The 2024 edition of Gran Fondo Cyprus saw some happy faces at the start of the three days of racing with a very international field of 400 riders representing 40 countries.
The time trial on Friday on the traditional 28km course with a back-and-forth loop was for Aidar Zakarin in a time of 36m10, beating Evgenii Tikhonin and Kirill Kolenchits (GREN) by 8 seconds and 1 minute 52 seconds. Laura Tibitanzl (GER) was the fastest female in 42m04 before Naomi De Pennington (UK) at 4 seconds with Diana Egerton-Warburton (ISR) in third at 4 minutes 48 seconds.
The next day, the queen stage brought all riders up to an elevation of 860m above the sea to finish back near the coastline for a total elevation of 1820m and 102km. Aidar Zakarin beated Evgenii Tikhonin and Dmitrii Puzanov within the same time gap being 2 minutes and 55 seconds. In the female race, Laura Tibitanzl (GER) confirmed her lead by winning with almost 5 minutes ahead of Meredith Byrne (SUI) with Martyna Wisnieska (POL) in third at 20 minutes.
On the final day, the stage was shorter with its 59km but with almost the same elevation as the day before. Evgenii Tikhonin was the fastest man on the last day in 1 hour 20 minutes closely before Dmitrii Puzanov and Illnur Zakarin by 4 and 15 seconds. Only a few seconds later Aidar Zakarin became fourth and secured his GC overall win. The female race almost had the same overall podium as the day before with Laura Tibitanzl (GER) as first, Meredith Byrne (UK) as second. Local rider Georgiou Constantina (CYPR) finished in a nice third place.
There was also a shorter mediofondo distance on the second and third day for the men over 60 and women over 50 with Israeli Giora Tal (M60-64) and Italian Elena Pancari (F55-59) as overall winners of the stage race.
