Midweek Circuit
Out in the countryside and away from almost all traffic, the “Midweek Circuit” is characterized by rolling hills (the maximum gradient is about 12%), which can create lots of fatigue in the longer races that we do here. If there is any wind at all, you will feel it somewhere at Midweek, so knowing when to shelter in the peloton and when to break free and ride solo is very important.
We do most of our road races on this circuit. You have to be watchful for attacks and try to follow them. If you are trying to break away from a group, go hard off the top of a hill when everyone else is struggling to follow. And if you want to stay in front, then this is a course where you need to try to preserve speed in the technical turns. We’ve marked two of them in red in the graphic below. These corners should be taken with care if you are not familiar with the circuit. It’s always worth doing a “sighting” lap before a race so you can see if there are stones or excess dust on these turns.
21st Street
Another countryside course, just a few kms from Midweek circuit. Our time trial races here start on the flat wide roads near Ammariah Mosque. The first few kilometres feel easy, until you turn the corner and notice all the hills swallowing you up and you see the big climb in front of you. As you are pushing up, you long for the road to flatten out but it never really does. You are climbing all the way to the end. If the wind is blowing down the hill, you are in for a tough session on the bike.
We do two different lengths of race here. One is 5.5kms long and you don’t see the finish until you are just 300m away from it. But as you are climbing the hill you can see electricity cables suspended over the road and you can encourage yourself that these are after the finish line and you can give 100% effort to reach the line in your best time!
The other race distance is 12.5kms. After you go under the electricity cables, your mind tells you that you can recover, that the road is flat. You have to put the desire for comfort to one side and press on because you are not even half way and the road never stops climbing.
Bonita Village
There is a double layer of road (main road and branch road) that goes all the way around the Bonita Village compound to the north of Riyadh. It’s a great place to ride hard (even with your head down on a time trial bike) and not to have to worry about other traffic. The course is very flat which makes for really interesting, tactical road races. But it also means that if there is any wind, you are going to feel it somewhere pushing for you and against you. You need to ride smart at Bonita! On a practical note, we don’t go inside the compound itself but park outside , about 200-300 metres to the West of the main entrance (just in case you arrive and can’t see anybody there!).
Ranco Farm
Ranco is like two completely different races. Fast and flat, then bendy and hilly. For those people with the luxury of choice between a time trial bike and a road race bike, it’s a tough decision which to use. It’s probably the most technical course we use because of the downhill bends. The secret to going fast at Ranco is frequent gear changes so you can adapt your cadence to the constantly varying gradients.
