More SpoCos
Following the Lancaster CC hilly in the Lune valley I entered another six SpoCos in 2019.
I spent a lot of the winter and spring of 2019 battling chest infection after chest infection. I was coughing the whole time and generally pretty unwell. As a result, this SpoCo was a real doubt: I hadn’t been on the bike at all in the week before the event, which is unheard of for me. So it was one that I was just relieved to finish! It is a proper rollercoaster of a ride, with lots of long rises and descents, and beautiful surroundings (especially considering its proximity to the M6 and the fact that it is a fairly major A road) but I was less of a fan of its out and back nature.
I finished (which I saw as a success, considering!), and the result wasn’t a disaster, but I was left feeling frustrated and keen to improve.
Richard Belk had warned me that this was a great course, but potentially dangerous... The first half, from Askham to Shap via Butterwick, is absolutely brilliant. I was really glad I’d recce’d it beforehand: I already knew about the sharp left hander into Bampton Grange but I didn’t know about the downhill at the start through Lowther park. Beautiful, until the tight turns over cattle grids followed by a very narrow bridge and a sharp right hand bend... Askham is a fabulous village and the course then flies out towards Butterwick, again through some slightly dubious narrow sections of road before the Bampton Grange handbrake turn and a mean grind up to Shap. This was where the 2019 SpoCo ended for me, and many others, as roadworks with convoy traffic lights rendered the section up the A6 farcical. A great shame but an opportunity to chat with some of the other riders on the way back to HQ. Unfinished business!
section of course completed before cancellation
Barrow Central Wheelers – Coast Road
What a brilliant course this is. It felt a real privilege to be able to ride it as a time trial. When I’ve ridden the road in the past it screams out at you GUN IT!
The course kids you into thinking it’s flat. It’s not. There are some tough climbs at both ends of the coast road and I get the impression that the wind is NEVER on your side. Not many deep section front wheels on display in this SpoCo! The wind was particularly tough on the way home in this race so I was pretty pleased just to hang in there and get my first Coast 21 done. This, plus the entertainment of finding the start from the Glaxo HQ...and then finding the way back!
Kent Valley Road Club – Wild Boar Fell
This one was COLD!!! (This seemed a recurring feature of the SpoCos??!) But what a beauty of a course. Wild Boar Fell was the course I’d wanted to do for a long time and was what encouraged me to enter a SpoCo in the first place. I just love the Yorkshire Dales and Garsdale and Mallerstang are fabulous places to cycle.
I wasn’t too upset about the roadworks which pushed the start back to beyond the nasty climb up to the Fairfield Mill viewpoint, if I’m honest. However, in a bid to stay warm, I’d stayed warming up on the course for longer than normal and was really pushing it to get to the start on time. Graeme Mckee just about managed to catch me ready for pushing off, Bruce Barnes chuckled at me for being so late, then it was time for Margaret Belk to call 5,4,3,2,1... So much for taking it easy up the last climb before the start, I started the race practically at max heart rate!
My start time was one of the last. A late start always makes me nervous anyway (I hate keeping everyone waiting) but WBF is a long course and I could potentially be keeping the timekeepers and marshals hanging around a LONG time. Sure enough I was overtaken by the speedy Clare Swoboda and various others pretty early on (I thought Niall Paterson was a motorbike which gives you an idea of the speed he was going at) and by the time I got to the Moorcock Inn I knew I was the last rider out on the course with a pretty big chunk of riding still to do. I was less than impressed to be met by a flock of sheep crossing the road at the farm part way up Mallerstang and there was a fair bit of cursing from me while they crossed the road. I later learned that one of the riders had had a spill on the gravel here and felt that being held up for a minute or so was a small price to pay for staying on the bike!
photo: https://www.ridingforlove.com/
I’d ridden Tommy Road from west to east, so I knew what was in store the other way. I did my best to attack it as best I could and remember feeling pretty broken by the time I got to Tom Wall who was marshalling on the Cautley Road. But the reward for the slog up Garsdale into the wind was the most tremendous tailwind back to Sedbergh. I was grinning ear to ear on the descent. A superb course that I can’t recommend highly enough.
photo: https://www.ridingforlove.com/
Kent Valley Road Club – Shap hill climb
I was TERRIFIED of this one. TOO terrified and intimated, to be honest. It kept me awake at night for a long time before the event and I worried about it for the whole of the May bank holiday weekend. I knew the course reasonably well: I’d ridden up Shap a few times and had done the “Jungle Cafe” TT (up to the caravan park and back to Kendal) on a number of occasions. But I think this probably made the prospect worse.
