Tuesday, March 19, 2024
HomeJournalsRibble Weldtite Pro CyclingOur Season Opens With a Win at the Soens!

Our Season Opens With a Win at the Soens!

The Official Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling Team Journal

-

We started our racing at the weekend, with somewhat mixed results, but the highlight was certainly Cameron Jeffers fine sprint win on the Aintree Racecourse on Saturday, to take the 60th edition of the Eddie Soens Memorial. Having Simon Wilson take third spot on the podium showed that we have the strength across the team too. This event is the second oldest one-day race in the UK (beaten only by the Lincoln GP, founded in 1956) which places it in very high regard among the British racing community. Jack Rees tells you more in this update.

Soens
Cameron Jeffers, Eddie Soens Memorial winner 2022. Photo©Gary Main

Meanwhile the other half of the team were in Holland, to take part in Sunday’s Dorpenomloop Rucphen, a tough UCI 1.2 race, part of a series called the Holland Cup. First run in 1974, the race has gathered an impressive list of winners with many now familiar names making their way in the top level and World Tour. The race took the riders through a typical Brabant landscape; flat and wooded with alternating wide and narrow roads. Read on to see Team DS Colin Sturgess’ views on how the team performed.

* * *

Eddie Soens Memorial

By Jack Rees, Director of Operations

In the last post we were three quarters of the way through the training camp and it continued in the same vein on the Saturday, our final session, which was a 20 minute test – fairly typical for a lot of racing cyclists – that we wanted to include at the end of the camp to guage progress but also under a bit of prior fatigue.

It went really well, everyone was performing at or above the level we expected, so we were really encouraged by that.

We all left Spain at various points on the Sunday, which was good timing really as the weather was changing and a lot of rain had come in., but had a good run of weather on the camp which was great.

Once the riders were home the emphasis changed to purely recovery, at least for a few days, in the lead-up to the busy opening weekend, which promised the Eddie Soens Memorial at Aintree and the Dorpenomloop Rucphen in Brabant, Holland.

In the Soens there was a crosswind down the home and back straights which made life quite difficult, and for a good while early in the race it was pretty much all together.

Soens
Photo©Gary Main

About halfway through there was a break of eight riders which contained two of our guys – but no Saint Piran representation – and then we got another rider across with one Saint Piran rider, to make it 10 up front, but Saint Piran weren’t happy with that composition (three Ribble and only one of theirs) so they used a lot of energy at that mid-point to bring it all back under control and reduced the bunch down to about 50 riders – guys and girls.

And that’s basically how it stayed for the next 35k’s, moving into the final three or four laps.

Photo©Gary Main

We were up against it a little bit at the Soens with half the team away racing in Holland so there was only seven of us in the race, whereas we saw from the start sheet that Saint Piran were there with 15 riders. That, plus the nature of the race, being run as a handicap, meant it was a little hectic and a times a bit dangerous.

Our plan was to see how the race evolved but to lean on Saint Piran a little, for them to do the controlling and bringing back the moves which we could then capitalise on and potentially fire people up the road to give them something else to chase.

Soens
Photo©Gary Main

Then with three laps to go, Saint Piran set up their leadout for the final with nine guys, and for us it was our objective to be as disruptive for them as we could with our riders who we weren’t going to feature in the sprint whilst protecting the riders that we did want to take part in the gallop, keeping them out the wind and just trying to piggyback on the work the other teams were doing

Into the last lap, with around 30 guys still in the mix, we were sitting pretty in around 10th position, and with about 750m to go Will Brown took Simon Wilson and Cam up the bunch and dropped them off around 5th wheel, at the back of Saint Piran’s leadout.

Photo©Gary Main

As we came around that final turn, with about 500m to go, Simon went over the top of the Saint Piran leadout with Cam on his wheel and with only 150m to go dropped Cam off in clear air with about a bike length clear of everyone. Cam’s got a very strong sprint so it was almost a formality for him, a textbook finish really which we were delighted about, especially since Simon held on for third.

Soens
Cam Jeffers took the Eddie Soens Memorial with a textbook sprint. Photo©Gary Main

We’re going to go into every single bike race this year with the intention of winning, and to do that in the first race was fantastic.

