Gravel sectors, farm tracks and brutal conditions. The CiCLE Classic is Britain’s wildest one-day road race, and this year, we sent our cameras into the storm.
In partnership with Smurfit Westrock Pro Cycling, Welcome to Hell captures the moments, decisions, and chaos that shaped their ride at the 2025 edition.
It’s not just about the result. It’s about what it took to get there.
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crashes left right and center Potholes everywhere Things can go wrong It’s unpredictable Bring people out of hedges It’s like nothing else The [Music] race itself is 180 km You got car tracks potholes everywhere It was modeled on the Flanders race and the Paret races and that’s very much what it what it mirrors is our the UK’s kind of spring classic They now tend to start and finish in Melbourne Really messy little narrow lanes with potholes and grass running down the middle and ditches on one side Best you can get two riders a breast and sometimes not even that There are sections of course which are actually off-road It’s literally on a dirt track which they usually have to fill in with hardcore There’s a bit that goes through an actual farmyard And then the last sector is grass Like I’ve never done a bike race over grass before Before the first event in 2005 I wanted something that was different to everything else This year with the 20th year which is actually unique in a an international one-day race in the UK There’s there isn’t one that’s lasted that long This is the only international 1-day race in Britain An international competition on their own roads We’re doing something that nobody else is offering in Britain We ran the race in 2005 and the pictures that were taken of it of riders coming up dirt laden tracks with dust flying in the air that just made it It became a unique event and suddenly people were saying we want more of this and suddenly we had a success on our hands So the race itself doesn’t lend itself to any particular specialist and that is very much the openness of the event I’ve spoken to riders who’ve done it for the first time and it doesn’t matter what people say to them about what what it’s like It’s a baptism of fire It’s a tale of the unexpected each time Both Katie Archie Bold and Na Evans actually have won the event and um particularly memorable is is NA the year that she won it from a small group that um she was directed off course on the on the finishing circuit and fell as a result of being off course for a short distance got up got back into that group and still won the spin finish at the end Now to my mind you know that shows the actual uh intent and that personal commitment to actually winning at all costs Every rider that rides the race has their own story to tell at the end of it I run the team dayto-day So I I run the budgets search responsor race planning We set the team up coming out of co and the idea was to progress year on year increase the numbers of riders in the team The big thing for us is if we can place riders on the big teams we are in effect a stepping stone So if we can put a rider onto a world tour team it shows we’re doing the right thing This is probably the strongest team that we had coming into SEC We talked a little bit about how we would all want the race to play out It’s the dynamics you know there’s a lot of things that happen off the bike certainly on team camp that that allow us to perform and trust each other the way that we do just to get this team off the ground running It is it is Rick that puts a lot of hard work in I was mechanic in that day I drive the circuit I use Val View I can then put in there if there’s any specific big potholes or you know where they need to keep left where they need to keep right Don’t do this so many races but SQL is one that I do it for Normally you’ve got roundabout here sprint climb sec you’ve got all that but also you’ve got where the gravel is where the potholes are So it’s probably four times more information going on the screen than on in a normal race Welcome to the 9inth edition of the Women’s Cycle Classic round one of the Lloyd’s Women’s National Road Series We’re oversubscribed every year We have a field of 176 which is the maximum that anyone can have anywhere in the world Everyone wants to be at the front so they get there really early which means you sit there and everyone’s nervous 30 seconds to the start 30 seconds to the start I’ve got this energy inside me ready to be unleashed And I feel like an elastic band wound super tight Okay And we are rolling We are rolling All riders begin to roll Please Within that first 25k you kind of settle into the the rhythm of the race and then it hurts You know you push your limits you push your boundaries It’s one of those you go into with a bit of a plan but anything can happen It goes from yeah calm serenity to pretty chaotic pretty quickly Yeah we got a call for the radio that um one of the riders needed assistance [Music] Bye See straight away that the bars had moved She hit a pole and so she was back on the bike within 30 seconds I think Something like that Come on Come on Go go I love the race but I equally hate it as well because of there’s so much can go wrong there And this is why it’s so brutal You know punches crashes all that sort of thing You know Beexi had to really ride hard to get back She did get back to the lead group You know a lot of riders had problems and didn’t get back She did As the race develops then you start thinking about what the other strategies might look like So we’re coming into the finale of the race The group was on the left of the road and I’m sitting a little bit further back and Beex is just on my right and I could see that Joe was coming back So I turned to Beexi and I said “Have you got the legs to counter this?” She was like “No.” She’d punctured early in the race She’d have to chase back on So all right fine Let me out then And she did So Beexie being there stops people getting on my wheel as easy So tactically an ideal scenario I just went as hard as I could I just wanted to see how big the group was And I turned around and it was only Holly Ramsey with me I was like “All right well you know this is it You’ve played your card you’ve got to commit to this I didn’t really let myself believe that I was actually going to win until I was coming down the hill and I started thinking like the only person who can leave this race now was you Don’t crash Um and then I went the wrong way at the finish So So it came over the radio that she’ taken the deviation No leader has taken the deviation Oh the wrong way which was a heart and mouth sort of thing We knew she’d got a decent size gap but we didn’t know how how much time she’d lost Jesus Christ 500 m to go 500 m to go now removed and she’s back on the leader has crossed the [Music] line Of [Music] course Full on racing in the ninth edition of the electric classic race winner for the team of wrist cycling team to have had a dream A victory like that nobody can take away from me Lucy Harris [Music] I’ve never won a race that big before I I couldn’t really believe it We’ve done it now What two on the board You Oh dear Hold on Give me Give me a minute Yeah And then it just suddenly hit me that was like Lucy’s won this I nearly ran somebody over belining straight to the girls and it was just pure emotion It was so emotional because this team is different to any other team that I’ve been on [Music] I feel like I can really express myself I’ve always been physically strong as a rider and I haven’t won one of these races before And then you put me in this situation with this team and this level of support and I can do it It’s not it’s not me it’s it’s the team [Music] This is going to say for Smurf West team Lucy [Applause] [Music] Harris celebrating in fine style [Music]
4 Comments
WOW!
Hard as nails
Brilliant ride, brilliant production
This is excellent!