I cycled the inaugural Great Manchester Cycle on Bank
Holiday Monday 4th June.
I had only come across the event after seeing it promoted on
Rebecca Romero’s twitter
account so thought I’d do it as training for the
Chester Triathlon on 1st July. It was the UK’s largest timed cycling
event, only cost a tenner and all the roads are closed to cars. It featured
three distances on a 13 mile city centre loop; 52 miles for “elite and club
cyclists”, 26 miles for cyclists wanting a challenge and 13 miles for a more
leisurely cycle. Of course, I registered for the 52 mile distance.
The atmosphere at the start is very good. There is plenty of
water available and a mechanical area to make sure your tyres are inflated.
The route starts at the Etihad Stadium and takes cyclists
out towards Salford. The roads are mostly dual carriageways and include a
section of Manchester’s most well known motorway, the Mancunian Way. The wide
roads were essential due to the amount of cyclists, but did narrow in a mile
long technical area around Salford. On the first lap I frustratingly got held
up in a bottleneck before the Salford Bridge and had to queue for about four
minutes to get over the bridge. After the Salford loop, the route takes you
back past Old Trafford to return to the Etihad Stadium, where each cyclist
records a split lap time.
Despite getting held up in Salford on my first lap, I felt
really comfortable and did my first lap in 42:11. I still felt comfortable on
my second and third laps which were timed 39:16 and 40:42 respectively. I faded
on my last lap and did 44:18. Due to my competiveness, and fear that I’d lose
time, I didn’t use the feed stations which were available at the start and half
way distances each lap. It was only after the race that I found out your time
at the feed stations is actually deducted from your overall finish time;
certainly a lesson for next year!
I finished in 2 hours 46 minutes and 27 seconds. All
finishers are awarded with a medal stating the distance they cycled, a t-shirt
and the usual goodies. I’m not sure how many people entered the 52 mile
distance, but the results section of the website says I got 671st
which I was pretty pleased with. There were 7,000 cyclists who did all three
distances; the events maximum capacity.
I was told by my parents and brother who came to watch, that
it was a really enjoyable event to watch as a spectator too. They watched from
the start line at the Etihad Stadium so got to cheer cyclists pass four times, and
heard event commentary here too. There were famous cyclists too who raced,
including current Olympic Individual Pursuit Gold medallist Rebecca Romero and 2009
Team Pursuit World champion Lizzie Armistead, who I actually got to meet after
the race by a moment of good fortune and timing. Amongst many others, a big
inspiration to me is former England and Crewe Alexandra Footballer, Geoff
Thomas, who since retiring from Football has recovered from Leukemia and cycled
the Tour de France, also took part.
Would I do this again? Without a doubt! Cycling over the
Mancunian Way with not a car in sight was a very special and enjoyable
experience. The only, very small, negative was the queue to get over the bridge
in Salford on lap one, although I expect that this will be addressed next year
and there was no queue at all for the subsequent laps. Due to the events
success, the organisers have pledged to put the event on again next year, and I
have registered for updates for when entries open. I expect that next year’s
event will sell out very quickly.
For more information, visit the Great Manchester Cycle website.
Paul Barnett
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