March RRC Action!
Rossendale Road Club is perhaps a misnomer since the club aims to cater for both on and off road cyclists, and for competitive and leisure rides. After the Easter weekend, the club will be holding group rides on Thursday evenings (road) and Saturday mornings (on and off road) at a steady pace and aimed particularly at newcomers. All are welcome but please remember to bring lights on the evening rides. Full details will be on the club’s Facebook and Website pages.
The end of season presentation took place on Friday 24th March at the Marl Pits sports club for the 2022/23 North West cyclo-cross series. And it was the Bury based 360 Cycling Club who were the most dominant club, taking awards in virtually all age groups, but Ramsbottom’s Phil Simcock took one of the toughest competitions, winning the Male V50 series by just one point, with wife Jacqui also victorious in the corresponding Ladies class. Other awards from Rossendale’s riders were local harrier, Phil Warner, taking the Male V70 series with club colleague, Graham Wright in 3rd, Derek Schofield 3rd in the Male V60 and together with Adrian Watts, taking Rossendale RC to 2nd in the team classification.
A special award was given to Helmshore’s Dave Haygarth who, together with Adrian Watts and Karen Heptonstall, were responsible for organising the National Championships in the North West for the first time in many years.
Back on the roads, and Helen Thomas showed her improvement the previous week by winning the Ladies V50 award in the Tour of Ingleborough time trial, used as a prelude to the classic 50 Mile Tour of the Dales event this coming Sunday.
Away from the hills, the Combined Clubs 10 mile TT event took place on Saturday 25th at Winmarleigh, near Garstang, but the gusty coastal winds across Cockerham sands didn’t make the course any easier. Rossendale Road Club turned out a strong team, but they couldn’t quite match the Rock2Roll cycling club who posted 1st, 3rd and 10th places to take the team win ahead of RRC. Individually there were some close results amongst the RRC team – Patrick Hickey, on his return from injury after 19 months, was 4th overall in 23:44 min, just 4 seconds in front of Craig Venske. James Eastwood came home 11th in 24:33, Iain Hazell 13th in 26:00, and Dave Haygarth 16th in 26:44. Derek Schofield missed out on the V60 award by 15 secs, finishing 21st in 28:21, narrowly beating Mick Taylor by 3 secs.
Over the last weekend, the principal off road event was held at Lee Quarry with the first round of this year’s Crank It mountain bike series. There were demonstrations, try-a-bike events and races for both seniors and juniors. Best local performance in the races was probably Elsie Haygarth of Helmshore who came home in an excellent 2nd Female, and 15th overall in the Youth event. Father Dave followed this home with 4th Vet and 15th overall in the Elite Men’s race with Adrian Watts 16th Vet.
Further afield, several RRC members went North to take part in the classic Tour of the Dales 50 mile time trial. The route starts at Ingleton and visits Sedbergh, Garsdale Head to Hawes, Ribblehead and via Chapel – le – Dale to return to Ingleton. Just to finish this event is an achievement in itself, so the win by 17 year old Patrick Casey of Anexo Racing Team in a time of 1:56:17 at an average speed of almost 28 mph was sensational. Casey finished almost 8 minutes of second placed Richard Bideau of Pendle Forest and is a name to watch for the future. RRC’s Craig Venske also had a great ride to finish 17th overall with a time of 2:16:50. New club member Mike Fraser came home 56th in 3:07 hr in his first TT, with partner Helen Thomas knocking a huge chunk off her PB 4 places back in 3:15:08. Other valley club member Derek Schofield unfortunately pulled out with a puncture just 9 miles from the finish.
Photos (last to first):
Helen Thomas with the Ladies V50 award at Ingleborough
Phil Warner and Graham Wright with the V70 awards
Phil and Jacqui Simcock with their respective V50 awards
Patrick Hickey in a stunning return to competition at Cockerham
The Rossendale RC at the Combined Club’s TT photo courtesy of Runningpix)
Dave Haygarth airborne at Lee Quarry
Elsie Haygarth on her way to 2nd Female in the youth’s race
