Oliver Stockwell concluded the British Cycling | Youth Circuit Series in perfect fashion with a victory in Kent.

Several attempts to break clear of the field were pulled back as the field swooped round the almost 4km long Grand Prix circuit – the most promising of them at the bell, with seven riders out in front.

They all came back together before the peloton re-emerged from the trees and the sprint saw one of the closest finishes of the season with National Champion and Series leader Oliver Stockwell of Welwyn Wheelers seven thousandths of a second ahead of Iwan Evans of The Bulls with Aaron Freeman of Chelmer Cycles just three hundredths further back.

Conditions on the course

It was a glorious day in the countryside at the Brands Hatch motor racing circuit. The track was dry and swept clean of gravel and rubber ahead of the Resolve24 24 hour endurance event.

Elsewhere

The Youth A Girls race wasn’t as active, but the finish was almost as close with Team Backstedt/HotChillee rider Danielle Parker taking the win by a tenth and a half from Kinga Ingram of Halesowen A&CC with Izzy Brickell of Fareham Wheelers a hundredth behind Ingram.

The Youth Bs raced on the shorter 1.9km Indy Circuit, and in the Girls race, Parker’s team mate Zoe Backstedt reverted to her usual tactics and rode away from the field to take a healthy minute and a half win over Anoushka Minale of CC Hackney, who edged out Imani Pereira-James in the sprint for second.

Rory Knowles of The MI Academy had a couple of attempts to emulate Backstedt, but couldn’t make it stick. Fortunately, he had enough left in the tank to take the win in the bunch sprint, holding off Jamie Whitcher of Poole Wheelers and Ben Partridge of Hetton Hawks.

In terms of the overall Series, Stockwell had won the Youth A Boys before he turned a wheel today – as had Backstedt in the Youth B Girls and Eluned King in the Youth As, who had to settle for fourth place today.

The closest competition was in the Youth B Boys, but Ben Partridge’s third place was enough to clinch the title.

Youth A Girls

1 Danielle Parker Team Backstedt/Hotchillee 1:17.05
2 Kinga Ingram Halesowen A&CC same time
3 Izzy Brickell Fareham Wheelers CC st
4 Eluned King Towy Riders st
5 Ella Coleman Welwyn Wheelers st
6 Alice Towers RST/Cycle Division Racing Team st

Youth A Boys

1 Oliver Stockwell Welwyn Wheelers 1:01:05
2 Iwan Evans The Bulls same time
3 Aaron Freeman Chelmer Cycles st
4 Euan Macleod Willbrord Wil Vooruit st
5 Oscar Nilsson-Julien VC Londres st
6 James Harrison st

Youth B Girls

1 Zoe Backstedt Team Backstedt/Hotchillee 49:57.4
2 Anoushka Minale Cycling Club Hackney @1:27.6
3 Imani Pereira-James East Kilbride Road Çlub same time
4 Grace Lister Wolverhampton Wheelers st
5 Morven Yeoman East Kilbride Road Club @2:42.9
6 Isabel Sharp Poole Wheelers CC same time

Youth B Boys

1 Rory Knowles The MI Racing Academy 49:05.1
2 Jamie Whitcher Poole Wheelers CC same time
3 Ben Partridge Hetton Hawks st
4 Olivier Mangham VC Londres st
5 Jed Smithson WORX Factory Racing st
6 Noah Hobbs Lee Valley Youth Cycling Club st

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