There’s been another packed weekend of action with a Commonwealth Games Qualifying event taking place in Glasgow, Cyclocross racing in West Lothian and the small matter of the Cyclocross World Championships in the United States.
Cyclocross Worlds
Scotland’s Cameron Mason put in a fantastic effort in Fayetteville at the UCI Walmart World Cyclocross Championships. The Scotsman fought his way through the field on Saturday evening in a very dusty and fast course in Arkansas, to set up a three-way battle royale for the final podium place in the Under 23 Men’s event.
A great attack on the last lap did have Mason up in third position until the final 200m where he was narrowly beaten to the line in the sprint by Thibau Nys and Mees Hendrix.
Passing many of the favourites in the final laps including Niels Vanderputte – a rider which Mason has battled with many times this season in the Cyclocross World Cup – showed the quality of the ride by the Linlithgow rider.
While it may not have been the podium the Scot wanted, we’re sure it won’t be the last appearance of Mason at the business end of a world championship.
Commonwealth Games Qualifying Event
Some of Scotland’s best track riders, including double Olympic medallist Jack Carlin, were in action at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome in Glasgow as riders hoped to make qualifying standards for the Team Scotland squad set to contest the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham this summer.
Jonathan Wale (Chaney Windows & Doors) came out on top on both days with the endurance rider riding to the standard in both the Individual Pursuit and Kilometre.
Luisa Steele broke the Scottish Flying 200m record (subject to ratification) as she also made the standard on Saturday – with a new personal best coming in the 500m TT on Sunday.
Read our report from Day 1 here.
Our report from Day 2 is also available here.
Linlithgow Cross
West Lothian Clarion organised a grassroots CX event in Linlithgow on Sunday. A coaching session was offered in the morning and was free for those entered into the Novice race, and as such a large number of riders contested their first race.
It was a day for the Junior Men, with the young guns taking the top four spots in the Open race. The wind and rain, as well as the youth action before that, made the course into a mud bath by the time of the senior event, which caused many of the riders problems. The off-camber corners and “mudslide” at one corner meant that virtually all the riders slid out at least once.
Sam Chisholm (West Lothian Clarion) narrowly pipped Gregor McPhaden by 13 seconds, with Cameron Archibald rounding out the podium. On the female side Meg Spital (West Lothian Clarion) narrowly got the better of Maddy Pope (West Lothian Clarion), with Zofia Lisowski finishing in third.
Scots Abroad
Congratulations to Calum Johnston (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) on making his debut at UCI Professional Continental level on Sunday at the GP la Marseillaise in France.
