Zappi’s Gran Fondo – Sunday August 31

Zappi’s Gran Fondo returns for its third edition on Sunday August 31, offering 185km and 100km routes starting and finishing in Long Hanborough, Oxfordshire.

The event is named after Flavio Zappi, a former professional cyclist who ride the Giro d’Italia twice in 1980s. The sportive promises fully signed routes with feed stations, electronic timing, mobile mechanical support, and gold, silver and bronze timing standards.

The 185km ‘gran fondo’ course will provide a stern test of late-summer form on a rolling route which heads into the Cotswolds, before the first significant test, Lady Elizabeth Hill (1.6km at an average gradient of six per cent) before the main climb of the day, Fish Hill, which rises for 2.4km at an average pitch of nearly eight per cent – and with sections touching 16 per cent.

Date: Sunday August 31
Routes: 185km, 100km
Entry fee: £23 online, £33 on the day
Website: Zappi’s Gran Fondo