Tour de Terra Cotta

[Wanna B]

Only 1 RR left on the OCA calendar and it's billed as a "Citizen's Race". The course looks pretty flat. Anyone know anything about this race and how it will be run (i.e. mass start)?

[the Superstar]

I think its 1/2/3/vet a/b/c & junior all together, then vet D/women start 3 minutes after in their own start. Don't know about cadets. Seperate prize lists.

[old cervelo]

I believe The majority of the race course is actually a rolling with one major climb which is located at the start /finish. The climb is not extremely difficult but it is long and it will require the small chain ring depending on how you like to climb. The profile provided by the BCC is a little deceptive. This course is not as easy as it looks.

[2nd2fignon]

I just pre-rode the course and can post a summary later tonight if people are interested.

[2nd2fignon]

In Italy this would be called a 'Gran Fondo' race, meant to be a race/tour for old guys. The reality is that Gran Fondo races can often be 120-150k, include 10k climbs and you get guys like Max Sciandri and Andrea Tafi coming out to them. So much for a 'nice' ride for old guys.

Okay, the race ... Old cervelo is basically right. The profile is deceiving. The hill is tougher than it looks. It's only a 55sec effort when riding tempo. My definition of tempo is normal race speed --- not easy, and not 'holy crap, this race is blowing up right now!'.

There is another 10secs of false flat after the climb. Good for laying the boots to people who barely made it with your group up the hill. The hill is 1km after the start/finish. The rest of the course is basically flat.

I did a few laps and met up with the organizer. He was doing laps too (his house is on the course). King street (start/finish) will be completely closed. The rest of the course is yellow line rule, though last time they had this race the police didn't like the yellow line business so they completely closed the roads (wouldn't that be good).

Total aside here: I thought that I'd been ride for a quite a while (since 1980) but the organizer will be racing tomorrow and he said that his first time trial was in 1948!!

Notes:

- 100+ people registered so far (93 licensed)
- better be done by 1:30pm or you'll be racing in traffic
- the south-east corner is rough
- the downhill has a couple of cracks in the road (that I would stay away from)
- according to the organizer, Darko and Sue Palmer are registered, along with a husband and wife from London - I didn't ask, he just thought he would tell me

I'll say this, I grew doing a lot of my early season rides in this area and I can tell you that they avoiding all of the hills in the area. I asked the organizer about the possibility of a race that would use the Belfountain climb (Forks of the Credit River). He said that they considered it but the logistics were too difficult. Just in case anyone is interested, this is a really nice 3k climb about 20 mins from Terra Cotta.

Good luck and ride safe.