Until now Hull Thursday Racing Team has been performing well, and has picked up some good results of late. However, the Ilkley CC 2-Day stage race was to be the first real setback that some of us on the team have yet experienced…

Day One, Stage One

It all started well enough with our 3-man team consisting of Mark Walker, Will Thomas and Tom Unwin. The first day was to comprise a 55 mile road race on the infamous Penny Pot circuit just west of Harrogate. The end of the day was to be finished with a 4.5 mile team time trial, which was undulating to say the least. The following day’s racing would finish the event with a 45 mile race around the hilly Dacre Lane course. We knew it was going to be hard but we felt we had a chance of picking up a decent result along the way, maybe top 30/40 in the overall.

The weather was glorious for the first day with the sun shining throughout the mornings first stage. After a brief neutralised section, which included the steep descent of Pot Bank, the race was given the green light. The pace was increased but not as much as I’d expected. This was most probably because of it being a 3 stage event and riders been keen to keep their powder dry.

The first time up Bland Hill, a relatively short, but steep, climb which topped off with the start/finish line, was negotiated fairly well. I felt strong and was passing riders with ease. I managed to get a good position in the top 20 over the crest of the hill but I was soon at the rear once we hit Pot Bank which made it a challenge to keep up.

 

 

Another challenge soon fell upon me when I lost my bottle from it’s cage having ridden over a particularly rough section of tarmac. This was a concern, as not drinking for the whole of the race would prove costly. Tom tried to pass me his spare bottle but in doing so ended up getting tailed off as the gradient, along with the pace, started to rise. This left us with just me and Will, who kindly offered me a sip of his drink.

Once again, Bland Hill was negotiated well and I was even on the front of the bunch come the start of the climb. I fell to about 15th over the hill but still in a good position nonetheless. I tried to persuade John Trotter to pass me a bottle as I crossed the line and he kindly obliged but his hands weren’t quite quick enough to pass me one due to the melee of what was going on around him at the time. Will was still with me though, so I knew I had some back up just in case.

Onto the back section of the course, known as Penny Pot Lane, for the 3rd time, I could see a gap on the left which allowed me to move up. I was feeling strong at this point and knew I needed to move up about 10/15 positions to be in a safe place in the bunch. However there was a reason there was a gap on the left and that was due to potholes. Lady luck wasn’t on my side this weekend and it was perhaps inevitable I’d hit one. Not only did I hit one but it instantly flattened my tyre and my race was pretty much over there and then.

The organisation of the race was brilliant and beforehand we were allowed to take our spare wheels and put them in a neutral service van for such an occasion as the one I was experiencing. However, with so many punctures it took an age for them to get to me. The first people who came to me were the paramedics who asked if I was ok. I sarcastically said ‘I’m fine although I could do with a spare wheel should you have one’. That didn’t seem to register with them and I wasn’t sure why they stopped at all as I clearly hadn’t fallen. The wait continued for the neutral service vehicle and after a certain amount of time I started to walk back to the HQ which was a 5 mile walk away.

 

Will’s unselfishness

Fortunately the neutral service car then spotted me and handed me our spare rear wheel, which was Will’s American Classic from his winter bike. At first I didn’t think it would fit but after a bit of a wiggle it was in, although the gears weren’t quite in line but it would do the job. To my surprise, Will had turned up having given up his own chances to try and help me. This weekend hadn’t provided much in the way of good performances but Will’s unselfishness was heart-warming to say the least. Tom had also caught us up by this point so we had a 3 man team again now team time trialling about 3 hours earlier than we should have in a bid to get back to the bunch.

The neutral service car offered us a tow, so we got as close to the back of it as possible to make the most of the draft it was offering. However doing so means you can’t see what’s coming up on the road and low and behold I hit yet another pothole. This time at a much quicker speed to the point where the rim was bent and the tyre was flat. I was now onto Will’s second wheel and we eventually got going. It took me about half a lap but I eventually caught up with Will and Tom with a little help from the neutral service car of course.

By this stage my morale was pretty low and I was beginning to question why I was continuing, especially as I was starting to tire with all the efforts from the day. I then couldn’t keep up with the car and Will on the next lap as I couldn’t access the last 3 gears on the rear cassette due to the chain being out of tune. This meant that when it came to a gradient my momentum was almost instantly stopped by being in too high a gear. So Will had dropped me and there was still over a lap left.

I’ll admit that at this point I’d given up and was soft pedalling making very little attempt to get back to Will knowing we’d be out of the 20% cut off time to continue to the next stage. John Trotter then came up to me to let me know that I wasn’t that far behind and there was plenty behind me. I’m not sure if he was right but it did the trick and my mental state improved enough to get me into gear and back up to Will. We stayed together over the hill and decided to make a real go of it. It wasn’t fair on Will for me to pack up considering what he’d given up for me.

