The CiCle Classic formed the opening rounds of British Cycling’s 2024 national road race series for junior men and elite women on Sunday.
With around 130 riders lining up for each event, both were held over the same gruelling on and off-road 105km course before finishing in the heart of Melton Mowbray, east Leicestershire.
The Utmost-Mezzo supported Isle of Man junior team fielded five boys and two girls. For Sophie Smith and Florence Griffin it was a big step up in their development as, with no age-related race series for them in 2024, they were racing against the country’s best senior riders.
There has been a refocus on development for the local under-18 (juniors) and supporting them at this event were former pro-riders Andrew Roche and Tom Mazzone.
The Utmost-Mezzo team included four first-year juniors contesting their longest races to date - Orry Lund, Cian Howard, James Kinrade and Will Curphey - along with second-year junior Ivan Sorby.
Heavy rain leading up to the event led to the already testing farm lanes even more challenging than ever, resulting in the dropping of the final sector the night before the race as it was too waterlogged. Despite a lot of standing water and mud, racing was fast and chaotic from the word go, with numerous crashes and mechanicals before the off-road section had even begun.
Kinrade suffered a puncture around 35km into the race, and despite his best efforts the nature of the race made it difficult for him to make it back to the main peleton.
The others stayed out of trouble as the main group continued to whittle down heading into the brutal Somerberg; the last sector before the finishing circuits, only 40 or so riders remained. Following that, the final phase of the race began with just over 30km to go and the group thinning even further.
Curphey was distanced, complaining of stomach issues, but after some assistance from the car, kept fighting on all the way to the end.
At the front, the attacks continued with both Sorby and Howard very much involved, after the first passage of the finish line a small group was beginning to pull away. Lund was then distanced with less than 10km to go, but he also fought valiantly to the end.
Sorby and Howard were in a great position to fight for a top-10 placing, both getting round the final corner amongst the leaders. In the sprints to the line after a tough race, Sorby achieved a great 12th place, with his team-mate close behind in 16th. Lund was 23rd with Curphey 44th of the 51 to go the distance from 130 starters after a brutal day out.
Tom Mazzone, DS for the juniors on the day, said: ‘I was really impressed with how all the lads raced, in such difficult conditions on the day, especially as four of them were in their first national junior series event.’
Andrew Roche added that the junior girls not only had to face the challenge of what is the hardest round in the UK calendar, but also racing against professional women.
‘Both did very well, with Sophie featuring in the lead group up until around three-quarter distance where unfortunately she showed the effect of a crash on a course recce the previous day that had left her cut-up and shaken.
‘To ride as well as she did after a very short mental recovery period was exceptional, showing determination and strong resilience.
‘For Florence, moving up from racing with 16-year-olds, it was a huge step, but she will have learned so much, which is the big part of her 2024 year in order to develop and continue learning the craft of bike racing in the senior/pro level of competition. ‘