Weekend to remember for Wheelers
MACCLESFIELD Wheelers enjoyed another fantastic weekend with the highlights proving to be Chris Quin winning the TLI National Circuit Race Champsionships in North Wales and Ruth Gamwell achieving a personal best for a 25 mile time trial.
Quin has been on tremendous form all season and Sunday confirmed his place as one of the top riders in the country.
Held at Marsh Tracks, near Rhyl in North Wales, the Circuit Race Championships are short - 1hr plus 5 laps – but very fast.
Two riders went away after about 20 minutes of racing and Quin attacked to bridge across to them.
Soon joined by last year’s Champion, the group of four worked hard to keep the bunch at bay.
Coming into the finish, the group had a comfortable half a lap lead on the bunch.
Quin led into the final corner and sprinted hard for the last 150 metres to the line, keeping to the left so that anyone seeking to overtake would have to do so into the wind, and held off a strong challenge to win by a bike length.
This was Quin’s second win of the week (and his third in succession and his sixth for the season so far).
On Tuesday evening he had won the latest round of the Dave Astles Memorial Road Race Series at Siddington after a solo break.
Gamwell, a former winner in1996 of the famous Three Peaks Cyclo Cross Race, is an excellent time trialist (having won the national Junior Best All Rounder title) but had never previously managed a 25 mile time ‘under the hour.’
This changed on Saturday when she rode the South Pennine Road Club Event on a course starting and finishing near Etwall, and recorded a time of 59 minutes and 18 seconds.
The latest round of the Club 10 Mile Championship was held in tricky conditions on Wednesday evening, with a strong northerly wind making the return leg from Congleton even harder than usual.
There was a new name at the top of the leaderboard with Mark Halloway winning in 22 minutes and 20 seconds from Dave Hughes (22.40) and Simon Holden (23.46).
Laura Maguire was the fastest Lady with Ben Rathbone (26.28) and 16-year-old Louis Thomas-Messenger (27.09) making promising debuts.
Despite the conditions, James Russell managed a personal best of 24.44. Sian Hughes currently leads the Handicap Competition, with 72 points from five events, ahead of Matt Yardley (70 points) and Paul Fenton (65 points).
In the scratch competition, Matt Burt has 78 points, ahead of Paul Fenton (69 points) and Matt Yardley (66 points).
Showing that the Wheelers are not just about competition, nearly 20 riders made the annual trip to Bishops Castle in Shropshire, clocking up a 100 miles on both Saturday and Sunday.
Some 20 riders also were out on the Saturday Club Run to Rowsley, enjoying The Peak District scenery but not the 5,000 feet of climbing involved.