Our juniors were out again Cyclocross racing on Saturday. They were all entered in another round of the popular Central CX League, which this time took place at Campbell Park in Milton Keynes.
Madison, Caleb, Jorgie and Henry – ready to go CX racing
The course was dry and therefore fast, but wasn’t as tight and covered in cut grass as in the previous weeks race at the Milton Keynes Bowl.
One of our youngest juniors, Madison Fishwick competing in only her second ever race, took part in the U8 girls’ category, where she finished an excellent second.
In the U10 girls, Jorgie Gillet who is really enjoying her CX racing, continued her form with another strong second place podium position. This gained her more valuable points, which is keeping her at the top of the league table.
Racing together again In the U10 boys, were Caleb Smith and Henry Boyles, both managing this time to avoid the tapes and poles, which proved troublesome last week. Despite being the youngest in a field of 16 riders, they both put in strong rides, with Henry finishing 10th and Caleb 11th.
Caleb leading Henry
The juniors weren’t alone though, as later in the day, Simon Bull competed in the Vet 40 race.
In a large field of 80 riders, Simon had a decent start, but then unfortunately crashed in the woodland section. This crucially lost time him both time and momentum halfway through the first lap. He kept on going to the finish though and ended up completing 8 laps of the 2km course and finishing 47th overall.
It was not only CX racing that took place on Saturday, as Stuart Quick, Luke and Matt Norris, Paul Whitehouse and Tobi Ng took to the line in the first races of the ART autumn crit series at Abingdon, on a fairly still, but overcast morning,
Stuart, Matt and Paul took part in the Cat 4 race. After a steady first couple of laps there followed attacks by several riders, with one rider managing to get a gap, which the peloton seemed happy to let him go. He managed to build up about a 10 to 15 second lead, which he seemed to be maintaining. There were a few injections of pace, but his gap didn’t seem to be shrinking. Then with about 20 minutes to go, the attacks started again and this time his gap was reducing as fatigue was setting in being off the front for so long. Stuart put in a couple of attacks to try and break the pack up and also reduce the gap on the leader. He was finally reeled in with just over 3 laps to go – a valiant effort.
The last two laps were pretty chaotic as the Cat E/1/2/3 race came passed just before the bell for the final lap, so the pace eased slightly as they passed by. This then meant the group was fairly tightly packed for the sprint finish that ensued, one rider managed to jump clear in the confusion, because as the pace increased in the final lap. The group then started gaining on the E/1/2/3 race, and with no drafting allowed made for an interesting finale. The breakaway rider managed to win by around 3 seconds, with the rest of the main bunch covered by about 2 seconds.
Paul finished 6th, Matt 9th, Stuart 16th out of the 35 starters. With Paul’s 6th place finish he also got the point he needed to advance to his Cat 3 licence.
Luke and Tobi were entered in the Cat E/1/2/3 race and finished 18th and 19th.