“There’s one huge additional challenge at the CiCLE Classic, of course, which is the width of the roads. Much of this race is held on very narrow country lanes, so how ever high the standard of driving is in other races, it’s a level above at this one, isn’t it?”
“The problems that narrow roads bring are that, effectively, the convoy can’t operate as normal because it gets strung out. On a single track lane, of course, you can’t have cars side-by-side. The speed is often much slower, dictated by the slowest rider in the bunch, which means the bunch can get strung out very, very quickly.
“And then, of course, you’ve got convoy positioning, which is normally dictated by draw before the race. The sports directors will be very, very keen to get a position as close to the front of the convoy as they possibly can because that will mean that they can attend to their riders very quickly, because If you’re in convoy position 15 of 20 vehicles then, effectively, if one of your key riders has a problem, really you’re going to have to rely on neutral service to service that rider, because by the time you get to them, the bunch could well be away and the
race is basically over, so neutral service position, particularly on this race, is basically very, very key given the width of the lanes and also the parcours that they’re racing on.”
“Yeah, ‘mixed surface’ is the current euphemism. You and I, of course, would call them country lanes. You’ve got to be at your best as a driver, but also as a rider. This is a race that tests every aspect of a rider’s ability: it tests their fitness, their endurance, their strength, their power, their ability to think and read a race, and, of course, the bike handling too.
“One rider who knows all about the particular demands of the Women’s CiCLE Classic is Sian Botteley from Team Brother UK - OnForm. Not only has Sian finished in the top 10 at this
“Form is obviously important, but you definitely cannot just turn up just being strong. You need to have the technical nous to be able to get through the off-road sectors, and it really, really does help, knowing the course as well. I consider myself quite lucky that a lot of the course is my home training roads.
“Obviously, the off-road sectors are important and can be decisive. Pictures, crashes, anything can happen but it definitely shouldn’t be underestimated: the importance of all the roads around [the technical sectors]. A lot of it is so narrow. There just one or two roads with stretches wider than a dual carriageway, and, yeah, with 140 riders on roads that narrow, it’s
“It’s a very attritional race. The first off-road sector is pretty early on and it's really quite up and down before that, so it's always super hard to start with. It just splits up so easily, and if you’re not positioned well going into Owston Village for the first time, you’re going to struggle to come back to the front.
“It’s probably not like anything I’ve experienced in a race before. The adrenaline builds throughout the whole race. There is so much to concentrate on, so much to get your teeth stuck into. You definitely finish the race exhausted; probably more so than any other It’s definitely more the mental strain of it as well because of the off-road sections and it’s constantly up, down, left, right. You can rarely see half-a-kilometre up the road, because it’s so twisty-turn, up and down.
“You need to be on the ball all the time, and I guess over 100km is a long time to be constantly paying attention. The race is just really special .There is so much added excitement around it and the anticipation the overall event. It’s just something different, and I think a lot of riders really, really enjoy that. I certainly do. It’s probably my favourite race on the calendar.”
Timothy John
“A really nice summary there from Sian, Phil. Strength isn’t enough by itself. Intelligence, the ability to read a race, and the advantage of a little local knowledge it seems are all part of the package.”
Phil Jones
“Yes, if you win this race, I think you get that special nod from all of the other riders who are in the scene. It’s really such a difficult race. It’s technically difficult, the road conditions are difficult. You’ve got to have endurance, the ability to put huge power down and quickly recover. Road positioning is ever so key in among all of this, local knowledge: all of these things come into play. You’ve got to be the full package, in my view, to win this particular race."
Timothy John
“It’s a wonderful race for so many reasons and not least because of the community support it enjoys. You know, much of the delay in the return to racing in this country can be accounted for by, well, let’s call it a certain reluctance on the part of British Cycling and other organisers, concerned that they might alienate communities.
“But the CiCLE Classic has become such a part of the fabric of life in the villages that it passes through, that really wasn’t a concern, as we’ll hear now from Colin.”
Colin Clews
“I was only discussing yesterday with someone. They were saying, ‘How are you managing to stage a race this year when there are so many other difficulties around?’ And one thing that has been absolutely amazing to us is that all the communities that we pass the race through - Melton town, or villages like Ouston and Somerby; places like that - there is such a strong feeling of support and movement of support for the race going ahead that it’s incredible to experience it.
“Those communities want to see this race back on. They see it as creating some normality back into their lives. They see it as something that has been part of their lives for so many
years now and they want it to get back where it should be, and we’re only to pleased and proud that we’re able to do that.
“British Cycling have been supportive to us in ensuring that the races go ahead on the basis that we want them to: as real races and not just trial events and this sort of thing. Really, it’s paying off in terms of the community support that we have.”
Timothy John
“I mean, it’s really heartening to hear that Colin has that support from his communities. And this is not some low key return to racing or even a pilot event that we’re discussing. Sunday’s Women’s CiCLE Classic will start with what is generally agreed will be the largest peloton ever assembled for a domestic women’s road race. Will each of the 140 starters make it back into Melton to contest the finish? Colin’s not so sure.”
Colin Clews
“One of the things that British Cycling has said all along: they have been quite prepared for us to have the maximum field of 140 riders because they consider that the course is so challenging that we may start with a bunch of 140, but within perhaps the first 20km, we won’t have a bunch of 140 any longer. It will be several smaller bunches.
