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The Season So Far · 13/07/10

It’s been a busy few weeks for the Rapha Condor Sharp team with no let up in the racing programme since the end of the Tour Series. Finally finding a moment where we could pin down team manager John Herety, we caught up to get all the stories that lurk behind the results you’ll have seen over recent weeks.

Otley

Round 2 of the Elite Circuit series was Otley, a popular event that has been run since the mid 80’s. It features a course that suits the road men more than the crit specialists with it’s longer than average lap (1.4 miles) and long dragging climb.

On the night it was Kristian House who was strongest of the Rapha Condor Sharp team contingent putting in a devastating attack that only Ian Wilkinson was able to respond to. Wilkinson dragged himself up to House’s back wheel where he stayed for much of the final two laps of the race before taking the gallop for the line.

Edinburgh Nocturne

With team owners Rapha and Condor being headline sponsors of the Nocturne Series it’s been a constant annoyance to team manager John Herety that the team has failed to win one of the events under his direction in the last three years. After placing riders 2nd and 4th at the Smithfield round of the event last month it seemed the drought would never end until Kristian House stepped up to the plate in Edinburgh, winning in style in front of an appreciative crowd to the considerable relief of John:

“It’s great to finally break our duck in the Nocturne series, they’re always fantastic events with a great atmosphere, but for some reason we’ve just never managed to pull it off until now. Kristian didn’t just win in Edinburgh, he won in style showing a clean pair of wheels to some quality riders from home and abroad.”

Kristian House

Elite Circuit Series

From there it was south to Stafford for the third round of the British Cycling Elite Circuit Series where the team would be looking to break the stranglehold of Ian Wilkinson who had won both the first two rounds of the series and defeated Kristian House in a one on one battle, two weeks before in Otley. Despite placing three riders in the lead group the team once again came away with just a third place podium finish from Dean Downing for their efforts, much to the annoyance of John:

“We really wanted to win in Stafford, a new event on a great course with a really appreciative crowd. On the night it was a combination of bad luck and bad judgement that proved to be our undoing. I’d told the boys we needed to get numbers into the front group, isolate Wilko and outmanoeuvre the others. We did that, but then when it came to the finale, the boys couldn’t get the better of Ed [Clancy] who was in mercurial form.”

Talking about the finale of the race, John shed a little further light on how things unravelled in the final minutes:

“The course in Stafford was tight and we knew that the final corner would be crucial and if you let a guy like Ed carry speed through there he’s going to be tough to beat, so I told the guys we wanted to be at the front there. We got the numbers in the lead group that should have enabled that to happen but then the Duke punctured and despite pleasing the crowd with a gutsy ride to get back on to the group he was cooked and the other two just couldn’t get the better of Ed.”

Fortunately for the riders they wouldn’t have to wait long for an opportunity to redeem themselves in the eyes of their manager as the next night saw the team back in action at Abergavenny in the 4th round of the series. So with the post race telling off still ringing in their ears, the boys went into battle in Wales determined to do better. However it was their nemesis in the series so far, Ian Wilkinson, who once again got the better of the boys in black as this time the team placed riders in 2nd and 3rd.

Speaking after the race John was a little more philosophical than he had been in Stafford 24 hours previously.

“I’m a bit annoyed in some ways, they nearly had Wilko dropped a few times over the course of the night but once he could smell the finish there’s no getting rid of him and in the final gallop he had the best legs. Dean says he (Wilko) roughed him up a bit on the way past, but then he said he’d have done the same given the chance, so all’s fair in that sense!”

So a mixed couple of weeks for the team, another win to add to the lengthy list they’ve accumulated already this year, but a few near misses and thoughts of what might have been too.

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