Road racing

You’ve got the crit series at Tameside. Last year it started in April. I think they do a cat 4 only race occasionally but the most regular event is a 3/4 race.

Look on the BC calendar for events.

There are plenty of 3/4 road races around starting from next month. Not many in Manchester but if you’re prepared and able to drive an hour, there’s no shortage.

Cull Cup in Rainford on Merseyside on 10 March is a decent place to start.

Are you riding regularly with a club? They’ll be able to point you in the right direction.

Does anyone know of any cat 4 road races in the north west/Manchester area? Does such a thing exist? Or am I best looking at crits?

Try here.

There you go. Looks like a weekly Cat 4 only crit at Tameside. Good place to start I reckon.

How much climbing in a cat 4 crit at hog hill?
Is it a small chain ring job even if running a compact?

Depends how hard the bunch is going, or what kind of cadence you enjoy. Do-able on the big ring and may be worthwhile because the bunch often kicks at the bottom and top of the hill and you don't really want to be fucking about changing gear on the front.

Yes, I've dropped a chain going over the top before.

Me too. Still think it's worth spinning up and over the top and get back in the big ring on the short downhill section.

Also at the top is where everyone attacks, which whilst obvious is actually quite effective.

I did a cat 4 last month with a compact. Shifted into the little ring during well before the hill on every lap and it was def the right move for me. I fitted new rings the night before and dropped my chain once, but as I was doing it early I was able to get it back on without losing any time.

Stuck with the small ring for the final climb/sprint and although I reached 120rpm and was cross chaining a bit, I won the bunch sprint so think it was the right call.

Thanks, planning to mash the big gear.
However im used to lee valley which I need almost no shifting.
Are the two courses a comparable effort?

Roughly how many times do you hit the hill on average?
Any chance you can share a strava post of a race example?

Better to lose than to shift into the little ring.

• (Expert at losing)
  

Thanks, and @Tenners . Have got myself in the Tameside group on fb and found a few road circuit races around too. Have also found a 'race skills' event too which should be good. As per I'll get all excited about this then race once but it's nice going into it with good intentions.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1104641218

Ew. 395W NP is bloody mental.

All of the London circuits (and Cyclopark) are big ring (53) only. If you've got a semi-compact or a smaller it's even easier.

Main problem as mentioned above is potential to drop chains or a slow shift. You want to be focusing on position and response to others rather than shifting your front derailleur.

For me, HH is lower average but higher NP. Pretty easy on the laps and hard on the hill/if you have to chase after it.

I raced HH and then Lea Valley on consecutive weekends and came 2nd twice. HH felt 'harder' but I also tried to go with every attack! Only tried to go with 75% of attacks at the velopark.

HH - AP 230 NP 289
LV - AP 247 NP 277

Stupid breakaway was stupid. Mostly as I did too much work and came last in the sprint..!

At last!

A reason to post in this thread.

Against the odds the Victor Berlemont Trophy Race is back. It has a new organiser (Andrew Pearce) and a new sponsor (Verco Office Furniture Ltd). It will be a High Wycombe CC promotion, although I have no doubt there will be quite a few helpers from the Pedal Club.

Here's the BC Link:

https://britishcycling.org.uk/events/details/243580/Verco-Victor-Berlemont-Trophy-Road-Race
#TheBerlemont

I hope there will be some from this forum who will enter, but I'm sure many of you would find riding out to spectate worthwhile. It will make a good day's ride out from London - the date August 22nd.

Just up the road from me, will pedal out to watch.

Great to see it running. Proper races like this, Wally Gimber, Jock Wadley etc need to be nurtured by British Cycling.

It seems to me that BC is not great at nurturing these races, but this one did happen - here's my report:

https://www.velouk.net/2021/08/24/report-victor-berlemont-road-race/

There were only 69 starters, so any brave soul from here who turned up with a licence would have got a ride.

The Victor Berlemont has survived for another year.

Here's my report:
https://www.velouk.net/2022/08/30/rr-result-victor-berlemont-trophy-road-race/

I was tempted to put this link into the Pedal Club thread, since club members (especially Doug Collins) have given the event a lot of support. It is now a High Wycombe CC promotion, but it's been Doug and the Pedal Club that have been active in helping to keep it going since its revival as a Surrey League event in 2010. The race was originally run in 1951 when Victor himself was still in action (Google 'The French House'), so I believe this makes it the oldest road race still existing.

It's worth noting that the winner, Alexandar Richardson, was the victim of a bike mugging in Richmond Park - this is covered in the Bike Mugging thread here. AR was due to start in the Tour of Britain today - I've not heard how he got on.

British Cycling have set up a new task force to try and revive domestic road racing.

https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/road/article/20230823-road-New-task-force-appointed-to-support-revival-of-elite-domestic-road-racing-0

Really good to see @Scoot as a participant. I think the work she’s been doing with Rapha and NLTCBMBC shows alternative ways to promote races and participation.

The Victor Berlemont Trophy RR

It's on this Sunday.

https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/events/details/281664/The-Verco-Victor-Berlemont-Trophy-Road-Race

A worthwhile outing just to watch, and a good ride out from west London.

If you're brave, I think you could be in with a good chance of entering on the line, but do check with the organiser before setting your heart on this.

I'll be out as event reporter - hope to see some of you!

Looking forward to the ride report.

And here it is:
https://www.velouk.net/2023/08/29/rr-result-victor-berlemont-trophy-road-race-2/

It's Victor Berlemont time again!

Last weekend there were only 45 entries, so I guess you could still get a ride now.
However, it's a tough event - over 100 hilly miles - so perhaps spectating is a more attractive option.

Interestingly, the organiser tells me that he contacted riders from the past couple of years to solict their entries, and found that a lot of them were racing on the continent (Belgium and France, mainly). If you have the strength to get round the VB race, it's not surprising you can make out in Europe, but this is a sad comment on the British racing scene.