This is the best description for a bike race I've ever heard; and makes me want to be back in the UK again...
Join us on the 22nd of June for the Rapha Gentlemen's* Race, an unmarshalled and unsanctioned point-to-point team challenge taking place around the Summer Solstice.
Each group of six riders will set off from the ancient walled city of York, leaving behind its winding medieval passageways and embarking on self-determined routes through the glorious scenery of the North Yorkshire Moors. Changeable June weather will no doubt present a challenge over the open landscape and coastline. In sun, rouleurs will take in summer blooms and vivid greenery covering abbey ruins, silent for centuries after the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII. Inclement weather, however, could shift the mood to one more reminiscent of the shipwreck near Whitby which brought Dracula to England disguised as a black dog. Teams are required to pass through a halfway checkpoint in this sleepy port town. Battling potential offshore winds on the way back to York will need the strength of the stone walls of Whitby Abbey, where, nearly a thousand years ago, monks labored away at producing intricate gold-glossed manuscripts during the height of early medieval religious art in England. These great ruins, perched atop the cliffs and standing watch over the town below, also mark the spot where the modern Christian calendar was negotiated by a synod of bishops in the seventh century. No doubt a similar form of teamwork will be required from riders as they work their way back across the moors towards York and the finish, with the spires of the Minster, visible from miles away, beckoning each group homewards.
Written by Jack Flannagan for the Rapha Cycling blog
If you're interested you can enter here.
Join us on the 22nd of June for the Rapha Gentlemen's* Race, an unmarshalled and unsanctioned point-to-point team challenge taking place around the Summer Solstice.
Each group of six riders will set off from the ancient walled city of York, leaving behind its winding medieval passageways and embarking on self-determined routes through the glorious scenery of the North Yorkshire Moors. Changeable June weather will no doubt present a challenge over the open landscape and coastline. In sun, rouleurs will take in summer blooms and vivid greenery covering abbey ruins, silent for centuries after the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII. Inclement weather, however, could shift the mood to one more reminiscent of the shipwreck near Whitby which brought Dracula to England disguised as a black dog. Teams are required to pass through a halfway checkpoint in this sleepy port town. Battling potential offshore winds on the way back to York will need the strength of the stone walls of Whitby Abbey, where, nearly a thousand years ago, monks labored away at producing intricate gold-glossed manuscripts during the height of early medieval religious art in England. These great ruins, perched atop the cliffs and standing watch over the town below, also mark the spot where the modern Christian calendar was negotiated by a synod of bishops in the seventh century. No doubt a similar form of teamwork will be required from riders as they work their way back across the moors towards York and the finish, with the spires of the Minster, visible from miles away, beckoning each group homewards.
Written by Jack Flannagan for the Rapha Cycling blog
If you're interested you can enter here.
