UWCT Final, Aalborg, Denmark

Listening to the English and Danish commentators count down and send off the various groups, I was getting more than a little excited and starting to shiver. Although sunny, we were stood in an area of shadow and I couldn’t wait to get started and get the blood pumping.

With so many riders in our group and the category in front, I couldn’t actually see the front, which probably explains why when the commentator counted down from ten and I clipped in ready for the start, I was a little surprised when we all stopped again. At the actual start line… I had been listening to the commentary for the group in front! So, time to calm down and another ten minutes to wait.

And we’re off! Riders were set off at ten minute intervals, some of the groups were bigger than the TdF peloton! Photo courtesy of UCI World Cycling Tour

The commentators kept us informed and warned us to ride safely, as our peloton was bigger than the Tour de France or Giro! That was a lot of testosterone in one place! After the start we were to ride behind the commisaires car, which would travel at thirty kph, for two kilometres at which point the flag would drop and the race would be on!

What followed was a blur of bodies and street furniture zipping past at speeds of between forty and fifty kph! With so many obstructions on the road, I made sure I kept as close to the centre of the marked lanes as I could. Despite this I was still skidding across the road as riders in front braked hard to avoid unseen obstacles. The bunch was so big that it was almost impossible to see more than a few riders in front and judging by the expensive sounds coming from behind, not everyone managed to stay upright!

Once through this twitchy zone – in which you had to avoid crashes while moving up at all times – it was time to get ready for the cobbles. In the end these proved to be fairly straight forward. With a wide tarmac border either side of the cobbles, it was actually smoother than many of my local lanes back home!

The bunch rolls through one of the feedzones, staffed by local volunteers. Photo courtesy of UCI World Cycling Tour

Off the cobbles and the wind came at us from the side as we headed towards the first climb of the day. Despite the wind we were still doing over forty kph heading into the turn and despite some mighty gurning on my part, I was no longer moving up the bunch.

Once on the climb it was a matter of hanging on for grim death, but try as I might the front was getting further and further away. Time to find a group and sit in to recover. Thankfully an international group of fellow sufferers formed and it was here that I realised how international a language English is. With Finns, Danes, Belgian, Slovakian and French riders present we all began working together, even the Aussies understood us!

With many of the riders obviously having racing backgrounds it wasn’t too difficult getting the group working, but there were the usual culprits who didn’t quite get it and kept trying to tear off the front, only to be brought back after a minute or two toiling along on their own. Unfortunately they were usually Brits and I had to keep shrugging my shoulders as our little foreign legion kept asking “what are they doing?” I’m hoping they will have learned from this and will go back to the UK and ride with a little more sense…

Our bunch of survivors heading back into Aalborg. Photo courtesy of Sportstiming

With our group working hard, but no real idea of where we were in relation to how the race was developing, it became a real slog. Most of the climbs on the route were rideable in the big ring, so we did. There was no let-up and every now and then one of the riders would put in a dig. The Aussies were keen to push on and always had a rider ready to work in a break or to pull an escapee back.

Continued overleaf…