I recorded this one because I keep getting the same question from riders in the Roadman community who have signed up for their first big event — a gran fondo, a sportive, whatever you want to call it — and they are bricking it about pacing. And I get it. You have done the training, you have put the hours in, and now you are terrified of blowing up at kilometre 80 with 40 still to go and nothing left in the tank. I have been there. I have crawled up a feed station hill on a 160 km sportive looking like a man who had been personally wronged by gravity.
The fix is not fitness. Most people who blow up in their first gran fondo are fit enough to finish comfortably. The problem is execution. They go out too hard because the legs feel brilliant, the group is rolling, and the adrenaline is pumping. Then they skip a couple of feeds because they feel fine. Then at the two-thirds mark it all falls apart — legs cramping, head gone, every pedal stroke a negotiation.
So in this episode I walk through a dead simple pacing framework: break the ride into thirds, ride the first one embarrassingly easy, eat and drink on a timer, and save your competitive brain for the final 30 percent of the route. I also cover how to use heart rate as your anchor on long climbs when power numbers start lying to you because of fatigue and heat.
Key Takeaways
- Start 10-15 watts below your target and resist the temptation to match the group in the first hour
- Break the route into thirds: settle, ride steady, then race
- Set a 20-minute repeating timer and fuel every single time it goes off — do not wait until you are hungry
- Use heart rate or RPE on climbs rather than chasing a power number that was realistic three hours ago
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