The team has been racing all over the country and it's been a busy few weeks since the last update with podiums galore both on the track, on the road and off road.

Time Trial

Phil Cole and Naomi Shinkins took on the Bournemouth Jubilee Wheeler 42km hilly Lulworth Course, both racing the road bike category. Both riders were at the end of a big training block and Phil had a great race to finish 3rd overall and 3rd vet on standard. Naomi was a minute off the first female but managed to take the prime in the first lap for some compensation.

Track

Our track specialist, James Meakin, has been busy representing the team in Manchester over the last few weeks. At the Manchester Wheeler track championships James was 3rd in the elimination race and 3rd in the Kilo in a healthy field of riders. More recently at the ACT Manchester Easter Monday track meet, James got himself another podium place in the elimination race with 3rd and 4th in the scratch race.

Road

Andy Whiteford, Malcolm Scott, Bill Hayes  and Luke Monahan raced the Portsmouth Crit cat 3 race recently. Malcolm and Bill were 4th and 5th, Andy 8th in first cat 3 race and Luke 18th. The following day Tony Revell decided to mix up his season's racing with the Winchester cat 4 crit race with Richard Lang, Luke Monahan and Andy Whiteford. Of course Tony was off the front from the start, unfortunately the tactics didn't quite work but it was still a podium finish for Tony with 3rd place.

While quite a few of our road riders travelled to take on Paris Roubaix the following week, Roland and Carol Tilley raced the GS Vecchi Spring Classic Road Race and finished 2nd and 7th in their age groups respectively. 

Finally, for our road riders, this week Bob Ford was confirmed the winner of the Victoria CC Hog Hill Race series with 2 wins in 3 races. 

Off Road

Kate Bowers and husband Stuart were back in action on the tandem having a great time at the Battle on the Beach race. It was another win for the pair and 47th out of 730 overall. The same weekend it was the first round of the Southern Enduro with Chris Archer representing the team. Chris had a great race to finish 3rd in his category.

The following week Steve Moors finished a very strong 7th in his age group at the Scott Marathon Mountain Bike while Julia Hamlyn, Tony Revell, Sam Humphrey, Dani Humphrey and Ross Smith took on the Olymbic MTB course in round two of the nationals. With short punchy climbs and technical rocky descents it was a test of skill for our riders. Unfortunately with a snapped chain it was DNF for Ross but Tony had a strong race in the elite category, Dani had a great ride finishing 4th in the vets, and both Sam and Julia both had a fantastic 2nd place in their categories. In Sam's own words the race for him and Dani was as follows:

"Dani rode to a strong 4th place in the vet women’s category on a technical course that wasn’t her favourite, but a sensible low risk strategy paid off with a good result as a couple of rivals had mechanical problems and crashes. Riding hard but nursing the bike through the rough bits was the way to go. I finished second only 17 seconds back after trying to break the chasers by leading on lap 1 and 2 , unfortunately I paid for the early effort on lap 3 and 4 before recovering to close back in towards the end with a strong last lap."

This weekend it was the Trail X duathlon for Jon Clemas and the Southern XC for Julia Hamlyn, Kate Bowers, Tony Revell, Andrew Smith, Ross Smith, Simon Lesser, Roland Tilley, Steve Moors, Richard Irvine, Stuart King and Barry White. A few words from Jon on the duathlon:

"The weather was hot and the the competition was fast from the off. The first 3k off road run was finished in under 12 mins. Then was the 4 lap bike course it was totally flat but with plenty of twists and turns to keep you concentrating, it was a good fun bike course but not very many places to get into a good peddling rhythm to catch up. And make up places. Then the second run felt long but still only 3k it was a case of looking ahead and keep it hurting, as it was so short not much time to gain but plenty to loose. Although disappointed i didn’t make the steps but happy to still be in the top field."

Southern XC results:

Julia Hamlyn - 1st vet; Carol Tilley - 2nd grand vet; Tony Revell - 3rd elite; Kate Bowers - 4th elite; Stuart King - 4th vet; Richard Irvine - 4th super vet; Roland Tilley - 6th grand vet; Ross Smith - 7th vet; Barry White - 10th grand vet; Andrew Smith - 17th vet; Steve Moors - 17th grand vet; Simon Lesser - 29th vet.

All these great results are not possible without the fantastic support we get from our sponsors, including Ford Civil Engineering, Vitec Ceilings and Partitions Ltd, Manuel Builders, Gibbs and Dandy Bournemouth, Hill & Son Ford Service, IW Price & Partners and in8 Creative Design. And of course our title sponsor Bournemouth Cycleworks, who provide many our riders top quality Trek speed machines and Bontrager equipment across all disciplines to race on.