Ian finds his form in the hills

Team Swift 'Circuit of the Wolds' Hilly TT - 28/04/2007 - Pocklington, East Yorkshire

The 39 riders for the Team Swift’s ‘Circuit of the Wolds’ were greeted with clear skies, warm sunshine and a stiff breeze. The course is based at Pocklington and covers 2 laps of an circuit that not only requires good climbing skills but good bike handling as some of the roads are narrow with fast descents.

The course started in Pockington outside the Pocklington Woldgate College and headed towards Warter, going over the major climb on the course which comes within half a mile of the start, at the summit, it’s two more laps before finishing back at the top of the climb. A tricky twisty decent off the top off the climb followed and two short rises before you entered Warter, then a left turn and up hill again towards Huggate. This climb was steeper at the bottom and then dragged on all the way to Hugate. Left in Hugate and still more climbing, but only a short section to the top of Millington Dale. By now the riders had the wind behind them and the top steeper section of Millington Dale had riders speeds just under 50mph, this section of the course was on a narrow single track road with several twists and turns but was well marshalled by the promoting club. The short climb out of the Dale was on two sweeping hairpin bends similar to an alpine climb, to pass the village of Millington before the final decent of the lap and the last flat section before entering Pocklington to complete the lap.

Cherry Valley’s Ian Dalton was seeded number 30 and had competition from riders in front and behind him, so it was going to be difficult to get up to date time checks during the race. For some reason last years runner up C. Evans – Clifton CC started one minute in front of Ian, generally seeded riders are spaced at 5 minute intervals, and on the climb Ian had Evans in his sights and by the top of the first climb was only 30 seconds behind and by Warter the first of the top riders was caught. On the climb to Huggate Ian was catching and passing more riders and hoping for a clean run through Millington Dale, which apart from the odd car was achieved. Climbing out of Millington Dale Ian didn’t receive any time checks on the earlier favoured riders, (A. Marshall V C Cycles and Joel Wainman – Team Swift Allsports) but by the time A. Jackson – Yorkshire Velo arrived there he was already one minute slower than Ian.

The second lap Ian continued his fast pace, by riding up the main climbs at a controlled pace so over the top of the climbs the speed could be increased quickly. On the second time through Millington Dale Ian was able to receive some time checks and they were looking good. Ian was 4mins faster than A. Marshall and 2min 50 sec quicker then Joel Wainman, A. Jackson had a mechanical problem on his second lap and was unable to finish, and it was looking like another victory for Ian unless he was to have the same kind of bad luck over the final 5 miles.

At the finish A. Marshall recorded a time of 1hr 26mins 15sec to take the lead, this lasted until Joel Wainman crossed the line with a time of 1hr 24mins 42sec, but to was soon relegated to second place when Ian crossed the line stopping the clock with a time of 1hr 21mins 17sec and repeat his victory of the previous year.