Three memorable wins for Welwyn Wheelers this weekend.
On the Sutton
Louis Sutton took advantage of a moment of hesitation to ride clear to a memorable victory in the Junior Men’s race in the final round of the UK National Cross Country MTB Series at Thickthorn.
A crash in the first passage of the wooded section saw the chances of some riders scuppered but didn’t effect Sutton who was already on a ride to victory. Behind surges of pace in the chasing group saw the group swell to six riders by half-way point but Sutton’s advantage was stable at over 30 seconds. As he got the bell Sutton showed no sign of weakness and his lead had grown to a minute ahead of six chasers. Louis held on to take a final solo victory while behind battle commenced with a group of six sprinting for the remaining podium places.
“I just went from the start and kept on going,” said Sutton. “I felt good so just carried it on and didn’t look back really. It’s my first top-10 so it feels good and I’m happy for next year now when I will be a second-year junior and hopefully I can get some more.”
In addition Lucy Allsop, who has just Joined the club finished 11th in the under 14 girls race with Mark Lightfoot coming in 18th out the boys.
Sharples Shifts
At the Poole Whelers Youth Sprint Omnium – a day of sprint based events run in an omnium format – Tom Sharples, clearly benefiting from exercising his legs at Welwyn track league the night before – came 4th in the TT, won the keirin, longest lap and match sprints to win the Omnium overall.
Moir than Meets the Eye
A lot of the remaining Wheelers youth riders were at Redbourn on Sunday for the Fete Du Velo, run by Verulam CC on a closed road circuit around Redbourn Common. This annual event is a well established firm local favourite, enjoyed by many.
Calum Moir won the under 14 race from a group of 10 riders with a powerful finishing sprint, showing off his new racing wheels.
In the under 12 race the Wheelers were on good form with Fin Woodliffe, Leon Atkins and Rupert Cavill in the leading group of five riders who opened up a useful lead. It all came down to a sprint with Ryan Jackson (Lee Valley) taking first place followed by Fin and Leon with Rupert in 5th place.
The under 16 race had a good field of riders with lots of attacking moves to try and split the field – all of these were chased down and in a sprint finish Alex Godwin (Bourne Whs) won with Wheelers Nathan Hardy second and Euan Woodlife 5th.
With thanks to British Cycling , Huw Williams and the Internet Pun Finder for their contributions to this article.