The Hull Thursday Racing Team were back in action on home roads this weekend (April 13th) for the club’s annual road race held over six laps of the tortuous Newbald circuit.

The Hull Thursday Racing team were back in action on home roads this weekend (Sunday, April 13th) for the club’s annual road race held over 6 laps of the tortuous Newbald Circuit.

Personally this is a race I put quite a bit of pressure on myself to do well in due to my light build and the long climb on the course. In previous attempts I’ve either got my tactics completely wrong and blown at the end, or I’ve not eaten enough and got cramp half way through. So for this year I was determined to ride with my head rather than my heart. My goal was to at least improve my best finish of 18th in 2011 and hopefully take home the team’s first points of the season.

At the start line we had a good team with us, as you might expect for the local event of the year. Alongside myself was George Leighton, his arch nemesis for the best HTRC young rider competition, Matthew Johnson, Charlie Carruthers, Danny Posnett and Tom Unwin, who was a late addition to the team due to an injury to Neil Dean.

The weather was kind to us again with a favourable tail wind up the hill, which meant there was bound to be a series of selections to the group throughout the race.

The race got underway at the bottom of the hill contrary to what I had first thought. Me and Matt had gone to the top of the hill thinking the race was to start there as it had done in previous years. Matt questioned why there wasn’t anyone at the top with just five minutes to go. This made me then realise that the race was to start from the bottom. After a rapid descent, we got to the bottom of the hill to see all of the riders waiting for the start and the commissaire briefing everybody. George and Charlie were even later than us with them just making the start.

 

Club members’ photos of the event on Flickr

 

Official photos of the event by Craig Zadoroznyj

 

The race start was a rolling one up to the top of the hill where the event would commence. The pace was quite brisk and I started to worry when the rider alongside me was able to have a conversation with the rider next to him without losing breath. I certainly couldn’t talk for more than a few seconds and I questioned if this was going to be a bit too tough a race for me having been out with a cold the previous week.

When the race proper kicked off I realised I was fine and it was perhaps nerves or something that had me puffing and panting. However I was at the back of the field due to my late arrival. I soon remedied this by getting right up to the front, realising it would be a massive effort on the first climb to come round dropped riders from the rear of the bunch. I was relatively well-placed but not long before we came to the halfway point in the lap a car heading in the opposite direction led the bunch to squeeze to the left. I lost my good place through this and I was now in the bottom third as we headed back towards Newbald. The race slowed up massively due to the strong headwind on the back section of the course and this meant riders bunched up all over the road creating a wall in front of me. I had no choice but to sit at the back until the climb.

When we did hit the climb for the first time I raced up the outside passing rider after rider until I was right at the front. I felt strong but I knew I couldn’t repeat that effort for six laps. Unfortunately, the hill put a spanner in the works for some of our team as Charlie, Matt and Tom were distanced. George was also off the back, which led Danny to come up to tell me that half of the field had gone on that first climb. Once over the hill the attacks came. Three or four years ago I wouldn’t have been able to resist letting them go but I realised that there was a long way to the finish and attacking now would only end in tears. We managed to pull back those escapees but there was a continuous string of attacks for the rest of the lap. So many I couldn’t recollect who went up the road.

The fight for position was less frantic on the back stretch with so many riders off the back of the bunch resulting in a much smaller group. I held a decent position with Danny just ahead as we headed on to the climb for the second time. However to my amazement George had come up alongside me. He’d made a really good effort after being dropped to carry on with another rider for almost a lap, and catch up just before the climb. Unfortunately he’d had little chance to recover and was off the back no sooner than he’d made the junction with us. Even worse was to come for him as he overshot a bend and ended up in a ditch. Poor George!

