Our off-road contingent of riders have been very busy over the past few months, putting in some great performances both locally and abroad! Read on to find out about gravel, mountain biking and cyclocross races from the last few months.
On 21st September, Matt Davis took on Europe’s top gravel racers at the UCI Gravel World Series race in Girona. Totalling 107km with 1828 metres of ascent, the route was set to be a challenging parcours through the Les Gavarres Massif hill range. Matt said “Leading up to this world’s qualifier, my legs were just off, especially since my collar bone break a few months earlier, so mentally I went into it just for the ride! Girona gravel can be brutal, and this was one of those courses for sure! It felt like I was constantly climbing for the first 70km… the descents were sketchy, so you really couldn’t switch off for a minute! Anyway, I suffered and got it done. There’s always 2025 right!?”. Despite the challenges, Matt finished 54th in his category in a time of 4 hours and 51 minutes.
It was a family affair at Shouldham Warren on 17th November, as father and son Russ and Tom Powell competed in the MTB cross-country event. Hosted by Kings Lynn MTB club, the course consisted of flowing single track, short sharp climbs and swooping downhill segments. Tom finished 24th and Russ 31st in their respective categories.
Several members have been competing in our regional cyclocross league – the Eastern Cyclocross League. In the senior open event, Harry Rudd took 12th, 16th and 8th place in rounds 5, 6 and 7 respectively. As a relative newcome to cyclocross we expect we will be seeing a lot more top 10 finishes from Harry over the coming months! In the senior women’s event, despite the delayed start to her season due to injury, Abigail Corsie finished 4th place in both rounds 6 and 7.
In the veterans’ events, Andrew Cockburn has been putting in his usual strong performance. Across his five entries in the veterans 40-49 race, he has racked up a total of two 1st places, two 2nd places and one 3rd place, putting him in strong contention for the overall league win! In the 50-59 category, Craig Dyce, placed 34th and 29th in rounds 4 and 5. With three rounds still go in the series, including our closest round at Cambridge’s Milton Park on 26th January, we will wrap up the rest of the series results in our next racing round up.
