Riccos Florentiades is developing into yet another epic sport-thrills seeker! One week after finishing the OympusMan extreme triathlon he challenged himself with the inaugural Lefkara Classic!

Lefkara Classic is a new non-competitive endurance cycling event that was held on Sunday, November 8th. Organised as a randonnée, and with the same principle as the Brevets, the participants had to complete the 150km|+3800m designated route, passing through all 4 checkpoints along the way within the given time limits.

Tatiana Yakusheva had a chat with Riccos to see his take on the event:

Lefkara classic!

A 150 kilometres Cycling race with a staggering 3,800 meters of total ascend through Cyprus beautiful mountain peaks (just for reference, Troodos max height is 1850m). 

The name definitely does not give it justice nor it prepares you for what you are about to experience if you dont know exactly what your getting your self into.

Like in my instance, 2 days before the event, while I was drinking coffee at my local sport cafe, a group of friends suggested it, since I participated in the Olympusman (an extreme triathlon race) this should also be a nice challenge. I simply asked them if we get a medal at the end and they said of course and a t-shirt.

"Sign me up" i replied.

And there I was, waking up at 04:30 Sunday morning to get my self (and my roadbike) to Lefkara village for the 06:30 start-up.

And what a day it was! Cyprus in all its might and glory, from heavy winds to sporadic showers and wet/slippery roads, from sunny to cloudy, from beautiful scenery to majestic mountain sunrises our race had it all: From a high speed front tyre puncture (so violent my Garmin watch activated the emergency phone-call and I had to cancel it), to a missing checkpoint and racing back to grab the needed stamp in order to succesfully complete the challenge, "Lefkara classic" was definitely a tough yet exceptional adventure and its right-up there amongst the most difficult events I have ever been part of.

A Big shout out to the event organisers, support teams and sponsors who made this race possible!!