This weekend was my last Prem of the year, Ryedale GP. With 3 large laps and 5 small the course contained 11 four-minute climbs with several other kickers along the way. The race totalled 156km with 2500m of climbing so it was definitely an attritional day out.
As with all the other Prems, the first lap was mental. With the pro riders trying to break away from the gun, it was just drilled and on both climbs in the first lap I hit max heart rate, not ideal for a 4 hour race. This season my positioning has dramatically improved and I was regularly towards the front third of the bunch for the climbs. This gave me some leeway to drop back without going too deep too early. With the group splintering on the first lap I just kept my head down and stuck towards the front. I managed to get into a chase group over the top of the second climb and was able to bridge to the front group.
Eventually, just after the first lap was completed two riders slipped off the front and the pace eased. Boy did it ease. We were just cruising around letting the break get a gap. It was very chilled with everyone chatting and several people emptying their bowels in the lull. I think it was around this point when my team mate Kieran punctured and with problems related with that never made it back in.
With a sustained lack of effort from the peloton, the two riders in the break managed to get a gap of over 5 minutes! This inspired a mixture of One pro cycling and Madison Genesis to chase down the gap. They kept the pace consistently high and with the pretty intense terrain riders got shelled every lap. I was still feeling good at the halfway mark, just keeping sheltered and being as close to the front as I could get.
Well I thought I was feeling good but with 4 laps to go we hit the climb out of Ampleforth Abbey. It’s a short sharp climb with 3 hairpins and I was starting to get the tell-tale signs of cramp. I quickly ate some food and drank a lot to delay the effects, and by the time we hit the main climb with 3.5 laps to go I was still climbing well and not feeling the effects of exhaustion set in too much.
With 3 times up the main climb to go the pace ramped right up as the break was caught. I really dug deep but just couldn’t hang on to the front group. I was really close to making it, but people kept dropping the wheel and I couldn’t bridge the gap over the top. A chase group formed and we pulled turns to try bring it back. But with 3 hours in the saddle all of our legs were battered and the gap didn’t come down.
While it was in the second group, it was hardly a weak bunch of guys. We had the series race leader Johnny McEvoy (Madison Genesis), former national champion Kristian House (One-Pro cycling) and Olympic Gold medallist Ed Clancy OBE (JLT Condor). Archie was still with me at this point and I said to him “Let them chase and sit in”. Which we did. I sat nicely in 6th place and him a bit further down.
Being in this group was great, I got a nice tow as the better riders pulled turns. It was all going swimmingly until one lap to go when we caught two JLT riders and all four of them pulled out. This killed our rhythm and when we hit any climb people surged to split it up. I don’t really understand why though, we’d been informed we were 3 minutes down so there was no point trying to catch them, but for some reason people kept smashing the climbs. I stuck with it as best I could, but finally got shelled from this group the final time up the climb.
Now by this point cramp was really beginning to set in and I was starting to see flashing lights in my eyes out of pure exhaustion. I was just losing the wheel with 200 m to go on the climb as Kristian House caught me up and said “jump on”. I went “I’ll try” and sat on for 100 m before shouting “Sorry man!” and I pulled off. Now I kept a constant pace over the last 100 m, stuck it in the big dog and chased him down. He saw me coming and eased up to let me on. Once I was on, I let him know and he raised the pace again. This did not go well and I yelled “I’ll see you at the finish” to which he laughed and dropped me.
With only 7km to go I rode in solo holding off any chasers to come in 45th place, 8:53 down on the winner. My best finish in a Prem. My legs definitely knew this as it took me an awful long time to get up after crossing the line but I was pretty tired.
Big thanks for the support, especially my team and Harry Brown (University of Warwick) who cycled out to watch it.
As with all the other Prems, the first lap was mental. With the pro riders trying to break away from the gun, it was just drilled and on both climbs in the first lap I hit max heart rate, not ideal for a 4 hour race. This season my positioning has dramatically improved and I was regularly towards the front third of the bunch for the climbs. This gave me some leeway to drop back without going too deep too early. With the group splintering on the first lap I just kept my head down and stuck towards the front. I managed to get into a chase group over the top of the second climb and was able to bridge to the front group.
Eventually, just after the first lap was completed two riders slipped off the front and the pace eased. Boy did it ease. We were just cruising around letting the break get a gap. It was very chilled with everyone chatting and several people emptying their bowels in the lull. I think it was around this point when my team mate Kieran punctured and with problems related with that never made it back in.
With a sustained lack of effort from the peloton, the two riders in the break managed to get a gap of over 5 minutes! This inspired a mixture of One pro cycling and Madison Genesis to chase down the gap. They kept the pace consistently high and with the pretty intense terrain riders got shelled every lap. I was still feeling good at the halfway mark, just keeping sheltered and being as close to the front as I could get.
Well I thought I was feeling good but with 4 laps to go we hit the climb out of Ampleforth Abbey. It’s a short sharp climb with 3 hairpins and I was starting to get the tell-tale signs of cramp. I quickly ate some food and drank a lot to delay the effects, and by the time we hit the main climb with 3.5 laps to go I was still climbing well and not feeling the effects of exhaustion set in too much.
With 3 times up the main climb to go the pace ramped right up as the break was caught. I really dug deep but just couldn’t hang on to the front group. I was really close to making it, but people kept dropping the wheel and I couldn’t bridge the gap over the top. A chase group formed and we pulled turns to try bring it back. But with 3 hours in the saddle all of our legs were battered and the gap didn’t come down.
While it was in the second group, it was hardly a weak bunch of guys. We had the series race leader Johnny McEvoy (Madison Genesis), former national champion Kristian House (One-Pro cycling) and Olympic Gold medallist Ed Clancy OBE (JLT Condor). Archie was still with me at this point and I said to him “Let them chase and sit in”. Which we did. I sat nicely in 6th place and him a bit further down.
Being in this group was great, I got a nice tow as the better riders pulled turns. It was all going swimmingly until one lap to go when we caught two JLT riders and all four of them pulled out. This killed our rhythm and when we hit any climb people surged to split it up. I don’t really understand why though, we’d been informed we were 3 minutes down so there was no point trying to catch them, but for some reason people kept smashing the climbs. I stuck with it as best I could, but finally got shelled from this group the final time up the climb.
Now by this point cramp was really beginning to set in and I was starting to see flashing lights in my eyes out of pure exhaustion. I was just losing the wheel with 200 m to go on the climb as Kristian House caught me up and said “jump on”. I went “I’ll try” and sat on for 100 m before shouting “Sorry man!” and I pulled off. Now I kept a constant pace over the last 100 m, stuck it in the big dog and chased him down. He saw me coming and eased up to let me on. Once I was on, I let him know and he raised the pace again. This did not go well and I yelled “I’ll see you at the finish” to which he laughed and dropped me.
With only 7km to go I rode in solo holding off any chasers to come in 45th place, 8:53 down on the winner. My best finish in a Prem. My legs definitely knew this as it took me an awful long time to get up after crossing the line but I was pretty tired.
Big thanks for the support, especially my team and Harry Brown (University of Warwick) who cycled out to watch it.