knocknaguilliagh.html
 http://michaelmcsorleycycling.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/arrivederci-irlanda-grazie-mille-giro.html
 http://michaelmcsorleycycling.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/the-finish-line-larrivee-il-traguardo.html

[iv] http://www.sportsplits.com/Home/Results

Gran Fondo 2015

In May last year, cycling history was made when, for the first time, the Giro d’Italia left mainland Europe.   

La Grande Partenza, the Big Departure, rolled out from Belfast’s Titanic Centre.  

Traffic literally came to a halt as Northern Ireland festooned itself in pink and an outbreak of Italophilia swept the country between 9-11 May 2014.
The public appetite had been whetted and this Tourist Board promotional video nailed it [1].

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Giro d'Italia 2014 Grande Partenza (Photo Source: Team Sky Twitter)

In a direct response to the success of the opening three days of Italy’s grand tour in Northern Ireland, the event organisers reciprocated one year on by staging its legacy event, the Gran Fondo, on the scenic roads of the Mournes and Strangford.

They appealed to a wide cycling audience by providing a choice of two routes.  

The shorter and less hilly route of 58 kilometres took in Strangford Lough, while the other was a circuit in and around the Mountains of Mourne.  

Kelly, Joe and I chose the latter.

So it was that we, as well as 3000 other enthusiastic amateurs, lined up at the same 2014 start line on the longest day of the year to tackle the most arduous sportive that the three of us had ever attempted.

Gran Fondo Start 21 June 2015 Titanic Centre Belfast (Source: Gran Fondo photo)

Last year I had had the privilege to spectate up close as a marshal on each of the three days of competition.  

On day one and the team time trial, I was stationed 1000 metres from the finish line at Belfast City Hall; on day two, my spot was just outside Ballymena; and on the third day, I was in the County Armagh village of Markethill where, on my reckoning, the volume of spectators substantially outnumbered its resident population.

The occasion and its razzmatazz inspired me to write six blog posts.  

They covered everything from the arrival of the teams[2] and opening ceremony[3], to each of the three days[4] of racing[5] in Ireland[6], and a concluding article about the whole Giro[7] grand tour event.  

Nairo Quintana from Colombia was the eventual winner when the race finished its three week journey in Trieste.

This year provided the unmissable opportunity to participate.

What lay ahead for us was 173 kilometres of roads which included 5 categorised climbs.  For once, the overused word “challenge” seemed appropriate.  

The prevailing emotion lining up, however, was not any sense of dread.  Instead the adrenalin rush of cycling as fast as possible on roads closed to traffic together with the moderating prospect of getting round safely dispelled negatives thoughts.

In a gesture that reminded me of the big city marathons where we would start behind Olympic athletes, the Australian member of the Sky professional racing team Richie Porte lined up alongside Ireland’s1987 Giro/Tour de France/World Championships treble winner Stephen Roche.   

We can all fantasise, bragging about being shown a clean pair of wheels.

Motivation to train was not an issue.  

The enormity of the task in hand was sufficient spur, never mind the regular diet of training plans on offer from the organisers.  

Come the big day, however, runners and cyclists alike are never content with their level of fitness.  Excuses, regrets and complaints abound about not having had time to get properly fit.

We amateurs dream of climbing like the professionals.  We yearn for warm sunshine and racing in windless conditions.  

It is easy in dreamland to forget that Northern Ireland is not Italy.  Sure enough the weather on 21 June this year failed to live up to our fantasies.  Who would have foreseen that?   

The unfortunate consequence is that enduring a long distance aerobic work-out becomes more testing when battling squally rain and strong cross-winds rather than luxuriating in the joy of warm sunshine.  

Anyway, as sportspeople say, conditions were the same for everybody.

Another aspect that reminded me slightly of long distance athletics was the pre-start chit-chat of fellow athletes, with predictable tales of sore knees and all sorts of disabling ailments which have interrupted the training regime.  

Despite this and the alleged lack of training, these same cripples and invalides race away like possessed demons as soon as the gun goes off.

For my part at the Fondo, I was trying to forget a couple of issues.  

A week before the event on a visit to Scotland (which interrupted my training for four days), I had caught a horrible gut bug.  And the night before the Fondo, when the top priority was a good rest, I was reduced to 2 hour's sleep following a spate of anxious late night phone calls following an illness which struck a grandson.