Next up on Saturday we have Round One of the Scottish National Alba Men’s Road Race Series at Gifford in East Lothian, with a strong team including Fin, Stuart and Harry, and we’re looking to keep the momentum gong in the lead up to the Tour du Loir et Cher and the Rutland – Melton International CiCLE Classic.

* * *

De Dorpenomloop Rucphen

By Colin Sturgess, DS

So as well as the Eddie Soens Memorial the weekend saw our first overseas race of the season. I took a selection of seven riders over to the Dorpenomloop Rucphen in Brabant in Holland, near Rosendal.

It’s a typical Dutch/Belgian race, almost a kermis, lots of ducking and diving, lots of changes of direction, it was windy, flat as a pancake, so a very hard race to open our account with.

The riders in the team for this were Fin Crockett, Stuart Balfour, Ross Lamb, Ollie Peckover, Alex Peters, Red Walters, and Harry Tanfield.

In general – and there’s no other way of saying it, we had a lot crashes – I’m really disappointed for the guys because I’m sure we got have put someone on the podium if everything had gone well.

They came out of the training camp really well and in good spirits, and with Cam wining the Soens the day before everyone was really gee’d up for this.

Lined out with 30k to go. Photo©YouTube

Unfortunately we lost Red around 30k’s in, he had a really bad crash. We got him back up and going but he’d mashed his gears. He chased for a bit but it wasn’t happening, he had skinned himself up pretty badly, taken a fair bit of bark off his shoulder. So that was out first disappointment as we were looking to use him as our first man in the sprint.

Then about 50k’s later we lost Alex and Ollie in a crash. Poor Ollie came off worse, snapped his frame and unfortunately landing on someone else’s brake rotor, burning his leg, so that was another rider out.

Alex got up and chased, and we managed to get him up and running as best as possible. He’d sheared a brake lever off which actually made things very difficult but full credit to him, he just carried on! He chased for almost 40 minutes and did get back on, but he was very limited with what he could do, at that level after chasing and getting on, and to do that with a single working brake and a single brake lever to hold onto is testament to the guy’s strength.

Harry, Stuart, and Fin were pretty active in the race, covering things, a small move went up the road with one of the Uno-X development riders in it, and Stuart covered that. The two were away and rode for a bit.

Stuart is a phenomenal rider, very talented climber but he just got stuck into this pan-flat race like a duck to water, which was fantastic to see. That move came back and there was a bit of a reset as there is in these races, riders coming and going, little moves going, and then Harry popped off the front in a small group of five, with about 15k to go.

Stuart in a two-man move. Photo©Youtube

We were hoping that would stay, it looked strong. There was a good selection of riders in it, but because there wasn’t an FDJ rider in it it got chased down.

Right at the death, within about 3k to go, someone cannonballed into Ross Lamb and took him out, which was such a shame, Ross was riding extremely well, you could see in his demeanor; he’s very quiet, he’s professional, and he was doing all the right things throughout the whole race, covering moves, saving energy.

Ross got up, chased, we got him on the car, but with 3k to go there was little he could do from there, and so he just tailed off into the finish.

Harry was 17th in the bunch over the line, Fin rolled across in 30th spot.

So, not a lot to show from it results-wise but from my perspective as DS there’s good things to come out of that; I really like the way the guys were communicating well amongst themselves and the way they raced, it’s just unfortunate to lose four guys like that in the first race, you can’t legislate for that, but in general, I’m mega-happy.

So now we have some domestic racing to do which the guys will get stuck into; a couple of National Bs and other local races including some TTs, and they’ll use them in their training blocks, but we will also look to pick up a win, if we can, and then our next major overseas event is the Tour du Loir et Cher, a little four-day stage race in France (with a big history, for example Thor Hushovd won it 1998 and Philippe Gilbert was second in the 2002 edition) and around this time we’ll also be at the Arno Wallard Memorial, again in the Netherlands.

We’ll make the selection for the two squads over the next couple of weeks, obviously it’ll be keen, there will be a few guys looking over their shoulder for Cameron, which is good, it’s healthy and I like that in the team.

Well that’s it for now, until next time, cheers.

