Swindon Road Club January Round Up
Despite the wintery weather it has been a busy month for Swindon Road Club racers with cyclists young and old competing in a wide variety of events and disciplines. The club’s racing scene is currently thriving and with large numbers participating this early in the season 2012 is looking to be a bumper year for the club.
The road racers have been out in force flying the club colours at early season closed circuit events. The Ludgershall Winter Series began in the middle of January and is run on a 900 metre long flat oval track. Neil Rutter, Aaron Collins, Aaron Taylor and Mike Holborow have all been fighting it out across the various categories with Aaron Taylor gaining a fifth place on the 28th January and Mike Holborow gaining ranking points by placing tenth. Neil Rutter was denied a win by a puncture at the 21st January meeting, but returned home with a highly creditable fifth.
Swindon have also been active in the Velodrome with a number of riders taking part in the winter track league at Newport. Neil Rutter and Nick Mawson have both been making the trip west with Neil riding A category and Nick fighting it out with the B’s. Both have notched up a number of excellent top ten finishes with Neil managing to take 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 6th places in a single evening’s meeting!
The largest contingent of racers have been active in the cyclocross off-road races with the club now becoming a force to be reckoned within in the south. The club was well represented at the last meeting of the Wessex Cyclocross League which took place on the 22nd January at Thruxton airfield near Andover. The weather was mild and dry, although a strong wind made some sections on the grass banking tough to negotiate. The course was a tight, twisting circuit utilising some grass banking to full effect for a series of short, sharp climbs, tricky descents and some awkward off-camber riding.
Once again Swindon RC had the highest turnout of all the teams with plenty of orange & blue jerseys to be seen in each of the competitions. In addition the winner of the Senior Mens race Dan Lewis is 2nd claim for Swindon RC.
The Man of the Match award went to Crispin Doyle in the Seniors race.
Crispin snapped his chain about 200 milliseconds after the start gun went, and then had to run 80% of the course until he reached the pits to swap bikes. By which time he was at the back of the field 1 min 50 seconds behind the leader. Undeterred Crispin went off like a rocket, and stayed in rocket mode for the next hour and eventually finished 5th just 2 minutes behind the winner.
Under 12s
1st Leun Woods Charlotville CC
5th Liam Sewell Swindon RC
6th Connor Hutchinson Swindon RC
8th Ellis Jones Swindon RC
14th Natelie Moore Swindon RC
15th Tyler Smith Swindon RC
17th Lewis Jones Swindon RC
20th Seren Jones Swindon RC
Youths
1st Rob Bolwell U16 WightMountain 23:27
2nd Jack Saunders U16 Swindon RC @ 2:23
3rd Tom Sewell U14 Swindon RC @ 2:47
10th Bethany George U16G Swindon RC @ 6:27
11th Kieran Woods U16 Swindon RC @ 6:55
12th Rhianna Jones U16G Swindon RC @ 7:10
13th Hannah Gibbs U16G Swindon RC @ 9:52
15th Ciara Hutchinson U14G Swindon RC @ 10:49
Junior/Vet/Women
1st Matt Hargroves Jun Hargroves 47:20
2nd Matt Woods Jun Hargroves @ 00:01
6th Andy Roberts Vet GWR Team @ 2:10
20th Sean Bolton Vet Swindon RC @ 7:42
30th Andy Smith Vet Swindon RC @ 1 lap
56th Andy Gibb Vet Swindon RC @ 3 laps
Senior Men
1st Dan Lewis RAF CA 57:40
5th Crispin Doyle Swindon RC @ 2:18
8th Ed Sneddon Swindon RC @ 7:00
