A busy cyclo-cross weekend with the Eastern League at Bury St Edmunds on Saturday followed by the Central League at Shuttleworth College on Sunday which was used to determine the Club Cyclo-cross Champions for 2016.
Dylan Starkey scored his first cyclo-cross win in the Under 12 race at Bury and this was followed by wins for Oli Stockwell (under 16 boys), Joe Kiely (under 14 boys) and Lauren Higham (under 16 girls).
Elspeth Grace was 13th overall in the 80 strong entry in the combined 50+/Womens race and yet again comfortably won the top womens prize. In the Senior/Junior event Michael Parry was 12th and third Junior while Martin Dossett was 22nd in the 40 + category event.
The race on Sunday used a brand new venue at Shuttleworth College, near Biggleswade – an excellent site with good facilities (apart from the cold blustery wind and the driving rain for the final race). The results gained in this event were used to determine the winners of the club cyclo-cross championship so it was all to play for and a large number of club riders competed in the various events.
The youth riders dominated the racing and the results on Sunday were even better than the previous day – Xavier Knott opened the proceedings by winning the under 8 race Rupert Cavill, Finlay Woodliffe and Dillon Knott scored a 1,2,3 in the Under 10 boys race with an impressive ride on the small twisty course, Henry Sandon 6th. In the under 12 event Dylan Starkey was fourth, Tom Dixon 8th and Tommy Lidyard 15th, Jeremy Sandon 16th and Harry Eagle 18th. Beth Bennett was on the podium with a third place in the girls race with Poppy Knott 9th.
The youth race was another Wheelers demonstration ride – Oli Stockwell rode away from the field to win the under 16 boys race (Joe Bennett 5th) and Joe Kiely matched this by winning the under 14 boys event with Tom Sharples 2nd, Euan Woodliffe 4th and Max Jackson 11th. In the under 14 girls race Ellen Bennett 3rd, Molly Marriott 7th, Lauren Higham and Naomi Holt were first and second under 16 girls with Freya Butler 4th.
In the Junior race Michael Parry and an Ipswich rider broke away from the group and opened up a useful lead –they shared the pace throughout the race and at the finish Michael took second place.
The Womens race had a massive field of 28 riders – Elspeth Grace was soon in the lead and ran out the clear winner with yet another strong ride on a tough course.
In the other Senior events there were six Wheelers in the 40+ group – Keith Stockwell was 17th, John Cavill 27th, Tom Hinchliffe 30th Alex Peeke 44th and James Robertson 45th, Andy Holt 62nd
Chris Murphy was 33rd in the 50+ race losing a few places in the final lap when his gear mechanism got tangled up with stray course tape. Roan McCardle rode in the Novice race of 33 riders and finished in an excellent 9th place in his first cyclo-cross race.
A good weekends racing and an excellent set of results.
A number of the club riders will be traveling north at the weekend for Round 3 of the National series at Houghton le Spring near Sunderland.
Peter
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