The events of the past twelve months have seen the profile of cycling undergo a meteoric rise, as the successes of Sir Bradley Wiggins in the Tour de France, and the likes of Sir Chris Hoy and Victoria Pendleton in the Olympics have seen the sport rise to the fore.
Now York may not possess any cyclists of that ability in their ranks, but they do have a clutch of talented young cyclists who will be hoping to propel York to victory in Roses.
For the first time there will be two cycling events worth Roses points, as the time trial is joined by the mountain biking which made it’s Roses debut last year. The pressure will be more intense therefore than ever, but UYCC are in buoyant mood heading into this year’s competition.
“We are feeling confident ahead of this year’s Roses,” UYCC Secretary Jamie Raven told Vision. “Our club membership has increased dramatically since October and we have been training harder and are in better shape than last year.”
Last year York stormed to victory in the time-trial courtesy of superb performances by Greg Melia and Raven, who finished first and second in the time-trial respectively. The influential duo are both present again this year and have been joined by promising fresher Jonny Ruffell, suggesting that York possess all the ingredients to be successful again.
“We have been doing focused training in the run up to the event and will soon be able to practice on the event course, the newly constructed YorkSport Cycle Track on Heslington East to get a feel for the circuit ahead of the race,” added Raven.
The cycling season only really begun for York in March, so competitions have been limited this season meaning that Roses will be one of the first tests for the outfit. Hopes are high for the time-trialing squad, whilst there is also optimism that the mountain biking team will be equally successful.
A short track is to be constructed on Heslington East, and Raven pointed to the trio of Jack Swainston, Matthew Skeats and David Crawshaw as York’s leading hopes in the event. Raven told Vision: “These three are our strongest mountain bike riders, and they have been specifically targeting the race and training hard over the winter.”
Both events will take place on Heslington East, with the time trial kicking off proceedings on Saturday at 11am, followed by the mountain biking at 3pm later in the day.
Allez York!