Summary

In this general-discussion episode, we unpack the 2025 World Champs Fondo edition of Amy's Gran Fondo in Lorne, Victoria—what the day felt like from the start corrals to the coastal finish. We cover the course flow (early climb, rolling mid-section, fast finale), the wild wind and sketchy descents, bunch dynamics, and how the event logistics stacked up this year.

Inside the episode:

• Event vibe & logistics: Registration, start grid, road closures, aid stations, neutral support, and crowd energy.

• Course & conditions: Key climbs, crosswinds/tailwinds along the coast, and how weather shaped the groups.

• Racing vs. riding: What decided the front, why some riders waited vs. chased, and takeaways for non-racers aiming for a PB.

• Safety & skills: Managing crosswinds and high-speed descents without burning matches.

• Fuel & kit notes: Practical nutrition/hydration for 3–4 hours, gearing, tyres/pressures, and wheel depth choices that made sense on the day.

• Lessons for next year: Pacing checkpoints, where to position before the first climb, and simple tweaks to turn fitness into a result.

Whether you were there, tracking friends, or planning your first Fondo, you'll get a grounded debrief plus actionable tips to make your next Amy's (or any Gran Fondo) smoother, faster, and more fun.

Hire a coach with the RCA: https://roadcyclingacademy.com/one-to-one-coaching/

Transcript:

Cam Nicholls (00:00.098) Welcome back to the RCA podcast where today I am joined by the head coach of the RCA, Ryan Thomas. And Ryan has just been at, or just been in Lorne, Victoria, Australia, which hosted the World Fondo Championships in conjunction with the Amy Gillett's ride. And for this podcast, seeing we're only a few days since that event has occurred, I just wanted to have a bit of a debrief with Ryan about the event. Because I know we coached a lot of people, Ryan, for the event. lot of people had some great results as well.

But you were there, you experienced it. I know a lot of people were following it on social media. So I thought, let's just do a bit of a podcast about the event. We're going to talk about your results specifically in the next podcast, because you actually only train for eight hours per week average for 12 weeks and finished fourth on the grass podium there. got on the podium, which is pretty amazing, given your training time. So we will talk about that in the next podcast. And then the podcast after that.

I wanted to talk about your pacing strategy as well for Fondo events. So I think you nailed that, particularly given your training time. But for this one, we're just going to have a bit of a waffle about Amy's in the experience. So let's start from the start. You flew in from Queensland and you get to the Melbourne airport. What happens next?

wait, waiting for a few of my mates. so it's the vibe of the vibe of the world champs was really cool because I actually went down last year and I went down just with one other, one other mate. and we did the event and it was, it was a good vibe and we were just hanging out and having fun, but went down with like five or six mates this time. So it was just a, yeah, just a good, called it the bros bro's trip. We just went down for a bro's trip and

rode her bikes on the Great Ocean Road and yeah, cruised around and then had bit of a race in there.

Cam Nicholls (01:51.052) Nice. you got down, so the event was on Sunday, you got down on Friday.

We got down on Wednesday, actually. the kind of schedule was spread out. So there was a time trial on the Thursday. There was a team relay on the Friday, which we can talk about. Saturday was a free day and then the race was on a Sunday. So we got down there because a couple of our, a couple of our mates are doing the time trial on the Thursday. So we wanted to get down Wednesday, run the course and then go and support them on the Thursday.

Yeah, okay. So you got down on Wednesday and you rode the whole course, did you?

No, just the time trial course. I was familiar with the course, but a few of the other guys wanted to be there to ride the climb a couple of times and just, just enjoy five days, five days away with the bros. Yeah.

So Thursday was the time trial. Did you see RCA member Alan Nelson in the 65 to 69 category take out the world title again?