Once again I’d made it to the front once we crested the climb for the second time and once again the attacks came. This time there was about five or six who disappeared up the road. Once again I let them go thinking they wouldn’t have much of a chance in surviving. I was on the front of the bunch for a period though when domestique deluxe Danny came up to me and reminded me that I needn’t bother being so close to the front. However being a true team-mate he then took the reins himself and battered himself on the front setting a really fast tempo with me right behind. A rider from Ilkley had gone away trying to reach to the front group but he couldn’t make it and was soon pulled in by Danny. The problem was that no one wanted to work with us and they were quite happy to let Danny just do the work. He carried on at that pace for half a lap until someone finally came through. The group was even smaller at this point so we were quite content to let somebody else do the work.

However, that never really happened and by the next lap we had riders shouting at each other to work but, aside from the odd turn, nobody did. I was trying to stay cool but I could see any hopes of a victory going away by the minute. I could have asked Danny to work again but we’d be left with a situation similar to the previous lap where no one else would help. This meant more attacking on the back stretch of the course but this only resulted in riders accelerating and then slowing right down once they were caught. You could see the fatigue starting to show in some of the riders by this point.

Once we hit the climb for the fourth time more and more riders were feeling the strain. I’d was about halfway up the bunch when I spotted an attack by Miles Flather (Wilsons Wheels RT). This was one move that I had to go with as I recognised Miles to be a real threat and perhaps the strongest rider in the field. I’m surprised he’s only a 3rd cat as he’s a very strong rider. It was a struggle but I’d latched on with about five or six other riders. One rider then requested for those on the front to ‘smash it’ and they duly obliged. Without realising, riders were getting shelled out the back and by the halfway point on the course I looked behind me to see that we had only about ten riders left and, unlike the previous lap, we were working well. We had to though, as the group behind wasn’t finished yet as they were only about 30 seconds behind. Danny was also in that group and from what he told me he tried to make the bridge with another rider but just couldn’t quite get across.

Onto the hill once again, and we could see two riders coming back to us from the break up ahead. This was starting to get interesting, as I thought that if the race long break was starting to fold now. and with us working so well, we could pick them up and dice for the win ourselves. We all agreed to keep it smooth and steady up the hill so as not to disturb our rhythm. We picked up the two riders and pressed on over the top.

We passed the finish line and the bell was rung indicating that we were now on the last lap. Up to this point I’d eaten properly, drank where I had to and not over stretched myself unnecessarily and the legs felt great. The reception I was receiving at the side of the road was also welcoming, as lap after lap I had fellow HTRC members and friends shouting in my ear egging me on. In the situation I couldn’t let them down and come away with a result outside the points. However I made my first mistake of the race when I decided to follow an attack by Luke Mumford (Albarosa) just before the start of the final climb. I made it across but I’d overestimated my strength and my legs were burning.

When we did hit the climb Mumford leapt off the bunch. I resisted following and tried to get up the hill as best I could realising the legs were starting to falter. I was eighth on the road after we crested the first part of the climb. However two other riders nipped passed before the steepest part of the climb. I was back ahead of them once the gradient kicked up but then it all went a bit wrong, as they came passed me leaving me perilously close to falling outside the points. I was starting to pedal in squares but fortunately the rider behind was quite a way off. I knew a modest speed up to the finish would be enough and I eventually found a good rhythm and was starting to pull back the riders in front. It wasn’t quite enough to catch them as by the time I came to the line, with the crowd cheering me on, I’d managed to get 10th place. I’d done it, I’d got mine and the team’s first point of the season and boy, was I relieved.

Video courtesy of Mandy Dean

 

Unlike last year, where I was racing pretty much on my own, I felt the pressure to not let my teammates down by coming up short in terms of points. Will Thomas got close at Seacroft the other week with an 11th place, so it was nice to go one better at our home event. It also meant I was best HTRC rider which gave me a welcome £25 in prize money.

The race itself was brilliantly well organised and a special mention should be reserved for the organiser Neil Prendergast who once again helped us to show why Hull Thursday is so good at getting events organised, as this was no different. Well done Neil and all of his helpers.

 

1 Mark McLean (Out of the Saddle) 2-14-23
2 Melvin Blackwood
3 Ian Russell
4 Richard Binks

 

Mark Walker 10th ( Best placed Hull Thursday rider)
Mark Walker
HTRC Road Race Secretary