Report (by Mark Walker, his usual excellent reporting self) and the result of the Hull Thursday RC George Ely 2-up 25 mile team time trial held on 22 March 2014.

 

Photos of the event by Craig Zad can be viewed here

 

It’s a Saturday in early March and the weather is still unpredictable and Jim’s Training Sessions have just finished. That must mean one thing, the George Ely Memorial 2-up TTT. As is the norm for this time of the year, the HTRC open 2-up team time trial marks the start of the time trial season, for the majority of us at least.

 

As a matter of fact our clubs TT series had started the previous week with myself and Will Thomas taking a pleasing second place at Sproatley in another 2-up event. So the onus was one us to perform this week and try and claim the best HTRC pair that has eluded me for the past five years or so. We wouldn’t be the only ones contesting the trophy though, as Rich Dean (defending champ along with his son Joe, who wasn’t riding) and Rich Guymer would be riding, and George Leighton, who unfortunately ended up without a partner after Matt Johnson came down with a cold during the week.

Tough conditions

The weather was windy to say the least which would mean a back wind on the way out and a stinger of a breeze back into Beverley. There was also a good chance of rain which would make things tough.

 

First HTRC pair off was Rich Dean and Rich Guymer, who had done his bit for charity by wearing Sport Relief oversocks. From what I’ve gathered they split a couple of times on route, particularly on the back stretch when it gets windy and hilly, but still managed to get home in a very respectable 1 hour and 57 seconds.

 

Next off was our George, who wasn’t quite sure what time to aim for before he started. It’s never easy doing your first 25 mile time trial, especially when you happen to be riding solo on a standard road bike with clip on tri-bars. Despite been caught in the odd shower, he still came in with a time of 1 hour 7 minutes and forty seven seconds. Not a bad effort at all.

 

Up next was myself and Will. I was keen on breaking my PB of around 57 and a half minutes from a few years ago by getting into the 56 minute bracket but I was perhaps more focused on picking up that trophy at the end. We were to set off second from the end with a certain Steve Guymer and Jason Young behind us, who were clearly the race favourites for the win. I’d said to Will we’d be doing OK to hold them off until Hutton Cranswick.

 

When we finally did get going I got stuck in too big a gear and was suddenly a few metres behind a flying Will. I eventually caught up and we eventually got into a decent rhythm. The weather at this point wasn’t too bad. It was still windy but no rain had come down… yet.

Traffic jam

However, when we got into Leconfield, only a handful of minutes into our ride we managed to encounter something of a traffic jam. A car was trying to turn right into the barracks forcing a few cars to stop right in front of us. Will, who was leading us, stopped behind the car, whilst I took avoiding action by riding on the path. We merged together a few yards up the road but it must have cost us at least 20 seconds in total.

 

After that incident, the ride to Driffield was fairly plain sailing and fairly fast. We were unsurprisingly caught by Steve and Jason at, surprise surprise, Hutton Cranswick. Powering smoothly past us and pushing huge gears they were long in the distance in no time. Why is it the good riders make it seem so easy? I instinctively tried to lift the pace when they came past but it wasn’t wise to do so, as trying to keep up with them would be a pointless task due to the difference in ability.

 

By the time we’d hit Driffield we’d been in the saddle for around 22 minutes, so just about on schedule. This was the point though where it started to get hard. The cross to tail wind had now pretty much become a headwind and our pace had dropped from about 26mph to around 20mph. The rain also started to fall making it a little treacherous in places.

Keeping it together

Will seemed to be suffering too as he wasn’t coming through as quickly as he was up to Driffield when it was his turn to take a turn on the front. I suggested he hit the climb up to Bainton roundabout on the front so he could go at his pace knowing my strength of climbing may cause us to split. The key to a good time I thought was keeping together, especially when it gets hard and lumpy at the end.

 

Despite a slip of the wheel going through Bainton roundabout, we powered on. The climb out of the village saw a seemingly rejuvenated Will, as he virtually sprinted up the hill with me struggling to keep up in places. He told me he was weakening but by having an energy gel he perhaps saved his ride, as he was now flying. I took a few turns but I was having to use all my power to keep him in close proximity, especially up the rolling hills.

Close to the target

His power helped us to catch a team up ahead who seemed to be all over the place. The rider at the rear was barely moving forward despite his best efforts with the rider ahead, who was clearly far more powerful, barely breaking sweat. It had seemed they had perhaps gone too hard on the first section and then started to crack on the tougher section to home.

 

Buoyed by this, we carried on towards the finish realising we were close to the target of a sub 57 minute ride. We caught another pair just before Dog Kennel Lane roundabout, who had also struggled to keep together. Now powering towards the line I could see my time, 56 minutes 20, 56 minutes 30. We were now hitting speeds of 40 mph on the descent to the finish, 56 minutes 50. Will was sprinting for the line, me just hanging on. We crossed the line and I looked down to see my computer read 57 minutes and 7 seconds. ‘Damn it’ I thought. I was then left hoping my computer may be out by about 8 seconds. Nevertheless we rode a very solid and measured ride in tough conditions. Now all was left was to see what the official time was.

Best HTRC team

When we got to the HQ at Molescroft, I learnt that my computer was a little slow. However not quite slow enough, as we discovered we had done 57 minutes and 5 seconds. I couldn’t help thinking of what happened at Leconfield. Regardless of the time, we still finished 9th but we were the 4th best team when not counting composite pairings – pairings consisting of two riders from different clubs/teams. More importantly, we’d won the best HTRC team trophy which was very pleasing.

 

The actual winners were local fast men Steve Guymer and Jason Young. I’d be keen on seeing how many watts they produced over the course as they won with a fantastic time of 51:39. The best team was in fact the runners up pairing of Nathan Wilson and Miles Flather for Wilson Wheels over 2 minutes in arrears with a time of 53:57.

Thanks

A word of thanks should go to Mike Kilgour and all those that braved the conditions to help put on another great edition of the event. Hopefully next year we’ll have a few more HTRC teams on the start line.

 

Mark Walker
HTRC RR Secretary

 

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