Paisley Daily Express

Club goes over the hills and far away

Velo men pile on miles

- Craig Ritchie

Paisley Velo’s groups headed to Stewarton via Whitelee Wind Farm which is a climb in itself.

Slightly lower numbers than usual turned out due to a poor forecast and some members were away on business doing Sportives and leading Guided Rides – plus the club have a couple of riders in Mallorca doing some training and taking on some iconic climbs in the sunshine.

And a club spokesman added: “We have to say a very well done to Mark Hanlon and Pat Denham who took part in the Bealach Mor Sportive on Saturday, taking on the ‘bucket list’ climb of the Bealach Na Ba, and to Gerard Dodds for completing the Tour O’ The Borders sportive on Sunday.

“Not easy rides, but we’re proud to see these guys completing them with ease.”

Elsewhere, the annual Georgetown Cup Time Trial took place on the Georgetown Road on Saturday.

The event was organised by Velopreda and with almost 200 competitor­s and consisting of around 15 teams from clubs local to the west of Scotland.

A minimum number of eight riders makes up a team but unfortunat­ely some of the regular Paisley Velo TT competitor­s had other commitment­s or were not 100 per cent fit on the day so they only had the three riders registered to ride.

Don Smith and Sam McGrath posted very good times of 17.05 and 17.04 respective­ly. And Dugald McCallum rode well on his maiden run with the new TT bike but he just missed a sub 20min time by 1 sec.

Paisley Velo chairman Derek McBurnie added: “This current year for our club has been all about rebuilding following major changes at committee level at the end of 2016.

“We lost some very quick riders also last year but we are beginning to develop some promising riders and competitor­s from within the club.

“Our target for next year will be to enter a full competitiv­e team into this event which we will very much look forward to.”

 ??  ?? He’s off Sam McGrath sets out on the 7.2mile route
He’s off Sam McGrath sets out on the 7.2mile route
 ??  ?? Making the scene Mark Hanlon and Pat Denham who took part in the Bealach Mor Sportive
Making the scene Mark Hanlon and Pat Denham who took part in the Bealach Mor Sportive

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