An earlier start to the TT season than usual but the Ely Hardriders route was one of those itches that needed scratching – a few years ago I had signed up for it but chickened out after driving the route the day before and seeing how much of it was under water! This time I decided to sign up and pray for better weather ... and indeed it couldn’t really have been better, with reasonable temperatures and light winds, plus a dryish course (except for farmers’ mud, but we will come back to that). The course is in three sections, with a twisty, lumpy first part, then the main road up past Ely, a left turn onto a section with one of the worst surfaces in England (and on a bad day, the worst headwinds as well), then a few more turns back to the start village.

Over the week before it remained dry, so I arrived on the morning hopeful of a reasonable ride. We drove in along the first part of the course, and conditions seemed ok other than one section that was quite muddy (one of the parts that had been under water last time) – what I should have done was checked out the last part of the course as well. After a decent warmup I got to the start (after cheering off Maddie for her start 11 minutes before me). I set off aiming to remain fairly cautious over the first section (but pushing on the uphill sections) and then get the power down on the main road. A slightly nervous moment on one of the corners, but all was fine onto the main road and then another push up the most significant ‘climb’ of the course. The next section on the main road past Ely I had imagined would be a nice ride, with a tailwind and better road conditions, but in fact the road is really bumpy and potholed, which, combined with cars passing continuously and quite close, made for a less enjoyable section than I had hoped (people who think single carriageway TTs are inherently ‘safe’ compared with dual carriageway ones need to try riding this one).

Video of the crash

It was a relief to turn off onto the quieter roads and mentally prepare myself for the worst part of the ride - a left turn back down a road that is horrendously bumpy and potholed. It was impossible to ride on the aerobars along here, so I did the best I could, thankful for the fact that there wasn’t much wind. The next ‘obstacle’ was a turn that is infamous in Hardriders circles as ‘the one where everyone goes wrong’ because there is a left turn, but also a sharp left turn at the same junction and you need to do the sharp left. I remembered this but what I wasn’t prepared for was that the surface on this corner was like ice with slippery damp mud from tractors. Before I knew it, I was down hard on my left side – luckily my chain didn’t come off and I was able to get going again quite quickly. After that it was just a question of getting to the finish – the next corner was very slippery as well. I rolled over the line in 1:01.15, after losing 30 secs plus to the crash. A dubious record – my slowest ever 25 and first time over 1 hour! I would probably have been just over the hour even without the crash, but I lost at least a couple of places, coming a disappointing 7th (but 1st Vet on Standard so some prize money!). At least I’ve done it now. Time to heal the road rash and repair (hopefully!) the skinsuit.

Tim Phillips

Ely Hardriders 25m TT, 12 Feb 2023

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