It’s fair to say 2018 wasn’t a bad road season for Sotonia. Following a trend of increasing performances for the last four years, 2018 saw success at all levels.
What were the highlights? An incredible 28 podium finishes, 12 race wins, 11 second places, 7 third places, 4 category promotions and a whopping 53 top tens. 4 category promotions for Harry Parsons, Tim Cooke, Lee Shirley and Red Walters who gained his first category licence.
We had race wins for Phil Godfrey, Red Walters, Ed Slot, Brook Elgie, James Peckham and Tim Cooke. Podiums for Jon Hall, Patrick Rucki and Phil Wilks.
Oh and the small matter of a professional contract for one particularly talented rider!
The wins started in March with a 1-2 from Red and James Peckham in the Sandie Radford Road Race and a 1-2-3 in the Crabwood Heath Races from Red, Brook and Phil Wilks. Culminating in second place for the club in the British Cycling Southern Region rankings.
A big thank all the race team members for their hard work to make this possible.
In June, we once again ran our Criterium races at the Winchester Park and Ride circuit and it was great to see the youth numbers growing – especially from our own youth squad with over 30 riders now taking part in road and cyclocross competitively.
Our most successful rider in all this abundance of riches was of course Red Walters, one of our first coached riders, when he took up road cycling just 3 years ago. In 2018, he racked up an incredible 180 regional and national points on his way to attracting the attention of Continental team, Vitus Pro Cycling, We are extremely proud to say that Red will be riding alongside the likes of Olympian Ed Clancy in 2019. We wish Red the very best in the start of his professional career.