Hull Thursday Road Race Report

 

Sunday, 20th May, 2007

 

Hull Thursday RC Road Race was won by David Shackleton of Cottingham Coureurs on 20th May 2007.  There was a full field with six Hull Thursday riders.  Jim Sampson has written a full race report with results and photos.  The race ran very smoothly thanks to the support of numerous club members.  In particular, many thanks to Jim Sampson and Mally Daddy for judging, Les Barratt, Andy Cawley and Mike Kilgour for marking out the course and driving race vehicles with Terry Grainger and Bill Clark, Graeme Lawton for sweeping the corners and marshalling, Liz Kilgour for helping at the Headquarters, and a dozen or so other members too numerous to list who gave up their Sunday morning to marshal and make the event a success.  Finally thanks to the sponsors, Keith Carter Ceramics and Allied Surveyors who provided the prize list and enabled a proportion of the proceeds of the race to be donated to the Dave Rayner Fund http://www.daveraynerfund.com/ , and Geoff Thomas Foundation http://www.geoff-thomas.com.  Many thanks, Nathan & Lesley Chester.

 

Sixty riders started together in the Allied / Keith Carter road race on Newbald and there could have been many more if Nathan and Lesley could have obliged the many requests they received over the last couple of weeks. Good that Dean was able to get a ride after sitting apprehensively on the touch line, and unfortunate that Nat himself was unable to compete – but we still managed to field a six man team.

 

It was a beautiful day, blue skies and sunshine with only a slight breeze and a day for the adventurous, especially with six climbs of Newbald hill to tackle.

Favourite on paper must have been ex elite rider Richard Sutcliffe on his comeback trail and at the completion of the first lap he showed his dominance by taking the first prime. This lap was done in 20’ 40” and Sutcliffe had stretched the field all over the hill, closely followed by Rob Watkinson and Damian Sharp. Michael Chorlton and Dean Fulstow were in the first eight but you could almost feel the aching legs and screaming lungs as the rest of the field strained to get back together.  Steve Macklin and Mattie Barratt were in the middle of all this but John Askew and Darren Bendelow were struggling near the back. Darren goes well on the flat but this was far from that.

 

Lap two was a bit slower in 21’ 41” and we were able to cheer as Michael Chorlton and Steve Macklin had opened up a gap on the main field. Not a lot in 13 seconds but a good chance that a few others would get across to them and form a winning break. Dean and Mattie were sitting comfortably in the bunch and John was still managing to hang on. Good to see the girl Cathy Hare sitting comfortably sandwiched between Dave Shackleton and Martin Pitchford; she was in good company and a perfect rehearsal for the national ladies race on this course in June. Paul Joliffe was really struggling off the back and wasn’t taking kindly to this course at all.

 

At the half-way mark Richard Sutcliffe and Damian Sharp had half a minute on the group, Mike Chorlton hadn’t given up, he was chasing hard at the front of a small chasing group. With him was Mel Blackford, Dave Shackleton, Mattie, John Galway, Martin Pitchford, Garry and Dean Fulstow, Martin Cockerill and Steve Macklin. But the rest of the peloton were hard on their heels. This lap was completed in 20’ 21”.

 

With two to go, a slower lap in 21.38, Sutcliffe and Sharpe were still ahead but only by a hundred yards. A dozen riders were hot on their heels, among them were Mattie and Dean. Cathy Hare was just behind them and a group containing Michael Chorlton, Garry Fulstow and Steve was just behind as well – all within spitting distance of each other.

On the bell we had a new prime winner, Jonathan Muir, from a group of nine riders including Dave Shackleton, Mattie Barratt, Martin Pitchford, Richard Sutcliffe, and Steve Macklin. Unfortunately this is where Steve had to call it a day with a puncture. Was this the final selection?  I didn’t think so.

 

Although the riders had tackled Newbald six times, (seven if you count the ride up to the start) we still had a good gallop at the end to enjoy. Dave Shackleton took a good win from up and coming junior Matthew Hartley who must be praised for beating Richard Sutcliffe into third place. Best of our was Mattie who came in with Michael just off the pace, and Dean and Garry were just behind them. Also worthy of note was Cathy Hare’s fine eighth place, but nothing for the men to be ashamed of, she looked so strong. Good luck to her in the Nationals. I nearly didn’t give Jason Shipton a place when I conjoined the numbers 50 and 4 into 54; so my apologies to him.

 

I heard from a number of riders that they enjoyed the course; a bit tough maybe but a real race. The weather was kind to us and Nathan and Lesley must be thanked for their fine organisation.

 

 

Result of Hull Thursday Road Race
Sponsored by Allied Surveyors and Keith Carter Ceramics
Organised by Nathan and Lesley Chester
Sunday, 20th May, 2007-05-20

 

Pos.	Rider	Club / Team	Cat.	85K
1	David Shackleton	Cottingham Coureurs	3rd	02:05:20
2	Matthew Hartley	Sheffield Pheonix Cycling Club	4'h J	s.t.
3	Richard Sutcliffe	York Cycleworks	3rd	s.t.
4	Jason Shipton	Whitby Endeavour	3rd	s.t.
5	Rob Watkinson	Doncaster Wheelers	4th	s.t.
6	Damian Sharp	West Yorkshire Police'	4th	s.t.
7	Keith Middleton	Velo Club Lincoln	3rd v	@ 6 sec
8	Catherine Hare	Rapha / Condor	Elite W	s.t.
9	Andrew Jackson	Ashfield Road Club	3rd v	s.t.
10	Andy Marshall	V S Cycles - Brighouse	3rd v	@ 10 sec
11	Mark Wolstenholme	Team Swift Allsports	3rd	s.t.
12	James Struthers	Lindsey Roads	4th	s.t.
13	John Galway	KeswickBikes.co.uk	3 d V	@ 14 sec
14	Mel Blackford	Bridlington Cycling Club	3rdV	s.t.
15	Tony Grassby	VC167	3rd V	s.t.
16	Paul Hickman	Malton Wheelers Road Club	4th	s.t.
17	Mark Baillie	York Cycleworks	4th	@ 20 sec
18	Matthew Barratt	Hull Thursday Road Club	3rd	s.t.
19	Michael Chorlton	Hull Thursday Road Club	3rd V	s.t.
20	James Wagstaff	OBRI Coaching Racing Team	4th J	s.t.
21	Chris Dransfield	Private Member	3rd	@ 34 sec
22	Bradley Johnston	Doncaster Wheelers	4th	s.t.
23	Lee Watson	Team Swift-Allsports	3rd	@ 39 sec
24	Colin Payne	Velo Club Lincoln	3rd V	s.t.
25	Dean Fulstow	Hull Thursday Road Club	3rd V	@ 49 sec
26	Garry Fulstow	Private	3rd V	@ 52 sec
27	Martin Pitchford	Scunthorpe Poly Cycling Club	3rd	@ 1' 10"
28	John Askew	Hull Thursday Road Club	4th	@ 3' 45"
29	Paul Bennett	Melton Olympic Cycling Club	3rd	s.t.
30	Steve Maltby	Doncaster Wheelers	3rd v	@ 10' 22"
31	Tim Moorhouse	Boneshakers RT	3rd	@ 11' 45"
32	Daniel McClusky	White Knight Road Club	3rd	@ 11' 55"
33	Dion Magyar	Bronte Wheelers	4th	@ 14' 50"
34	Hannah Bussey	Team Luciano	1St W	@ 17' 45"
35	Terry Parker	Hull & East Riding Road Club	3rd V	s.t.
36	Colin Baldwin	Malton Wheelers Road Club	4th	@ 18' 10"