#prolitewheels

George Darlington Mem. Clieves Hill 10/07/2016

 Clieves Hill is a local circuit for me which I first won on 24 years ago and have done a few more times since. It is a circuit when you ride round the first time you think this is OK but as the race progresses it suddenly starts to get a bit tough. I was very keen to ride this race as I always remember getting really good advice from George in races when I started out and I am sure every other cyclist from this region can say the same.

 The George Darlington Mem was a TLI event and my race was everyone under the age of 50 with a few riders racing who have been going well lately. On the day the wind didn’t really help a break and pretty much from the first lap it was attach after attack as nothing stuck.

 With about 3 laps left a break eventually formed but we had riders missing turns so it was never fully 100% effort and going into the last lap another group got on to us making 5 riders in the front from Bio-racer. On the last lap Chris Quin attacked with Dan Whelan and Ryan Pike jumping across to him. As we approached the final turn to the uphill finish the front 3 had about 5-10sec gap and I was sat forth wheel in the group behind thinking the gap was bridgeable.

 Then I won’t mention names but the rider in front of me thought there was another lap left and as Kris Zentek and Paul Lally turned rider No 3 in the line went straight and took me with him. After a bit of cursing, stopping, turning round and going again I was 200m off the group I had just been with which pretty much wiped any chance I had of winning.

 In the end Dan Whelan took the win which was fully deserved from Ryan with Lally third.

 Although the end of my race was a bit of a disaster it felt great to race in a National Champs jersey in a race dedicated to George which was raced from the 1st mile to the last.