Feature: Prologue Junior Race Team

From A&E to Podiums – proper insights into life on the Road with Yorkshire’s Prologue Junior Race Team in 2023

Feature: Prologue Junior Race Team

The team having their briefing at the British Junior National RR Champs in Clithero in 2023 with author of this great feature, Glen Turnbull

A Yorkshire cycling team that has been on the road since 2015, is ‘Prologue’ who in their distinctive yellow jerseys are easy to spot in a race. Previously, it concentrated and was a senior team with a host of local senior riders doing a bit mainly at second cat level but nothing on the scale of what we have since introduced to the juniors.

Glen from the team says “I guess I have Simon Beldon to thank for that. The fact that whilst the mind was willing, my racing days were quickly evaporating and Simon as a coach, was working with a large number of youth riders and heading up the winter weekly coaching sessions operated for and by a number of the local clubs at the Brownlee Centre in Leeds, and that ultimately became our local Talent Development Centre overseen by BC”.

“It was Simon who said “bring Joe (my son) down and by the way bring your bike, you’ll only freeze your balls off otherwise and I could use another pair of hands or in this case legs keeping an eye on them.”

Racing in France at Plouay in 2023

“This was around 2017 and so, my journey of mentoring began and over the coming years those kids on their youth gears who at first we were there simply to encourage and to teach them how to ride on a wheel or in a bunch, developed and over time became quite a handful. I would more often than not return home nailed at 10.00 at night having done countless laps of the circuit noting that at times we were hurtling around over 25mph average in December on winter bikes!”

“These boys and girls were inevitably taken on by the top Junior teams and have since gone on to, or are about to go onto some amazing things I’m sure. But for all their clear talent what also stood out was how raw they were and whilst I knew I couldn’t win a race anymore, I still knew how to and that sixth sense and race craft I had in my race days was still there and something I discovered did not come as natural to them as it seemingly did to me.”

“Also, given we had up to 40 riders attending some nights, it was clear that not all would go on to the successful junior teams and what might become of them and what could I do to help plug that gap. Then there was Joe, my son. His Youth racing ended in March 22 after a horrific crash in a sprint finish at the Brownlee Centre. Brought down by a touch of wheels, he suffered a complex spiral fracture of his femur, which was just above his growth plate and knee cap, to his hip. Nine weeks in plaster, then non- weight bearing for 13, following last minute decisions not to operate, his racing and indeed bike riding days were done.”

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“We were now more focused on getting him to walk again and his GCSE exams. With Covid also ruining previous seasons, Joes results and rankings were limited and any thought he might get a place on a decent junior team were, it seemed fanciful. He did however express how keen he was to return to racing and have a go but made it clear he didn’t want any external pressure a “big team” might bring and he wanted very much just to race with his mates be it locally or if it went well, some bigger races in time.”

“At this juncture, John Reid, the owner of Prologue Performance bike shop in Harrogate, along with Matt Mannakee who had ran the Prologue race team for a number of years, approached me about bringing in a younger team of riders. I was also lucky enough to have secured some backing and what was agreed that day over a coffee was the birth of the Prologue Junior Race team.”
“The brief was very much ‘lets have a bloody good go’ and I was very clear that if I did it, I wanted to do it properly and for Joe and others we approached, we intended to give them the best possible chance to race the best possible races, live the dream and have a laugh while they did it.”

“What followed has been a 12 month roller coaster. I immediately contacted those in the know such as Giles Pidcock, who has successfully ran the Mas Design, Fensham team for years who have achieved some incredible things. Simon Beldon, whose son Alex was with Fensham and was on board to support Giles, also pointed me in the right direction. Purpose made roof racks were ordered, an old Audi was acquired and some decals were applied.”

The team’s Oliver Seargent in the CiCLE Classic for Junior men

“If nothing else, we were going to look the part! I was keen the lads bonded and start to train together which became a weekly affair along with two training camps to Spain, which the team were able to subsidise. By the time the season came along, we had a tight knit group and the makings of a team. So we were off and our first big day out was the Cicle classic. Pretty awful conditions and a very technical race, we found ourselves drawn car No. 4 in the convoy.”

“So my first time driving in a convoy was a baptism of fire, spent navigating fallen riders skidding and sliding all over fields and tracks that make up the circuit, it’s terrifying. You need eyes in the back of your head but we ended up behind our lead rider Oliver Seargent racing in a select group chasing a 5th place finish. We not only survived, we are in the mix at the sharp end!”

Murcia – they survived!

