Feature: The Prologue Racing Team Mid Term Review!

Planes, Trains, Ferries, and Automobiles – A Tale of a Spring Campaign Racing Across Europe for the Prologue Racing Team with their riders racing to get results and the team dealing with many a challenge

Feature: Prologue Junior Men’s Mid Season Review

As we hit school exam season, Prologue RT are taking a little bit of a breather and can look back on a Spring campaign which has seen them compete in junior UCI races across three Countries mixing with some of Europe’s finest whilst supporting the Junior National Series back in the UK and when time permits, ride the odd local event.

Team Presentation Gipuzkoa Klassikoa

This in part has been made a reality thanks to some fantastic sponsors and support along with vital Rayner Funding through their Gateway Scheme which supports teams such as such as ours to dip their toe in at the deep end of the European scene.

It’s been eventful to say the least and a campaign not blessed with luck. As things stand, we have Nathan Smith having scored in all but one round and sat high up in the National Series having bagged a 6th, 3rd and 15th place of the 4 rounds to date. James Beagley having a breakthrough performance at the IOM Tour and a 4th place on GC, Dan Kemp gaining confidence all the time and now with two placings in the National Series.

Plenty to smile about you’d say but as ever in this sport with the high’s come the lows. We had riders in the break but ended up with only two finishers while competing in the GP Perdono, Italy. We had systematic Di2 fails and team punctures / crashes occurring within minutes of one another it felt like every race at the start.

Bike packing …. 

We currently have Joel Hurt out for a number of weeks with a fractured patella arising from an off on the first lap of the IOM Tour. Joe Turnbull is someone who has battled to get his fitness levels up all winter after illness only to fall victim of crashes in CiCLE, Cadence and Gipzukoa Klassikoa, a race he was targeting. He had to step aside while guest riders filled his place in iconic events such as Nokere Koerse and Guido. Not an easy conversation for is Dad / Team manager, me.

We’ve found ourselves hurtling across countries to make that flight, tunnel crossing or ferry. Some we’ve made, others we haven’t, but a fact forced upon us with kids’ school and college commitments combined with parents who have full time jobs and business’ to run.

We’ve furiously packed bike boxes on the side of the street to get ourselves to the airport no sooner have the lads crossed the line. We’ve been forced to take shelter under a bridge in Italy during a hailstorm which damaged the hire cars. A charming gentleman trying to steal a bike off the roof while were stationary at some traffic lights!!

The season it seems has thrown everything at us.

Rare downtime – Gipuzkoa Klassikoa Basque

It’s a white knuckle ride for the team of parents who volunteer week after week to do it and for some reason are up for doing it all over again, thank you!! But in only our second year, we take a lot of pride in what the team have achieved and the races we have been lucky enough to compete in, more so when we have such a small budget and are seeing more and more big budget professional set ups or World Tour Junior Dev teams on the start list.

But to hear race radio crackle into life and discover one of the lads us up there or at least having a go makes it all so worth it. In total, we have got one of our riders in the top 25 of all but one of the four UCI races we have competed in, something I am particularly proud of given there is 180 of Europe’s finest lining up.

With such a small budget it’s a credit to the ever-supportive parents, sponsors and the lads themselves that we have been able to do what we have and with still plenty of the season to go we can look forward to competing in France (Classic du Sud UCI 1.1), Spain (4 Day Tour of Basque) and Switzerland (GP Ruelbiland UCI 2.1) before the season is out. We just need lady luck to come along for the ride ideally with all her friends.

Daniel Kemp in the thick of it

Junior Men’s Team
Joel Hurt
Joe Turnbull
Nathan Smith
Isaac Oliver
Daniel Kemp
Louis Herring
James Beagley

Joe Battered and bruised early in Stage 2 Gipuzkoa

 

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