ALTHOUGH Ilkley Cycling Club had no riders in the senior elite men's or women's races at the Yorkshire Regional Road Race Championships, they were represented by two riders in the masters category, who raced in a combined masters and juniors race, on the Bulmer Bank circuit in the Howardian Hills.

Ged Millward and Steve Gott ended up 12th and 13th, respectively.

The race’s first obstacle was the fearsome descent of Terrington Bank, where pelotons often exceed 60mph, but restrained by a strong headwind the speed was only in the 50s on Sunday.

However, there was immediate danger when a rider from Team Chevin’s bicycle developed a violent speed wobble on the descent.

The rest of the bunch managed to avoid him as he wrestled to get it under control and an accident was averted.

At this point, both Millward and Gott were comfortably sheltering in the main pack and even starting to feel confident about their chances in the race.

However, the bunch were soon climbing the 1 in 5 slopes of Bulmer Bank, and with some world class juniors attacking at the front of the peloton, this signalled then end of any chances of a good position for Millward, as the ageing twice previous championship winner (1982 and 1991) was unceremoniously dumped out of the back, demonstrating his lack of prowess in hill climbing.

With plenty of vocal support around the course, Millward stuck to his task and persevered to the finish.

Meanwhile, Gott was performing much better, climbing excellently and holding his place well in the tough field.

Disaster struck at two thirds distance when Gott suffered a massive attack of cramp.

After a hiatus on the grass and with help from spectators, Gott eventually remounted and bravely limped to the finish, a sad end to what promised to be a successful performance.

In this week’s circuit races, Ilkley’s star performer was again Jim Adamson with another fine second place in the 3/4 category race at UCLAN, surely a win is just around the corner. Whilst in the same category race at Colne, consistent Michael Strange came 11th.

The East Bradford CC 15m time trial was held near Boroughbridge and Ilkley’s David Leckenby was first over 50 rider and seventh overall with 35.15, followed home by Liam Rees with 39.57.

The fastest time of the day was a really rapid 31.26 achieved by Ilkley tandem pairing of Doug Hart and Jake Unsworth.

On Tuesday last week, it was rainy and cold all day which put a few riders off competing in the evening time trial.

By the evening it had dried up, but the riders had to battle a cool northerly wind making it the hardest evening of the season so far and times were pro rata slower for all riders.

Tom Asher was comfortably fastest on the night with 27.15, with the rest of the placings: 2 Ged Millward 27:47, 3 Michael Strange 29:46, 4 Liam Rees 29:52, 5 Paddy Carter 30:29, 6 John Tate 31:03, 7 Michael Harris 31:47 and 8 Alizon Hargreaves 37:24.