Dolan aiming to continue good form at Haytor

CYCLING COLUMN

The Mid-Devon Cycling Club Championship kicks off the biggest weekend of the West Country Hill Climb season this weekend – and Newton Abbot's Lauren Dolan is aiming to keep up her impressive comeback.

The Mid-Devon event is a two-climb test on Saturday, starting with the three-mile ascent of Haytor in the morning (10am) followed by the much shorter but steeper Widecombe climb in the afternoon (12noon).

Then on Sunday attention switches to the North Devon and Somerset border for the Minehead Cycling Club's annual attack on Porlock Hill.

All three climbs are classics but very different, and they have attracted top-quality fields, led by the husband-and-wife team of Dan and Jessica Evans, both national champions, from North Wales.

The weather, which did its best to spoil the Exeter Wheelers' climb up Stoke Hill last Saturday, looks promising for the Mid-Devon event.

The Haytor climb, which starts at the Edgemoor Hotel near Bovey Tracey, nearly always contends with a south westerly head wind on the open moor, but a helpful tailwind is forecast for Saturday.

The long-standing hill record was broken by Winchester's young pro Paul Double on the first stage of April's Totnes-Vire Two-Day race and now stands at 12mins 36secs.

Riders have to complete both the Haytor and Widecombe tests to qualify for championship honours, although some opt to concentrate on one or the other.

Event HQ is the Moorland Hotel just below Haytor rocks.

Former GB Elite Squad rider Dolan, 18, from Bickington, has resumed racing at the end of this season after a six-month break, and she recently won the Somerset Road Club and First Chard Wheelers' climbs against more experienced rivals.

Sunday's Minehead climb up Porlock has attracted a massive field of 120, including the Evans team (Assos Equipe), JLT Condor pro Ed Laverack, also from Wales, national junior champion George Kimber from Exmouth and young pro Charlie Mereditch from North Devon - he lifted the South West District Road Race Champs last month.

Dolan will be up against one of the strongest ladies' fields of the autumn, with 15 riders due to go to the line.

Kimber won a rain-soaked Exeter Wheelers event last weekend, covering the Stoke Hill climb in 4mins 32secs, with Exeter's Natalie Grinczer (Team WNT Pro Cycling) the fastest lady in 5.36.

The South West Cyclo Cross League resumes this Sunday after a fortnight's break – and round four is at Wadebridge's Royal Cornwall Showground.

The League is becoming more and more popular by the year – more than 150 riders at each event is the norm for the event now.

Newton Abbot racer Lauren Dolan