East Lancs cycle report

Niamh Coulter in her Debut 10mile time trial

It was a busy weekend for the East Lancs last weekend with the beginning of the Manchester District Juvenile and Junior 10 mile time trial championships and the East Lancs were well represented in both categories with some riders making their debuts and all of them performed really well.

The course used was the J4/17 based around the villages of Byley and Lach Dennis in Cheshire and the weather was very good with a gentle southerly wind helping the riders in the last two miles dash to the finish.

First of for the East Lancs were the Juveniles who recorded the following; Niamh Coulter, 34:02mins in her first ever event; Jack Millar, 30:59mins in his first ever event beating his Dad by 17 seconds; Noah Codling, 28:57mins and Tom Bland 32:39mins. The juniors followed with an under the weather Josh Decamps doing 27:17mins and Alex Trippier with 24:32mins, which was our fastest of the day and good enough to win fastest junior prize.

The senior performances included a number of debut rides as follows; Ian Miller, 31:16mins; Mike Taylor, 28:54mins; Andy Bateson, 28:07mins; Lauren Bateson, 31:59mins and Darryl Nolan, 29:15mins.

Whilst the M&D time trial was good for the East Lancs, there was even more drama up at Lancaster where several riders took part in the circuit races there. There were three races which took place, thankfully free of the crashes which affected the previous weeks racing.

In the first race Paul Ashworth was the Club’s sole rider but he still made his presence felt by winning the race. Paul held his place at the head of the bunch throughout the race and in the final lap he went into the final bend in the lead, which enabled him to be first into his sprint and 250 metres later he finished 3 lengths clear to win his first race in a fantastic performance which promises much for the rest of the season.

In the second race Junior riders Sam Walley and Alex Wiseman held their own for much of the 40 minute race within which 5 riders escaped off the front of the bunch to claim the first five placings, but Sam put up a great sprint finish to take third place in the bunch gallop and eighth overall to gain a few more points towards his license upgrade.

In the final Seniors race Chris Green and Ben Trippier participated in a fast race, which was largely uneventful and it came down to bunch sprint for the line with Chris and Ben securing 12th and 7th place respectively.

Finally, it was the 50th edition of the Eddie Soen’s Race on Merseyside. This prestigious race attracted a number of big names as usual which dominated the race. A bunch of 18 riders went clear to secure the leading places at the finish and the remainder of the riders in a huge field came home in a bunch sprint approximately two minutes behind the leaders, which included a great ride by Sam Wilson from the East Lancs.