Whitley secures his sixth victory of the season
TEAM Enable MI Racing’s leading cyclocross rider Nick Whitley won the biggest race of his career by clinching the opening race in the British Cycling Cyclocross National Trophy series in South Shields – his sixth victory of the season.
Knowing that he had good form, having won the first five counting events in the West Midlands series, Whitley attacked from the start and, having established an early lead on the very technical course, he was able to dictate the race and stay clear to the finish line.
At the same meeting, former World Masters champion Phil Roach showed that he is quickly getting into top condition after a slow start to the season when he finished a few seconds behind the third placed rider, just missing out on a podium spot.
A quick dash back to the Midlands and Roach was in action once more, this time in the second round of the Leicester Series, held at Country Park near Corby. He finished third behind team mate Kirby Bennett who now leads that series having won round one. In the same race, Peter Busby finished eighth, Alan Parsons 13th and Ray Cochrane 19th. They were all gridded on the back row.
Not to be out done, teammate Lindsey Newman won the Ladies 50+ race and like Kirby, leads the overall series. Ryan Henry chose to ride his mountain bike to finish fourth in the Veteran 40+ race.
Current Israeli National Ladies Time Trial champion Didi Egerton-Warburton ended her time trial season on a high by winning the Cardiff 100-Milers Open 10-mile event near Monmouth in a very fast time of 22 mins 52 secs, just one second off her personal best time.
First year member of Team Enable, 19-year-old Oliver Searle, produced an excellent ride to be the top placed team member in the Team MI Racing Hill Climb Championships, held in conjunction with Coventry Cycling Club. The championships took place on the tough climbs at Burton Dassett and Edge Hill.
Searle now holds the Mount Etna Trophy for one year and he was also the fastest senior rider. Peter Busby won the Veteran class.
It has been a successful time for the Stratford-based team after they secured a one, two, three in the latest round of the West Midlands Cyclo Cross series for riders aged 50+ with Whitley again leading from the start.
Nick Popham and Darren Atkins had a real battle behind the leader and were never more than a few meters apart until the final lap when Popham broke clear of Atkins to claim second.
In the race for riders 60+, Busby led for most of the race, only losing the lead and the race on the final lap.
In the under 16s race, 15-year-old Jefferson Tier was never out of the first three and only missed out on second in the closing stages. The previous day he had finished fifth in a race at Milton Keynes. The 40+ race saw Colin Miller finish fifth.
There was further cyclocross success in the Leicestershire Cyclocross series where Bennett, was a clear winner of the 60+ race and Newman won the Ladies 50+ event.
