CycloSportif: York

The York CycloSportif Event is always a good one. The course is a little challenging, but not impossible. It is certainly one of the favourite locations for these events due to the good roads, lack of traffic and general hospitality of the York locals. This year, the only thing that marred the event was the weather: usually the weather is freezing cold (<4C), this year is was warm, but the wind and rain made it “interesting”.

Andy leading the pack

For Clough, we only had one team registered and some of these riders were “ring-ins”. Even so, we expected a good solid ride with 6 riders registered. However, we only started with 4 riders. One pulled out the evening before due to medical reasons (investigations are currently underway to verify the validity of this), the other neglected to pack a vital piece of equipment; shoes! So two (2) riders down our team lined up in a rare break in the weather.

For the start the pace was fair. With a stiff tail wind it was hard to hold certain members back from putting the hammer down (ok, guilty as charged). Very quickly we overtook a number of teams. Our plan from the start was to take nice easy turns on the front setting the pace and find a rhythm that suits everyone. This actually seemed to be working well. Though one of our riders was struggling early, but after a quick review of his technique we managed to get things under control (spinning too fast and consuming too much energy too early).

So we travelled along at a nice pace until the turn for home. This was the point of the course where we now headed back into the wind and climbed a few hills. You could say it was at this point we were all questioning our wisdom of showing up. Not only did we have to work very hard to just move, but it was at this point mother nature spoke and dumped a massive amount of rain on us all. Visibility was reduced to mere meters. Oh the joy of cycling in winter!

The back stretch of the course was not an enjoyable part of the ride. Our team splintered and never recovered from this point. However, everyone soldiered on and managed to finish the ride; just not as a team. We now had 2 teams of 2. The front runners pushed the pace back up and took advantage of the windward leg. Even with only 2 riders we managed to overtake a number of large teams and left them in our wake.

On the final turn for home, our front “team” split again. The conditions weren’t much fun and I just wanted to get to the finish and off the bike. So I put the hammer down again and accelerated. As I had the timing band I figured at least we may get a fair time. Not exactly team work I know, but…

All alone riding into the wind. At least it wasn't raining at this point.

Even alone, riding in to a screaming gale I still managed to pass other teams and stragglers from other groups. Only a few teams had actually managed to stick together and there a number of riders sitting of the side of the road repairing punctures.

Our “team” finished with an official time of 3:23:40 for the 108km course; 4th overall. A good result, but unfortunately the rest of the team didn’t make it across the line until nearly 30 minutes later. Well done to the rest of the guys for sticking it out and finishing. I take my hat off to you guys for putting in an incredible effort. It was a *VERY* tough day on the bike. Many lesser souls wouldn’t have even got out of bed, let alone ride such a distance in some terrible conditions. Your smiles after crossing the line said it all though: “It was tough, but oh was it worth it”.

Results (Team 32):
http://www.bwa.org.au/file/A Distance.pdf