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Following hot on the heels of Friday night’s unpredictable, chaotic National Circuit Race in Ilkley, the home of our Wheelbase Yorkshire store, our young Wheelbase Cabetch Castelli team were back in action at Round 2 of the National Road Series. The Stockton Grand Prix has been a popular race in the demanding series for a number of years; as part of the weekend-long Stockton Cycling Festival the men’s race is the main headliner of a series of cycling events and races throughout the weekend, aimed at getting every age and gender out on their bikes in and around the cycling-friendly town of Stockton-on-Tees.
We recently opened a flagship Wheelbase store within Stockton-on-Tee’s Go Outdoors superstore and this race gave us an opportunity to invite the Wheelbase Cabtech Castelli team to meet the staff and check out our all-new shopping experience. With a late start of 1.00pm for the men’s race there was plenty of time for the team to relax and fuel up on some great coffee while our small Wheelbase media team took the opportunity to film the riders in the new store before doing some short pre-race interviews to glean each of their hopes and aspirations for the upcoming race.
Watch all the action from the Wheelbase Cabtech Castelli team at the Stockton GP
The Stockton Grand Prix cannot be underestimated, with some pretty terrifying stats for the casual non-elite cyclist observing from the roadside. The race takes place on country roads just north of Stockton town centre and includes a mix of wide, fast roads combined with tighter lanes that include punchy climbs and sweeping turns where tree lined verges throw a good amount of shade onto some of the rougher road sections. The total distance of the race was 111 miles or 178.6km with 80 miles of the race being played out on the 8.4 mile circuit outside of the town; at the 80 mile mark the racers return to the town centre of Stockton-on-Tees to take on a further 6 laps of a 4 mile circuit around town. That testing overall distance and the contrasting mix of the larger loop combined with the smaller town-centre loop with more of a circuit-race feel makes for a very difficult race to win, requiring riders to change tactics late in the race and endure a really difficult final hour of racing just when their bodies are beginning to really fatigue.
Just like the Ilkley circuit race on Friday, the first difficulty for Wheelbase Cabtech Castelli was fielding an effective team for this demanding national-level race; with illness and injury plaguing the team in the build up to the Stockton GP it was going to be a case of some of our younger, less experienced riders stepping up and taking responsibility to be at the sharp end of the race and influence the proceedings as much as they could. We took three riders into the race – Callum Thornley, Matt Fox and Fraser Martin, with a couple of other riders from our squad having to miss the Stockton GP at the last minute. It’s a credit to the young trio that they didn’t panic and stayed cool and focused in the build up to the race.
In the pre-race briefing Wheelbase Cabtech Castelli team manager Stu Reid encouraged Fraser to contribute early on to help Callum and Matt stay at the front of the race and ensure that they didn’t miss any significant moves. With Fraser’s form a little low, he was unsure he would be able to contribute late in the race and so the tactic to work hard at the start of the race on behalf of his teammates made sense to the reduced squad. Matt Fox, at the age of just 19 continues to prove himself as a punchy rider with a mean sprint and a mature head which guides him to exactly where he needs to be in any road racing scenario; the lengthy nature of the Stockton GP would prove to be a real test of his abilities and racing experience. Callum Thornley, on a fantastic run of results, continues to show that he has tapped into a rich vein of form and at the young age of 18 is still unsure of how long he can continue before he starts to fade. It was agreed that, for now, he should race as hard as he has been, as both he and the team staff continue to learn just what he’s capable of; as the race progressed we were not to be disappointed.
Just as the race rolled out of Stockton-on-Tees dark clouds started to loom overhead and the afternoon’s action would see intermittent cloud bursts of torrential rain, eventually making the roads wet on the entire circuit. Fresh rain fall on previously dry roads, combined with stretches in tree-lined shade and tight turns, along with a large peloton made up of riders ready to influence the race, created dangerous conditions and we saw some inevitable spills as the race progressed. It’s testament to just how hard the Stockton GP is that riders began fading from the back of the bunch as speeds were increased and the larger pro teams continued to push the pace.
Riding conditions proved difficult with torrential rain affecting rider safety at key sections of the course. Photo: Will Palmer / SWpix
Upfront a small group of 7 riders jumped away to establish a gap; at this point Callum who was riding attentively on the front of the peloton spotted that Finn Crockett (who raced for Wheelbase last year) had made that lead group and knowing that this meant the breakaway may well stick, Callum wisely jumped across the gap to establish himself in the break. As the race quickly progressed from we watched the gap stretch out to over a minute and our Wheelbase Cabtech Castelli team car was able to join the back of the break ready to feed Callum and provide mechanical assistance if it was required. This gave me (Johnny – your feature writer) and Dave Macfarlane our filmographer, a rider’s-eye view of the action from the car as excitement built and we all began to hope that Callum could hold on until the finishing circuit and influence the outcome of the race.
Callum Thornley (back rider) made a significant contribution to the break, but knew when to conserve energy too. Photo: Will Palmer / SWpix
The group of six riders worked well together to stay away from the chasing pack. Photo: Will Palmer / SWpix
Meanwhile, behind Callum’s breakaway group the race continued to splinter with Wheelbase’s Matt Fox racing strongly in a group of around 20 chasing riders, while the larger peloton languished further behind. It’s a credit to Matt again regarding how he rode; not contributing to the chase of the breakaway but positioning himself towards the front of his group ready to react if the breakaway ahead of him was caught. As the race headed back to Stockton-on-Tees the time gap hovered around 48 seconds and the team cars were instructed to move behind the chasing group to ensure we did not influence the race. A quick check in with Callum while offering up more food before we dropped back confirmed that he was still riding comfortably, making a real contribution to the success of the break while remaining calm and composed as he contemplated the prospect of racing for the win during the final town-centre laps.
Dan Gardner working hard on the front with Callum sitting in attentively. Photo: Will Palmer / SWpix
From the team car the final laps of the race were dizzying; with multiple round-abouts and dog-leg turns each lap presented the chance to track the race leaders and the chasing group as they blasted past on the opposite side of the carriageway. Callum was now in uncharted territory, racing further than he’d ever raced before and finding himself at the sharp end for the duration of the race. With 3 laps to go he unfortunately began to fade and started slipping back from the lead group as fatigue began to take a hold. Again, showing great maturity and fore-thought Callum sat up and joined the chasing group rather than stubbornly trying to hang in between groups and quickly recomposed himself to begin thinking about leading-out Matt who was still riding strongly in this second group on the road.
As we came into the final lap the lead group began to splinter, with a handful of riders asserting themselves as others began to fade. Likewise, behind then that chasing group saw some riders attacking off the front, but as the final dog-leg turn came up Callum positioned himself in front of Matt to lead him out for the sprint for the remaining places with Matt taking a fantastic 13 place and Callum rolling over the line in a brilliant 18th place. Our two young riders showed enormous ability and great fortitude to race as hard and intelligently as they did at this most demanding level of UK road racing. We’re really proud with how they performed throughout the race and the whole team celebrated an excellent showing for Wheelbase at the Stockton GP; we now go onward to more National Circuit Races and another arduous National Road Series race which takes place just down the road from Wheelbase HQ in Lancaster on Sunday the 17th of July.
Wheelbase Cabtech Castelli’s Callum Thornley riding strongly in the main breakaway of the day. Photo:Photo: Will Palmer / SWpix
Written by Johnny Dodgin
Film by Dave MacFarlane
Photos by Will Palmer / SW Pix
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