Wessex CX League round 8, Newbury
A new venue for many of those racing, but a return for veterans of the Wessex league was Newbury Showground hosted by Andy Smith Events on Remembrance Sunday for round 8. It was a sunny and dry day with a good course that twisted and turned across flat grounds with some off-camber banks. It also was a bit bumpy, exploring some woodland area with difficult banking, causing some to run. In honour of it being remembrance, our riders also took part in a two minute silence at 11 o’clock.
Our U8s kickstarted the day with our females Florence Boustred in second and Amie Williams in fifth. Leighton Riley also came second, discovering issues with his bike at the finish... blame the mechanic! Sunni Muriithi came twelfth and Jordan Riley in thirteenth.
Theo Plumb finished third in the U10s alongside Joseph Lovegrove in seventeenth, who had a very good start.
U12s was a good race, the course spreading out our riders. Emily Williams came eighth, with Ruby Boustred in ninth. Billy Dyer finished eighth with James Sutton closing in, ending in ninth. Reuben Lewis came fourteenth and Leeyo Muriithi in sixteenth.
Next, the U14s and U16s hit the big course. Eve Carline finished third after some bike issues meaning she had to pit twice, with Matilda Wilks in fourth and Jaya Martingale in eleventh. Aneurin Gilbert came twelfth and Morgan Gilbert in fourteenth. Our U16 males had a good turn out with Tom Wilks in third, Tom Allen in fourth, Reuben Harrington in sixth and Henry Forsyth in eighth. After coming back from an injury Benji Pike, despite a small course mishap by the pits, was tenth and George Boustred finished in thirteenth. Our U16 female, Marit Davidse finished ninth. Well done to all our youth riders.
In the Junior category, Niclas Olley powered through to second place, Monty Flavell in sixth, Samuel Ridgment in eighth and Samuel Marcade in ninth. The V40s saw Andrew Gardiner in third, Pete Boustred in sixth and Tom Budden in seventh. Gemma Wilks came third in the female V40s, with Helen Meigh in tenth, and Emma Harrison finished a superb second in the female Junior category. The V50s race saw Phil Connell in ninth, Jon Hall in twelfth and Jason Harrison in sixteenth.
All in all, it was a very good turnout once again. Looking forward to Regionals at Dalton Barracks.
Wessex CX League Round 7, Kingsclere, hosted by Newbury Velo
Another competitive round of the Wessex CX league on the last Sunday in October at Kingsclere, hosted by Newbury Velo with Velo Clinic. It was a sunny day, something our riders both welcomed and despised. The sun beat down on a tough course that held many drag-like climbs and corners, the heavy grass making for a hard effort.
Two sets of hurdles were in play with riders either running or hopping them, showing off a range of skills. An unfavourable, winding drag up to the finish caused much pain and suffering amongst our riders but still they persevered as always.
Another positive outcome in our youth section beginning with our U8s. Florence Boustred received another third place with Annie Forsyth close behind in fourth. Leighton Riley came second with Joshua Marsden in tenth, Sunny Muriithi fourteenth and Jordan Riley seventeenth. For U10s, Theo Plumb worked hard to reach second place but finished third, and Joseph Lovegrove ran out of ‘beans’ right before the end but managed to find the energy to push his bike over the line and finish fourteenth. Well done to both of them.
In the U12s, Emily Williams just missed top five, finishing sixth, and Ruby Boustred in ninth. Freddie Trish came sixth with Billy Dyer working hard to close the gap and coming seventh, Reuben Lewis had a bit of a battle with another rider, ending eighth. James Sutton came thirteenth and Leeyo Muriithi came seventeenth.
The U14 Sotonia group were made up of purely girls. Eve Carline led most of the race but suffered a cramped leg in her final lap and finished second alongside Matilda Wilks in third. Alexis Barry finished ninth and Jaya Martingale in tenth. It was nice to see the two girls racing again!
A small field for U16s but with more positive results for Sotonia. A tough start, especially for second row, up the straight and round the first corner. Tom Allen led most of the race but struggling with his back, he settled in second for the finish. Reuben Harrington recieved his first podium of the season after finished third, alongside Henry Forsyth in fourth. Adam Koperdan came seventh and Finlay Banks finished ninth after a puncher where he was fortunate enough to be able to swap bikes with a fellow rider. George Boustred finished eleventh. Marit Davidse came fourth followed by Poppy Carline in fifth. A tough but brilliant race for all.
Following our youth riders, the junior men’s and v40s took to the course. George Connell had an excellent start, finishing third, with Samuel Ridgment coming fifth and Niclas Olley receiving yet another win. Danny Forsyth came seventh and Samuel Marcade, nineth. Andrew Gardiner went head-to-head with Nic and managed to beat him by a few seconds, coming third in the v40s. Pete Boustred battled it out with Jamie Plumb, beating him on the uphill sprint by a couple seconds and coming eighth. After a crash, Tom Budden came twelfth with Phil Banks a second behind.
The women’s races saw Emma Harrison second Junior and Gemma Wilks fourth v40s. Jon Hall, Phil Connell and chairman, Jason Harrison battled for top Sotonia finisher in the v50 open race, finishing 9th, 12th and 17th.
Well done to everyone and hope to see you all at Newbury Showground for round 8.
Wessex CX League, Round 6, Popham
On Sunday, the Wessex League saw round six at Popham Airfield for the final time, hosted by Pedalon and NHRC. The weather was intense with torrential rain and the wind picking up throughout the day.
The course got slippier and muddier as the races continued. It was an uphill start, straight into a series of corners. When going into the woods, the riders were met with many banks and even more mud. They came in and out at the back, before re-entering the woods, down a bank and through a long slog of mud back to the main arena.
Sotonia had a positive start in our youth section. First up were the U8s, where Leighton Riley received second place, alongside Florence Boustred in third, Sunny Muriithi in tenth and Jordan Riley in eleventh, For u10s, Theo Plumb worked hard for third place with young Joseph Lovegrove in tenth. Our u12s had an excellent start with Freddie Trosh making his way up the pack to finish in fifth and Reuben Lewis hunting everyone down to reach sixth place. James Sutton came in eighth with Billy Dyer in fifteenth and Leeyo Muriithi in nineteenth, an excellent race from all.
Our female u14s did brilliantly with Eve Carline achieving her second win of the season (ninth overall in the mixed event), and Matilda Wilks finishing fourth.
The u16 males were again the ones to watch with Tom Allen going straight from the start and developing a large gap pretty quickly. Tom Wilks chased after, separating himself from the fight for third. He worked hard to close the gap but Tom Allen took the win by 10 seconds. Reuben Harrington also fought hard with his first front row start, finishing seventh. Our only female u16 racing, Marit Davidse, finished in fifth, her second top five of the season.
Moving on from our younger riders, the Junior men did well with Niclas Olley finishing in third, George Connell in fifth and Monty Flavell in eighth.
Andrew Gardiner was third in the v40 Open category, followed closely by Pete Boustred in fourth and Phil Banks in eighth. Emma Harrison came third in the junior women’s race and Gemma Wilks second in the women’s v40s.
Overall, our riders did really well, hopefully with more good things to come this weekend. Really proud and well done to them all. See you Sunday 27th October for round seven at Kingsclere in Newbury.
