Sunday April 5th marked the day of the Squadra 2/3/4 road race at Warter, covering a lumpy 50 miles.

 

HTRT were in action with a team consisting of Shaun Nicholson, Danny Posnett, Will Thomas, man of the moment Josh Ravn, and Mark Walker, racing a road race for once instead of watching and reporting.

 

The race started from the village of Warter and was neutralised for a few miles on the road into North Dalton. Danny was at or near the front with me, Will and Shaun mid-bunch and Josh was somewhere around about but I couldn’t immediately pick him out.

 

Knowing I was a bit too far back I surged to the front on the outside of the pack, where I found Danny right at the front. We started to do bit and bit until we realised that we were using far too much energy way too early. Will was also at the front now and helped to keep the pace high through North Dalton and onto the climb up to Huggate.

 

Will dropped back due to the tortuous pace being set by Paul Rymer of Wilsons Wheels RT. I was thinking that I wouldn’t have been able to hold that for lap after lap but fortunately Paul did ease up and the bunch grouped together. Next on the front was Danny and he was keen to keep the pace high in a bid to follow up on Paul’s work and split the field. Seeing Danny hammering himself at the front I got to the front to try and give him some relief. Danny explained what he was trying to do so I tried to push on with him. I was soon in difficulty when Danny came back to the front and was worried I was overdoing things, especially with such a long absence from racing. I swung out of the line and let some other fool try and follow Danny’s wheel, whilst I re-joined in about 5th or 6th wheel.

 

Meanwhile Shaun and Will’s day was coming to an end. Understandably their large builds weren’t fully suited to a course such as this and they ended up pulling out soon after. Josh was still with us but he was starting to struggle.

 

After a sketchy descent due to rainwater and mud in places, we were back into Warter and Josh was level with me at this point looking ok. The attacks started to come as rider after rider tried their luck, but the bunch weren’t willing to let anything go.

 

Unfortunately the climb up to Huggate marked the end for Josh. He looked like he was pedalling squares when I passed him near the summit and couldn’t hang on once over the brow of the climb. One person who wasn’t pedalling squares, though, was Danny, as he was starting to infiltrate an attack on the descent into Warter. I was 5th wheel and annoying a certain rider who was shouting to me to “get a move on, we’re racing you know!”. Jog on mate, I thought. I wasn’t going to chase a team mate just to please you. Unfortunately, the move was closed down again, but we did manage to bridge to a group of about 6 riders who had disappeared up the road without me noticing. Neil Dean came round to watch at the right moment as I was on the front bridging the gap.

 

 

 

My legs started to show a hint of fatigue at this point, as the short climb out of Warter saw me on the front starting to grovel a bit. The attacks kept coming and with me on the front, tiring, I was worried I’d be shelled out. Fortunately I had more strength than I thought, and quite easily bridged up to the group ahead.

 

When the next string of attacks came, we almost had a crash. With the usual squeal of brakes and shoe cleats grinding on the floor, I was certain I was about to encounter a rider on the ground in front of me. Amazingly no one came down, but we did have a couple of riders having to cyclo-cross it onto the grass verge. Not sure if they managed to make it back afterwards though.

 

We were coming up to the halfway point now, and I was surprised at how easy I was finding the climb. I tended to start the climbing around 25th place (perhaps a bit too far back) but every lap I was able to get up to the top 10. On this particular lap there was a group of about 8 ahead, and, riding on complete instinct, attacked and managed to bridge across. I knew I wasn’t strong enough to do much with it, I simply haven’t done the training, but I was pleased that I was able to bridge across. Danny though looked to be struggling. He was bobbing about on his bike and looked close to breaking point. He never gives in though, and he managed to survive this particular episode, but it didn’t look good.

 

We were still away (just) when we came through Huggate, and buoyed by the appearance of Neil and Mandy once more, decided to take it up from the front. I didn’t get a big gap, but I’d managed to extract Jon Wears of Jewson from the front and we suddenly were away. We pushed on a little, but neither of us were committing completely and the pack swallowed us up once more.

