Cicle Classic

The X Men assembled in a car park in the middle of the English countryside to recon the infamous Cicle Classic. The UK’s only single day mens UCI event has 12 fearsome gravel sectors and so a recon was essential.

The recon went well with Oliver Mortensen, exclaiming, shortly after leaving our garden centre base, “wait, we actually race on these roads, why are they so narrow”. The X Men had a great recon where we managed to view almost all of the sectors and dial in our tyre pressures. Most of us elected for 32mm tyres with around 55 PSI or lower!

Race day itself was hot, seriously hot by normal UK standards with temperatures edging into the 20s. (70f) With the fight for positioning being fierce the X Men did well to go into the first sectors and narrow roads near the front.

Our positioning led to both George, Joe and Kristian being near the front coming into the final sectors and the final of the race. George and Kristian were both extremely active with George almost bridging to the front group before just getting caught. Kristian rode conservatively and had enough when the decisive attacks came and managed to get himself into a group of 7 riders chasing the break away with 10km to go. He finished a worthy 12th on the day with George just missing out on a top 20 as well. Joe was extremely strong throughout the race and finished in a larger group of riders just.

In a race where just finishing is often a riders goal to have 3 X Men finish with 2 at the front of the race is a great showing and one we can all be proud of.