“Whether or not that comes to fruition, we’ll have to wait and see, but it’s a realistic way of looking at it. The more spread out we have the riders, the greater the racing looks
because it demonstrates the real challenge of the event. Everyone wants to be there at the start, let’s see how many we’ve got at the finish.
“I firmly believe that the course is very straight forward, but everyone else seems to tell me that they can’t understand where it goes and they still don’t know where it goes. This year, we’ve tweaked it a little bit in sending them in the reverse direction on the first lap, from Owston to Borough-on-the-Hill. Over the whole period that we’ve run the CiCLE Classic, this will be the first time the we’ve done that circuit in reverse, so it’s a unique feature of this year’s race, and the women will be doing it first. It’s good that we're able to do that.”
Phil Jones
“Absolute kudos to Colin Clews and everyone that assists in the organisation of this particular race because they, I think, are really showing how you get a community engaged in a race like this. It runs through all the villages and everyone comes out and it becomes a sort of mass participation [event]. It’s not only great for the riders, riding such a challenging and technically difficult course, but the encouragement it also brings out is what the sport really needs right now.
“It needs people to be actively out there and supporting it, because, of course, that’s great for the sponsors, it’s great for everybody. The riders have that extra few watts of energy when they’re cheered along by crowds at the side of the road, which is absolutely wonderful. For me, this is a really great example of how British domestic racing needs to build further with
more races of this style and type.”
Timothy John
“Well, hear hear. I couldn’t agree with you more, Phil. We mentioned to Colin in our interview that, given that Britain already has the most respected stage race on the women’s calendar in the shape of the Women’s Tour, does he see potential in the Women’s CiCLE Classic to achieve the same status with a one-day race?”
Colin Clews
“The potential is there, yes. There is the limitation there in terms of finance and also in the ability to move it to another level. It would be lovely to have a women’s one-day international race in this country, and I think of all the races that are out there, the CiCLE Classic, as it does with the men’s event, could fulfil that role. But the amount of work involved in putting that all together is possibly beyond me at the present time. It would need others to come in and assist with that happening.
Timothy John
“Well, it’s interesting to hear there, Phil, isn’t it, that budget would be only half the issue in making the Women's CiCLE Classic an international event. The other half would be the additional drain on Colin’s time. People forget, I think, just how much the British scene depends on volunteers. I mean, Colin Clews is a volunteer. Let that sink in!
“He’s built this race from scratch over 15 years. He’s made it the envy of many races in world cycling. Now, I know that Brother UK's investment in cycling is very much at the grass roots of the sport, and it’s about supporting volunteers at the end of the day. They do a wonderful job don’t they? You can only take your hat off to them.”
Phil Jones
“Well, the sport wouldn’t function without people like Colin and all of the volunteers who help on the day and do all of the work ahead of the race. If you talk to Colin, a lot of the work he has to do involves having conversations with the local authorities and the police and the road closures. Thankfully, he’s built up a library of assets now which means he can take a lot of it off the shelf and repeat it year after year, but the hard work is really getting a race established for the first time. The second time, perhaps it comes a little bit easier.
“Colin was also very lucky in securing someone who financially backed getting the race set up. Somebody put some money down and committed for three years, which allowed Colin to go away, get it all sorted out. Now, he’s got a really timeless classic there in the domestic scene. Long may that continue, but I think we’ve heard and read in a number of articles that what the scene needs is more race organisers, more volunteers, more committed people in order that it can continue in the years ahead.”
Timothy John
“Oh yeah, absolutely, I mean, people with Colin’s vision and determination, with incredible benefactors like Pete Stanton, who, as Colin mentions in our interview, meets the £30,000 cost of the women’s race, that is extraordinary dedication and a real testament, I think, to the passion that exists in this country for bike racing.”
Colin Clews
“A year or two before 2016, it had been in my mind and my wish to stage a women’s version. At about that time, around 2015, we decided that we would do some crowd funding for our men’s race to enable us to have it televised as British Cycling were no longer covering its live for us.
“One gentleman who came forwards at that time was a gentleman by the name of Pete Stanton from Northampton. Pete offered us a couple of hundred pounds for the crowd funding, which we were very grateful for, but he then let slip to me in an email that he was very interested in women’s racing, to the extent that if, in fact, we could offer him something significant in terms of a race, he might be prepared to sponsor it for us.
“Never one to be slow with jumping at an opportunity, I went back to Pete and said: ‘Do you mean this? It could be costly.’ His response was, ‘Well, put together a budget and let's see what it might be and give me the chance to say yay or nay.’ So I put together a budget of about £30,000, wrote back to Pete and, believe it or not, he immediately said, ‘Oh, that’s fine.
I’m willing to sponsor the race for three years.'
“Pete is an absolutely tremendous character. He is a strong supporter of women’s racing and has been for many, many years. But a situation in which a person puts their hand in their own pocket and comes up with £30,000 to run a race each year, I totally agree with you, Tim, is absolutely unique; perhaps not just in this country either. He’s well deserving of some public accolade for his generosity towards women’s cycling in this country because he is a one-off, and that’s why we’re all so passionate to make a race for him that is worthy of what he is doing.”
