The North Road Hardriders TT is a well established early season classic. It has been promoted by local clubs since 1939, with the North Road CC taking responsibility for promoting since 1955. Out of interest, the North Road CC were established in founded in 1885 to ‘promote fast and long distance cycling on the Great North and other Roads’. 1885 is a long time ago, though the Hardriders TT is far removed from fast racing up the flat and traffic laden A1…
The Course
The course is a series of twists and turns, running on small roads north of Potters Bar, passing through villages like Essenden. The terrain is best described as ‘lumpy’ with several short sharp climbs. It is course best suited to a ‘puncheur’ – there are no smooth long climbs, but a series of ups and downs. The first 15 miles, feels like a very slow rollercoaster, there are quite a few 90 degree turns and frequent dips and climbs. On the downhill you try to pick up as much speed as you dare – to carry you up the other side of the hill. It is the kind of course, where you can go from 45mph to 10mph on a regular basis.
There is a total of 563 m height gain over the 25 miles
Ideally, you would ride the course before hand to get used to the corners and know the course. I spent all week studying an OS Map 1:50,000, and just about managed to remember the course. However, the course was excellently marshalled with signs 200m before every turn and marshals pointing the right way. It’s always possible to get lost when racing, but it was signposted as well as you could hope for.
The final thing about the course is that there can be a few tricky moments with horses on the roads and slow moving vehicles. You can’t expect a smooth run all the way around. After a hilly first 15 miles, the last 10 miles or so, are on smoother faster roads, without so much hills. It’s an opportunity to put it in the big ring and try and raise your average speed. I used TT bike, discwheel and Zipp 404.
Entering
I’ve been wanting to ride the North Road Hardriders event for the past 10 years. In fact, this is the fourth time I’ve entered, but have had to dns three times. I very rarely dns – but in late February, I’ve often been susceptible to winter injuries, niggles and colds. I only made a late decision to enter this year after another stop start winter, but feel glad to have finally made it around.
Cold
It was 3 degrees Celsius on arriving at the rather plush HQ. It presents a dilemma of how much clothes to wear. Some will say, man up – just ride a skinsuit – like in July. But, these people are rarely 190cm and 61kg. I chose to wear leg warmers, two pairs of gloves, two pairs of socks (+ hotpads). I wore the ASSOS skinfoil baselayer underneath the skinsuit, and this worked out pretty well – it is as warm as two or three normal undershirts. As it happened, it warmed up quite nicely during the race, and was a positively barmy 7 degrees by the finish. I think that dry, sunny and 5 degrees counts as excellent weather for the North Road Hardriders.
Race
In a bid to keep warm before the start, I nearly missed my start. Usually, I’d be happy to wait by timekeeper for a few minutes, but this time I tried to cut it fine. In fact, it was very fine – 15 seconds to go by the time I got to the start, just enough time to fling off the last jacket. Then I was away. I’ve had a good month of training in February, but nothing which was like a proper race, so it’s always hard to know how to pace first event. I went quick up first climb and then tried to hold on. I occasionally looked at power, but you can’t really ride to power on an event like this. The last 10 miles, I could put out big effort and increased average speed and really flew up last few drags, so perhaps I held a little bit too much back on the hillier part of the course. But, overall it was a fairly decent pacing effort for the first outing of the season.
I stopped the clock in 58.49 – which was 4th place. The top two were riders from Pedal Heaven UCI continental team. 1st Lloyd Chapman 57.54 and Joe Fry, 58.02; 3rd place was last years winner , Ashley Cox (Luton CC) 58.29. 1st women was Judy Conibear (Hemel Hempstead)
