Yorkshire Youths win team prize at Ride London

Yorkshire Region were invited to send a team to the Youth Races at the Ride London Grand Prix. For the girl’s team we selected a young but talented team:

• Jayti Hine
• Anna Doherty
• Libby Denby
• Sophie Thackray

There is so much strength in depth at the moment in Yorkshire that have enough good to riders to have been able to field two teams. As it was we had to select just four and we went with:

• Harry Hardcastle
• Rob Gray
• Tom Pidcock
• Rob Scott

After meeting up at Woodall we travelled to London in a blitz of excitement and anticipation at what lay ahead. What lay ahead was battle royale on the Mall, past the Queen’s place and back round via Birdcage walk and Horse guards Parade.

First off were the girls. There were attacks and crashes a plenty. Sophie was caught in one of the crashes but didn’t come down so was able to continue, although spent the whole race chasing, thinking of nothing but of the need to finish to get points for the team competition. Meanwhile Jayti, Anna and Libby were in the thick of the action hiding in the wheels, fighting for position and holding their own with all three finishing in the front group. A good solid performance by all with Jayti our best placed rider in 15^th with Libby in 22^nd just ahead of Anna in 25^th. Sophie came in 35^th. This was all good enough for 7^th best team. A solid winter’s training at the legendary “Yorkshire School of Racing” and all these riders will be even better next year.

The girls before the start: Jayti, Anna, Sophie and Libby

7pm and the boys race started. Involving a road full of teenage boys this race was never going to be dull – and so it proved. Harry jumped as soon as the race started and was quickly joined by a rider from down South. They got a good gap and were soon ten seconds up with the rest of the team busily chasing down anyone who tried to bridge – and there were many. Eventually the constant aggression from the bunch meant that the two out front were caught after a couple of laps but as soon as they came back another move went – although interestingly every one seemed to contain only two riders. Our lads were in every move and just as they had planned were taking it in terms to either get in a break or chase one down if we weren’t in it. Despite the incessant attacking it always looked like it was going to end in a bunch kick. Coming into the last corner Tom was 7^th and Harry was even further back – evidence of the high speed of the last few km. But it’s a long way down The Mall and even further when it’s a headwind. The London team were desperate to win and sacrificed a man to lead out their star rider Ethan Hayter. Ethan took the win with Tom and Harry coming up fast to claim 3^rd and 4^th while Alex Jollife from the South team nabbed 2^nd on the line from Tom. The two Rob’s having worked like Trojans all evening still had the strength to finish well up in 16^th and 17th respectively. All this was easily good enough for Yorkshire to win the team prize, well ahead of the South East team.

Tom on the podium

So, a podium and best team for the boys, a great experience for all eight riders and some good practice for the next Yorkshire Youth outing – the UK School Games in Manchester at the start of September

Rob Scott getting stuck in

Harry smashing it off the front!

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