Team/Club News: Wightlink-Wight Mountain Cycle Race Team

Wightlink-Wight Mountain CRT team member, Ben Johnson, travelled to the Yorkshire Dales National Park last weekend to compete in the annual Three Peaks Cyclo-Cross race.

Team/Club News: Wightlink-Wight Mountain Cycle Race Team

Wightlink-Wight Mountain CRT team member, Ben Johnson, travelled to the Yorkshire Dales National Park last weekend to compete in the annual Three Peaks Cyclo-Cross race. Billed as the toughest and biggest Cyclo-Cross event in the UK, with over 1,000 riders vying for the 500 places available, Ben was lucky to get selected in the ballot on his first attempt.

With a total distance of 61km, 28km on the road and 33km off-road, to cover before the finish line, Ben needed to ensure that he was in the best possible shape to complete the course and knowing that there would be sections which would be unrideable, he used the Ventnor Downs in his training programme, running up and down with his bike on his shoulder. First up was Ingleborough with over 700 metres of climbing before Ben had to take on the challenge of Whernside which has more steps than you can imagine and tops out at nearly 750 metres. Last but not least was Pen y Gent which is an up and back at only 700m.

Ben started in the 4-hour group and managed to stay in contention up and over Ingleborough, and then pushed on for ten minutes on the road to the second peak of Whernside. Probably the toughest of the three peaks, riders spent more time carrying their bikes up the mountain and grabbing on to anything to help their climb before scrambling down an unrideable descent. With just Pen y Gent to go, Ben managed to make up around 15-20 places and get back down in one piece, finishing in a time of 4hrs 26min. Ben says ‘That was probably the hardest race I’ve ever done and I was just happy to finish in one piece. Having said that, it was an amazing experience and I’m hoping to get a place again next year in the ballot’.