A close second for Ian

Glossop Kinder Velo Mountain TT - 23/04/2006 - Peak District

Sunday morning in Glossop brought a dull overcast start to the day for Cherry Valley RT’s Ian Dalton who was riding the 26 miles of the Glossop Kinder Velo Hilly TT. Low cloud and drizzle was encountered when crossing the highest point of the Pennines but this slightly improved when arriving at the headquarters. With the roads been wet Ian decided to warm up on his turbo trainers rather then get wet and cold before racing. From the headquarters the weather looked bright and clear westwards over Manchester, unfortunately for Ian the course headed south and you could see that the top of the first climb out of Glossop was still covered in cloud.

By the time the first rider left the time keeper the low cloud was starting to lift and drift away in very light winds. These light winds had the riders thinking that there was a possibility of quicker the usual times for the tough route. Especially as the race sponsor ‘The Bike Shop’ had offered £100.00 to the fastest rider to beat the course record of 1 hr 10 mins 39 sec set by Ian Dalton in 2004. This ‘incentive’ had attracted a good quality field for the event. The three main contenders looked to be Mark Lovett – Planet X (former National Hillclimb Champion and previous winner of the Tour of the Peaks road race, which used some of this course), Nigel White – Sherwood CC who always performs well in the tough events and Cherry Valley’s Ian Dalton who had won this event for the last 4 years. There was also a hand full of other riders who all had a chance of a top placing.

Nigel White, Sherwood CC, was the first of the seeded riders to start off number 10 out of the 47 rider field, with the two riders in front of Nigel not starting it would be a few miles before Nigel could see any riders he was catching.

By now the weather had improved and all the low clouds had lifted and the sun was trying to shine, so the latter starters would have a slightly warmer ride. The next seeded rider to start was Mark Lovett, Planet X, he too had a non starter in front so with the Chunal climb out of Glossop there was little opportunity to catch any riders before the first summit of the day.

Last years winner Cherry Valley’s Ian Dalton was the last rider to start, Ian also had non starter in front of him, 2 minutes in front of Ian was Charles Taylor, South Pennine Road Club, who would prove to be a hard rider to catch. Ian’s first sight of catching riders was on the second climb out of Hayfield, in previous years Ian had caught riders in the first climb. The roads were still damp in places and meant great care was needed on the decents as speeds reached up to 50mph On the decent of the Chinley climb Ian crossed the first rider heading back, this was Nigel White who had just caught Thomas Clark, Buxton CC Sett Valley Cycles, and was now the first rider on the road and would set the standard for everyone else to beat. Nigel stopped the clock with an impressive time of 1 hr 13 mins 25 sec which would be good enough to claim 3rd place eventually.

By now Ian was on the bottom loop of the course which took riders out of Chapel on le Frith to Sparrowpit and climbed again to the back of Winnats Pass before returning along Rushop Edge and descending back down into Chapel en le Frith. This section of the course can make or break a good time as generally the wind comes from a westerly direction helping the riders up the climb from Sparrowpit, but this year with light winds would this 4 mile section of climbing keep the course record safe for another year?

As Ian reached the highest point of the course he could see that he was slowly catching Charles Taylor and along Rushop Edge Ian could get into a good rhythm as this was one of the few level sections on the course, passing through Chapel en le Frith time check showed that Mark Lovatt was setting the pace around 20 seconds quicker than Nigel White and Ian Dalton who were neck and neck. Mark Lovatt crossed the finish line to take the lead with a time of 1 hr 12 mins 13 secs

The next climb for Ian was the Chinley out of Chapel en le Frith it was here that Ian finally passed Charles Taylor with just under 5 miles to go and still two more climbs. On the final climb, the Chunal, Ian caught three riders at the bottom on the steepest section, halfway up the climb looking at his stopwatch Ian’s time went passed that of his course record. With the finish just over the summit of the climb Ian stopped the clock with a time of 1 hr 13 mins 19 sec which was good enough for second place on the day.