- Power for race – 295 watts raw
Results 2016
Rider | |||
---|---|---|---|
1 | Lloyd Chapman | Pedal Heaven RT | 00:57:54 |
2 | Joe Fry | Pedal Heaven RT | 00:58:02 |
3 | Ashley Cox | CC Luton | 00:58:29 |
4 | Tejvan Pettinger | Sri Chinmoy Cycling Team | 00:58:49 |
5 | Sebastian Dickson | Thanet RC | 00:59:38 |
6 | Conall Yates | In-Gear Quickvit Trainsharp RT | 00:59:57 |
7 | George Fox | Wellingborough Cycles Race Team | 00:59:59 |
8 | Rhys Howells | Richardsons – Trek RT | 01:00:00 |
9 | Douglas Coleman | CC Luton | 01:00:16 |
10 | John Mulvey | Cambridge University CC | 01:01:28 |
11 | Gray Turnock | Finsbury Park CC | 01:01:58 |
12 | Carl Ferri | Cadence Performance | 01:02:34 |
13 | Roy Chamberlain | Team Corley Cycles | 01:02:51 |
14 | James Fox | CC Luton | 01:03:25 |
15 | Kristian Woolf | King’s Cliffe Flyers | 01:03:60 |
16 | Matija Ilic | Regents Park Rouleurs | 01:04:20 |
17 | Matthew Bond | Kenton RC | 01:04:22 |
18 | Richard Golding | Equipe Velo | 01:04:25 |
19 | Julian Elliott | Finsbury Park CC | 01:04:43 |
20 | Tim Davies | Icknield RC | 01:05:21 |
21 | James Leek | Southgate CC | 01:05:42 |
22 | Christian Yates | East Grinstead CC | 01:06:10 |
23 | Keith Stockwell | Welwyn Whs | 01:06:14 |
24 | Andrew Digby | Welwyn Whs | 01:06:15 |
25 | Jobe Usher | North Road CC | 01:06:26 |
26 | Philip Eaves | London Phoenix CC | 01:06:31 |
27 | Steve Torley | Team Milton Keynes | 01:06:35 |
28 | Colin Bailey | North Road CC | 01:06:56 |
29 | Michael Parry | Welwyn Whs | 01:07:21 |
30 | Angus Fisk | Oxford University CC | 01:07:37 |
31 | Phil Hersey | Eagle Road Club | 01:08:11 |
32 | Oliver Stockwell | Welwyn Whs | 01:08:26 |
33 | Andrew Ames | Southgate CC | 01:08:42 |
34 | Tom Haines | East London Velo | 01:08:44 |
35 | Jamie Dredge | Regents Park Rouleurs | 01:08:49 |
36 | Frank Rawlins | North Road CC | 01:08:55 |
37 | Joshua Vinden | Hemel Hempstead CC | 01:09:04 |
38 | Gavin Lewis | North Road CC | 01:09:19 |
39 | Simon Oxley | Rapha Cycling Club | 01:09:23 |
40 | Mark Ellis | Team Milton Keynes | 01:09:39 |
41 | Dominic Bray | Finsbury Park CC | 01:09:46 |
42 | Anton Blackie | Rapha Cycling Club | 01:10:16 |
43 | Michael Briars | Finsbury Park CC | 01:10:41 |
44 | James Cocker | VC Venta | 01:10:41 |
45 | Jeremy Greenwood | Finsbury Park CC | 01:11:06 |
46 | Hugo Evans | North Road CC | 01:11:31 |
47 | Paul Sexton | VC Norwich | 01:11:34 |
48 | Andrew Jarratt | Southgate CC | 01:11:35 |
49 | Andy Cook | Chippenham & Dist. Whs | 01:11:47 |
50 | Desmond Gayler | Kenton RC | 01:11:52 |
51 | Gregory Smith | Finsbury Park CC | 01:12:15 |
52 | Andrew Burns | Southgate CC | 01:12:35 |
53 | Jon Friend | Bedfordshire Road RT | 01:12:43 |
54 | Iain Boardman | Dulwich Paragon CC | 01:12:45 |
55 | Michael Atkinson | North Road CC | 01:13:28 |
56 | Daniel Homer | London Phoenix CC | 01:13:37 |
57 | Gary Kristensen MBE | Kassei CC TeknoFuel | 01:13:39 |
58 | Gareth Davies | London Phoenix CC | 01:14:56 |
59 | George Brisco | CC London | 01:15:11 |
60 | Jody Conibear (1st W) |
Hemel Hempstead CC | 01:15:51 |
61 | John Saysell | North Road CC | 01:17:12 |
62 | Graham Irvine | London Phoenix CC | 01:17:15 |
63 | Hayley Oates (2nd W) | Hemel Hempstead CC | 01:17:52 |
64 | Nick Hickman | Hitchin Nomads CC | 01:18:15 |
65 | Chris Jones | Icknield RC | 01:18:43 |
66 | Jim Armshaw | Islington CC | 01:19:14 |
67 | Rachael Cottier | London Phoenix CC | 01:19:31 |
68 | David Ravenhill | Newbury RC | 01:19:54 |
69 | Lauren Higham | Welwyn Whs | 01:22:14 |
70 | Graham Ricketts | Verulam CC | 01:22:42 |
71 | Joe Kiely | Welwyn Whs | 01:24:15 |
72 | David Morgan | Icknield RC | 01:25:11 |
73 | Robert Barrett | High Wycombe CC | 01:26:31 |
74 | Christine Pout | Verulam CC | 01:26:36 |
75 | Paul Riley | Hitchin Nomads CC | 01:27:11 |
76 | Nigel Wilson | Hitchin Nomads CC | 01:27:49 |
77 | Martin Webb | Icknield RC | 01:32:02 |
Phil Liggett – Fred Bidlake Memorial Prize
Just before the results, Phil Liggett was awarded The Fred Bidlake Memorial Prize. This is an annual cycling prize given to the most outstanding performance or contribution to cycling.
