April 2011

Tags: Gran Corsa

AIM: To raise as much money for The Prostate Cancer Charity as possible.
HOW: Participating in the 1st week of the Gran Corsa d'Italia ride starting 29th May, riding the first 6 stages of the Giro in a row.
WHO: Neil Manning, Condor Production Director.

Last year my father was rushed to hospital after collapsing from a bad reaction to medication. Whilst at the hospital he was thoroughly checked over and prostate cancer was detected. He was lucky as it was spotted whilst still treatable, but only just. We have a bit of history with the ‘C' word in our family with 4 aunts/uncles passing away with various forms of the disease in the past decade. Now for my dad to have cancer we feared we knew what came next.

Over the next few weeks we learned a lot about the Prostate and the cancer that can affect it. It is surprising how common it is. Over 10,000 men die from prostate cancer in the UK every year and approximately 25% of all cancers diagnosed are for prostate cancer.

When I heard the guys from Sharp were going to follow the route of the 2011 Giro d'Italia to raise money for The Prostate Cancer Charity I had to get involved.

We usually have a hectic summer at Condor so I opted to join the Gran Corsa during the first week. This will be the first 6 stages starting in Turin and will be covering approximately 1,100km.

Training started back in March after a winter of sporadic riding due to the cold weather and foreign trips. Prototypes are always a great incentive to get back out on the bike so I have been working my way through a succession of ideas.

A bit of thought will have to go into the equipment needed for the ride. I am currently favouring steel over carbon, with long days in the saddle comfort is going to be an important factor and I will update with my final choices closer to the ride.

In the meantime please follow the link to my sponsorship page and help me surpass the £500 target that has been set.

Find out more about the Gran Corsa and how you can win a special edition Condor Acciaio here.

'Tourer' Cleats cycling shoes (HD) from Quoc Pham on Vimeo.

The new Tourer shoe is now in stock at Condor. Black and tan available, sizes 41,42,43,44,45,46,47.

The Gran Corsa d'Italia exhibition opens today at the Frameless Gallery.

Comprising of large-scale, mixed media canvases, these new works focus on ten aspects of Italian culture, using the famous Giro d'Italia cycling road race as its fulcrum.

Author of the widely acclaimed Maglia Rosa, Herbie Sykes, will be signing books at the Frameless Gallery, Clerkenwell, as part of the exhibition on Wednesday 27th April 2011 from 5.30pm - 6.30pm.

Joining Herbie Sykes will be Giro d'Italia racing legend Italo Ziliolo.

The work has been presented in association with Prostate Cancer Charity and Sharp Electronics. The exhibition will be donating a percentage of sales to the Prostate Cancer Charity and the Japan Earthquake fund. Prostate Cancer and Sharp are offering a unique opportunity to ride the whole Giro d'Itala fully supported. For more info visit this link.

Tesco Rutland-Melton CiCLE Classic 2011 from Andy Waterman on Vimeo.

A short video following the Rapha Condor Sharp team during the Tesco Rutland CiCLE Classic, a UK race with all the hallmarks of the classic European event. The CiCLE classic runs at the tail end of the classics and is part of the UCI Europe Tour calendar.

The route of 105 miles mixes tarmac, tough climbs and dusty dirt road sectors.

Congratulations to Zak Dempster and Rapha Condor Sharp who took the win.

Read the race report and see pictures by following the link.

Condor Cycles will be closed during Easter and the Royal Wedding weekend. We are off to ride our bicycles and eat consume chocolate eggs.

You can find our regular store opening hours on the Contact Us page.

Monday 18th April - 9am - 6pm
Tuesday 19th April - 9am - 6pm
Wednesday 20th April - 9am - 7.30pm
Thursday 21st April - 9am - 6pm
Friday 22nd April - Good Friday - CLOSED
Saturday 23rd April - 10am - 5pm
Sunday 24th April - CLOSED

Monday 25th April - CLOSED
Tuesday 26th April - 9am - 6pm
Wednesday 27th April - 9am - 7.30pm
Thursday 28th April - 9am - 6pm
Friday 29th April , Royal Wedding - CLOSED
Saturday 30th April - 10am - 5pm
Sunday 1st May - CLOSED

Monday 2nd May - CLOSED

Think Flanders and then think make it harder: that's Ronde van Oost Lancashire, a ride that was born out of one man's frustration about not being able to ride the classic Flanders sportive one year, so he made his own version of it.

On Saturday, 3rd April, somewhere between 60 and 70 hardened northeners gathered for the start of Alan Dorrington's Ronde van Oost Lancashire (RVOL). With rain forecast the ride had all the hallmarks of a classic Belgian ride.

I set off in a group with Al himself, Dave Haygarth and one or two more familiar cyclo-cross faces. Almost immediately we were climbing with Dave, setting a high tempo up at the front. That was the order of the day. 50 tough miles ensued with cobbled wall after wall in our path. The pass across the top of the Pennine Way greeted us with stunning views across the countryside, followed by a descent into Hebden Bridge so steep that it hurts your neck to look up!

What goes down must come up, and the cobbled ascent out of Hebden was so severe that riders were literally sprawled all over the stones, struggling to get up it.

In the final few miles there was no let up and the scenery evolved from luscious green countryside to urban backstreets, harking back to the developing industrial era of the nineteen hundreds. Ultra-steep cobbles ensued and we were done; smoked! 1700m climbing in 50miles over three and a half hours.

The final preparation from our ride next weekend in Hell. Ta, Ben.

Thank you to @crossjunkie or Alan Dorrington (his blog is here) for organising a tough, well thought out route (for free), and thank you to the those who manned the free cake stand. You can read a full write up with more images in next month's Cycling Active magazine.

Garmin Data can be found at http://connect.garmin.com/activity/77150365.