TT Season Review, “Runners vs Cyclists” & Racing Round Up

The Time Trialling season has been extremely active and successful this year.  Duncan Mullier became the Yorkshire Champion, winning the Yorkshire Cycling Federation Points series (6 counting events over the year).  A number of Club TT records also fell this year:

• the 10-mile record was improved to 19:03 by Duncan Mullier;
• the 25-mile record was lowered twice during the season, first by Duncan Mullier (50:49), then a couple of weeks later by Steve Smales (50:41);
• the 100-mile record was claimed by Tom Denwood (3:52:36), only to be prized away by Duncan Mullier a few weeks later (3:51:24);
• the 24-hour record finally fell to Mike Hutchings with a ride of 340.55 miles (including a stop to help an injured competitor);
• the ladies 50-mile record was lowered to 2:00:05 by Ele Haresign; and
• the ladies 100-mile record was smashed (by 42 minutes) to a new mark of 3:59:16 by Ele Haresign.

The prize presentation for the Beech House Dental Practice Evening TT League took place last week at Bilton Cricket Club – full results from the series are available here.

Runners vs Cyclists Annual Almscliffe Challenge

Sunday morning saw the annual runners vs cyclists event take place with a team from Harrogate Nova Cycling Club lining up against Harrogate Harriers.  Starting at the Ken Moore bench on Whinney Lane, Harrogate, the runners (who get a head start) can go cross-country via any legal route, whilst the riders must stick to the roads, before a short run to the ‘turn point’ on Almscliffe Crag, before returning to the start.  The four fastest times from each team are added together, and the Club with the lowest aggregate time are declared victors.  Unfortunately, the fastest Nova quartet of Duncan Mullier, Tom Denwood, Simon Ketteringham and Rob Senior were undone by Harrogate Harriers this year.  Congratulations to the runners – we’ll be back next year to try and reclaim the trophy!

Racing Round Up

Cyclo-Cross

Nova members have taken part in a number of ‘Cross events over the last few weeks.  At the Newsome High School event in Huddersfield, Charlie Cuss was 16th placed Senior and Richard Salden was 16th placed Vet-45.  A week later, Charlie was in action again in Round One of the Rapha Super Cross Series at Shibden Hall, Halifax, finishing as 18th placed Senior in the ‘War of the Roses’ event on Saturday.  On Sunday, round Two of the series, also at Shibden Hall, saw Nick Mason as the highest place Nova finisher, with an excellent 8th place in the Vet-50 event, just ahead of Andy Holgate in 13th.  In the Youth event, Joe Sarmiento placed 16th Under-14 and Louis Mason was 19th Under-16.  Gary Marks placed 22nd in the Vet-40 event.

World Duathlon Championships

Nova member Andy Stenson had an excellent trip to Adelaide, Australia to take part in the ITU Duathlon World Championships.  Coping with the heat as well as jet lag, Andy put on an impressive performance in a Team GB vest to finish fifth in his age-group, and 34th overall, from an international age-group field of over five hundred and sixty competitors.

Transtramuntana 4500 (TT4500)

Leaving behind the dull, cold Harrogate weather, a handful of intrepid Nova members travelled to the sunny Balearic Island of Majorca to take part in the Transtramuntana 4500.

The TT4500 is an extreme non-competitive cycle tourism trial, that takes in the whole of the beautiful Serra de Tramuntana (a UNESCO World Heritage site) that runs across the northern edge of the island, including Pollença, Lluc, Escora, Sóller, Deia, Banyalbufar, Estallencs, Andratx, before turning east to Puigpunyet, Esporles and Palmonyola then retracing the route from Sóller to Escora and Pollença to finish back at Port de Pollença.

Setting off with four hundred cyclists as dawn broke over Port de Pollença, the riders faced an epic 235km route across twelve mountain passes, with 4,500 metres of climbing, including the highest climbs in the Balearic Islands.  For those not wishing to tackle such a hard route, a shorter, slightly less hilly route was also on offer – the TT3000 – with six mountain passes, totalling 3,000 meters of climbing along its 170km route.

After a very long day in the saddle and with weary legs, the Nova team rolled home at around tea-time with Andy Baker the 6th fastest finisher overall with a time of 9 hours and 12 minutes.  Rob Beagley was one place and two minutes back; Mike Worden was eleventh fastest finisher in 9 hours and 27 minutes, and Dave Moss-Blundell fourteenth finisher in 9 hours and 35.

Paul Lehan completed the T3000 in a time of 6 hours and 20 minutes.