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Update! Magnificat preview ride… and they're off!

VecchioJo gets ready to pedal the 126 miles of the Magnificat, all in the name of research

Jo is now fidgeting on the start line (read yesterday's pre-fidgety musings below) and we'll be following his progress throughout the day courtesy of his tweets and the very smart Champion Chip tracker - click on the link and to see him and  all the other riders on today's Magnificat recce teearing around the map, or stopping for tea and cake.

Go Jo go!

Ah, I appear to have not been paying attention. When I agreed to take part in tomorrow’s preview ride of this year’s Magnificat I should have looked at the fine print where I’d have read we’d be pedalling the full 126 miles. Ah indeed.

The UCI Magnificat itself (formerly the Highclere Castle sportive) takes place on the 13 June 2010 and riders can chose from the 126-mile Magnificat, aimed at competitive, experienced riders, the Route80Cat – an 80-mile route designed for experienced club riders, or the CommuniCat, a 51-mile ride pitched at the first-timer. There’s even the Kiddicat where any young cyclist between the ages of 6 and 12 can ride as many laps of a 1.9 mile circuit in the grounds of Newbury Racecourse as they like. Now in it’s 5th year the event has moved home from Highclere Castle to the improved facilities of Newbury Racecourse and taken on Verenti Bikes as the title sponsor with Mavic supplying mechanical support and Torq providing energy drink, gel and bar aid to the anticipated 2,000 riders.

For this proper century plus more reconnaissance ride I’ll be astride one of the new Verenti Rhigos bikes which will be electronically tagged (an service that's also available to Magnificat riders) so you can follow my progress via the wonders of modern technology here. If my little dot is stationary for any length of time it will be because I will be stopped at one of the feed stations and not lying down in a comfortable grass verge, oh no.

The route looks to be around a pretty but, um, refreshingly lumpy part of the English countryside as it heads south of Newbury towards Andover skirting Salisbury Plain to loop under Winchester and hitting the edge of the South Downs and thence over the North Downs towards Basingstoke before heading for home, tea and medals.
Luckily we’ll be supported throughout the day by Torq with their tasty energy snacks and Mavic will be helping with mechanical support, I do hope they’ll be following in a big yellow car so I can hang on and get my rear-derailleur checked frequently (ahem), and top cycling photographist Phil O'Connor will be taking pictures of the day.

Actually,that all sounds like rather good fun.

Right, best have some pasta, lots of it.

For information on this year’s Magnificat ride go to www.cyclegb.co.uk

 

Jo Burt has spent the majority of his life riding bikes, drawing bikes and writing about bikes. When he's not scribbling pictures for the whole gamut of cycling media he writes words about them for road.cc and when he's not doing either of those he's pedaling. Then in whatever spare minutes there are in between he's agonizing over getting his socks, cycling cap and bar-tape to coordinate just so. And is quietly disappointed that yours don't He rides and races road bikes a bit, cyclo-cross bikes a lot and mountainbikes a fair bit too. Would rather be up a mountain.

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11 comments

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VecchioJo | 13 years ago
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you'll be pleased to hear that i did the road.cc team proud, it would be unprofessional of me to mention which of the other cycling publications representatives (there was also a Cycling Weakly person there too) got into the van or turned for home early  1

what a fantastic day at the 'office', and what a fantastic route, that's going to make some riders hurt as there didn't seem to be a single flat bit in it, although the stunningly pretty very-English countryside might take their mind of the pain, maybe

some proper words later once i've had this beer, and maybe another

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dave atkinson | 13 years ago
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mostly seems to be stopping for tea and cake right now  1

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Tony Farrelly | 13 years ago
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You can follow Jo's tweets at http://twitter.com/VecchioJo as if you couldn't guess… we'll be retweeting them too

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Simon_MacMichael | 13 years ago
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Hmm it appears that Jo can descend and stick a tweet on Twitter at the same time. Lance Armstrong eat your heart out  3

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dave atkinson | 13 years ago
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For anyone who hasn't looked on the tracking site you can follow all the riders in real time, it's ace:

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dave atkinson | 13 years ago
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Jo seems to be teleporting from point to point on my map. His Verenti is made of futurecarbon maybe  1

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Tony Farrelly | 13 years ago
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Rob Spedding put in a magnificent spurt a few mins ago reaching speeds in excess of 30mph - now he very sportingly seems to be waiting for the others to catch him up… that or he missed the start and got a lift  39

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Simon_MacMichael | 13 years ago
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And they're off... blimey, that's a nasty spike on the profile about 9 miles in....

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DaSy replied to Simon_MacMichael | 13 years ago
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Simon_MacMichael wrote:

And they're off... blimey, that's a nasty spike on the profile about 9 miles in....

That's Walbury Hill upto Combe Gibbet, just outside Inkpen. It's pretty steep, about 17% at its worst, but short.

It's a beautiful view from up there, as you look down over the valley. That is the hill I always lead rides out to, if I'm forced to lead a ride. It makes everyone moan, and vow not to ride with me again. It's like banging the plates on the tap when doing the washing up, to never be asked to do it again!

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nick_rearden | 13 years ago
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Amazing technology at work here although it would be useful if whoever is driving the Magnificat website could narrow the "Names" column so we can see the heart rates without scrolling.

And speaking of heart rates, while they've been farting around sorting out the telemetry before the off, isn't it interesting to see the resting (well, not exactly resting but you know what I mean) heart rates of the various riders.

There are some 20 bpm lower than others. Our Jo seems at the lower end and knowing his penchant for hills and grim survivalism I wouldn't write him off. But Andy Cook and Richard Hallett are both legendary "comrades of the rivet" so it's going to be interesting.

Is it still illegal to run a book on this?

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cactuscat | 13 years ago
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road.cc VS cycling plus VS RCUK VS London Cyclesport then, judging by the names on the roster this am

COME ON OUR TEAM!  1

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