Ahead of all the amazing results from this weekend, I thought I’d give a little update on the TCC sportive overseas event of the year, the Gran Fondo Pinarello held on 19th July 2009.
We had 13 TCC’ers in Casule sur Sile, a little hamlet, near Treviso a very beautiful town just North of Venice, which is home to Mr and Mrs Beneton and also Mr Pinarello.
low lying areas and once we were at the top of them there distant mountains, the views were spectacular - for those of us who had enough time to take them in ;-)!
metres, a really phenomenal climb with 18 hairpins. The last 4/5 hairpins at the top of pass have been blasted out of the rockface. It was built in 100 days, by Russian Prisoners of War, to escape the advancing Italians in 1918. Take a look at this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJkBd16F9D8 for some drama.
We had 3 TCC’ers for the Medio route – 77 miles with 1.2950 km of altitude gain.
Lisa – who has dedicated some time out to some serious pre-Pinarello training - Tina and myself were honoured and in good company in the elite starting grid for the long course, along with Mr Eddy Merckx and the professionals which made for a very exciting start!
The first 25k on the flat was at TT 30 mph plus speeds and a phenomenal experience as the body of the biggest peleton possible, was advancing with great exhilaration towards the mountains.
Out of the vast numbers of people starting there were 1233 finishers on the long course and 1781 on the Medium course.
As you can see from the results, there were some fantastic times from the TCC’ers with Ray first in and twelfth in his category (if I understand the system correctly), and Stewart in a very credible second, closely followed by our international jet set travelling chairman, Dave.
Jason, who’s also been putting in some serious local training, employed a no-stopping strategy and made sure he was over the line before his friend and rival, Johnnie B. Warren was 34th in his category while Mac, determined to get the long route under his belt this year was 43rd in his cat.
Lisa put in a stunning PB performance on the long course, coming a fabulous 23rd in her category and the 45th woman across the line.
Zoe put in a very strong time on the ‘medio’ course. Gail was very pleased, returning from serious injury, to finish in a good time too.
Now, last, but by no means least, were myself and Tina, who succesfully completed the long route. After the San Boldo climb, we decided that we’d make it more challenging for ourselves by making sure there were no official signs to follow. We, of course, also wanted to fully appreciate the stunning views, and the odd charming lakeside café. So with the glorious smooth-surfaced roads to ourselves, after 9 hours 47’ 50 seconds of riding time, we were greeted with the biggest warm welcome party possible.
Seriously, most of our stopping time was spent convincing very friendly local Italian organisers that we really were OK and didn’t need a lift!
Well done to Tina, who completed her first ever century ride, in great style. Probably one of the toughest 100 miler + rides, you could have chosen!
Well done to everyone - a great ride, a fantastic long weekend. And importantly, no injuries, not even a puncture :-)!