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. map-circuit-ingleborough 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.

cattle-grid
It wasn’t sunny. This is from Circuit of Dales, which uses same road from Horton to Ingleton.

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.

virgin-train-viaduct
there was no time to admire the views at Ribblehead viaduct

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-1

Results part 2 a bit fuzzy

results-part-2

Spotted at the  HQ

long-vehicle

Long Vehiclerusty-trophy

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.

roller-turbo

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

ingleton-car-park

Ingleton Car park. Settle 12 miles.

Circuit of Ingleborough 2015

Full Results

PosRiderClubTime
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

6 thoughts on “Circuit of Ingleborough”

  1. Hi Tejvan,
    I’m a bike mechanic based in Princes Risborough. I’ve been checking out your website and following you on Strava for the last year or so, always impressed with your efforts on Strava and your articles on the site.

    Just to let you know if you need work done on your bikes I would be happy to help you, free of charge from one local(ish) cyclist to the next. At the very least I would be happy to pass on some knowledge about setting up your gears so you’re not worrying about being stuck in the big ring, which is probably the last thing a cyclist needs to worry about going into a race or TT!

    George

    Reply

Leave a Comment