Ryan Thomas (02:55.47) I saw that it happened. wasn't there in the moment. Unfortunately, I wish I was. wish I was in lawn to see it happen. It's a pretty regular occurrence for him. He's got six world titles, I think now. So he's very familiar with the process, but it was very cool to see that I had a, I had a chat with him after and broke down his power and saw what he did. And he looked like he did a really good performance because he was there for a week or two before just learning the course and really getting dialed in. So

who went all in

Are we allowed to talk about his power?

I think so, well yeah he... Yeah I think so, he...

think you'd be okay with it.

Cam Nicholls (03:35.694) I'll ask him before this podcast goes live and if he says no, we'll beep this out and if your people aren't hearing beeps, you know he said okay.

He just sent me a couple of screenshots of it and I looked at, I think I looked at his Strava pacing as well. But essentially the difference between his 10 and 20 minute power was quite significant for a 30 minute time trial. So that tells me that he went out quite hard and he said that he went out really hard. So his 10 minute power was 350 and his 20 minute power was 320 or 310.

That doesn't sound like Alan.

Ryan Thomas (04:13.486) So there was like a 30, 40 watt difference across with only 10 minutes difference. So that's, um, there was a couple of freewheeling decents in there cause there was a couple of technical corners, but there shouldn't have been that much of a difference between a 10 and 20 minute power for a 30 minute course. would, you would imagine. And not if I was going to, if I was going to pace it and set, set a power target for any athletes, would want those to be very similar. Um, but he was, he was by far the strongest on the day and won by.

30 seconds. So I think his strategy worked out well in the end.

Yeah, yeah, you can't really fault it when you walk away with the gold medal, can you? So

No, no, he's still critical of himself though. He's a racer so he's like, I went out too hard but yeah, that's all good.

So what was his 30, if it was a 30 minute time trial or what, do know what his 30 minute power was roughly? What was the?

Ryan Thomas (05:04.43) No, because he just showed me his peak powers. I didn't see his average average for the event I think he hides his power on Strava, which is controversial in itself

He's a typical cyclist, isn't he? Yeah, so he actually won, not only did he win his category, the 65 to 69, but he's also faster than the two age groups below him. I just, I love his story because it just gives you so much, it's inspirational. Like I'm mid forties and we get inquiries at the RCA often now. And this is not one word of an exaggeration.

Yeah.

Cam Nicholls (05:42.318) I'm just wondering if I'm, you know, like, okay to be coached because I'm over 40 now. like the, the theme of the, the, the inquiry is like, they're over the hill. And I'm like, I often linked to Alan and I said, have a look at this guy. He's like doing his best, best power numbers. He's training in Europe during, you know, uh, you know, our winter Europe summer, you know, he's, he's, he's super fit, super healthy. And you know, he's 65 turning 66. It's incredible.

Yeah. And that's kind of what the grand Fondo world is about, right? Like it's, it's everyone who in their own right can go and perform against people, their own age and just show, show that it doesn't really matter what, what sort of age you are. can go and perform and perform well.

Yeah, so time trial was on Thursday. What happened on Friday?

Friday was a team relay. So in your country and I'd prepared, you have to enter a team relay yourself. So it wasn't organized by the nations. was, or you had to find a team and enter a team yourself. So I saw it immediately and was like, this would be cool to do. Like it'd be cool to have an Australian team win or on the podium or whatever happens. But I found four really, really strong writers who I knew and there was

They have some rules around the team relay, which was kind of interesting. Tactically was you needed a male and female of any age. You needed a male or female over 40 and a male or female over 50. So you needed to comprise a team of, yeah, a couple of older people and a couple of young, strong, strong male and female essentially. So I was obviously going to race myself because I was super keen to be involved. found a, I found a, um,

Ryan Thomas (07:28.878) young female who was keen to race at a, at a over 40 who I knew from Brisbane who was going down and then Alan was my first choice over 50. Cause he's the new RCA and I knew it was a bit of a record. So he knew it was going to be down there. So yeah, it was really cool. we had very strange format. Yeah. What a strange format. Think about athletics four by 400 meter relay. So mass star relay. So

So what is the right?

