Anyone do this?
Brand new event with ~1300 people in 2010 and grows to 2800+ this year.
Well run event, great location. This year expanded schedule of events with a new hill climb event. A good job of making it a weekend event, not just a single day. You could easily do the hill climb Friday, 25mile race Saturday and 50 or 100 mile race Sunday.
My friends and I did the 50mile race sunday staying at a hotel Saturday night, talking about a condo for the entire Fri-Sun weekend next year.
It doesn’t seem to be getting the same traction in the US (Colorado event disappeared, but one added in NY for 2012). However in Ontario there is a 2nd event added in July 2012 in Niagara.
Is this the next big thing? Its a lot of fun and all I heard from my friends is how awesome it is just showing up in the morning with your bike, shoes & helmet not worrying about transition bags, wetsuits and all the other details of a tri.
For me personally, I am getting older and am tired of running injuries and the lack of a pool in my town. Tri is out and cycling is in.
I wish I didn’t miss this year. Loads of cycling AND Sam Roberts band - too much fun missed! It’s on the radar for me next year as I’ll be living closer, especially the Niagara event.
Missed the first year but came out for the 100 miler last weekend. I live/train up there in the summer typically so figured why not?
I thought the event was well organized, well executed and will be back next year for sure. I was surprised at how sparse the packs were though with almost 1,000 riders out there. There seemed to be a lot of people at each aid station but I spent most of the ride solo.
Was also interesting to see a two man break end in a half bike length finish, despite being chased by what looked like a pack of 20 riders (8 mins back at the end).
Was also interesting to see a two man break end in a half bike length finish, despite being chased by what looked like a pack of 20 riders (8 mins back at the end).
I can explain that as I was 5th wheel starting that climb to start the day. It went something like this:
Allan Triss set hard tempo and strung out 1,000 riders
Ed Veal, Steve Bakker, Jay McClaren, Bruce Bird and 1 or 2 others went to the front and up’d that tempo
I hung on for dear life for a km but felt the pressure and thought 170km’s of this is rediculous (read: I blew up!)
Jasper Blake came around me with Kevin Davies on his wheel and they bridged over
Nigel Gray came around and tried to solo effort the bridge
I sprinted to Nigel but couldn’t hold it and both Nigel and I got swallowed up
VOILA, break of 5 or 6 guys formed and were gone
Jasper came back after about 50KMs in the break and said they were working really, really well together
two main groups reformed at top of initial 5K climb and lots of back and forth happened with no real splits until the 2nd big climb when a group of 8 of us got away and hammered for 20 minutes only to get caught again
KOM group of 20 or 30 got away after Allan Triss hammered up again; (I was spit out the back)
I TT’d with another rider and caught the group of about 20-30 riders but was done. I then noticed Ed Veal and Jay McClaren were back in the peleton leaving 2 guys solo now, Bruce and Steve.
Bruce Bird and Steve Bakker had 3:45 on the group at bottom of KOM and won the race by over 8 minutes; meaning, in last 20 or so KMs into the wind and over steep rollers then levelled us for another 4 minutes. Total domination and well deserved. Both great guys and both amazing riders.
As for the event. It’s Graham Fraser, he’s the best in the business. It was great.
I did this event as well (although I was nowhere near Rhys).
Took it easy up the first climb to keep our team together and then moved up a few groups onced we crested the first climb.
Stayed in that group to the top of the KoM when I had to stop to pee (the group came apart on the climb anyway). I chased back over the top and down the last descent and caught a group of four - passed a lot of people that were completely gassed at that point (with 30k to go and 15k of that uphill and into the wind).
The last climb to the top of Scenic Caves was just survival - nasty.
The idea that you could do the hill climb, the 25 and then the 50 or 100 is absolutely crazy. The 50 and the 100 are just too hard.
I did the event last year as well and was still not prepared for the suffering on the last climb. I think I had blocked out the pain from last year.
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p.s. This is an absolutely first class event and I would recommend it to anyone who is even considering doing it.
I can’t say that this is the next big thing, but they seem to have a good thing going.
