It was another long schlep of a journey for the hard working parents of the youth racers this weekend. This time to the Minehead Grand Prix for Round 4 of the National Youth Series Championship held through the streets of the town centre, in the shadow of Exmoor National Park. Our correspondents tell us that the racing was as frantic as ever, with several tight corners causing early splits meaning that a lung-busting effort was always going to be needed to stay in contention after the start.
5311 Media 
5311 Media
The best Wheelers result of the day came from Ellen Bennett, fresh from finishing her GCSEs, in the Youth A girls race. Attacks from the start split the field in half almost straightaway and continued to reduce the numbers in the peloton for the first half of the race. Zoe Backstedt again managed to get off the front solo, and late in the race 2 other riders got a gap. Ellen won the bunch sprint for 4th place with Ella Coleman just behind in 13th. Iona Moir finished 28th.
Other top ten finishers were Millie Coleman (9th) and Mark Lightfoot (8th) in their respective Youth B races. Joe Kiely (17th) and Nathan Hardy (19th) also picked up some series points in the Youth A race. Other results were tbc at the time of writing.
For those wondering where our specialist track sprinter, Tom Sharples has been at track league this summer, we can report that Tom competed in the
National Sprinters League at Herne Hill this weekend, finishing a tidy 3rd in the Men’s Sprint and 2nd in the Keiren against some of the best in the country.