2026 Race Season Round-Up: 5 AM Alarm Clocks, Aero Suits, & Autumn Mud – By JAMIE FARAM
There’s a special kind of madness reserved for North Tyneside Riders time triallists. While the rest of the world is sound asleep under a warm duvet, our TT squad is up at 5:00 AM on a freezing Sunday morning, standing on a wind-swept dual carriageway in skin-tight lycra, asking themselves: “Why do I do this for fun?”
Rain, headwinds, or arctic dawn chill—if there’s a race number to pin to a skinsuit and a start line, our NTR riders are there pushing themselves to the limit. What an unbelievable team effort 2026 has been!
How It All Started: Early Season Warm-Ups
Barnesbury CC Hilly 21 (28 Mar): Early benchmarks were set on the road bike over a tough, rolling 21-mile course, stopping the clock at 56:24.
Blaydon CC 2-Up (11 Apr): Nothing tests teamwork quite like an early-season 2-Up TT in raw crosswinds. Justin, Sarah, Ian, Adam, Daniel, and Jamie all stepped up for the squad, turning out strong road and aero TT efforts including 49:28 and 52:52 clockings.
NTR Open 10 (26 Apr): Organized by Ian Gallon, our amazing marshals and cake-baking crew made the NTR Open 10 an absolute triumph. Brilliant performances all around—including a 24:06 TT effort on home turf—followed by even faster tea drinking at HQ.
The CTT Series: Final Standings & Silverware!
The official N&DCA points are tallied, and the entire NTR squad made massive waves across the district tables to secure dynamic team finishes:
Team Rankings:
Open Team: 4th Overall (1,903 pts)
Veteran Team: 2nd Place / Silver (1,975 pts)
Veteran Road Bike Team: 2nd Place / Silver (2,033 pts)
Individual Standings & Season Highlights:
Sarah Minto: 6th Overall in the Women’s Competition (694 pts), racking up a huge 118 pts at Tyneside Vagabonds Long!
Ian Gallon: 8th Veteran & 12th Open Overall (637 pts), putting down crucial team points all season long.
David Lavery: 14th Veteran & 15th Open Overall (603 pts), delivering consistent top-tier results across the district.
Philip Green: 18th Veteran & 20th Open Overall (573 pts), proving key to our Veteran Team Silver medal runs.
Adam Cosheril: 21st Open Overall (531 pts) in a fantastic debut season, storming through 10-mile and sporting courses alike.
Jamie Faram: 9th Open Overall (663 pts) & 12th Veteran (667 pts), backed by a scorching 57:47 at the Vector Racing 25 and an unbelievable 4:22:48 in the Tyneside Vagabonds 100-mile TT.
Long Distance & BBAR Endurance Efforts
Beyond the local 10s and 25s, NTR riders pushed into deep endurance territory this summer across regional and national benchmarks.
Late August saw Jamie complete the epic multi-distance BBAR award coming together, with West Cheshire TTCA 12-Hour runs covering 239.84 miles self supported out of his car boot, and straight into a 4:22:48 effort at the Tyneside Vagabonds 100-mile TT 6 days later rounding off a 400 mile week on the bike.
These massive rides locked in strong national BBAR qualifications and VTTA top-25 rankings across the 25, 50, 100, and 12-hour benchmarks.
Hill Climbs: Gravity Battles Begin
The squad traded flat dual carriageways for sheer gradient throughout the season, kicking off early at Kildale Hill Climb in April before building momentum through the summer.
Vector Racing’s Prospect Hill Climb (10 Jul)
The squad turned out strong runs up the wall:
Daniel Robinson: 7th Overall in 4:50.3
Ian Gallon: 9th Overall in 5:07.8
Mark Furness: 12th Overall in 5:50.8
NTR Hill Climb 6th September
NTR launched the official autumn hill climb campaign on a true 100 Climbs favorite: Winter’s Gibbet (North Tyneside Riders CC). The squad fought hard up the 2.2-mile slope:
Daniel Robinson: 11th Overall in 9:31.4
Ian Gallon: 12th Overall in 9:47.8
Mark Furness: 14th Overall in 10:17.7
Upcoming : Cyclocross: Ready for Off-Road Action
With the summer TT season wrapped up, the second half of the year shifts gear completely. We’re swapping aero bars and lightweight road builds for knobbly tyres, mud, and barrier hurdles as the squad gets stuck into the NECCL Cyclocross series.
Mark your calendars: NTR will be hosting our very own annual CX race on Sunday 27th September in South Shields! Whether you’re racing, marshalling, or bringing cowbells and enthusiasm to cheer on the squad, we’ll see you on the course.
