Huge International field at the UCI Gran Fondo Casablanca

Despite the late course changes, the inaugural edition of the UCI GranFondo Casablanca along the coastline was successful, and the organizers performed an amazing job with last-minute changes

All the races had to be moved to Dar Bouazza, 20km south of the city in the same kind of setting as initially planned, with a 25km time trial on the Friday and a 58/116km road race on the Sunday. Riders from 27 different nationalities signed up for one or both disciplines.

The time trial took place over 4 laps of 6.25km course with 50 riders taking part. Overall fastest was British Benedict Disley in a time of 35:57, 10 seconds ahead of Belgian Maxim Pirard while Australian Jamie Anderson took third spot in 37:04. All three also won their respective age groups. The average speed of the winner was 41.7 km/h. Former World Champion Jessica Rhodes-Jones (GBR) was the fastest female in a time of 38:46 (38.7 km/h) beating Swedish Karolina Reinhold (41:23) and Helen Lambard (43:39).

The Gran Fondo on the Sunday had sundulating roads that were never very steep. Females over 50 and males over 60 had one lap of 58km as official qualifier distance while all youngsters rode their qualification over two laps on the same course.

Overall fastest was reigning World Champion Maxim Pirard (BEL) who attacked after 4km in a 4-men break to finally go solo after 30km. He won 4 minutes ahead of his 3 companions in the break with Kacper Kistowski (POL), Jamie Anderson (AUS) and former World Champion Patrick Cocquyt (BEL).

French lady Dubau-Prevot was the fastest female in the long course. She beat Polish lady Agnieszka Spica in the sprint while Karolina Reinhold took third place.

The short course was won across all categories by Andrej Zavbi (SLO) and Helen Lambard (GBR).

Link to official results: http://results.microplustiming.com/ucicasablanca/index_web.php