Yorkshire Road Club 25

Riding his first open time trial for over two years, Ben Marsh (HUUB-WattShop) stormed to victory in the Yorkshire Road Club 25-mile event in North Yorkshire on Saturday, while Selby CC’s Beth Grogan continued her good recent form with victory in the women’s category.

Normally seen in road racing and with second spot in the Jock Wadley Memorial Road Race already under his belt for 2024, Under-23 rider Marsh upset Spindata predictions with a time of 51-45, a personal best for the winner of the 2021 National Youth Championship.

Top junior rider Joe Cosgrove (Team Bottrill) had been predicted to take the win by national rankings system Spindata, but he had to settle for second spot behind Marsh, a minute and a half slower.

Veteran Marcel Schubert (Zurbaran Racing) was third with 54-25, while fourth – and receiving the junior prize under the ‘one rider one prize’ rule was Joseph Turnbull (Team Bottrill) in 54-49.

Meanwhile in the women’s category Beth Grogan clocked 1-03-32 which gave her victory in that category by 1-33 from road bike rider Samantha Bissell (City Road Club Hull), with third being Angela Hannon-Flaherty (Seacroft Wheelers), another 59 seconds off the pace.

The event was run off on a fine, dry and sunny afternoon on the V235 course near Marton-cum-Grafton from Walshford to Boroughbridge and back, with a tailwind mainly on the outward leg and headwind finishing five miles.

“It was a really good TT,” said Marsh, who rides the Birdwell Wheelers 10 next weekend and the Matlock CC 10 and VTTA East Midlands 25 the following week.

“I had been hoping to do around the 50 mark or even sub 50, but ended up with a 51 which I think with pretty breezy conditions I can be happy with and a marker to improve on.

“My legs were feeling good and I think I paced it very well. There were specific sections of the course that you had to distribute the power differently. For instance with a long uphill headwind section you had to power through that and recover on the downhill tailwind sections. I think I did a good job of that.”

And Grogan said afterwards: “I've done this course a few times before and also been up there three times this year for the 10 on the same course, so I'm quite familiar with it now.

“There's a five-mile uphill drag on the course which had a headwind yesterday, I knew when I saw the forecast of the wind coming from the north that that stretch was going to be really tough with the combination of the uphill and the headwind. The first time up that stretch between miles 5-10 felt really tough but I knew I needed to push on to try gain time.

“Coming back down the other side of the course was much nicer with the downhill and tailwind, then a difficult final push up the hill into the headwind again for the final five miles.

“My finish time was 10 seconds slower than my course PB for this course, which I was really pleased with considering it felt like a tough day yesterday so felt that I had a strong ride.”

In other categories, while Turnbull took the junior prize, second spot went to Clifton CC’s Daniel Kemp in 56-42.

Top veteran was Schubert in third, but on standard the best was his 63-year-old team-mate at Zurbaran Racing Matt Hill, who had an actual time of 57-07 for 13th overall which gave him a plus of 14-41, 11 seconds better than 67-year-old team-mate Russ Richardson who was second on standard.

On road bikes Ravensthorpe CC’s Joseph Healy clocked 1-00-40 to win that category, while second-fastest female, Samantha Bissell (City Road Club Hull) was top female on a road bike.

* All reports are copyright of Cycling Time Trials/Snowdon Sports. Not to be used without permission.

 

Results:

Open:

1. Ben Marsh (HUUB-WattShop)      51.45

2. Joe Cosgrove (Team Bottrill)          53.15

3. Marcel Schubert (Zurbaran Racing)           54.25

4. Joseph Turnbull (Team Bottrill)      54.49

5. Stuart Henderson (ADDFORM-Vive le Velo)        55.21

6. John Brearley (ADDFORM-Vive le Velo) 55.40

Women:

1. Beth Grogan (Selby CC)    1:03.32

2. Samantha Bissell (City RC Hull)    1:05.05

3. Angela Hannon-Flaherty (Seacroft Wheelers)        1:06.04

4. Hebe Picking (Jadan-Vive le Velo) 1:06.26

5. Sally Maitland (Ratae RC) 1:06.55

6. Arame Tall-Delgado (Rapha CC)   1:08.54

Road Bikes: Joseph Healy (Ravensthorpe CC)          1:00.40

Women: Samantha Bissell (City RC Hull) 1:05.05

Juniors: Joe Cosgrove (Team Bottrill)            53.15

Veterans on std: Matt Hill (Zurbaran Racing) (57.07)            +14.41