I am not built for hill climbs. Plus, I wasn’t sure what bike to do it on. My road bike is far more comfortable for climbing (I was conscious comfort doesn’t necessarily equal speed!) but there are flattish bits and descents where it’d be a definite gain being on the TT bike. I sought advice: “Shap isn’t a true hill climb. It’s a time trial followed by a hill climb” (John Roberts); “being on the TT bike means you’ll work hard enough up the final climb” (Andy Barlow). I went for the TT bike and I think it was the right choice, but during the section beyond the Jungle Cafe the toys were close to being thrown out of the pram. I paced this one all wrong and was frankly just grateful to finish.
photo: Stewart Rushton
At the start I did wonder why riders were stashing tops in Margaret’s car, who was timekeeper at the finish. The start was in glorious sunshine but there was a fairly unceremonious dump of hail after about 10 minutes and Shap summit is high... suffice to say, I realised why it was probably worth having another layer to ride down. Thankfully, this was the one SpoCo I’d done where I had a “support” team: my husband and kids had driven to the finish and I gratefully accepted a lift down. There were some cold riders back at the Kendal Rugby Club HQ!
Border City Wheelers - Hilly
This is in a fabulous part of the country, just south of Carlisle, with views of the Back o’ Skiddaw. It has crazy right hand turns, crazy sharp corners, crazy long climbs and the crazy Doctor’s Brow. But it was great fun!
I hadn’t quite put two and two together about the distance until just before the start, which was just before what would normally be my lunch time. I realised it was going to take me about an hour and a half. For me, this was a bit of a shocker, I hadn’t really sorted out “nutrition” for this ride. I scoffed a banana and hoped it would do the job (and that I wouldn’t be seeing it again part way round!)
There is long grind of a climb up Brocklebank, part way through the course, and I caught myself drifting off, looking at Skiddaw. Another part of my brain shouted “EMILY MEAKIN WOULD NOT BE LOOKING AT SKIDDAW RIGHT NOW! Concentrate!” Just then, Richard Bickley came thundering past me, somehow managing to say “well done” as if he were out for a Sunday stroll. Descending through Hesket Newmarket was utterly terrifying, but totally exhilarating, and Sedbergham was similar. I really tried to attack Doctor’s Brow, telling myself it was a short, punchy climb, it would be over soon. It was: but I hadn’t counted on my legs totally letting me down on the much less steep 4% gradient at the “top”. For first time, I was completely unable to turn a gear. Not pretty! All in all I found it a tough ride, but well worth it, and amazing to be able to ride in the same event as the likes of Anna Turvey.
I thoroughly enjoyed the whole SpoCo series and the icing on the cake was winning some money, a real surprise as (1) I had no idea that prize money was available and (2) I had no expectation whatsoever of getting any prize at all. I was simply extremely pleased not to be last. I told my husband I’d be able to afford new wheels with my winnings! He informed me that I was deluded about the cost of wheels and that the cash might just about buy me a set of spokes.
I’ll do as many SpoCos as I can in 2020, they are great. We live in such a brilliant part of the world and it’s great to be able to support time trials on our iconic roads. There are plenty more to try! Next year I’d love to do the Circuit of Ingleborough and I have a (not so secret) pipe dream about doing the (50 mile) Circuit of the Dales, which runs from Ingleton, down to Cantsfield, back up to Kirkby via Tunstall, on to Sedbergh, Garsdale, Hawes, Newby Head then back down Chapel-le-Dale to Ingleton, but that might be a bit beyond me. I guess there is only one way to find out. It certainly fits with “at least it’s a nice bike ride”.
Claire Rushton
You can enter the SpoCo series via the Cycling Time Trials (CTT) website. More information about the Lakes and Lancs SpoCos can be found on the North Lancs Time Trial Association (NLTTA) website.
Strava thumbnails and links to Strava segments for each SpoCo that I attempted are below:
| Border City Wheelers - A6 | Beacon Wheelers - Lowther | Barrow Central Wheelers - Coast Road |
| KVRC - Wild Boar Fell | KVRC - Shap Hill Climb | Border City Wheelers - Hilly |