 

I was better positioned for the penultimate drag out of North Dalton. Danny said to keep close to the front and watch out for a split. No sooner had he said that, one went. I managed to bridge across and wondered if this was the move of the race. No one was willing to commit so I countered in Chris Froome-style, by sitting down with a high cadence. I bridged to a Clifton rider up ahead and getting a bit carried away, went again. Only this time my legs started to scream out. The lactic acid was suddenly flowing through my legs and now it was me who was pedalling squares. Rider after rider was coming passed me and I was now at the back. I could hear Will shout at me to “move up!” (now I know what its like to be on the other side of the fence when someone says that) but I was doing all I could just to hang on. A gap was starting to appear in front of me and I was close to shutdown. I had to cry out in pain but miraculously the pace eased and I was still in touch. I knew I’d done too much now to get a decent result and was just content with finishing in the bunch.

 

However that was in some doubt, as just before we hit Huggate, I stood up and felt my right calf cramp up. “Oh, no!” I thought. The pace was at least gentle and I could pedal OK by using my left leg as the main power source. However when we accelerated out of the sharp left-hander in Huggate, both my legs cried out “No more”. Both thighs and calves locked solid and I simply couldn’t pedal. I had to get off and try and free the legs, while the pack just rode away into the distance. I was distraught with the situation. I knew I wouldn’t win the race, but I’d have been content with a top 20 place in the sprint to the line, but it wasn’t to be, unfortunately.

 

The medic car pulled up wondering what was wrong. With a bit of a massage on the legs I was on my way again. I could have just turned right at Warter and headed to the car, but I wanted to finish and at least get something out of the race, even if it was something like a 35th place.

 

Up ahead all was not lost for the team though, as Danny was showing why he’s such a class rider. Obviously I wasn’t around to witness it so I’ll let the man himself explain things.

 

“Well, onto me and the last lap, being pretty well-positioned over the line and with the cheers and support at the side of the road, I knew I needed to keep this position. With a late attack from Richard Moore and another rider (apologies, as I couldn’t see who) I knew this was going to get tough and I wasn’t wrong with attack after attack occurring. In previous races I have chased and worked to bring them back, but not this time – I’ve made that mistake before. I was positioned well and wanted to stay that way. As we went into North Dalton for the last time I was in the top 15 riders, perfect or too far back? I wasn’t sure.

 

As we started the climb a number of riders hit the front and the pace rose immediately preventing any further attacks. Seeing the two leaders losing ground I knew we would catch them before the top and that it was going to be a sprint. I managed to force my way onto a riders wheel ,who I knew would go well, and moved into the top 10. 400 meters to go, starting to panic in case we get swamped by people behind. 300 meters to go a flash of black and green, sprint on. No time to think got to go with the riders, now in the top 5 and I see 200 meters to go. Now or never I thought and I kicked passed two riders. I would like to give details of what happened after this, however, with the legs pumping and heart rate rising I’m not sure what happened, I only knew I had finished third, and was over the moon with that considering I started the day not in the most positive moods.”

 

 

 

By the time I finished (around 10 minutes down) I was shocked to hear that Danny had got third. I anticipated he’d finish maybe top 15, but to get third against the quality of the field that was present was impressive to say the least. He’s come a long way from last year when he struggled just to get a point. In one fell swoop he’s scored more points than last year put together. He’s also added to our team’s total of points, which stands at 33, which, when comparing with this stage last year, is 33 points more. The target I set earlier in the year of a 100 seems well obtainable.

 

As for me, well I was experiencing mixed feelings afterwards. I was of course elated Danny did so well, but I was gutted with how my ride ended. It was perhaps explained when I looked how much water I had left. Of my 550ml bottle (which isn’t really big enough, but I’m not a big drinker anyway) I still had over half. It’s a fundamental part of cycling to fuel properly, and I’d clearly failed at it. You can spend thousands of pounds on fancy equipment, but if you can’t use a £5.50 bottle to the max then you might as well give up. It’s a bit like expecting to win an F1 race with only a quarter tank of petrol – it aint gunna happen. That aside I was content with how I rode for 3/4s of the race and was impressed with my climbing. Just need to work on my tactics and nutrition and I shouldn’t be far away – I hope.

 

A word for the organisers, Squadra RT, and in particular Andy Hayton. They put on a great race using a popular course, which was well run and they deserve credit for all the work they put into it, it’s not an easy thing to put on a race such as this.

 

 

 

Next week its our turn, and all focus turns to the climb of Newbald in the HTRC Keith Carter Road Race. Hopefully we’ll all have decent legs and we can score big once more.

 

View superb images from the race from Craig Zad

 

Mark Walker
HTRC Road Race Secretary