Page 74 - The Royal Lancers Chapka 2019

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2019 became the year cycling and Yorkshire attained their symbiotic reality. Seeds sown in the 2014 Tour de France were reaped in the heart of God’s own county – Catterick and the Dales. Any Royal Lancer Rouleur has long recognised this as scripture. Now the world has realised this too. The Union Cycliste Internationale brought the Road World Championships to Cambrai Barrack’s very doorstep. And this year the Royal Lancer Rouleurs have been exporting their own brand of the two-wheeled creed back out to the world.
The first sortie of the year – a remarkably crisp Wednesday sport afternoon in January – got the pistons pumping in the Royal Lancer peloton along the old-time favourite to Grinton: ‘El Classico’. The range road is as windy as ever. Grinton Moore re- mains a pedal grinder, but always worth its speedy descent. The Dales MTB centre produces ever better cakes and coffee, perfect fuel for the race back. An old-time favourite was vindicated.
Between Wednesday sorties, the Rouleurs set off to lands afar in search for winter sun. In March, LCpl Simcox and Tpr Collins exchanged the Dales for Table Top Mountain in South Africa as part of The Royal Armoured Corps cycling tour. There they sampled the tarmac that Chris Froome used to pedal in his youth and put some enviable miles into the legs before the upcoming season of road racing. April offered another distant pasture: Snowdonia, Wales. There Lt Free and Sgt France joined Simcox and Collins for the Army Road Cycling Training Camp. Steeper roads, but still sweeter tarmac, put some harder miles into the RL pistons.
All proved good training, especially for LCpl Simcox. He went on to represent the Army Cycling Race Team, winning the Inter- Services whilst coming second overall and becoming U25 army champion – for a second year running. Avid cycling fans would have also seen him competing on the GB Tour series and Elite Criterium series televised on ITV. Following this success, he was selected for the Talented Athletes Scholarship scheme as a duel career athlete in tandem with the Army Elite Sports Programme.
The zenith of The Royal Lancer cycling calendar – Ex FREE- WHEELING LANCER 19 – arrived at the end of July. This is the culmination of Royal Lancer cycling: two weeks tackling the best tarmac available ‘mano y mano’. A select peloton [Lt Free, Capt Jibb, WO2 Nyambira, Cpl Toyne, LCpl Sands, LCpl Foster, Tprs Kwiatowski, Willis, Edwards-Johnson and Simcox] set off to pastures old and new in the French Alps. Base camp one sat above the historic lake of Annecy, neatly settled in the winter ski resort of Les Gets atop Col de la Croix Fry. The peloton spent the first couple of days acclimatising with some lakeside cruis- ing in a quest for speed in team time-trial formation. The sun- rise descent of Croix Fry was glorious. A welcome warm-up for fresh legs. Our fondness for our Col dwindled, however, when we first sampled its ascent. The half-way house café provided some needed respite on an increasingly hard gradient, and some Rouleurs began to look despondently at their chain rings. The climb, however, is a battle won in the mind. The Rouleurs, re- freshed, turned to their cycling creed – “Don’t buy upgrades, ride upgrades” and shredded the Col’s hot tarmac.
REGIMENTAL JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL LANCERS (QUEEN ELIZABETHS’ OWN)
Road Cycling and Ex FREEWHEELING LANCER 19
The RL Peleton – ‘The Pain Train’