Ayrshire clubs in top gear for Plean races
Top turn- out for challenging circuit in country park
Ayrshire Cycling Clubs were well represented on Sunday at Plean Country Park, Stirling where they took part in various Cyclo Cross races.
Promoters of the event, Stirling Bike Club had redesigned the course, offering a more challenging circuit than last year.
Ayrshire interests lay in the Women’s and Men’s Masters Category races, where friendly rivalry was expected to offer exciting races for the riders and their supporters.
In the Women’s event, Lorna Sloan of Walkers Cycling Club, Kilmaurs won her category and in the other Women’s event Aileen Fisher of Ayr Roads/ Harry Fairbairn CC took fifth place with another Ayrshire rider, Janet Tait of Dooleys CC placed fourth.
The winner of this race was Helen Gorman of the promoting club.
In the men’s race, Ayr Roads fielded three riders, Fraser Tait, Bobby McGhee and Alex McAllister.
On the day it was Fraser who was the fastest Roads rider.
Fraser just missed out on a top ten finish and recorded another 11th place.
Alex who was the fastest in his category, chose to compete in a lower age category and yet still managed to secure a 20th place with Bobby just behind.
The winner was Neil Raitt of Angus Bike Chain.
There were no Ayrshire finishers in the Seniors race, which was won by Chris Buchan.
The event was a precursor to the Scottish CX Championships which will be held in Fife on Sunday, this will be followed by Round 1 of the Super Quaich Series of races staged at Rozelle Park, Ayr on December 9.
Spare a thought though for a real bunch of cycling enthusiasts led by David Hill of The Roads club who took part in the Night Rider event - a circuit of Castle Semple Country Park in Renfrewshire.
David was accompanied by 40 other hardy souls last Friday night for the all- nighter event, which finished at 1am on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Bobby McGhee grabbed some late miles with a short tour of southern roads starting from Lincoln and finishing in Middlesbrough via the Humber Bridge, Hull, Scarborough and Whitby.
Grant Young a member of Ayrodynamics Tri Club and Ayr Roads won himself a Gold Medal in the Aquabike event in Ibiza last week and in nearby Majorca, Malcolm Inch of the Roads Club tackled the mighty Sa Calobra Climb of the Tramuntana Mountains.