Ellon Youth Crit 25th August 2013
It was an early start for a Sunday morning in Ellon, Aberdeenshire getting barriers and road closures in place for the 2013 Ellon Youth Criterium. With the support of the local business and rotary club a short 800m circuit was created in the middle of the town to give the 75 young riders racing the taste of what it’s like to race round the streets like the pro riders.
Youth E's lining up for the start of thier race
Youth E’s kicked off preceding’s with the first race, negotiating some tricky turns on the tarmac still wet form the overnight rain. The youth D’s had a slightly drier course but as the races progressed the sun came out and dried the course easing the nerves watching the older rider’s ramp up the pace.
Youth D's negotiating the tight turn through the square
In the Youth C race Alfred George was setting the pace of the race from the beginning leading just about all of the 14 laps of the course to take the win. Not far behind though was Alexander Dent to take 2nd. Anna Flynn and Eva Barnet held their own with the boys crossing the finish 3rd and 4th to take 1st and 2nd place in the girl’s race.
Start of the Youth B race
The Youth B’s showed the early signs of tactical racing beginning to develop with a break away in the middle of the race lead by Stephen Dent. Stephen continued to put on the pressure to finish 1st place with an impressive 13second lead.
Youth A race
The final Youth A race saw the pace jump up with the majority of the field putting in sub 1 minute lap times it was a hotly contested race between Rian Hill, Andy Brown and Jordan Stronach each jostling for position in every one of the 43 laps it was down to the wire on the final lap with Rian narrowly beating Andy to 1st place and Jordan following close behind in 3rd.
Youth A girls
The youth A girls had a very similar race to the boys in their own group bringing it down to a sprint finish with Julie Kenneth taking 1st place, Lauren Smith 2nd and Ella Connolly 3rd.
Ythan Youth pedal car sneaking ahead of the Ythan Senior car
Although the bike racing had finished for the day there was the small matter of the pedal car race. With host club Ythan CC entering a Youth and a senior team into the 14 car event there was a lot at stake with the kids vs. the adults. Each team had 4 ‘drivers’ and with a Le Mans start run to the cars it was serious racing. All hopes of the Crit races tiring out the youngsters were dashed by the senior car having a mechanical in the closing stages of the race.
Ythan CC would like to thank all the volunteers, Local community and businesses of Ellon for their support of the event.
