Harry Tanfield is celebrating a successful visit to Scotland during a busy weekend for BIKE Channel Canyon.
The 22-year-old, from Great Ayton, North Yorkshire, grabbed second in the Gifford Road Race on Saturday as team-mate George Atkins rolled over in fifth.
Tanfield then turned the tables on winner John Archibald in the 30-mile Lang Whang Hilly TT, beating the Pro Vision Scotland rider by just two seconds in a new course record time of 1hr 5min 8sec.
Elsewhere, Dexter Gardias was fourth and Matt Nowell finished eighth as Spirit Tifosi’s Ed Clemens clinched the 58th Wally Gimber Trophy in Kent.
And Rory Townsend grabbed another podium in Ireland. He followed up his second place in the Bobby Power Memorial on Friday with runner-up to Darragh O’Mahony in the Des Hanlon Classic, the country’s opening National Road Series race.
However, there was no doubting the star of the weekend. And Tanfield, who only had the use of one chainring on his bike, was quick to reveal the secret behind his time trial victory. He said:
“I got to George’s house after the Gifford race around 7pm and just sat down as George cooked some outrageous dinner.
“It must have been those venison sausages and chips he cooked up on Saturday night that did the trick!
“On Friday, my handlebars were getting cabled at the bike shop. It came to 5pm and the mechanic said the internal cable route was ruined.
“At that point, I basically couldn’t have a front cable, so he said do you want the 42 or the 55? Well, I had to have the 55, didn’t I!
“I thought I would give it my best shot. I couldn’t believe it came down to two seconds. In a 30-mile time trial, for it to come down to that was crazy.
“It was a cross-headwind going out and I was getting blown around a bit but as soon as I got on the aero bars, it wasn’t too bad.
“Coming back I didn’t have enough. I needed a 58! The last two miles was mostly downhill, so I knew I just had to give it everything for 28 miles.
“I really nailed it to that point and I was absolutely cooked when I sprinted over the top of the climb.
“From then on it was actually faster for me to get off the back of the saddle and go into a sort of Superman position rather than try to pedal the bike.
“I was just sprinting flat out for 20 seconds, up to 45mph or whatever I could, and then just tucking in and getting aero.
“I would love to come back and do it again. If it is on next year, I would love to do it again with a working bike. Maybe with a 50/58 combo.
“Although in hindsight, I could have put a 32 on the back so I was not cross-chaining quite so much!”
On Saturday, Tanfield rode the second half of the race with Archibald after bridging over to the early move which his rival had instigated. Tanfield added:
“In the end he rode me off the wheel with 3km to go. It was on a bit of a climb and no matter how aero I got, I just did not have the gas to hold his wheel.
“I was second in the KOM prize, George rolled in fifth and was the best 2nd Cat. So we had a pretty good weekend.”
Clemens and runner-up Dillon Byrne stole a march on the big guns in the Wally Gimber Trophy, their late move sticking as the UCI teams in a select front group focused on one another.
Max Stedman and Alex Richardson rode hard in an attempt to bring the pair back but in the end it wasn’t to be, with Team Wiggins’ Rhys Howells beating Gardias to the final podium spot.
