News: Tour of Reservoir Two Day

Changes to the course at the Tour of Reservoir for Men and Women on the Saturday as the organiser toughens the race up ahead of the National Championships which still don’t have an organiser apparently

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News: Tour of Reservoir Two Day

Whilst British Cycling dilly dally with the calendar for the National Road Series for Men and Women as event organisers battle to try and get everything they need to run their event in order, one long time organiser (36 years), Mike Hodgson, is keen for teams and riders to confirm with him they will be racing his event.

Scott Davies (now world tour) on the climb on the Blanchland circuit. On the Saturday, the riders will do this in reverse so will be descending through these bends.

The Tour of Reservoir for Men and Women and won by Melissa Lowther and Tom Stewart in 2017, will be in June this year on the 23rd and 24th. Mike was looking at adding a third day to the event with a time trial or team time trial possibly but the feedback he had was that many teams, the lower budget ones, would not be able to afford that extra day and would have been lost to the event had it been over three days.

So, mindful that the event comes the week before the National Road Championships for which there is no organiser at the moment (so we hear, not confirmed), Mike Hodgson is making the Tour of Reservoir a tougher event in 2018 with both days including laps of the lumpy Blanchland circuit as well as laps of the shorter and less hilly Reservoir circuit.

The event sponsored by Northumbria Water will again be held for men and women over the two days with the entry fees having had to be increased due to the higher cost of accommodation and policing costs. On the Saturday and Sunday at 9am, the women will start racing and this year the events will be longer and both taking in the Blanchland circuit which is the longer loop they will have done for the first time this year.
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The Men’s races will both start at 1.30pm on Saturday and Sunday. When asked if the format of the races will be different to this year, Mike replied “yes, I don’t like things to be boring so what we are going to do on the Saturday for both the men and women’s races, is use the Blanchland circuit”.

Mike then explained how the women will do a few laps of the Reservoir circuit and then in Edmundbyers near where the HQ was this year, they will turn right instead of bearing left and they will go round the Blanchland circuit the opposite way and then at Blanchland, head back to the Reservoir circuit and in all, do a total of five laps and a distance of around 75 miles.

In the afternoon, the men too will do the same but will probably do two laps of the Blanchland circuit the opposite way before heading back to the reservoir circuit to finish their race with loops of that. In all, they are expected to do seven laps in all (five of the reservoir and two of Blanchland).

The Sunday will see the women riders, as they have requested according to Mike, do one lap of the Reservoir and then two laps (an extra lap) of the Blanchland circuit the normal way and then return and do one more lap of the reservoir. The men will then do the same as 2017, two and three quarters of a lap around the reservoir before three laps of the Blanchland circuit the usual way and after that, two more laps of the reservoir to finish in the normal place giving the riders around 108 miles.
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Asked why the riders do a few laps of the reservoir and then Blanchland before reservoir again instead of just doing one and then the other, Mike explained the early laps of the reservoir were to give the riders some miles in their legs to be well in the zone for the climbing on the Blanchland circuit and then the finishing loops around the reservoir were to give the riders who may have been distanced on the climbs of the Blanchland circuit, the distance to get back to the front.

In finishing, Mike then stressed that because the adding of the event to the British Cycling racing calendar is later than it has ever been, he would like teams and riders wanting to ride the race to either email him – click here to do that  – or ring him on 07519 565 061 to confirm they will be riding the race. This is because last year the women’s race was almost cancelled because of the lack of entries and only a last minute rush saved it from being axed.

Because British Cycling has not released the calendar, due perhaps to them not being able to find an organiser who will bank roll the National Championships, what events are on when is all yet to be confirmed. The Tour of the Wolds on April 8 is work in progress and we’ve been told we’ll have info on it as soon as it is available from the organisers and the same for Lincoln which we expect to be okay. We’ve also contacted the other organisers and news on those events when we get it.

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