No shortage of takers for lung-buster
CYCLING
DEREK SCHOFIELD IN the midst of the present situation, competitive cycling is still taking place, under British Cycling guidance and within government restrictions.
On Saturday morning, Rossendale Road Club hosted their last event of 2020 with the Crown Point hill climb, on Woodplumpton Road alongside Burnley Golf Club.
Hill climbs are truly a wicked test on two wheels, all out lung-bursting climbing for just a few minutes.
With just a few events taking place, a tremendous list of 61 riders had entered and it was Jude Taylor of Crimson Marketing who took the win, in an impressive time of 2min 26.10secs in drizzly conditions, taking the longstanding course record of Malcolm Elliot by 0.5secs.
Rossendale Road Club had also entered a strong team and they were well grouped with Mark Berry in
16th (3.10.60 min),
Mike Tuzyak 17th (3.10.70 min) and Patrick Hickey 18th (3.16.50 min). But they were pipped by the trio of Barrow Central Wheelers for the team award.
Other club members taking on the challenge were James Eastwood in 25th (3.26.70 min), Tony Bowler 31st (3.39.00), Roy Flanagan 34th (3.55.30) and Dan Reader 41st (4.16.90).
Off-road, the valley club was heavily involved with the National Trophy Cyclo-Cross 1st round taking place at the Westmorland showground over the weekend, under the able organisation of Helmshore’s Dave Haygarth. The Vets and Junior races were on Saturday, with Senior and U23s on Sunday.
The joint V60/V50 men race was the first of the day, and in the dry conditions Derek Schofield finished in 13th, with Adrian
Watts and Graham Wright one lap down in 18th and 19th places respectively.
The V50s started 2 minutes behind with Carl Nelson of Helmshore finishing 57th, havingjust pipped valley club member Richie Watts by one place.
The forecasted rain followed and completely changed the circuit, and 12 year old Elsie Haygarth rode well to 22nd place in the ver competitive
U14 girl’s event.
The best performance of the weekend from a localk rider must have been Lewis Craven of Ramsbottom who made the podium in the V40 men’s race, beaten into 3rd place in a sprint finish by the highly experienced Paul Oldham of Hope Factory racing.
Adrian Lansley of Pedalon was the clear winner.
Sunday sees the second round of the No Nonsense CX series at Bradford where Rossendale Riders will again be well represented.