Ryan Thomas (07:56.846) Everyone the first you have four four writers and you choose what order they want to go in. So I was the team manager. So I selected what order I think would be best based on what other people would do and finishing and starting. So 22 teams lined up altogether. The first writer was selected. You do three laps of a Criterium course in Geelong, which had a really fast downhill and then a bit of an uphill. So it was

had a bit of everything. So it was like six kilometers, just under six K each rider. So the first rider went off, did three laps. After three laps, they crossed the line. And then the second rider went, they did three laps. Third rider came across the line, third rider went, and then I was the final rider. And then you finish in the first, first team across the line was a winner.

Right, how'd you go?

Yeah, we went really well actually. so strategy wise, sent, I sent my 40 plus first, cause I knew he could handle himself in a group. So 22 riders had to go, had to be able to ride within a group and still go hard. So he finished, he was second or second or third across the line, which was really good. our young female was Salzy, from Brisbane and she did really well. First, she's very new to cycling and she performed well. She came across the line fourth, I think.

In the end with a couple of males in that age group in that wave as well So it was really good and then Brendan came across the line in I think he was he was fifth and sixth and then I was There was a group of three off the front when they when they tagged me So I came through and it was like ten seconds to the group of three off the front And in my mind, I was like, I just gotta go as hard as possible to catch him I want to catch them and the podiums gone. So yeah

Ryan Thomas (09:44.44) probably a bit of a rookie era from my part because there was another guy who's a pro veloracer who was off the same time as me and he started just behind me. And I basically went as hard as I could for 30 seconds to try to catch the front. Didn't quite catch

He was probably trying to catch you, so you were both caught. We should have worked together.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I had a look behind and he would have waited and wouldn't have done 700 watts of the first 30 seconds. Probably would have had a bit bit extra energy left in the tank. But we ended up catching we got together after three quarters of a lap caught the front three a lap and a half in so we had a lap and a half to go. Bit of tactical sales five of us five of us off the front. But I have to go and also I was like, well, I'm racing for the win here. I was

cook by that point because we've gone so hard to catch but got to the lap and a half to go and the Polish team had won the year before this guy was an absolute weapon. He attacked us and I had nothing to go and he just rode away from us from a lap and a half and he ended up winning and then there's three Aussie teams left for second and third and fourth. So we came into the last corner was like an uphill sprint. We came into the corner third or fourth on the road. I was like, I'm just

That's the podium is just there. can't, can't let it go. So I ended up crossing the line in third. we're in the team really, which is cool. Yeah. So we've got a medal. Nice. Nice to get a medal from, that.

Cam Nicholls (11:08.553) that. That's great.

Cam Nicholls (11:14.434) Yeah. And then what happened on the Saturday?

Saturday was a rest day or activation day, collecting number days. So nice chill. Just went, yeah, went for a nice ride around lawn. a couple of members on the climb doing activations and got together and made sure collect numbers and had a coffee and sat down and relax for the rest of the day. You're getting ready for Sunday.

So before the event, long would you ride? Like, so how long did you ride for on Saturday as you kind of pre-warm up? Even though you'd obviously had a bit of a crack on, you'd almost done more than an activation on Friday, it sounds. How long did you ride for on before the event?

Yeah. So it was a bit different from what I actually set members to do because they didn't do an all out effort for seven minutes on Friday. Um, but I, was like 17 kilometers into the main climb into lawn for us. Cause we were staying a bit out. So we just cruised in, went up the climb, came back. It was like a two hour nice, easy ride. did one effort, one effort in there just to keep the legs firing. Yep. Um, but a little bit different normally for what I would set, but I was pretty.

I'm just, was there to have a bit of fun and wanted to ride in the lawn and just nice two hour cruise was good.

