Event: 28 July 2013
Location: Darley Moor Sports Centre, Ashbourne, Derbyshire
Report: British Cycling
Two paracycling races took place on the Darley Moor Motor Circuit in Derbyshire on Sunday 28 July with riders going for six British Cycling National Paracycling Championship titles.
First Race was for those with a C Classification ( Bike Riders). Youth Boys Matt Hamilton ( MC5) and Louis Rolfe ( MC2) plus females Chloe Selman (FC4) and Katie Toft ( FC3) did well to take advantage of their lap advantage from the men, the boys working particularly well to fend them off until half distance.
Sadly the lead bunch of ten riders lost last year’s Champion Tim Challinor to a puncture at the same time that they caught the two boys. The remaining nine stayed together despite some very spirited riding resulting in a gallop which was just won by Mike Rennison (MC4) from John Gildea (MC5) and Jaco Van Gass (MC3).
Next up were the Tandems and Handcyclists. Again racing over an hour.
The top three tandems stayed together for the first twenty minutes until Jan Newman and her Pilot Clare Lever used their time trial strength to gain a gap on the two younger track based pairs of Nia Knight, piloted by Katie Curtis and Sophie Thornhill, piloted by Megan Boyd. At the finish Newman finished a good 30 seconds ahead of Knight for a well deserved win. Thornhill finished 3rd a further 30 seconds adrift.
The Handcycle race was dominated by Brian Alldis ( MH3) and Chris Madden (MH2) who proved inseparable throughout their event and lapped almost the whole field. Alldis narrowly won the final sprint beween the pair with Alan Cook (MH2), the next finisher having given a good chase through the event.
All in all a good series of races with all three event results far from clear until the end. Many thanks to Matlock CC for hosting these Championships which saw the best turn out in terms of both riders and spectators ever seen.
Final results can be found here.