SpoCo stands for “Sporting Course”. I know that now. Nothing to do with Star Trek, although maybe the pointy helmets belong there.

In the words of Richard Belk: “Open event time-trialling is under enormous pressure because it requires fast, flat courses which also tend to be A-roads and dual-carriageways. Conflict with ever-increasing traffic is gradually strangling the faster courses and we have long supported the development of the Lakes & Lancs SpoCo and the use of hillier, less busy roads and lanes that are, quite frankly, more fun to compete on.”

In my opinion, the SpoCos are amazing. Properly interesting courses, always challenging, a chance to race with amazing athletes at a budget price (they’re around £10 to enter) and just a damn good bike ride.

The first I entered was organised by Lancaster CC on the Lune valley “L211” 22 mile course. Time trial courses are assigned a code consisting of numbers preceded by letters: the letter L indicates that the course is in the North. It harks back to when racing bikes was banned in 1890 (at one point it looked as though cycling in general would be banned!) but rebels continued by setting off at evenly spaced intervals on coded courses with no numbers to attract attention. Time trialling was born.

L211 starts just outside Caton, then heads through Hornby, Melling and Tunstall (over the horrific road surface there) and over the Lune to Kirkby Lonsdale. The course then takes the Carnforth road down to Whittington and Arkholme, finishing just before the Green Lane turn for Crook o’ Lune.

I love the Lune valley and it seemed rude not to have a go at this course, especially as I sometimes ride it on my work commute. I was pretty nervous about entering a “proper” open event (as opposed to a Club one) but I kept telling myself it was all points for KVRC, I just needed to finish. And this type of course seemed much more my thing than a soulless tonk up and down a dual carriageway. If (when!) I had a bad race at least it would be have been a nice ride.

It felt very strange to drive to an event: every race I'd done prior to this I'd ridden to. It was in the car park in Caton that I finally realised that I get very cold when I'm nervous and that is my overwhelming memory of the period before the start, being very cold. I attempted to warm up on the road out of Caton up to Quernmore, bumping into the KVRC club ride on their way to Scorton in the process, which was a welcome morale boost. I arrived back no warmer but even more nervous and collected my race number. Driving to a race posed the question of what to do with my car keys. Leave them in a "hidden" place and risk losing them (or worse, the car) or stick them in a back pocket and lose out on aerodynamics? Keeping the car won. However, when putting the keys in one of my rear pockets (using my by now non-functioning hands) I managed to unknowingly unpin one corner of my number. So I rode my first SpoCo with a flapping number that my husband later described as a "bonnet scoop". What an amateur!

bonnet scoop...	flapping number... (photo by ridingforlove.com)

After some biblical weather the previous day the weather gods were actually pretty kind: a fairly stiff westerly verging south westerly wind made the outward leg almost enjoyable, with the added bonus of seeing Carolyn Holden who was marshalling at the bridge over the river Greta in Cantsfield. The hills from Arkholme onwards were less pleasant (my bike came very close to being thrown into a hedge) but it’s not meant to be easy, right? It was intimidating to be riding with the likes of Simon Wilson and Christina Wiejak, both of whom overtook me at a rate of knots on the climbs out of Arkholme, but it was also totally inspiring to be able to watch them race, if only briefly!

I really enjoyed the whole thing, such that I went on to enter a load more SpoCos (and enjoyed them, too! Further blog to follow...) I would thoroughly recommend getting over the nerves to give the SpoCos a go and stop worrying about being last. Personally I am eternally grateful to whoever comes last in an event and always give them an internal word of thanks. I hope others do the same when it’s me!

• More information about the Lakes and Lancs SpoCos can currently be found here http://www.lakesandlancsspoco.co.uk/ but the NLTTA website https://nltta.org.uk/about-spoco/ will be hosting them from 2020 onwards.
• You can enter them via the CTT website (once the dates are finalised) https://www.cyclingtimetrials.org.uk/find-events
• Strava segment for Lancs Hilly 2019

Claire Rushton