Old Men Race around Coniston
Alfie Shaw and I were blessed with clear blue skies for the 20-mile Tour of Coniston Time Trial on Saturday 20th April. We were speculating at the start whether or not the half-mile stretch of road we could see at the start in Torver was the only flat bit of the course. As it turns out, it was.
The race very quickly pitched steeply up and down, heading south-west towards Broughton, before tracking eastwards through Grizebeck and Lowick, then north-west back alongside Coniston Water to Torver. Icing on the cake was a 2.5 kilometre mile long hill about half-way round, that pitched up at 1in7 before easing off at around 1in10, and shortly after this was a long rapid descent with a very deceiving sharp right-hand bend near the bottom. Here, Alfie got himself a nasty speed wobble, and I was heading rapidly towards the drystone walls convinced that I was going to run out of road. Talking with fellow racers afterwards showed that we had all had similar unnerving experiences at this point.
 The miles from Lowick to Torver were a delight, and it was difficult not to be distracted by the beautiful views across to Coniston.
Alfie and I doubted that either of us spent more than 30-seconds in any one gear, and probably spent a total of about 10 miles on the small chainring. At Broughton, I made a complete bish of changing through the gears and jammed the chain completely in the frame, forcing me to a stop. I've no idea how much time was lost and it did rather take the heart out of my race, but given that I was half-way round at the time, I thought I might as well carry on riding. Thirty minutes of Sunday afternoon was dedicated to re-adjusting those gears - there's nothing like a hard course for exposing any mechanical issues.
On a good day, there are few finer places to cycle than the Lake District and without a doubt this was one of the hilliest hillies either of us have ever ridden.
Alfie finished with 1:8:16, me with 1:7:07. Race winner was in-form hilly specialist, Ian Stott (Blackburn and District CTC) with 51:04.
Gethin Butler's course record remains as a stunning 47 minutes.
Richard Cary |
