Mercia Report 18-10-2015

Over 1,000 riders entered Brian Rourke’s Cat & Fiddle Sportive Challenge including 14year old Owen Heath & 57 year old Steve Ingham. The sportive was over 55 miles starting & finishing at Brian Rourke’s cycle shop in Burslem Stoke on Trent. With stops the 55 miles were covered in 4 hours 1 minute at an average speed of 13.2 mph. Owen was then photographed with ex professional Sean Kelly from Ireland who also rode the sportive.

In the Notts & Derby League Cyclo Cross round 4 held at Shipley Park. Joshua Waters rode well to finish first Junior & 11th overall including the Seniors. The overall winner was Graham Briggs (JLT Condor).

Junior Lady Lauren Sleigh (Lichfield City C C) finished 3rd despite a faster rider knocking here off her her bike (she found out later she had broken her collar bone). First Junior & Senior lady was Madeleine Gammons (Sherwood Pines Cycles – SRAM R T). Mercia’s Phil Machin finished in 56th place in the over 40’s race out of 60 starters. James Bryan (Zepnat GSG Clothing Racing Team) was the winner.

The over 50s race saw a close contest between Pascal Arnoux (Cadence Sport) and Peter Turner (Derby Mercury R C) finish in 5th & 6th places respectively. John Wright (Burton CTC) was 25th The winner of the over 50’s was Peter Busby (Team Jewson M. I. Racing – Polypipe).

Southampton Sports Centre was the venue for the first round of The National Trophy Cyclo Cross Series Joshua Waters in the Junior race had a disappointing race . He started well but couldn’t maintain the pace to finish what for him was a lowly 13th position. The winner was the consistently good Dan Tullet (Specialized Racing).

Hill climbing riders Nigel Finch, Clive Walker & David Clarke (Giordana Mitsubishi RT) have all been competing. Starting with the Rutland Cycling Club’s event on Mam Nick near Edale Nigel Finch finished in 44th place in a time of 10 min 56.4 seconds Christopher Bevan (University of Sheffield C C) won with a time of 6 min 42.3 seconds In the South Pennine Road Club’s event at Crich (In memory of club member Chris Storer) Clive Walker rode well to finish in 2nd place in the 45 to 49 age group (12th place overall out of 34 riders) in 1 minute 50.64 seconds. The winner was Adam Kenway in 1 minute 20.41 seconds. David Clarke was one of the best hill climbers a few years ago and has returned again to compete in 2 events on the same day. The first was the Huddersfield Star Wheelers Hill Climb on Jacksons Bank near Holmfirth. David finished in 39th place in 5 minutes 14.8 seconds from an entry of 96 riders. The winner was Dan Evans (Team Elite/Paul Bethall Electrical) in 4 minutes 11 seconds. The 2nd Hill Climb in the afternoon was the Holme Valley Wheelers event on Holme Moss. David did better in this finishing in 22nd place out of an entry of 60 competitors timing 7 min 35 secs. Dan Evans was the winner of this hill climb also in 6 min 12.9 sec. (Dan looks to be one of the favourites to win the National Hill Climb Championship).