The Ryedale Grand Prix offered a test as far removed from a crit race as might be imagined. Hour-upon-hour of unrelenting slog through unrelenting rain demanded something different from the riders than adrenaline-fuelled passes and the ability to withstand an endless series of accelerations from dead turns.

For Torrie, merely finishing the race, 8’22” down on the winner Graham Briggs (JLT Condor), represented a victory of sorts. Before the season, he had challenged himself to finish a top-tier domestic race. The Ryedale GP, the final race of the HBSC Grand Prix Series, offered the perfect opportunity, if racing for more than four hours in unceasing rain can be described as perfect.

“Chez pulled alongside and said: ‘Good job, mate. That’s enough.’ And I thought: ‘Are you kidding? I’m going to the line!’”

There is something especially dispiriting about starting a bike race in the rain. Within the opening kilometres, most are wet. Even the most sophisticated clothing offers only a temporary defence against the North Yorkshire climate. A tropical storm may offer greater intensity, but there is no sunny upside to the heavy, steady, unrelenting precipitation that northern Britain has made a speciality of the house.

“I remember watching the other riders prepare. When you see the likes of Jon Mould and Ali Slater, two of the most experienced riders in the peloton, putting on almost every bit of kit they own, you know it’s going to be a grim day. I did the same and was wise to do so, because I didn’t get cold.”

Torrie claimed his personal victory in the teeth of the weather and in spite of permission from team manager Cherie Pridham to quit the race with one lap still remaining. Torrie, surviving, if not thriving in conditions he describes as “purgatory”, was in no mood to stop.

“I remember the moment half-way through the penultimate lap. I’d been dropped on the third-to-last time up the climb, but managed to claw my way back to peloton. On the second-to-last time, it was too much to ask. Chez pulled alongside and said: ‘Good job, mate. That’s enough.’ And I thought: ‘Are you kidding? I’m going to the line!’”

Ryedale offered Vitus Pro Cycling Team little more than a gruelling finish to an arduous campaign. Breakaway specialist Adam Kenway missed the early break, much to his chagrin, Torrie reports. The teenager offered to help Kenway bridge across, but the older man elected to save his efforts for a final pursuit in the closing laps. With little to do other then survive, Torrie dug in.

Gold standard

Passion, awareness and the Ride More principle

May 2nd, 2019

May 2^nd, 2019