The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
Tom Wright and Ed Gurney put in impressive performances for Spalding Cycling Club at the opening round of the Go Green Grass Track Series.
Sleaford Wheelers hosted the meet on Saturday, with Bourne Wheelers, Chesterfield Coureurs and Fenland Clarion the other competing clubs.
Organiser Dennis Owen’s main worry was that rain would disrupt racing – but fortunately, while it was windy, everyone remained dry.
An impressive number of entries made for some exciting racing.
As one of only two events before the Heckington Show, the clubs entered were out in force to hone their skills under race conditions.
Spalding was, by comparison to Bourne and Sleaford, less well represented.
However, Wright and Gurney both rode incredibly well in all their races, working together to hold off a numerically superior Bourne Wheelers team.
Wright finished the day in third overall after repeating his photo finish sprint win from 2016 – snatching third place by a tyre width in the points race.
Gurney, meanwhile, showed considerable improvement and confidence with some fine attacking racing.
The next Go Green series race on July 23 is hosted by Bourne Wheelers, so hopefully Spalding will see Jack and Velvet Bowser competing with Tom and Ed.
- While the rain did not affect the Grass Track, Tuesday’s ten-mile time trial, held on the out and back course, did get hit hard with only six competitors and almost the same number of officials turning out.
Although wet, there was little wind – so it was no surprise that some fast times emerged.
After finishing 11th the previous Sunday in a tough race at Bourne Wheelers’ junior road races, it would have been reasonable to expect tired legs to reflect in Matt Ellis’ time. But, once again, he was fastest by posting 22.20mins.
A full three minutes and seven seconds passed before Mark Hills stopped the clock, his 25.27mins consistent with time posted on the usual course this season but hampered by traffic on the course.
Ross McGivern’s 26.13mins was just one second slower than his round five time, even though he was on his road bike while Richard Flatters – making a welcome return from injury – clearly found conditions to his liking finishing on 26.30mins for a season’s best time.
Barry Drew was also faster this time round with 27.49mins, as was Sarah Bentley with 29.03mins – an early indication that training for her 100-mile and 12-hour races is well on schedule.
