Mike Hagen says:

My plan to take it easier on the first climb was out the window as soon as the race started. Of course it was. Sigh. But on this climby, roller-coaster like course, seemed to be riding with a lot of different groups at one time or another. There was a lot of flux and movement in positions with riders moving up and down. Made it fun! Rode with rmadden1 on the flats before the last climb. Got away from him (wasn’t expecting that) and reeled in a couple of riders on the last hill. Didn’t run out of gas for a change. Happy with that!

Roy says:

was happy to get back racing again went better than expected was with Mike hagen for large amounts of the race but unlike Mike I did run out of steam on the last climb great race

Torben Adolph says:

Still having a healing leg but had a great start. Was easy riding 3-3.5 w/kg halfway of the 968 meters of hight when suddently my stomach had its own live. Gas in the stomach was so high that I even couldn’t reach the handlebars and had to drop down to below 2.0 w/kg for the last 350 ish meters up. The pain was so severe that I wanted to quit but thanks to Mucker1974 for trying to pull be home and Andy for telling me I could do it. Those last meters was like giving birth and finally I know what my wife ment telling me many years ago she didn’t want more kids :-p

Gazinho says:

I decided not to go crazy at the off and roll with whatever group that came together, I was lucky enough to have found Denny who actually paced this perfectly at around 3.7-3.8 I kept ignoring the climb clock as was ridiculous 😅 we managed to bridge the group ahead just before the last climb which gave me the chance to get a few more places. I couldn’t keep Denny’s pace and dropped off slightly for the last 10mins. Even though I enjoyed it I didn’t love it, at no point I felt I could make a move or even think about tactics. For me that’s where climbing races suffer compared to more varied terrain. I know I’m only 1 of many but that just me, I know we have challenges to meet and understand why you use them.

Steven Ludford says:

Lanzarote 11:00, Gatwick 15:00, M25 16:00, Home 17:30, Massive Kebab 18:00, Muckers Start Line 19:00. I forgot to mention 18:59, one last blow of the nose and then an ominous drip, a nose bleed! Stuffed some toilet roll up my nostril and hopefully I can pull it out after 15 minutes … I breathe through my mouth racing anyway. Started about 3.0, 3.2, trying to gauge the groups around me, a very large group containing teammates Kyle, Rens, Daniel and a few others was only a few meters ahead and riding steady, I could have gone with them but had to make the calculation that these guys would drop me like a brick on today’s climbing so I held back slightly into a group of 4/5 riders – pulled out the ‘bloody’ tissue and found myself with Andy_UP, I tried to assist Andy on the flatter sections and held his wheel uphill but could sense he was on a much better day than myself and had to let him chase the riders ahead. Long, long, solo ride from that point but always had people close by to keep it interesting, quite satisfied with the work-out.

Andy_UP says:

No real tactics or drafting on this race, so I made a pacing plan. 3.3w/kg on the uphill, 3.5 to 4 on steep red sections, 2.9 on the flat and even less on the downhill. That should take me to the finish line empty but without bonking, around 1h15min.

Tried to ignore the riders around me and not to focus on my 47th position on the first hill. Stick to the plan. I know I will ride my fastest time if I keep my pacing plan. S. Ludford tried to pull for me first 1/3rd of the race, and actually doing a great job to give me draft on the few sections it was possible. Thanks for that! I didn’t have the best day, so had to slow down slightly on the 2nd part of the last hill, but focused on holding position. Ended 35th so gained 12 positions without speeding up or slowing down. Ended under 1h14min so all in all, my plan worked nicely.

Lyndon Wright says:

Were shell I start 🤔, I know thanks for a super route. Having just started to recover after a bad bout of covid I was not sure were my fitness was as I have only turned my legs over on Sunday. My intention was to ride with in myself. 321 and whats going on 60+ riders in front already 😳. I set my pace and was moving up the field were I saw muckers 75 a few places up so he was my goal. So we were together as we started to climb and by my surprise I started to move away, I felt comfortable so kept on going. Next on the list was Steven Ludford and Andy up, so off I went picking up rides on my way and trying to form a group, but as you move to the front they seem to push that little harder to get past you 🙃 so I kept my pace and ended up riding it on my own. I caught Steven and got with in 450m to Andy up by the end and was very pleased how it went. Maybe covid is the new super food 🤔 I mean bug for cyclist. Till the next tim🚴‍♂️