BARNSLEY cyclist Jenson Young fulfilled a lifetime ambition when he continued his recent run of victories at the Yorkshire Three Peaks Cyclocross event and now will end his season at a world championships.
The 61k Three Peaks race, which started in 1961, is held over Ingleborough, Whernside and Pen-y-ghent on the final weekend of September annually.
Riders take their bikes up the mountains but can run with them when the terrain makes it impossible to cycle.
Jenson, 24, won the event for the first time, smashing the course record by more than three minutes, having watched the race as a child when his uncle Chris, a three-time winner, and father Mike competed.
He is a professional cyclist with Ribble Outliers, and took up long-distance running last year to train for this event – finishing second in the Barnsley 10k.
Jenson said: “It was the main race I have wanted to win since I was a kid and I always talked about it.
“My uncle has won it and my dad did well in it as well so it’s quite big in the family.
“I rode up and watched sections as a kid and thought ‘how is it possible to race over these mountains? I could never do that.’
“I did it last year for the first time and came second so it was a big goal and I put a lot of pressure on myself.
“I am really happy to win it. Hopefully the course record stands for a bit.”
Jenson is unsure if he will look to retain his title next year. He said: “I said I just wanted to win it once then that would be it.
“I had to sacrifice other races with the team because it takes so much other training. I was up there three or four times this year, fast walking all the peaks wearing a weighted vest to get my body used to it, and looking at the route.
“There is also the risk of it.
“Descending those hills on 35mm tyres is pretty dangerous and scary, especially when you are racing for a win or a time.
“I had a clean race and felt really good. It couldn’t have gone any better.
“I think I would struggle on another day to match that.”
This win followed Jenson’s victory earlier in September in the time-trial of the British Gravel Racing Championships.
The Hemingfield man also won his previous race in North Wales, as part of the UCI Gravel World Series which he has been competing in all year – travelling around the world and sometimes racing across more than 300km in one day.
He is now due to complete his season at the UCI Gravel World Championships in Zuid-Limburg, Netherlands on October 12.
“There will be all the best people there and it will be hard.
“The course is pretty rolling and doesn’t suit me massively.
“Normally a harder course suits me better. But no matter how I do, after the last three weekends with three wins, it has made the season.
“There is no pressure, I will just go out and have some fun at the World Championships.
“If I get a good result, so be it but, if not, I won’t be disappointed at all.
“My first season doing gravel has been so much better than I would have hoped or expected.
“If I could have said the races I would have wanted to win at the start of the season, those would be the ones.
“All the hard races at the start of the season, when I had plenty of problems and I probably wasn’t quite ready for it, I took a lot of learning and fitness from them which helped me come good in the end.”
Jenson is expected to compete in some more cyclocross events in the winter then return to the gravel series next year.
Also competing in the three peaks event was Penistone Footpath Runners member Phil Hinchliffe. He completed the course for the 34th time in 4-24-59, despite recovering from a crash just two weeks earlier. Phil finished 188th.
