UWCT Final, Aalborg, Denmark

Turns out the UCI hadn’t forgotten us amateurs. You don’t hear that word often, but I reckon it applies to the majority of the people reading this. Amateur, the word comes from Latin for love. It denotes someone who does something for the love of it, not receiving any payment. It’s a great word and describes why I ride, for the love of it.

So realising there was still a huge pool of riders out there that weren’t going to trouble the top ranks of the Elite and Professional riders, they created an international World Tour series. This would culminate with a final event, at which riders would be declared World Champion and get a chance to ride with their very own World Champion’s jersey. And with many of these riders being over forty the UCI broke it down into age categories, recognising that us cyclists just won’t stop racing!

This World Cycling Tour would also help with the UCI’s attempts to globalise the sport of cycling by taking it to countries that come from outside it’s traditional European homeland. These events took the form of Gran Fondos – a race at the front, sportive at the back – and riders had to finish with a certain percentage of the winner’s time to qualify. The qualifying round for the UCWT Championships in the UK came from this year’s first running of the Tour of Cambridgeshire.

Well after finishing in the top 25% of the ToC I got an email from the UCI informing me that I had qualified for the final in Denmark! And that would have been the end of it, if it hadn’t been for an off-hand comment from my wife along the lines of, “well, it’s your 50th, why don’t you go?” And indeed, why not?

A shiny UCI medal and an email inviting you to to the World Champs, not often I get that after a race

The ToC had been my longest road race at eighty-seven miles and although I had never seen the front of the fifteen hundred strong bunch, had thoroughly enjoyed myself. My racing career had consisted of hour-plus-a-lap crits and sixty mile road races, I’d made it to second cat and realised I was going to have to start training a lot harder if I wanted to progress, so had opted for an easier life back in the thirds! How much harder could the Aalborg final be? Well, as it turned out, quite a lot harder!

My invite to participate in the road race had arrived in the middle of June. I had not raced at all up to then. There had been some sportives, on and off-road and plenty of club runs, but no ‘proper’ racing. With a family holiday to factor in and a freelancer’s work schedule, which makes a mockery of any training plan, getting race fit was going to be difficult. In the end I managed a couple of circuit races and some chain-gangs, along with some long road rides including the Prudential RideLondon event that I rode for the first time. Throw in a load of turbo training and that was it, it was neither scientific or anywhere near enough, but it would have to do!

Fights were booked, a house rented and bike box sorted. I was even wearing the British ‘Team’ jersey, a rather fetching retro looking affair, that was a little on the tight side. It would have felt even more special if all the British riders were wearing it. But although riders had to wear a national jersey, as long as it had your country’s name and colours any design was allowed. There must have been more than ten different GB kits on display during the competition, which lessened the team feeling, but was in keeping with the whole amateur ethos. There was no BC blazer telling us what we could or couldn’t wear! Although we did all have to fork out for a BC license to ride the worlds, which must have helped increase BC’s membership numbers.

One last check, I’m sure I’ve packed everything…

If you are going to race abroad I would heartily recommend turning up as early as possible. I had a minor wheel issue that was solved by visiting a few local bike shops, where we were impressed by the locals command of English; we also met Brazilian, Australian, Canadian, Iranian and Spanish riders and picked up the useful bit of knowledge that, despite the fact that over two-thousand cyclists were descending on their town, the local shops would be closing half day on Saturday! Not a problem for us, but it was an issue for many riders that were flying in last-minute. Checking the GB team’s FaceBook page the night before, I was amazed at the amount of missing/broken kit that people were trying to sort last-minute!

Riding around Aalborg was a major eye opener for anyone used to British roads. The Danes have thoroughly accepted the bike as a practical way to get around town. Wide cycle paths – containing neither parked cars or broken glass – took us where we needed to go without running out and dumping you back into the traffic flow. Drivers gave way when crossing these paths, reversing out of our way if they had blocked the path while trying to join main roads. The amount of cyclists riding to school, work or the shops, none of who bothered with helmets or lycra was great to see and probably goes some way to explaining why drivers are so understanding, they also ride.

Having arrived on Thursday we decided to take a look at the final fifty kilometres of the route on the Friday. The plan was for an easy ride out of Aalborg, stopping at a few bike shops for the missing valve extenders on my borrowed deep section rims – I was worried that with limited neutral support available, a puncture would spell a premature end to my race and I hadn’t come all this way to give in to the puncture fairies! – after we could stop for coffee and a Danish, of course, before riding the final part into Aalborg.

Once out of Aalborg I was impressed with the quality of the Danish roads and how quiet they were. Winding out towards Veggerby the country was pretty, but nowhere near as flat as we had expected. The sun shone, the wind was light, all was good, but where were the cafes?

Finally! Cafe tracked down it’s time talk tactics and which cake to have

Each little hamlet or village we rode through was clean, tidy and empty. But not a cafe restaurant or bar to slake our first or fill our grumbling bellies, what do the Danes do for refreshment? Bemoaning the lack of a tea stop we carried on with our tour, noting that the climbs in the final part of the route, while not Alpine, were certainly going to be tough for riders after 100 kilometres of racing.

It wasn’t until the last ten kilometres that the route started to flatten as we hit the run in to town, finishing with a series of 90 degree turns in the final two K that would require careful positioning if you were to be in with a shout for a sprint.

Mission accomplished, we rode on to a cafe (finally!) recommended by an Aussie rider we had picked up en-route along with a Canadian. This was one of the great things about the finals in Denmark, getting to ride and chat with other cyclists from all over the world. Talk in the cafe turned to a couple of technical sections in the early part of the race and our Australian friend suggested that we should take a look. As we swapped racing stories I began to realise what a big deal the UWCT is. This guy had been training with an ex-Olympic rider and was sticking to a schedule laid down by the coach, made my rather haphazard approach look very, well, amateur!

Continued overleaf…