My Sub-3 Argus - Part 1 - Assembling the pieces of the puzzle
Its March and time for the BIG one - The Argus Cycle Tour . Since going for an Argus victory is the exclusive domain of the pro-cyclists, most casual cyclists target a specific time, a Sub-5, a Sub-4, Sub 3h30 etc. Cycling magazines devote pages of advice on how to obtain that elusive "Sub-x" time. The big target for amateur cyclists however is the "Sub-3", it's the amateur cyclist equivalent of running the 4-minute mile, not quite impossible but very hard to pull off and instant "street-cred" in cycling conversations to those who manage it. To put it in perspective, in 2013 & 2014 the winning times was about 2h40, meaning that you had to finish within 20 minutes of the leading riders and within the first 500 positions out of the 35,000 entrants. The deciding factor in achieving a Sub-3 Argus is your seeding, in 2013 only a B seeding or better would do, in 2012 & 2014 a few riders in group C also made it but virtually nobody below those