Follow Colin on Twitter and on Instagram

Colin’s coaching business is at Champion Cycling Services

Related Articles

Red Walters – Grenada Champion 2022

There we were for the start of the 2022 Tour of Britain, wandering round the pits passing critique on the hardware, strips and leg tans. Over at the Ribble Weldtite team there was a rather cool silver Aero machine, one of the ‘specials’ sprayed up for lucky Ribble riders participating in the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. Red Walters was the fortunate son.

Ribble creates world’s first AI-powered Bike Builder

Ribble Cycles’s AI system (RibbleGPT) is designed to create the perfect bike to suit a rider's needs. It will guide you through the entire process of designing, building and ultimately enjoying your personalised bike.

Andy Smallwood – Ribble Cycles CEO Talks Tech, Teams and Traditions

When Sasha Castling of Ribble Cycles contacted us to ask if we’d be interested to hear more about the company’s decision to run a TV ad. campaign promoting their wares during the Tour de France, we took the opportunity to ask the man behind the company, Mr. Andy Smallwood a wide range of questions about his business, the sport and that, ‘tech stuff.’

Sportsbreak.com Tour Series – Round Two, Galashiels; Wiv SunGod and Pro-Noctis Take the Honours

Criteriums, a man of my acquaintance describes criteriums thus; ‘a bunch of guys turn up, they ride round in circles for an hour, one of ‘em wins then everyone goes home.’ Very true, but a night hanging over the barriers in Galashiels, a nice borders town under the spring sunshine with your amigos whilst catching up with old friends sure beats watching the soap operas.

Ribble Rides with Geoff Thomas’ “The Tour 21”

Today Ribble Cycles unveiled the Ultra SL R Alumni Edition to commemorate its renewed partnership with "The Tour 21" for 2023. The Tour 21 is the vision of Geoff Thomas MBE, former professional footballer and blood cancer survivor, which sees a team of amateur cyclists (the Alumni) take on the world’s most gruelling cycling challenge by riding the full Tour de France route one week ahead of the professionals.

Andy Smallwood & Jamie Burrow talk Ribble’s New “Ultra Road”

The Ribble ‘Ultra Aero’ is a beautiful piece of machinery and in the manner of the best British speed machines – Aston Martin, Jaguar, Lotus, Norton – pulls off that trick of looking very quick even when it’s standing still. We caught up with Ribble CEO, Andy Smallwood and ex-pro and DS, Jamie Burrow, Ribble’s head of product development; here’s what they had to say.

At Random

Rotterdam Six Day 2011 – Day Two, Iljo and Kenny Take Over. Uh-oh.

Here at the Rotterdam Six Day 2011 the buzz off iljo's rollers fills my ears as I write this; despite the best efforts of the UCI, he's still here and looking sharp. My amigo, Dirk the mechanic was telling me that Iljo is retaining two of the three best lawyers in Belgium - I'm glad I'm not paying the bills.

Gran Fondo Scotland; social and scenic cycling with pals, pasta, and a piper!

Foregoing my usual Saturday night at the movies I set the alarm for 05:00 am, reminded myself how much I like being in the Trossachs of a Sunday morning, sighed and switched off the light. Davie thought we were leaving his house at 06:45 am not 05:45 am - but we were soon on our way along the Hill Foots en route the Gran Fondo Scotland - Summer Edition.

Bernie Nolan – Racing in Oz; “the happiest time of my life”

Bernie Nolan wanted to race as a Pro in Europe but prior to that he sought fame and fortune in the Antipodes – under the Aussie sun, and surely the racing down there wouldn’t be as savage as Belgium?

Gent Six Days 2011 – Now, to Zürich

It's a long way from Gent Six Days 2011 to Zurich, around 800 kilometres - so best get on the road early. We picked up Jesper at the Expo Holiday Inn - where Vik and I have stalked the mechanics at many's a Het Volk - and then we were offski.

Jacob Vaughan – Targeting the u23 Classics with CC Étupes

Talent isn’t the only quality you need to ‘make it’ in cycling, Lady Luck plays a big part; 'right time, right place', but of vital importance is persistence. As Winston Churchill said; ‘never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never.’ Former British Junior Road Race Champion, Jacob Vaughan must have read that quotation.

Le Tour de France 2012 Prologue: Liège ITT, 6.1km.

It's here. Le Tour de France 2012 Prologue. The endless analysis is finally over, there's rubber on tarmac, folks hanging over barriers and commentators getting their facts wrong, already.