Cam Nicholls (12:30.018) Yeah, nice. did the, you know, you're there with the boys and you're there for a few days before Sunday, like, you know, there's a lot of nice pubs in Lawn. Did you pop in and have a couple of cheeky beers somewhere or you were good?

what did we on, on Wednesday, we had a beer when we got there. went to, went to dinner and had a beer and had a, only one beer. yes. But I was, it was just cause we were there for short amount of time. I wasn't opposed to having two or three. but now after that, we were pretty, pretty serious because Thursday was busy with the time trial. And then we had the, I had a beer on Friday after the, after the team relay on the way back, actually. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

That's well deserved, though, Sam.

Okay.

Long's a beautiful city.

Cam Nicholls (13:16.312) So talk me through Sunday and just the atmosphere and people. And because I know, you know, we do, we've got a newsletter we send out every Friday called the Friday training trend. If you're listening and you're not on that email, just go to our website and you can subscribe on the homepage to that newsletter. But you were so, I could tell from the way you wrote that newsletter that you were so excited about being there. And obviously, you know, you've,

done a lot of cycling over the years. You've ridden at an elite level in Australia. You've ridden at a continental level overseas. You've done a lot of events. I could just tell the excitement. It's hard when somebody's been riding for that amount of time. It's hard to get the dopamine going because you've kind of been there, done it all before and probably multiple times. But I could tell just by reading your newsletter, your dopamine was firing, Ryan. talk me through why that was.

Yeah, it was a bit of just like hanging out with the boys and everyone was super keen. We were just having a good time. But the atmosphere whenever you're whenever you're riding around, there was like hundreds of cyclists just riding around like it's just cool to see a lots of cyclists getting around and like you get to hang around the TT and then the team really honestly, like my mates like came in and watched and they came out of the team really like absolutely pumping like probably more than me and I was in the podium like

And a couple of my, who I was on the, on the podium with like, were absolutely cheering, like the vibes really high and just the atmosphere around that really that kickstarted it from, from Friday. And that's kind of when I wrote, I was writing the training trend, preparing for that. Like it was, it was not the atmosphere was awesome. but then when he got there on Sunday, like when you're looking at the start list and there's 200 people for each, each age group and you got the Amy's and Gillett.

actual normal Fondo. They've got 2000 people. So you like you prepared for 4000 people just to be there. And you rock up on the day and there's just bikes everywhere. It's just cool. Like I, you go to an event I was did Amy's last year and it was a bit, it was kind of similar. Like Amy's is always a really cool event. but this was like on a double the scale. So it was just cool seeing all the different nations there and you hear all the foreign languages and you know that everyone's serious like

Ryan Thomas (15:40.558) everyone's locked in. No one's going there just to, to, just to get around like in the world, the world champs. So everyone's there really serious. And yeah, I liked that. I liked that sort of racing atmosphere. And I wasn't really nervous at all, to be honest. I was just kind of just enjoying it and got there and knew that I'd done bigger races before. So I was just like, Oh, just go and enjoy it, have, have some fun and to soak, soak up the atmosphere.

So just confirming, think you might have just said it wrong incorrectly. You said there were 200 in your age group, mean 2000?

200 in my age group 200 in in each age group. So was 2000 in total for Yes, yeah, so I think the biggest age group I did it I ran it through Ran it through the biggest age group was the 50 to 54 and I think they had 213 right

Okay, I get it. I get it.

Ryan Thomas (16:43.188) And it's pretty, quite a few.

There was a photo that you shared at the start and it looked like there was a lot of people and you were a fair way back. Just talk us through that one.

Yeah. So how, how it works is a, it's just a pen. So you can line up whenever you want. Like it's, there's no, there's no, or there's priority for people who have podiumed in your qualifying event. So if you finished top three and you're qualifying event, there was a separate pen that you got access to, and you didn't have to line up half an hour before to get a good spot.

That sounds like a good pen to be in.

