Transfargarasan Challenge & Sibiu Cycling Tour Stage 2
by Callum Robinson & Robert Thorpe
Two things happened yesterday near Sibiu, cycling wise. First of all, the Transfagarasan Challenge took place, with over 500 lucky riders making their way to the top of this iconic road at varying paces. The leaders of this new event beat the challenge in just over an hour or so, with others coming in for some time.
Voom rider and new Pedalnorth sports physio blogger, Christie Byrne came in an amazing second place, with whoops from the rest of the Voom team as she stood on the podium. It really was an epic event, with high temperatures testing the resolve of the cyclists. Beau finished very close to the winner too, and looked in great form powered by Voom hydration and Pocket Rockets.
Robert, had set his own goal of simply pedalling none stop to the top, and with his bottles filled with Voom Hydration and with good ride nutrition management of the Voom Electro Energy Pocket Rocket, he finished within 3 hours and says he’s still not aching too much! Sounds like the electro energy and hydration did its trick on our very own mamil!
Once the riders from the Transfagarasan Challenge were all safely home, it was time to watch the pro riders, who’d already tackled long miles and rain before reaching the lower forest roads of the climb. The peloton stayed together reasonably well until they reached the plateau area, where riders started to make their moves.
This image courtesy Transfargarasan Challenge
As they fought their way through the multitude of snaking bends it was Bora Hansgrohe and Giovanni Aleotti who took the honours in the epic sprint around the final climbing bend, just holding off Harm Vanhoucke from Lotto Soudal.
The final days racing sees a mountain time trial, followed by a stage which concludes in Piata Mare, in the heart of historic Sibiu. We can’t wait 🙂