It was a busy weekend of racing with Omnium wins for Calum Moir and Henry Hobbs plus Regional Championship MTB medals for the Welwyn Youth racers.
Daniel Elliott had the first result of the weekend in the Travers Mountain bike series and took a convincing victory (his third in this series) in the U12 category on Saturday morning.
Following the cancellation of the WW round of the National Youth Omnium series – due to a problem of over-capacity with many BC omniums being scheduled at the same weekend – a band of parents and riders made the slightly longer trek to Reading for the Palmer Park Velo organised event.
The day began overcast but thankfully dry, with teams Barker, Hughes and Whitaker showing their kids how to work together whilst taking it in turns to be at the front driving in team formation down the A4 into Reading. 76 riders took the start across the different age categories. Included on the sign on sheet was, allegedly, the next generation of the Wiggins clan, but he was a no show, perhaps electing to watch his dad on GCN instead.
The omnium commenced with the time trials across each of the age groups, with a brief halt in racing whilst a leaf blower was expertly used to help dry a small part of the track which was deemed too damp for the bunch races. Henry Hobbs blitzed the 2lap TT to finish 3 seconds up from the U14 field with Leon Atkins in 5th & Fin Woodliffe in 7th.
The racing recommenced with the scratch, elimination and sprint rounds. There were some stand out performances from the U14 boys with Henry and Leon completing a clean sweep of Welwyn Wheelers race wins across the category. Megan Hughes and Elise Whitaker both achieved their best results of the day in the match sprints, finishing 6th and 7th overall in the U14 girls category. In the U12 boys Henry Barker rode well on his debut, Elijah Storti finished 2nd in the TT and both won their match sprint races.
The U16 boys just about completed their points race when Mother Nature decided to bring the day to a premature end with a brief but heavy shower. Mark Lightfoot finishing 4th overall in a strong field.
Calum Moir and Robin Steer chose to enter the Preston Park Youth Omnium in Brighton on Sunday. Calum won all events in the U16 Boys category to ensure qualification for the National final later this year. Robin finished 10th overall.
On the same day Round 4 of the Beastway MTB series also featured the Regional Championships at Hog Hill where it was a Wheelers 1-2-3 in the Youth B Boys Eastern Region Championship by Oliver Beale, Henry Hobbs and Fin Woodliffe. Isabel Beale is the Eastern U12 Girls Champion and Leon Atkins is the Central Region Championship with second overall in the Youth B race. There were some tired legs after two days racing and the bramble marks of zero on the arms and legs present due the abundance of vegetation after all the rain!
Palmer Park Velo Youth Track Omnium – N.Y.O. Round 4
Combined U10/U12
Elijah Storti 4th
Henry Barker 17th
U14 Girls
Megan Hughes 6th
Elise Whitaker 7th
U14 Boys
Henry Hobbs 1st, including 1st place in the time trial, elimination and sprint races
Leon Atkins 4th, including a win in the scratch race
Fin Woodliffe 7th
U16 Girls
Molly Barker 9th
U16 Boys
Mark Lightfoot 6th
Ethan Storti 13th
Sam Gilbert 15th