Not done this before and was quite excited about the prospect of kicking on towards a 4h century.
But now it’s been shortened to 66 miles “cus equality!” 
Surely equality is letting everyone race 100 miles, not turning the men’s race into a sprint 
I can’t imagine it’s going to be good for safety either as more people will be able to hang for longer perhaps.
We’re now stuck between switching from the Fondo to the Sportive (which oddly appears to be remaining 100 miles) or accepting it’s going to be a 6hr round trip to ride 2h40 at Threhsold 
Remember your FTP is not your 2h40 power 
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I’m hoping to have such a good base by then that all my thresholds are the same number
Didnt know they did a road race now too…
Did this a few years ago, was effectively asked to do it to draft a couple of riders round so they could get the gran fondo time cut off… At one point our ‘four man’ group was over 25 with me sat on the front… TBH found it quite boring and windy course…
But have you raced that kind of distance before? Its not like a crit or sportive, but it will be very very fast, Id imagine quite a high drop out rate if our local road races are anything to go by …
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Yeah! RR, Fondo and Sportive to choose from.
Not ‘raced’ that far before no. But am a Cat3, can do 1h15 chaingang’s at 24mph on my Diverge and did 2h44 Tempo at 265np on Tuesday 
If it is “just” 2h40ish- I’d be hoping for 280w np by then.
Fast, flat with lots of drafting is my dream event 
Sit on couch till then and standing up you’ll hit your thresholds 
; then need another lie down.
Didn’t realise it was cut to 66miles. I’m glad about that because the logistics of hydrating the longer distance in the middle of summer had me worried.
I did it back in 2018 on a blisteringly hot day in June. The distance was 128km. Avg. speed was 42kph. NP was 212w. Avg. power was 191w. Way below threshold. I finished 28th overall.
It was one of the sketchiest races I’ve ever ridden. There were so many moments that put my bike handling skills to the test. Riders cutting across the peleton to grab drinks from their soigneurs on the road side. Numerous pinch points where riders would slam on the brakes. I remember having to brake so hard that my rear wheel briefly lifted off the ground.
Riders were set off in large age-based groups. Mine was 40-45. I think the younger riders set off several minutes ahead of us. None of the attacks in our group were successful. We remained a group of several hundred riders until we caught the group in front. Then chaos ensued for the last 20km. The group got bigger whilst the roads became narrower. Total carnage. I witnessed so many crashes.
Anyway… can’t wait to do it again.
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Yeah the carnage isn’t selling it to me
Hopefully local chaingang legend Charlie Agar (Stolen Goat) will be there again (won the Fondo this year) and I can sit on his train
