It’s been a very busy few weeks as the summer racing events come thick and fast. Here’s a run down of how we’ve been getting on recently…
VC Venta Winchester P&R Crits, 29 May
The first crit held at Winchester Park & Ride Circuit where we had a win for Ollie Graham in the U8’s and two great rides for a 4th place for William Harley and a 5th for Lucas Mills. In the under 10’s we had a 9th for George Connell and in the U10 girls a 5th for Evelyn Mills and a 4th in the U12’s for Ella Connell.
Winchester City Criterium, 5 June
In the spectacle that was the Winchester Criterium round the streets of Winchester, what a great days racing was had by our seven young riders. Another win for Ollie Graham in the U8’s with a 10th for William and a 12th for Lucas Mills. In the U10’s we had an 18th for George and 19th for Samuel Ridgement and a 24th for Evelyn Mills. Again well done guys really good to see a good representation from our youth.
In the 3rd cat race, James Peckham continued his fine run of form with 4th place. James: “A Lone rider got away early. Group of ten chasing, then five by the finish. It was the hardest race – hot and fast, no let up all race. With six laps to go, I attacked hard to split the group, but forgot that I needed to slow down for the corner! I almost decked it into the hay bales, lost speed and nerve a little. I wasn’t going to catch the leader but wanted to split up the group a bit so I worked with another rider but got caught. My sprint wasn’t perfect, I waited too long and didn’t have a clear run to the line.”
Phil Godfrey finished 11th in a hard fought 4th cat race. Phil: “I started well in the 4ths but wasn’t on my game today. There were three young riders from the Channel Islands who were head and shoulders faster than anyone else and lapped the field. I lost the wheels and was back in 13th most of the race on my own but I kept going and caught a few on the drag to finish 11th.”
Southern XC MTB round 5, Crow Hill, 5 June
It was a super hot, tough day last sunday at Crow Hill near Ringwood for round 5 of the Southern XC MTB race series. The course was mostly wooded singletrack with a lot of roots that got slippier as the day went on and a couple of climbs. There were loads of crashes in the rutted ditches but that didn’t stop Tom Budden from bagging a third consecutive podium finish in Sport and Tobie Charlton 9th. Jez Hart was 24th out of 54 riders in Open cat.
Henstridge Circuit race series in Dorset, 6 June
On Monday Ben Scott-Munden travelled to Dorset for the 2/3 race at Henstridge picking up 5th place.
Behind the Bikeshed Series, Thruxton, 7 June
Another cracking ride by James Peckham at Thruxton race circuit with 3rd place in the 3rd cat race as he gets ever closer to second cat promotion!
Dunkeswell, Devon
Meanwhile further afield in Devon, Andy MacKay picked up a second place in the 3/4 race at the East Devon Circuit Series at Dunkeswell. Andy also picked up a cool fifth place at Moreton in the TLI race series last week.
Team Axiom Timetrial weekend, 11 June
There were some seriously quick rides from Sotonia in this event on the P881 and P885 courses on the A3. In the ’10’, James Peckham was 15th with 20:14, Dan Edwards, 27th with a PB of 20:41. In the ’25’, James was in action again with a super quick 53:03!
Sotonia Summer Criterium 1
It’s less than a week now until the next episode at Winchester P&R with Sotonia’s first of two crit race events on Sunday 19th June. Don’t miss out – Online pre-entry closes wednesday!
#teamSotonia