It's worth it's worth, especially for this course, because the climb starts after one kilometer. So you don't have much time, but yeah, we got, got there with like 25 minutes before start time, I think. And there was 150 people lined up in front of me. So I was at the very back of the pen. And I was, I was like, at that point, I was like, well, it's going to be this first comment is going to be quite difficult. I was like,

Ryan Thomas (17:45.014) As soon as I got there, that's my first thought. And then my second thought was, can't do anything about it now. I'll just do the best you can to get as far up again on before the climb and just go with it.

How did they let the age groups go? Was there a significant portion of time or did you end up writing with everyone?

five minutes between each age group. And then they bulked together a couple of the women's age groups were together and then over 60s were a couple two age groups were together each. So it was quite a different tactical talking to a lot of our members and one of our female members who was, yeah, it's a good shot for a good result when she ended up getting a really good result. There was a bit of tactics in play because the age groups behind were catching so like they're

Okay.

Ryan Thomas (18:32.93) Dragon riders cross and then male age groups are catching the female age group. So you got to like female age groups getting in and getting the draft and getting turned back to groups. It was my age group was very straightforward because we were the first age group off. we didn't have anyone in front of us. So it's quite, it's quite straightforward. But for the any, anyone in the older age groups, there was a lot of play between ages.

Yeah, I was going to say that first climb would have been for one of a better term, shitshow, because five minutes, you know, sounds like a lot, but when you're going straight into a climb, I would assume that all of a sudden you've got a lot of age groups together. So there's no regulation, you know, like you can't jump on another group, you're able to

There is in the rule book there is, but I don't think they're following around 2000 people and checking the number of colors to see if they're rolling with other age groups. So there's certainly a lot of collaboration going on out there, but I don't think it had too much influence on the results.

Yeah, okay. So tell me about just the first climb for you. I know we're to do a video about how you paste it and how you paste fondos specifically, video I should say podcast, in the next couple of weeks. But just give us the high level. What did it look like? Was it like deep into the red straight away? Or were you like, okay, this isn't too bad. Or these people are tacking left, right and center. Like, how did it go?

It was so, cause I started so far back, my like, I, to be honest, wasn't thinking too far about the climb. was like the first kilometer I just needed to get as far out of the group as I could. Um, so I just was slicing through the peloton. think I ended up, I went from 150th to 50th in 800 meters or whatever it is before, before the base of the climb. Um, and then the

Cam Nicholls (20:18.615) mode.

Ryan Thomas (20:30.38) The weather played a big part in how that first climb was raced for us. cause it was really fast climb. It 30 K an hour average, but it was a block head wind up the climb. So it was so easy sitting in the wheel. Like the first kilometer just for me to get to of the climb to get to into the top 20 wheels was hardish. But after that, it was like, I was, I rode tempo for the rest of the climbers. was actually really easy.

Some people may not want to hear that because their races may be very different, but we had a big group of 50 riders and I was just sitting 30th wheel the whole way up the climb and just in the draft getting a tow at 30k an hour. So it was quite easy for our group. And there was a lot of people attacking, but from my perspective, it wasn't worth spending an extra hundred watts to get 30 seconds up the road for 20 minutes.

Yeah, absolutely. So you got to the top of your the climb with your age group with how many people in the same group?

I think there was around 50 or 60 in our group. didn't, I didn't look, I actually didn't go to the back of the group or I didn't look to behind too much, but it was a big group. There was a group of, there was a group of three off the front and then a group of four in the middle. But I think there are only 45 seconds ahead max at any time. Yep.

Good. Well, we'll go into more detail on that in future podcasts, but you get to the end. know, what's it like at the end? Is it, I know you might've been like happy and frustrated with your result at the same time. And I think there was a few RCA members you said over our WhatsApp chat that a lot of grass podiums, which is something to be really like, you know, proud of because, you you're coming up against really top level competition, but it's also like, you're so close to stepping on a proper podium.

