Last Saturday I took part in the Schleck Gran Fondo race in Luxembourg. I felt like I have very good legs, but was acutely aware that this race is the only UCI Granfondo World Championships qualifier event for the most actively ridden part of the world - Benelux including nearby northern France and North-West Germany.

The 162 km race with more than 2000 climbing meters was fast and fantastic. For being held the first time, it was very well organized, on the great Luxembourg roads, running through the Mosel vineyards and the area called Little Switzerland (every country seems to have a little Switzerland ;).

The route was chosen by Frank Schleck himself and apparently was inspired by his favorite training rides.

I hope this is not the last time this race was held. This part of Europe more then deserves to have it’s own UCI GF event.

Eventually I did not qualify from my M35 group. I came about 20 min short of the needed time. Even taking into account the dropped chain mishap at 30 km after the start I doubt I would find the legs to match my more talented opponents.

Prettifying race results

I might lack in athletic talent, but I feel no shortage in skills when it comes to being a nerd.

Timing of the race was tracked by ChronoRace. They also publish the final results in the table format, which is good for checking your personal time, but give absolutely no overview how you stack against the other riders.

With a help of python scripting I did parse the table from the ChronoRace website and cooked up a graphical representation of the race results.

I did focus on distribution of the finish time for all riders together and for riders within their age groups respectively.

Per age group I’ve indicated the required average speed to qualify, while on the general plot I’ve shown the average speed of riders from the CTWT.NL team, with whom I had pleasure to ride, when I was living in the Netherlands.

Schleck Gran Fondo results

What would it take to qualify?

It is interesting to note, that despite popular believe the fastest age groups are not M35 and M40. The M19 during this race was clearly setting the pace with average speed of 36.9 kph for riders that make top 25% cut.

The M40 group is slightly faster than the M35 with whooping 36.2 kph. My theory is that by the age of 40 children have grown up and it is easier to find training time ;)

For the rest no surprises and speed drops with age, but note that M65 can deliver average above 30.0 kph. Chapeau!

Overall the pack broke into smaller groups of 20-30 riders. In the hindsight I must admit that crunching through the fast start is a paramount for success in such races. If the group rides away from you there is no chance to catch them again, unless good collaboration can be established with other riders, but I did not have luck to witness one.

Now back to training - there is plenty of work to do.