Louise bags first win

The cycling racing season has got into full swing with some impressive early-season rides from Scarborough Paragon riders.

With a number of personal best rides and high finishes it is quickly becoming clear who has been training hard over the winter.

Pride of place goes to junior Louise Scupham, who took first place in the York Cycle Circuit ladies race, her firstever road race win.

In a handicapped event Louise started in the faster category group which had to make up 50 seconds on the fourth category riders.

After a lot of hard work the groups came together with less than 10 laps of the race remaining, resulting in a mass finish to the line.

Despite being on restricted gearing, which is mandatory for junior riders, Louise hit the front with 100m to go and held on.

The first club time trial of the year was held over 10 miles at Snainton on Sunday and 17 riders took part with entrants from Scarborough Paragon, Bridlington CC, Richardsons CC and new Bridlington club Vive le Velo.

A superb ride from Paragon’s Steve Dodds saw him take first place with a personal best of 23.01.

There were also personal best times from Rob Corney 24.14 and Jamie Ward 24.32, and a great first-ever 10-mile time trial time of 28.13 for Simon Ward.

A number of open events have also taken place with Dave Thompson and Matt Atkinson travelling to South and East Yorkshire to represent the club.

Over a 10 miles at Hatfield Woodhouse , Thompson battled strong winds for 23.17 and 20th place out of 135 riders.

He followed it up with 21.18 over the V718 course at Hull for 28th out of 120 riders, with Atkinson also being given a time of 24.37 despite having himself as a minute faster on his own watch.

These are both times that should be improved greatly once weather conditions improve.

The next club event is over 15 miles at Snainton this Sunday.