July 2014: Club Race Day 2 Report

Club Race Day 2 Feature – As It Happened!

July’s Race Day was somewhat kinder in weather terms than the previous one in May, and whilst numbers appeared slightly down, the racing was extremely exciting. Race Days are intended to allow those that don’t race on a regular basis the opportunity to test their race skills and performance, and to experience how age category races are conducted. Separate circuit and mountain bike races were held, and the morning’s run of events went ahead as planned with no hiccups to the itinerary – thank you to all our riders for co-operating with us! We really hope you enjoyed the races as much as we do organising them for you – it’s extremely important for us as coaches to see how you are improving and what areas we may need to work on.

Race Day In a Few Snaps…

As ever, we like to ensure special events are recorded for prosperity, and thanks to a few wonderful parents who sent in pictures, we have collated some amazing photos of our Slipstreamers on the circuit and the podium. As we normally do:

• If you’d like to see a fantastic collection of the best photos showcasing riders on the track in action, and winners on the podium, and presented in a storyboard, do CLICK HERE FOR MOUNTAIN BIKE SNAPS, CLICK HERE FOR CIRCUIT SNAPS
  

Race Day In a Few Words…

Read on for special reports from your respective MTB and Circuit coaches…

Mudslingers (aka Mountain Bikers) Races

After a warm-up and some pre-competition drills behind the clubhouse, our very own Mudslingers took to the mountain bike course.  They were joined by a handful of riders fresh from racing the circuit, with especially strong representation in the younger categories.

Conditions in the bowl were a bit overgrown, with recent weather having creating a challenging course and grass taller than some of the riders! The twelve-strong field of U6s and U8s set off first, engaging in a hard-fought, four-lap battle among both experienced and first-time riders. Katie Allsop and Ted Vasey took home the U6 honours, while newcomers Lucy Allsop and Ben Coppola took their respective top places in the U8s after having raced the road circuit earlier. The bravery award went to Scarlett Hirst after a tangling of bikes took her down in the tall grass and she was forced to withdraw (only to be seen re-riding the course after her return from the first aid room!).

A second offroad section was added to the course for the U10, U12, and U14 categories, who charged an uphill start and then dove into the singletrack. With no U10 girls to challenge them, the U10s were an all-male field, Oliver Emment taking top honours after having raced the circuit earlier. After holding a very strong position throughout the race, Alexander Williams experienced an unfortunate mechanical on the last lap and was forced to withdraw. William Jones took home the perserverance and determination award in the hard-fought U10 category.

In the U12s, sole-female rider Hope Wilson showed her usual offroad prowess – of course winning her category, but taking second overall in the overall age group. Ollie Dawson took a break from the roadbike to win the U12 boys category, despite his avowed dislike of trail obstacles.

Finally, the U14s category brought a two-way battle among the boys, with Seth Kanaris prevailing over a very enthusiastic Zack Taylor who grinned ear-to-ear throughout the entire race.

Full race results appear below.

Circuit Races

The U8/U10 started the morning’s racing. The U10 trio of Jed Smithson/Joe O’Brien/Cameron Still made an early break. The boys demonstrated good sporting behaviour, letting Jed get back into the group after returning from a puncture, and a fierce yet controlled sprint for the finish saw Jed win by a very narrow margin. Caitlin Loveless put in a solid performance to claim the first girl spot. The U8’s race saw Millie Coleman wedge herself in between Stanley Kent and Finlay Hawker to claim 2nd overall and 1st girl.

The U12’s category saw the largest number of riders of the day. The race was quickly dominated by a group of 5 made up of Gabe/George/Oisin/Jemma/Nathan – the group demonstrating their ability to try and outpace each other in a near sprint on every lap. The group of 5 became a 4 with a few laps to go as Nathan dropped off of the group to join up with Josh. Meanwhile, another group was forming consisting of Kye/Ross/Abby/Charles/Max, all working together trying to close the gap between Nathan and Josh. The first three boys Gabe, George and Oisin made up the winning boys, and Jemma, Abby and Jessica in that order for the winning girls.

The final race was the mixed U14/U16 race. At the race briefing, as normal, we advised that should you find yourself dropped from a group you should look for someone to ride with and share the work. Peter Hewson was seen to be shaking his head, and the reason was soon to become clear. From the off, Peter made a lone break to win outright in the U14 boys, with the group of Morgan, Nicholas and Thomas some distance back. Lorna and Kate demonstrated the great strength we have in the U14 girls by managing to stay up with the U16’s for most of the race and coming-in 1st and second overall in this age group.