I had also ordered a brand new Canyon bike from Germany to enable me to perform better.  Unfortunately, my new machine was delayed and did not arrive until a couple of weeks after this Fondo had been consigned to history.  That, as they say, is a whole other story.  I had to make do with my trusty six and a half year old Canondale Synapse.

The good news, however, was that in spite of inclement weather and all other eventualities, the three of us survived unscathed and without any mechanical mishap.   

I was glad to have replaced a couple of important components on my bike as these helped on the steepest gradients.

Having survived the hardest climbs without having to stop and walk, I was actually feeling confident as the treck progressed and looked forward to the final forty kilometres.   

Normally, feelings closer to euphoria would emerge in the final kilometres.  A helpful cycling retailer[8] who had reconnoitred the entire route had advised us to relax and enjoy the run-in after Slieve Croob.  That, however, was not to be.  

My “second wind” was punctured by a combination of a continuous head-wind and increasingly showery rain more or less all the way back to the Titanic slip-ways.

Looking back on the day, successful completion seems almost miraculous and, at the time, was a huge relief and source of some personal pride.  

The medal presented at the finish line for every finisher emphasised that feeling.  It is the most elaborate in my collection, special because it is inscribed as Giro d’Italia in big letters above Gran Fondo.

One aspect which made the experience so enjoyable was the support of the public along the route.  People were out cheering us on in many towns and villages.  

It must have been just after 8 a.m in the morning when we cycled through Ballygowan, but to be so warmly welcomed by so many people early on a Sunday morning was totally unexpected.  Americans might use the word awesome.  

The same carnival atmosphere was obvious in other places like Rostrevor and Hilltown.  In Rathfriland I saw somebody walking about with a huge tray of croissants as spectators sipped fresh coffee whose fresh aroma aroused my already-hightened nasal senses.  All very convivial, continental almost.

Just as people had erected balloons and painted old bicycles pink for the professional race last year, we were greeted with the same themes, presented to brighten up our day.

I salute the people of County Down.  

Richie Porte summed it up by saying that he had never seen anything like it as the public don’t usually come out to watch the Gran Fondo.   

The cyclists were also full of praise for the organisers, volunteers, mechanics, medics and everybody who worked tirelessly on our behalf. It was obvious that, in spite of austerity, the police had invested heavily in ensuring that this event was a big success.

One of the best stories of the day was the appearance of two elderly brothers who rode the Strangford route from start to finish.  

John and Milton McKeag are aged 93 and 88 respectively.  They were two of about 80 men aged 60+ who completed the course.
I know John from our days as long distance runners.   After completing the Fondo course, he was quoted as saying that he had had an operation four weeks ago on his prostate.  

He told the journalist matter of factly that he has been cycling for 88 years and running for 74 years.  

What a great advertisement these people are for our sport – and region.

On the subject of age, it says something about the profile of cycling and seems to verify the modern acronym, mamil (meaning middle aged men in lycra), that eight of the first ten finishers were over 40 on the Mournes course.

In my category of male 60+ (senior mamils perhaps), there were about fifty finishers.  

I was placed forty-fourth, 1630^th overall[9]. 

Blog author starting.  (Source: a still from Belfast Telegraph video with inscription by cycling colleague Joe McIldowney)

Not fantastic and definitely not invincible, but that is not the point.   

It was a privilege to be able to take part in an international legacy event organised by professionals for amateurs.   

Stephen Roche aptly described it as a festival of cycling.  D'accordo.

©Michael McSorley 2015

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 [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeBG_htfe_g
[2] http://michaelmcsorleycycling.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/the-teams-arrive-in-belfast.html

[3] http://michaelmcsorleycycling.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/the-opening-ceremony-team-presentation.html

[4] http://michaelmcsorleycycling.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/la-grande-partenza.html

[5] http://michaelmcsorleycycling.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/dont-knocknaguilliagh.html

[6] http://michaelmcsorleycycling.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/arrivederci-irlanda-grazie-mille-giro.html

[7] http://michaelmcsorleycycling.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/the-finish-line-larrivee-il-traguardo.html

[8] http://www.realcycles.com/

[9] http://www.granfondogiroditaliani.com/portfolio/route-timings-revealed/