The Fix is delighted to talk to our new hero, Giuliano Ricciardi, who is, as far as we know the only person to use his steel-framed, urban, single speed to ride an Ironman Triathlon.
Giuliano, firstly congratulations on this great achievement, we are so pleased you got in touch to tell us about it. An Ironman is a pretty serious undertaking for anyone, had you done events like this before?
Never! This was certainly the biggest physical challenge I had done up to that point; I hadn’t even done a half marathon until then. I just felt like it was time for a big challenge, and what better way to really pile on the difficulty then by doing it on a single speed.
The Fix: Some of the Quella team have raced Triathlon but none of us have ever got to Ironman level and, even us Quella lovers have always used a geared road bike. Those Ironman athletes are very serious about their sport and they love their fancy kit with most people riding specialist carbon fibre, time-trial bikes costing thousand of pounds. What kind of reaction did you get when people saw you riding a steel frame bike with no gears that cost less than £500?
The Fix: I am really interested in all three aspects of the event but you can imagine the cycling part is fascinating to us. Did you do all your training on the Quella and what kind of training do you need to do to prep for an Ironman?
The training really consists of getting through each discipline at least once each week. Runs are easy in London as you can easily access parks and the riverside, but open water swimming was a tad more challenging – I had to travel quite a bit to access reservoirs larger enough to get some good distance in. The bike portion was done fully on the Quella and to prepare myself for the hills, it often entailed rides around Richmond park or up Box Hill to really push those legs! During rainy days I would use an indoor stationary road bike, keeping it on a single level of resistance to simulate the fixed gear, I highly recommend this for anyone training on a single speed when the weather is bad and does not allow for outdoor riding.
The Fix: New customers often ask us what it is like to ride a Quella single speed up hills. I know the Staffordshire course had 3245 feet of climbing in the 90 kilometre course and is ranked by Ironman as a ‘hilly course’. I have looked at the stats and it looks pretty horrific on any kind of bike, how did you handle all the hills on a single speed? Is there a particular technique that you used?
Honestly it was just about pushing through and using your muscles as much as you can. You obviously want to train for endurance because if you’re tired halfway up a hill, there is no easier gear you can switch to. I think the gear on my Quella was heavy enough to help me gain momentum downhill, but not too hard that I slowed down to a walk on the uphill portions. I often found myself riding upright to really get the power through. One thing that helped immensely was absolutely pacing it on the downhills so that when you got to the uphill portion right after, the speed you carry you part of the way up and you could rest your legs a bit.
The Fix: So, when you have finished a 1.9km open water swim, cycled 90 kilometres of almost non-stop hills, you just have to run a cheeky half marathon before you get to have a hot shower and a cold beer. How was that?
I certainly underestimated the intensity of the challenge and remember feeling absolutely defeated at the thought of running a half marathon as I brought my bike into T2. Regardless, I had no choice but to power through and the run portion was actually very nice (albeit hilly as well) with all my supporters around to help and other athletes struggling alongside you. That cold beer as the end was the best I’ve ever had!
The Fix: Amazing work, thanks so much for talking us through it. I believe you are completely unique in completing a 70.3 Ironman on a Quella single speed and we salute you!! Please keep us posted on future events you mad man. We are very pleased to present you with one of our ‘No Gears, No Problems’ Quella Team Rider shirts – you certainly deserve it and proved the Ironman mantra – ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE.
If any of our other readers have completed unusual challenges on their Quella like Giuliano, please get in touch, we would love to hear all about it.