The U16’s looked on paper to be a real power house of a race, with the strong riders of Josh Murphy and Sam Henning, combined with the energy of an on-form Josh Copley along with James Norwood and the ever present Harriet Mellor, plus the embedded U14’s. As it turned out, the racing was pedestrian in parts, meaning it was going to come down to a sprint finish. James Norwood tried to put in some gallant attacks, but was quickly closed down, and in the end forcing the spent James to abandon. The final 200m saw the sprint launched – and looking at the activity it was near impossible to see who was leading. The final 25 meters saw the real burst of power with Josh Copley coming from an almost non-existent lead to take the spot by a wheel. Harriet Mellor rolled over the line seconds later to take 1st girl.

Full race results appear below.

A Word of Thanks…

Again, we all enjoyed organising this race day, and hope you all enjoyed your second race day. A huge big thanks to FIAT Auto (UK) who provided the fantastic extra special prizes for our 1st place champions, and of course to Nick O’Brien from Jaguar, who donated the water bottles for all our podium winners! These events can only go ahead with the commitment and dedication of those who make it happen, and so a MASSIVE thank you go to everyone who helped out, especially your coaches and volunteers who worked tirelessly to plan, set up courses, and ensure you all had a fantastic experience.

The next time you will get the chance to race like this as a club will be at the Club Championships later in the year – keep reading the newletter each week for updates on when these will be. We hope you appreciate the demands on racers of such an event, and have been able to reflect on your racing and look for areas where you think you could improve.

 

Saturday Club Race Day Results – 19th July…

And finally, here are the results of all our racers who competed in Saturday’s races:

Mudslingers:

Well done mountain bikers!!

Circuit Racers:

• U8   Boys: 1st Stanley Kent; 2nd Finlay Hawker; 3rd Pascal Giret; 4th Ben Coppola; 5th Sam Gilbert; 6th Luca Leefe; 7th Finn O’Brien; 8th Aaron Shearwood; 9th Zak Periera
• U8   Girls: 1st Millie Coleman; 2nd Lucy Allsop; 3rd Bobbie O’Brien
• U10 Boys:  1st Jed Smithson; 2nd Joe O’Brien; 3rd Cameron Still; 4th Oliver Emment; 5th Ben Bisson; 6th Dylan Williams-Prior; 7th Dennis Marjanov; 8th Taylor Evans; 9th Alexander Williams; 10th Tommy Lindsell; 11th Jimmy Shiraz Graham; 12th Kai Lloyd; 13th Thomas Vincent Ross
• U10 Girls:  1st Caitlin Loveless; 2nd Esme Devlin
• U12 Boys: 1st Gabriel Banner; 2nd George Lewis; 3rd Oisin Murphy; 4th Nathan George; 5th Joshua Goraya; 6th Kye Lewis; 7th Ross Herrod; 8th Charles Rollins; 9th Max Saunders; 10th William Mavin; 11th Leo Griffiths; 12th George Gould; 13th Joseph McLeman; 14th Finlay Moss; 15th Archie Brown; 16th Laurence Hamilton-Cox; 17th Thomas Smith; DNF Dominic de Vivenot; DNF Finn O’Brien; DNF Daniel Gajraj
• U12 Girls: 1st Jemma Bowler; 2nd Abby Old; 3rd Jessica Henning; 4th Anastasia Vockic; 5th Trinity Fairman
• U14 Boys: 1st Peter Hewson; 2nd Morgan Evans; 3rd Nicholas Rayner; 4th Thomas Atkinson; 5th Rohan Penney; 6th Jagjit Verdi; 7th Fin Dyer; 8th Leon Morin; DNF Jack Gleeson; DNF Aaron Kapoor
• U14 Girls: 1st Lorna Bowler; 2nd Kate Shelton; 3rd Orla Devlin
• U16 Boys: 1st Josh Copley; 2nd Sam Henning; 3rd Josh Murphy; DNF James Norwood
• U16 Girls: 1st Harriet Mellor; 2nd Ella Buckroyd

Fantastic results all of you!!

Well done to everyone who took raced – even if you didn’t clinch a podium spot, you are ALL SUPERSTARS!