Phil sounded just like he does on TV, I half expect to see visions of the French Alps when I hear that soothing, reassuring voice.
Past winners of Fred Bidlake Memorial Prize include:
- Frank Southall (1935)
- Marguerite Wilson (1939)
- Reg Harris (1947 and 1949)
- Eileen Sheridan (1950)
- Beryl Burton (1959, 1960, 1967)
- Tom Simpson (1965)
- Hugh Porter (1968)
- Tony Doyle (1980)
- Chris Boardman (1992)
- Graeme Obree (1993)
- Nicole Cooke (2001)
Previous winners of North Road Hardriders Events
The first rider under the hour was Chris Boardman
Prior to 1955 event promoted by Kingsdale C.C.
1955 R. Gosman Barnet CC 1.19.37
1956 to 1958 promoted by Norion CC
1959 A. Howling Castille RC 1.12.49
1960 I. Moore Zeus RC 1.08.53
1961 J. Bompas Finsbury Park CC 1.12.14
1962 D. E. Meekins Welwyn Wheelers 1.12.58
1963 T. Nimmo Letchworth Velo 1.05.58 23 miles
1964 S. Lovatt Century RC 1.10.58
1965 B. McKeown Welwyn Wheelers 1.09.19
1966 B. McKeown Welwyn Wheelers 1.08.15
1967 B. Lapworth CC Islington 1.10.28
1968 J. Winstanley Finsbury Park CC 1.08.23
1969 J. Winstanley Finsbury Park CC 1.09.57
1970 C. Kearley Whitewebbs CC 1.07.04
1971 J. MacMillan West London Cour 1.05.56
1972 J. MacMillan West London Cour 1.05.53
1973 R Cary Whitewebbs CC 1.09.08
1974 D. Sheehy Hainault CC 1.09.39
1975 S. Poulter Highgate CC 1.11.58
1976 A. Engers Woolwich CC 1.08.34
1977 R.J Downs VC Olympia 1.06.42
1978 R.J Downs Anglia Sport 1.08.28
1979 S. Yates Archer RC 1.06.46
1980 T. Stevens 34 Nomads 1.03.45
1981 R. Cary Professional 1.10.47
1982 M. D. Pyne CC Breckland 1.02.03
1983 D. J. Webster Manchester Wheelers 1.01.39
1984 D. J. Webster Manchester Wheelers 1.00.38
1985 D. J. Webster Manchester Wheelers 1.02.56
1986 D. J. Webster Manchester Wheelers 1.02.46
1987 D. J. Webster Manchester Wheelers 1.00.29
1988 E. J. Adkins High Wycombe CC 1.04.31
1989 J. Walshaw Professional 1.03.00
1990 T. M. Jackson Invicta RC 1.02.14
1991 C. M Boardman Manchester Wheelers 0.57.20
1992 R. J. Prebble Wembley RC 0.59.08
1993 No event.
1994 S. Dangerfield North Wirral Velo 0.58.00
1995 G. Butler Norwood Paragon CC 1.00.00
1996 G. Butler Norwood Paragon CC 0.58.32 short course
1997 S.Yates Team Clean 0.58.44
1998 M Belfield GS Strada 1.00.20
1999 G. Butler Norwood Paragon CC 1.05.25 28.2 miles
2000 C. Newton Midridge CRT 1.01.57
2001 No event.
2002 J. Ramsbottom Race Scene 1.04.41 27.4 miles
2003 C.Newton Corima RT 0.51.03 22.2 miles
2004 No event.
2005 M. Huchinson Api-Metrow 0.54.23 23.0 miles
2006 M. Huchinson in-Gear Quickvit RT 0.59.14
2007 R. Prebble Pinarello RT 0.59.45
2008 J. Ramsbottom DeRosa RT 0.42.55 18.0 miles
2009 S. Gaywood Team Corley Cycles 0.58.36
2010 M. Bottrill I-ride.co.uk 0.59.30
2011 W. Sybrandy Sigma Sport 0.42.22 18.0 miles
2012 Wouter Sybrandy IG Sigma Sport 56:36 Course record and 25 mile event record.
2013 Joe Perrett (Team IG-Sigma Sport) (22 miles) in a time of 49.21
2014 Ashley Cox CC Luton CC 00:56:47
2015 Ashley Cox CC Luton CC
2016 Lloyd Chapman Pedal Heaven CC
Congratulations Tejvan. That is a brilliant result considering it is your first race of the Year. I saw you blasting up the final hill on the course. It was insane how fast you were going!
Definitely hear you on the “interruptions”, i had a horse, a learner driver and two other.cars haha – you did a cracking ride mate!
No ‘smooth long climbs’ ?? Does Essenden not count then? :/
1961 Hardriders result: my name is spelled Bompas. Thanks.