Le Petit Grand Prix - Sportive Preperation

Well, I have signed up for my first sportive - Le Petit Grand Prix in Lincoln. It is the 'baby sister' of the Lincoln Grand Prix sportive held the day before the Univeristy of Lincoln Grand Prix in May each year. (Won this year by Sky rider Peter Kennaugh.)

Le Petit Grand Prix is 110 miles (176km) across the Lincolnshire Wolds and it include 5x Cat4 climbs. After my recent trip to the Isle of Wight I feel I am hopefully well equipped to tackle these hills. They shouldn't be too tough - they are Cat4 after all - but they do come fairly late on in the day. At 50km, 65km, 104km, 112km & 131km. With the first and last being the hardest of the 5. None of them are over 3% in average gradient though and the longest is just 2.78km long I'm confident they won't pose too much trouble for me.

I'm looking forward to this event - my first mass cycling event that isn't part of a triathlon. I have stepped up my training recently on my new bike, to be doing some interval stuff as well as longer rides - with the aim of my rides to be a bit more focused, rather than my usual style of a casual ride.

I'm also going to get the Bianchi on the turbo as much as I can to work on some top end power and keep the legs ticking over when it's not possible to get out on the bike for various reasons.

The event is just under 3 weeks away and in that time I plan to cycle to Skegness and back with a group of friends (100 miles/160km in one day with a break in the middle), and complete either the short or medium version of the course.

Realistically my first target for this event is to finish (!) and my second would be to come in under 7 hours. (Average about 15.7mph) Hopefully with a biggish group and/or adrenaline etc I should be okay.

Although 3 weeks isn't the longest time to get ready for an event like this I'm sure that I will be okay if I stick to my training plan (hill repeats tonight...yay.../sarcasm) and my base fitness is up a bit from when I came back from honeymoon.

Will update after Skegness ride next week with an update on training.