Newnham Park near Plymouth was the setting for the final round of this year’s British Mountain Bike Series, and there were a few Wheelers in attendance racing for their respective MTB teams. This venue is regarded as one of the best in the UK for the sport. Paul Hopkins (Merida UK) had already wrapped up the Vets title this year, and had done so in dominant style. He finished off with a second place in this race with Andy Parsons (Offcamber) in 12th. Kim Little competed in the Masters Male race, coming home in 15th. Emma Bradley (Torq Development) has spent the whole season in a tight tussle for Masters Women honours with Jo Munden (Total Cycles), with this final round coming down to a ‘winner takes all’ situation. Emma took the lead early on and pulled away only to be let down by her bike’s chain getting trapped between the cassette and rear wheel. Consequently, after two stops to repair her bike, Emma came home second in the race to tie on points with her rival but miss out on the series title on countback.
Elsewhere, Yeovil CC held their Open 10 mile time trial on their A303 course from Podimore. In far from ideal conditions, Stu Dodd (www.drag2zero.com) took the overall honours with a new course record of 19.48 . Alan Smith and Chris Mullett represented the Wheelers, Alan finishing 45th with 25.33 and Chris in 50th with a time of 26.17.
The following day, Bath CC ran their Open 25 tt, an event comprising of three deceptively-hard laps of the Frome bypass. Simon Rouse got home in 1 hour 2.59 for 7th, while Chris Mullett had an off day, finishing some seven minutes slower than his time from the previous weekend’s Sotonia 25, with 1 hour 13.04.