Ryan Thomas (22:21.23) Yeah, it was very bittersweet when I crossed the line because, uh, yeah, we'll talk about a bit of the race dynamic and how actually the race actually played out. But yeah, I was, I was a bit bittersweet for, I was, was happy with fourth. If you had told me the day before I was going to finish in fourth, I would be stoked. Um, so I'll, I'll take that and similar with other other members. know it's in the moment, fourth is a really hard position to position to get, but it's still, yeah, it's a world championships, grand Fondo world championships, but still.

still good to get. Any race is hard to get a good result in. So I was happy looking back on

Yeah, I think I, you know, not only did we have a lot of force in the RCA community when I switched on social media later that evening, I think Chris Miller, who I follow, for those people who don't know, he's got his, quite a well-known podcast on YouTube called The Nero Show. He's a very strong writer as well, my age group. He finished force. I got a little bit triggered by his post actually, because he said, I did it all for nothing, or there's something wrong with terms of nothing. And I'm like, man.

And

Cam Nicholls (23:27.21) I would be happy about finishing fourth at a World Fundo Championships. Don't call that nothing, but he's obviously a very competitive guy, so I get it. There's a guy called Fresh Crits from Melbourne who's got a YouTube channel who knows a lot of content on Glenvale and St. Kilda Criterium scene. He finished fourth. I'm like, who actually finished on the podiums? was like, everyone's just finished fourth.

So, and what was the vibe like afterwards? Was there a village or did you go, you launched your bike off a pier and go straight to the pub like to tell us what happened?

And so because we're the first first to finish so like there's no other writers around the way finishes quite empty for 10 20 30 minutes until big bigger groups started coming in but after half an hour there's just bikes everywhere and there's people everywhere and villages pumping and those beers in the village and everyone was debriefing like that are the post post race or post event chat is always one of the funnest because you hear all the different stories about

all the different groups and all different age groups and your mates come in and I really like that chat just debriefing what happened and even in your own group like it's it's a completely different experience from one person to the other. So I had three three mates who finished with me who were down staying with staying in the same in the same accommodation. And so we all had three quite different experiences finishing in the same group. So yeah, that that's always fun. And then we are yeah, we got under the beers as soon as we could.

Nice. Yeah, I love that polar opposite kind of mindset from start line to finish line. When you're at the start line, you're like, why am I doing this? This is a logistical nightmare. have to travel here, this training, had to sacrifice my family time. Why am I doing this? And then you get to the finish and everyone's talking, I can't wait to do it next year. That was amazing. I loved it.

Ryan Thomas (25:25.1) Yeah. All those, the other side of the spectrum, the people are absolutely empty, just laying on the ground. Like, why do I do this to myself? I'm sorry. caught. But then they're to a beer in them and then they come back like, yeah, let's go. Let's do it again.

Exactly. Well, those people are going to say, probably just haven't had a gel or a card mix or something like that for three hours. That's why they're on the ground.

Yep,

Cool, well, thanks for sharing the experiences of the Worlds. It was great to watch it all unfold online and on our WhatsApp group. And a lot of our members had some really, really great results, even though a lot of grass podiums, but that's something to be very proud of. Before we wrap up, was there anything else that you wanted to bring in there, Ryan?

I was just really, really stoked with the event. The organizers O2 events. were unreal. One of the, one of the best organized events of, of, being too, to be honest, it was, it was really good. Even with the big amount of people there, it was, yeah, just an awesome vibe. Awesome to see so many cyclists about and Aussies, Aussies getting around a home world championships. was, it was really fun. Yeah.

Cam Nicholls (26:37.55) Good. All right, well, thanks for listening, everyone. If you're interested in preparing for maybe Amy's next year, or you've got a Fondo coming up on the other side of the world and you want some support with it, don't forget at the RCA, what we do is we help people improve their road cycling through coaching. So make sure you go to our website, www.roadcyclingacademy.com and you can hire a coach there and get started. We'll catch you in the next podcast.