Saturday 26th April saw Mark Walker and Andy Carroll decided to use their day off to support fellow teammates at York, with 5 riders having a crack at the 4th cat only race on the new York Sport closed circuit. The report is here…

York Races – Saturday 26th April

The team consisted of Tom Unwin, George Leighton, Matt Johnson, Shaun Nicholson and Will Thomas. It was a welcome opportunity for Mark and Andy to soak in the action from the sidelines for once and shout encouragement to our riders. For Andy it was a chance to be the club’s photographer for the day too.

Agonising

The race itself was a cracker, although a little confusing at some points. Straight away there was a group of 12 who vanished up the road after lap one. Tom was in there but Will was just off the back agonisingly close to joining the group. Shaun and George had got together a bit further back but there was a long wait for Matt to appear. We’d thought he was having a really off day but in fact had been taken off course by another rider out of our sight and ended up in the gravel. Huge credit to him though as he kept going. Lap after lap he started to reel riders in and was working his way up through the groups.

 

 

 

Up at the front, Tom was still looking good and Will was still off the back but not too far away from the group ahead. George and Shaun split a few times and it looked like George was starting to go backwards at one point seemingly about to give up. However he should great resilience and stubbornness to not give in and he eventually got into a good rhythm to come back to Shaun.

Shredded

By the halfway point, Tom was away solo riding in 5th place. However the group had smashed to pieces and we had twos and threes going round together all over the place. The main group of 12 had shredded too. Will was catching up to groups and we kept shouting at him that he was getting closer and closer to the points. Yet we couldn’t be too sure as riders were getting lapped and we had no idea who was ahead and who was getting lapped.

 

We knew Tom was in 5th but Will kept ending up with different riders every lap making us question where he actually was. I’d spotted Andy Faichney (City RC, Hull) not too far ahead and remembered that he was as one of the remnants of that group of 12 and so encouraged Will to chase him down. Lap after lap Will got closer while Tom, who was been chased by an Albarosa rider, carried on in full on time trial mode.

 

Behind all this, George was starting to suffer. He was going backwards every lap and was holding his stomach. Turned out he’d got a stitch and there wasn’t much fight left in him. He eventually ground to a halt upon hearing the request for lapped riders to be pulled out. Also pulling out was Matt and Shaun.

Farce

Tom meanwhile had just about seen off his pursuer and was now asking us how long until the finish. Andy checked to see there was just 3 laps left. However the bell never rung for the last lap, so Tom wasn’t sure if he’d finished. I shouted at him to carry on thinking there’d be nothing worse than easing up a lap early and losing your position. Will was still chasing and eventually caught up with Andy Faichney but it was possibly too late not knowing when the finish actually was.

 

It had become a bit of a farce, as no one knew when the finish was and no one had a clue where they finished. Will seemed to think he may have been around the 10th place mark and hovered around the officials at the end trying to find out. We were certain though that Tom had finished 5th. He deserved his points after riding such a strong race throughout. Clearly the circuit king of the team.

Fight

From watching on the sidelines, it was positive to see so much fight from our riders. Especially the younger ones who could have easily given up when it got hard, so it was pleasing to see there unwillingness to ease up and call it a day. A word for Shaun too, who was going very strongly but perhaps his lack of experience was the reason he missed out on the early split, as I’m sure he’d have been able to go with it. Nevertheless he had a smile on his face and clearly enjoyed his day which was the main.

 

York Races – Tuesday 29th April

Obviously happy with how things went on the previous Saturday, we had another team at York from HTRC comprising Charlie Carruthers and George Leighton on the following Tuesday night.

Success

We had yet more success with Charlie getting a 6th place and George a 10th, both of which came in the points. Great effort lads!

 

Overall a great two days of racing which has seen the Hull Thursday Racing Team amass at least 12 points and this could increase depending on whether Will finished in the points or not.

 

We should be flying up the regional rankings now, and I’m sure this won’t be the end of our point scoring run.

 

View photos of the event via Flickr courtesy of Andy Carroll

 

Mark Walker
HTRC Road Race Secretary