What followed was our first venture abroad to the Vuelta a Las Comarcas,a stage race in Murcia Spain which Fensham had won the year before with Jacob Bush. Planes, car hire, transfers and language barriers, it was perhaps our most ambitious and steepest of learning curves with just about everything that could go wrong, going wrong from getting lost in the convoy leaving the town, Di2 failures on the start line, race radio failures, a loaned team car on the brink of blowing up, me close to getting arrested, race shoes left at the hotel, TT bikes failing the bike check, two crashes and mechanicals.”

“But the lads were brilliant as they also had to learn quick to get to grips with a very competitive 200 man field, unable to understand the chat and shouts in the bunch and racing on closed roads which to their credit they did, all with a laugh and story to tell around the table at dinner each evening.”

“More National series races and the National champs followed and the ups and downs of bike racing with a roller coaster of results with the odd trip to a Pharmacy or A&E deprtment!”

“Thereafter, we enjoyed the Six Day Junior Tour of Ireland and had success in securing the White jersey and top 20 GC placings for two of our riders Oli Seargent and guest rider Joel Hurt. Closed roads, an international field of 150 riders and the lads having to ride as a collective, this was arguably the best race we did all season and with Oli in contention on GC after a storming Stage 2 result, and Joel sat in the White jersey, everyone had a job to do.”

The team in Ireland with Joel in the races White jersey

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“Being Ireland, we of course had sunshine and then rain and boy did it rain forcing the cancellation of the Queen stage. Up at 6.00am each morning, Andrew Ellmore who has been incredible and at times a much needed calming influence. I never stopped as we cleaned bikes, five lots of kit, fed five hungry lads and tried desperately to get everything dry with hair driers in the room ready for the next day. Tactics, stem notes, team briefings, this was “proper racing”. An excellent, well organised race we will be back in 24’.”

“Then, after a short interlude, followed by the Mendips and Tour of Wales, arguably the best two races the UK has for juniors, it was off to the GP Plouay, France after the team were selected for our first UCI event in Brittany. Another big step up with a very challenging circuit, the riders gave there all but only 3 were to make it to the finish such is the speed and level of the European races.”

Third placed (right) Joe Turnbull at Plouay

“But the best was to come when we learnt Joe, who was nowhere to be seen, was busy with media having done the ride of his life and got on the podium and an amazing 3rd place. The near 15hr journey to get there, the awful hotel seemed all of a sudden nothing and for Joe and the journey he had made coming back from his injury was not lost on the lads who were celebrating with him.”

“A tear in the eye of the DS and a huge hug from my trusty lieutenant and our mechanic Andrew, that day we felt like we had arrived”.

And that for me is all I wanted from this little venture, to see the lads race the best possible races they can and do so as a team. It is my fondest memory of the year, seeing how they stepped up and raced hard, gracious in defeat and supportive of one another, the first to congratulate their peers. The collective celebrations at Cicle, Ireland, the Yorkshire Champs where we were 1-2, Otley Chevin Classic town center race and of course France, the trips to the Pharmacy or A&E, the calamities in Murcia have made it one exhausting but amazing year.”

“Without doubt, you wonder what you are doing when its 3.00am on a Monday morning and you’re still 20 miles from home with work a matter of hours away or they crash out or take a proper pasting and you doubt them and the whole thing; it is after all the hardest sport in the world and the standard in Europe is incredible. I feel every pedal rev, helpless in the convoy as I say over and over “the lads need to move up”. I’m as tired as them at the finish then Andrew and I drive them home”!

A good day at Plouay, L-R: Nathan, Joe and guest rider Max Hereward

“But the glimmer of a result, the smile on a grubby sweaty face as you pass the cans of coke around at the finish and you overhear the chat “sketchy as” “did you see that guy just disappear over that hedge”, the laughs and micky taking and that doubt quickly evaporates and you can’t wait for the next one. But all of this is only possible by some fantastic support from family and a host of friends, the wives and mums back home who spend the weekends worrying and just want them safe.”

“And of course the generous sponsors as the costs are huge even for a team of our size, without them this would not be happening. It is also more time consuming than I could have ever imagined arranging travel, hotels, race programs around my day job. Ask any of the riders though, and they just want to race in Europe. The atmosphere, the sheer size and scale of the events, the buzz and of course closed roads which they all say makes them feel safe and gives them so much more confidence.”

“We did six of the nine National Series in 2023 and we will continue to support those races in 24’ more so the ones where we can be competitive but given the choice I know where the lads want to be. So on to next year with more trips away (at their request) and I for one can’t wait to do it all over again.”