It hurt but we made it to the finish. Tom wasn’t too far behind us also. We asked the line judge how far back we were and to my amazement, we were only 18 minutes in arrears. I’d been expecting 30 or 40 minutes. The judge also said that due to the high number of punctures, anyone who finished would be allowed to start the next day, regardless of time.

All-in-all it was a really tough effort both physically and mentally, and unfortunately we were now on the back foot. However, I was determined to put stage 1 behind us and focus on getting a good result in the TTT in the afternoon.

Day One, Stage Two – Team Time Trial

After a brief rest and a chance to replenish our energy stores and fix our punctures, we headed out of the HQ for the start of the TTT. The course was a 4.5 mile route which went along a section of road we’d encountered on the morning’s stage but in the opposite way. It meant we would be going down Bland Hill at a rate of knots, somewhat in comparison to the morning’s crawl.

Our start time was just after 3.00 and after a few hundred metres, we got into a decent rhythm. The legs hurt from the morning but I felt we were doing OK. No one was hogging the front too much and our turns were smooth. Other than me losing the wheel of Tom and Will on one of the sharp left-handers, everything seemed to be going fine.

Unfortunately, we were found out by the last 1km climb to the finish as our legs started to fall beneath us. We kept it together though and crossed the line for a time of 13.24, which we felt would be good for a mid-table finish, especially when some of the teams behind us, including the team with the yellow jersey, John Wilkinson, had lost riders en route and were coming in with just two riders.

Yet when we got to the HQ we were somewhat horrified to find we’d come second-last – over a minute-and-a-half behind the winners in just 4.5 miles. We were convinced we’d done better but there it was in black and white – second-to-last. Our morale, which was already shaky, was now almost irreparable, and we still had tomorrow to come. Safe to say the ride home was a quiet affair.

Day Two, Stage 3

After a night trying to console myself, I was in a slightly happier mood come Sunday morning. I was still largely pessimistic about the final stage but I’d heard the course was hilly and should be to my advantage.

Will and Tom were perhaps still a little down in the dumps and I think all 3 of us wouldn’t have minded if the event was cancelled for some unforeseen reason. Just to improve the mood, it had started to rain on the way there.

By the time we’d arrived at the HQ the rain had stopped and my legs on the warm-up felt rather fresh. I still felt tired though and could have fallen asleep at the rider briefing inside the HQ.

Once the race got going I felt rather good. Unfortunately the same couldn’t be said for Will, who lost his nerve a bit on the first descent and was dropped. Tom disappeared soon after once the road began to rise but they were far from the only ones. In fact yesterday’s winner of stage 1, Jon Wilkinson, was the first to go, strangely.

For the next couple of laps I felt fairly comfortable. I was still too far back in the bunch though and hesitated too often to move up when the opportunity arose. I made it into the top 30 but that was as close as I got. Coming up to the KOM point for the 3rd time the pace was increased and then increased once more, and it then went faster again. I could see riders dropping off the back and I knew if it went any faster I’d be with them as I was now well into the red. I hung on, just, but we then turned left onto a wide open flat section of road and I could see the head of the bunch about 250 metres ahead, then a long line of riders with me tagged on the end.

 

I couldn’t take much more

I just couldn’t keep up, the legs were full of lactic and I just couldn’t increase my pace. So much so that it was on a brief descent where I eventually got dropped. I was then caught by some stragglers but my mind was gone. I couldn’t take much more of this, so when I saw the bunch about a mile ahead on the main climb of the day I decided to turn round and call it a day. I hate giving up. They say you should never give up, and they’re right, but after everything that had happened over the weekend I just wanted to head home.

And that was that really, finished off with another sombre journey home without much said. John Brearley at least cheered us up when he pointed out at the HQ that of the 9 from Hull over half of us had finished less than halfway through. Although a depressing fact, we couldn’t help but laugh at our predicament, for some reason.

I wasn’t too sure whether I should have written a report for the weekend but I think it’s events like this which help shape your character and more than anything it’s helped me get this event out of my system for next week’s events. Nevertheless, despite everything, I would like to give this event another go. I felt had luck been with us on stage 1 the whole weekend may have turned out differently, and perhaps a night in nearby Harrogate would have helped with our recovery as we wouldn’t have had to drive for 2 hours to and from the race, which was tiring in itself. Finally, when you have the chance to get to the front – just do it. Hesitating is a dangerous business in this game.

A word for Ilkley Cycling Club who were all really friendly and put on a great event. I’d imagine it must take real commitment to host an event over 2 days using 3 different courses and I hope the riders appreciate that as it was an innovative and exciting event.

For next week, we’re on local roads at Walkington for the Team Swift Road Race. Hopefully I’ll be writing in a somewhat more positive mood for that one.

 

Ilkley CC 2-Day Stage Race – Results from VeloUK.net

 

Mark Walker
HTRC RR Secretary