Circuit of Ingleborough

Saturday was the Circuit of Ingleborough organised by Pendle Forest CRC. It is a tough hilly circuit, on a triangle of roads between Ingleton, Settle and Horton in Ribblesdale. There are plenty of long drags, changes of gradient and some very fast descents – where you quickly lose any hard-won altitude gain. The course record is 1.01, set by Gethin Butler in very good weather conditions. In 2014, in more difficult conditions, Hugh Carthy of Rapha CC set a very good time of 1.03.24, just pipping his Rapha team-mate Richard Handley 1.03.44. Third was Ian Bibby (Madison Genesis 1.07.07) First women was Rebecca Rimmington 1.17.40 (Trainsharp) and first junior was Tom Cullen 1.21.55 of Otley CC. My race. I actually thought I was entering the Tour of Pendle (because it is organised by Pendle Forest CRC), and expected to be racing around Barnoldswick and Pendle hill. I was surprised when I got the start sheet and saw the HQ was Ingleton – the same as the Circuit of the Dales. I didn’t mind though, it looked suitably hilly and the roads around Horton in Ribblesdale are amongst by favourite. Recently, I’d had problems with front mech, so yesterday took it into a bike shop to get fixed. There seemed to be a miscommunication problem because when I looked 30 mins before driving off to the race, they hadn’t done anything. It meant I had to rely on my very limited bike maintenance skills to try and get my bike ready. There’s no way you can do the Circuit of Ingleborough stuck on your 56 chainring. By dint of trial and error and pushing something very hard and hoping for the best, I got a solution of sorts. In the race it later slipped a little so there was a rubbing of chain, but in the wind and effort, I could barely hear.

The car thermometer said 9 degrees, but if I my sound unscientific, it felt a very cold 9 degrees. There was also a strong westerly wind, definitely a day to leave the Zipp 808 in the loft. The start is quite hilly, but with a strong tailwind I was making good progress. There was then a fast (and muddy) descent  into the village of Clapham. Unfortunately, I had to go through the streets of Clapham free wheeling behind a slow moving car. It took a while to get back on A65 and get back up to speed. After undulating terrain, there is a fast descent into Settle down Bucker Brow. Bucker Brow brought back memories from 30 years ago, before the Settle bypass when we used to drive to Morecambe in my Mum’s old mini (the classic old mini used to really struggle going up Bucker Brow at about 25mph) Anyway, before you knew it you were in Settle. Generally I took the descents fairly cautiously because there was a lot of farmyard muck on the road, and also my tribars worked a bit loose on the bumpy road surface, so I kept having to move them back up. At Settle, the nature of the course changes as you begin the long slog up the valley to Horton. The helpful tailwind also evaporated. The road runs parallel to the Settle-Carlisle line, but its definitely not engineered to be as smooth a gradient as the railway. There are numerous false tops, where you keep climbing, followed by a short fast descent. You were needing frequent gear changes. I’ve decided I’d really like Shimano Dura Ace Di2 (electronic shifters). It has to save time on a hilly time trial circuit like this. It was hard to get into a rhythm with all the changing gradients and dodgy bike equipment not quite working.

As the road veered round to Horton, you hit the full force of the Westerly wind and it was pretty hard going.  It was kind of relief to get back on the road going south from Ribblehead viaduct towards Ingleton. But, although in theory it was downhill, it didn’t feel like that. There were also some very strong sidewind gusts which made handling the bike tricky. I finished in 1.07.21, which was OK, but I definitely found the ride hard much harder than the previous race. It was quite a different experience to last week, where in warm temperatures, I seemed to be able to float around. The course was always going to be a challenge, which I guess is why it is a classic early season time trial. There was a good entry of over 90 riders, including some of the top road riders. In fact, I didn’t see too many time trial regulars. I suppose it’s as far removed from your fast dual carriageway as you can get! At least the body held up – the back didn’t trouble at all, but the bike was a bit more troublesome. Unfortunately, in the rush to do a fix of the bike, I forgot my Garmin. It would have been interesting to see the power file, I can guess it was all over the place. Very hard to get into a rhythm. Well, now I know what the Circuit of Ingleborough is, I’ll be keen to come back and try and improve my time. It was also a good taster for the Circuit of the Dales in a couple of weeks time. It was a well organised event, with many marshals. It must have taken a good percentage of the club’s 50 members to put it on.  Interesting fact of the week – Pendle Forest CRC was formed in 1931 by a small group who worked together at a local Pendle mill. Well, the mill is probably no longer there, but the cycle club is still going strong! Results page 1

Results part 2 a bit fuzzy

Spotted at the  HQ

Long Vehicle

Rusty trophies. One trophy was for unluckiest rider. I saw one rider coming back to start after hitting a pothole and bending his wheel, I wonder if he got it.

A very neat looking roller-turbo. Would like one of those.

Ingleton Car park. Settle 12 miles.

