There were lots of GDW members competing over the weekend in various disciplines of the sport.
The national mountain bike series took place on a tough and technical course near Plympton in Devon. On Saturday, Liam Teesdale kept up his good recent form in the four lap Sport category, finishing 21st of the 40 starters. On day two, Nigel Brown (riding for Westbury Wheelers in the Grand Vets race) had another podium finish at the nationals, this time grabbing third place right at the line from a fading Grant Johnson.
In the Vets event, Paul Hopkins (Merida UK) was at the sharp end as always. Marc Chamberlain led throughout but Paul took second place after an early challenge from Sam Humphrey. There was a big entry for the Expert race, which included Kim Little. Kim improved on his round one performance and did really well to take sixth place.
Yeovil CC held their annual double bill of hilly road races on Sunday, with the 70 miles Ham Hill for Elite/1st/2nd cat riders and the 56 miles Pittards’ Trophy race for the 3rd and 4th cats. Charles Rees took on some of the UK’s best road race teams in the Ham Hill race, and found the pace extremely quick as one would expect. There was an early break which pulled out a good lead, meanwhile Charles got caught out on a hill on the back of the circuit and lost touch with the bunch after two laps. By the end, One Pro Cycling rider Marcin Bialoblocki was the winner from his teammate Pete Williams.
In the Pittards’ race, Chris Gray and Mike Smith had both lost touch with the bunch by half distance, but George Smith had another good race and took eighth place in the sprint for the line.
There was more road racing on the New Forest, at the 35 mile all categories TLI event. James Hywel-Davies got an excellent result, making full use of his rapid climbing skills on the hilly course. James took fifth place in the finale after a lead out from Barney Cox on the run to the final steep kick up to the finish. James Chant was non-finisher after two deer ran out in to the path of the race early on, one of which James unfortunately crashed in to and suffered a few minor injuries.
Sarah Wheeler continues to rack up points in the WTTA Hardrider championship. Sarah competed in the 25 mile Gloucester CCC time trial on Saturday, completing the hilly out and back course in 1 hour 14.03 for 50th place. At the head of the field, there was a rare series defeat for Rob Pears, who came in third behind Dean Robson (Cheltenham CCC) and winner Matt Burden (Severn RC).
