Mike Smith, Josh Day & Barney Cox took part in the Castle Combe Easter Classic races on Friday. As always, this event attracts huge fields for the programme of races, with a total of nearly 500 riders entered this year. Mike has been a regular points scorer in sprint finishes in the past couple of seasons, and he continued that run, racing home in eighth in the 3rd Cat race. Josh had a steady race in the 3rd Cats and finished comfortably in the bunch. Meanwhile in the under 16s Barney stayed in contention right till the last 50 metres where he unfortunately de-clipped from his pedal therefore lost a few places in the final push for the line. Unfortunately there was a large crash in the 4th Cat race (no Wheelers entered in this) on the final run in as racers jockeyed for position. Race report here
Simon Barfoot, Vince Hounsome, James Chant and Chris Mullett were all tt-ing at the latest EDCA round, a 10 mile event near Warmwell in South Dorset. Vince put in a really fast ride for this course, with a time of 22.55 for 12th. Simon was 17th in 23.42 with James 18th in 24.01. Chris was feeling his way back in after his recent crash and was pleased with his 26.12 for 34th. Simon, Vince and James won an Easter egg each as a prize in the teams’ awards.
At the recent Southern XC mountain bike race, at Checkendon in the Chilterns, Paul Hopkins (Merida) finished third in the Vets race, 1 minute 49 behind the winner Mark Chadbourne (RideBike), with Nigel Brown in 15th (7.50 behind) and Andy Parsons in 22nd (12.03 behind). Emma Bradley had a good battle on her way to sixth in the Elite women’s race. Emma is now riding for Cotic-AQR and has a blog here