Circuit of Ingleborough 2015

Full Results

Pos	Rider	Club	Time
1	Hugh Carthy	Rapha Condor JLT	01:03:24
2	Richard Handley	Rapha Condor JLT	01:03:44
3	Ian Bibby	Madison Genesis	01:07:07
4	Tejvan Pettinger	Sri Chinmoy Cycling Team	01:07:21
5	Ewan Farrow	Ilkley CC	01:07:51
6	Matthew Pilkington	Cleveleys RC	01:08:52
7	Dominic Jelfs	Madison Genesis	01:09:08
8	David Kinloch	Ilkley CC	01:09:37
9	Paul Roby	Coveryourcar.co.uk RT	01:10:29
10	Mark Haydock	North Lancs RC	01:12:23
11	Andy Peace	Jedicycle Sport	01:12:46
12	Thomas Canaway	Settle World Wide Wheelers	01:12:53
13	Jack Waller	Spirit Bikes – SCU	01:13:28
14	Stephen Ayres	VC Bradford	01:13:30
15	Karl Juan Denton	Ouseburn Coffee Co./Legend	01:13:47
16	Geoff Ayers	Velo Club Cumbria	01:15:05
17	Rob Dickinson	Clitheroe Bike Club	01:15:36
18	Chris Anderson	Lakes Road Club	01:15:44
19	Duncan Orme	Kent Valley RC	01:15:58
20	Richmond Denton	Ilkley CC	01:16:16
21	Ian Cliffe	Ilkley CC	01:17:28
22	Rebecca Rimmington	Trainsharp	01:17:40
23	Austin Foy	North Lancs RC	01:18:28
24	David Hargreaves	North Lancs RC	01:18:33
25	Chris Smedley	Nelson Wheelers CC	01:18:38
26	Tony Pilkington	Cleveleys RC	01:18:57
27	Chris Smith	Condor RC (Calderdale)	01:19:12
28	Derek Schofield	Rossendale RC	01:19:14
29	John Murfin	Settle World Wide Wheelers	01:19:47
30	Joe Le Sage	Rutland CC	01:20:02
31	Calum Campbell	VTTA	01:20:07
32	Adam Holmes	Skipton CC	01:20:15
33	William Belcher	Clayton Velo	01:20:54
34	Ian Wilcock	Nelson Wheelers CC	01:21:13
35	Duncan Park	North Lancs RC	01:21:20
36	Stephen Gardner	Lancaster CC	01:21:21
37	Paul Warrener	Rossendale RC	01:21:33
38	Paul Braithwaite	Pendle Forest CC	01:21:44
39	Tom Cullen	Otley CC	01:21:55
40	Alex Forbes	Border City Wheelers Club	01:21:59
41	Martin Ralph	Pendle Forest CC	01:22:52
42	Robert Barnard	Team CF	01:23:37
43	Ian Cullen	Otley CC	01:23:53
44	Eamonn Quinn	Lakes Road Club	01:24:12
45	Ron Valovin	North Lancs RC	01:24:20
46	James Cullen	Otley CC	01:24:37
47	Martin Welsh	Pendle Forest CC	01:24:38
48	Simon Lester	VTTA North Lancs and Lakes	01:24:50
49	Mark Stickland	Settle World Wide Wheelers	01:24:51
50	Jed Harris	Velo Club Cumbria	01:25:08
51	Gary Murfin	Settle World Wide Wheelers	01:25:35
52	Richard Durham	Team Swift	01:25:47
53	Dave Horton	Lancaster CC	01:26:17
54	Mike O’Shea	Rossendale RC	01:26:20
55	Kev Shand	West Pennine	01:26:55
56	Judith Irving	Kent Valley RC	01:27:31
57	David Ferguson	Skipton CC	01:27:47
58	Graham Pitcher	Barrow Central Wheelers	01:28:02
59	Leanne Farrow	Ilkley CC	01:28:14
60	Nina Benson	Ilkley CC	01:28:59
61	Neil Hughes-Hutchings	Morden CRC	01:29:26
62	Paul Lawson	Weaver Valley CC	01:29:32
63	Russell Marsden	Pendle Forest CC	01:29:42
64	Michael Ellis	Pendle Forest CC	01:29:57
65	Ben Johnson	North Lancs RC	01:31:04
66	Earle Logan	Lune RCC	01:31:42
67	Dean Marshall	Settle World Wide Wheelers	01:32:28
68	Andrew Hodgson	Clitheroe Bike Club	01:34:16
69	Tony Johnston	Barrow Central Wheelers	01:36:11
70	Paul Stupples	Ashurst Bike Club	01:37:00
71	Christine Preston	Skipton CC	01:38:04
72	David Hilditch	Ribble Valley CRC	01:40:48
73	Danny Davies	Pendle Forest CC	01:42:44
74	Derek Graham	Pendle Forest CC	01:42:57
75	David Tinker	Clayton Velo	01:51:25
76	Fred Abbatt	Pendle Forest CC	01:56:01
1001	Stephen Lloyd	Skipton CC	dnf
1002	Sue Cheetham	North Lancs RC	dnf
1003	Peter Greenwood	Team Swift	dnf
1004	Roy Flanagan	Rossendale RC	dnf
1005	Colin Mckenna	Barrow Central Wheelers	dnf