Inside Britain's Most Chaotic Race

Vern Pitt samples the drama and disarray of the CiCLE Classic

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Former Milk Race winner and Team Wiggins-Le Col directeur sportif Chris Lillywhite is celebrating. As we cruise along behind the CiCLE Classic peloton in the convoy of team cars he deftly unwraps a package from Martin Frank, the team cook. “Fantastic,” he shouts as he sees the pork pie within. “He’s even put mustard in it!”

It was a fitting lunch for the race that ends in Melton Mowbray, the home of pork pies, but it was the last time Lillywhite would be celebrating that day.

The CiCLE Classic, which ran its 15th edition this year, is renowned for its chaotic atmosphere and today would prove no exception. With its 11 sectors of gravel, tight lanes and near constant undulations, it’s an extremely tough day. But it’s one the team hosting CW have mastered before. In 2018 Gabriel Cullaigh won the race in a Wiggins jersey, sprinting to victory from a small group of riders. So spirits are high as we roll out of the race start in Oakham.

Despite the race’s fearsome reputation, the first two hours pass with little fanfare as, new for 2019, the race rides out to Wymondham and does four laps of the village. At one point team manager Simon Cope, stood on the roadside in the feed zone further up the course, texts in to ask how things are going. “Boring,” Lillywhite tells me to type back to him. Wiggins rider Tom Pidcock drops back to enquire about lunch — he always wants “proper food” in a musette, not a bottle, we’re told — and when Lillywhite remarks on the relaxed racing he responds: “Two hours of Zone One.”