I really don’t like most road races in Ontario. They all seem to be run using the OCA / UCI rules, which is more like a dictatorship than a fun event. I the few OCA events that I’ve participated in (even while in the lowest category) scrutinize everything about you, with cars riding right beside you shouting out rules at the top of their lungs. At the end of a hard race this season, I got chirped by an announcer (over the P.A.) for wearing my university kit. He yelled something like ‘independent riders can’t wear team clothing’. I think I was so tired, the only thing I could muster was a middle finger aimed at his direction. He went on a rant about not knowing the rules (again, over the P.A.). It’s not like I was jeopardizing the safety of myself or others, or cheating. I’ve also done the provincial TT championships. You’d barely know there was an event going on except for a start box and a few commisionaires inspecting bikes. Absolutely no atmosphere like there is in triathlon.
The centurion races seem to have a good thing going and I do hope they add a race close to Niagara (my neck of the woods) and keep the OCA / UCI as far away from this race as possible.
Not sure if it’s the next big thing or if Canada/US is just catching up. There are 100s of rides like this each year in the UK of varying degrees of competitiveness…
Funny you write this because over on the Canadiancyclist.com forum there are two guys saying Grand Fondo’s will be the death of bike racing because it doesn’t encourage junior riding / racing. It is quite the debate.
As a guy who has raced for 15 years on the bike and in triathlons in Ontario I assure you I agree with your assessment of Ontario bike racing vs. Centurion!
Funny you write this because over on the Canadiancyclist.com forum there are two guys saying Grand Fondo’s will be the death of bike racing because it doesn’t encourage junior riding / racing. It is quite the debate.
As a guy who has raced for 15 years on the bike and in triathlons in Ontario I assure you I agree with your assessment of Ontario bike racing vs. Centurion!
That’s interesting. I see the Fondo’s as actually encouraging participation at all levels and may even encourage more families to get out there. The problem with OCA races is that it feels less accessible to the average Joe. There’s nearly no advertisement of events, so you almost have to be a member of a club to figure out which races to do. The OCA website is a nightmare to navigate and to figure out which races are close by and what discipline they are (Road, TT, XC, cross, mid-week practices). God forbid that you don’t know which category to register in, because their is no written distinction between the different categories (they don’t use the standard Cat 5,4,3,2,1… like the rest of the world). Each event is also organized by a different club bringing a lack of consistency to how the event is put together. They often don’t have the registration to the race opened until the last possible minute (the Good Friday Road Race was a prime example of that this year).
As far as I’m concerned, the entry to OCA events have pretty low participation because of the way they do business. I’m happy that the Fondo events are getting the masses to come out for road races. Hopefully the OCA realizes the large disparity in participation and re-thinks how their races are done.
The Blue Mtns event on the weekend was amazing. This is what happens when you get one of the absolute best big endurance sports event organizers in the business( Graham Fraser) working with a great roster of sponsors( Subaru, Cervelo, PowerBar, Timex . .) and tremendous support from an amazing host community( Blue Mtn Resort).
It was impressive to see triathlete Jasper Blake holding his own in both the Timex Vertical Challenge Hill Climb on Saturday and then in the C100 race on Sunday.
TSN shot a lot of the events on the weekend for a feature show that will be broadcast sometime in October - check the Centurion web site for details on that.
Is this the next big thing? Its a lot of fun and all I heard from my friends is how awesome it is just showing up in the morning with your bike, shoes & helmet not worrying about transition bags, wetsuits and all the other details of a tri.
For me personally, I am getting older and am tired of running injuries and the lack of a pool in my town. Tri is out and cycling is in.
You nailed it!
These events are far easier to organize, and easier to do as well( although that depends on how hard/fast you want to go!!). It amazes me how fast the sport of triathlon continues to grow, especially the long distance racing - but logistically, I will admit that it can get very complicated at a number of different levels. Riding - not so much. Cycling is truly a life long activity. Much easier on the body. It’s something that groups of people with different levels of fitness can do together.
These Gran Fondos or in this case the branded Centurion events have been catching on - but perhaps a bit slower than people expected. Strangely they have been slow to catch on in groups that you would have thought automatically in - Triathletes, roadies and sportif/century riders:
Modern triathletes need to expand the horizon and think outside the swim/bike/run box. Strange because originally, the sport was all about thinking outside the box. They also need to get over their fear of group riding.
Hard core roadies have said that this is not “real racing” - but nothing could be further from the truth. Centurion’s motto is “Racers race and riders ride” Do it however you want. At the front of these things, and even in the secondary packs/groups - there is a great deal of hard racing going on.
Sportif and old-school century riders want these things to be cheap - but you can’t close down all these roads and have all these services and support for an event with several thousand people inexpensively. A couple hundred maybe - but those small Centuries still exist and people are welcome to seek them out.