Cycling: Successful time for East Lancs senior rider Paul Ashworth

Successful time for East Lancs senior rider Paul Ashworth

It was a busy and successful time for East Lancs senior rider Paul Ashworth last week.

A group of riders went to the Steve Burke Circuit at Colne on Thursday evening to take part in regular weekly series of races.

In the 3/4th Cat race the Club had a team comprising Paul, Andy Gorton and Alex Wiseman who all comfortably maintained their place in the bunch throughout the race. Alex Wiseman made an attempt to escape the bunch with a solo breakaway which came to nothing as he was chased down by the Bunch and so it came to a sprint finish in which Paul came out on top to win the race with Andy finishing close behind in fifth.

In the Elite/1/2/3 Cat race the East Lancs hopes were pinned on Oliver Huszar and he did not disappoint. The fast pace of this race saw the bunch split in two with Ollie in the leading pack along with Ben Trippier riding in the colours of Maxis 4 RT. The breakaway kept away from the rest and Ollie delivered a powerful sprint finish to win from some very good riders, which resulted in the East Lancs taking the honours in both senior races on the night.

Last Saturday the Club organised their 10-mile time trial. The event was held on the J2/1 course at Chelford and a full field of 150 riders participated, including the ladies event. It was a following wind to the turn with leading riders easily exceeding 30 mph to the turn but it was painfully hard on the return leg into the wind.

The Clubs participants and times were as follows; Paul Ashworth fastest in 23:08 mins; Andy Gorton, 23:36 mins; David Trippier, 25:31 mins; Sam Wilson, 25:43 mins; fastest Junior Jack Millar, 25:50 mins; Jason Codling, 26:01 mins; David Bentley, 26:19 mins; son Oliver Bentley 1 second behind in 26:20 mins; Shaun Leonard, 26:22 mins; Josh Decamps, 26:52 mins; Noah Codling, 27:23 mins; fastest club Juvenile rider Max Bentley, personal best of 28:10 seconds; Mike Coulter, 28:13 mins; Jonny Decamps, 29:34 mins; and Pete Matthew, 30:27 mins.

In the Ladies event the Clubs entrants and times were as follows; Karen Bailey, 27:53 mins; Georgina Cape, 27:38 mins; Sofia Riley, 33:29 mins; Niamh Coulter, 30:37 mins; and Nicole Decamps with a personal best of 31:56 mins.

The event was won by Mark McNulty riding for Glossop Kinder Velo CC in the time of 21:17 mins who beat 2nd, 3rd and 4th place riders by 1 second, 2 seconds and four seconds respectively in an extremely close finish and the photos of the riders were by Ellen Isherwood.

The Sunday club rides went to watch the Tour de Yorkshire where a large group joined the hundreds of others on the Cote de Leeming near Oxenhope in a fantastic spectacle of a race.