The floodlit Merlin's Knight evening cyclo-cross promoted by Towy Riders and held in Carmarthen Park was a first for Wales, and was hailed a great success by all riders.
Racing started and finished on the concrete cycle racing track and followed a compact and technical course on the surrounding parkland. The forecast rain fortunately held off although this meant that the start of the main race had to be delayed as it was not dark enough!
Junior William Worrall from the promoting club soon opened up a sizeable gap on League leader Joe Lally (CC Abergavenny) with Ryan Bevis (Bad Ass Bikes) first leading and then dropping a chasing group.
Mid-race Lally looked to be closing on Worrall but the gap opened up again and the Towy Rider impressively crossed the line a minute ahead of Lally with Bevis only 12 seconds behind.
Mark James (MI Racing) was once again a comfortable winner in the Veteran category, finishing in fifth place and Claire Bowen (Abergavenny RC) marked her return to racing with a win in the Women's category.
Under 16 Joe Holt (Bynea CC) continued to dominate in the Youth race but there was an outstanding performance by Under 14 Teifion Best (Abergavenny RC) who finished in second place.
Results:
Senior:
1 William Worrall (Towy Riders CC) 10 laps in 55.04
2 Joe Lally (CC Abergavenny) @ 1.03
3 Ryan Bevis (Bad Ass Bikes) @ 1.15
4 Adam King (Cardiff JIF)
5 Mark James (MI Racing)
6 Luke Cornish (Cwmcarn Paragon)
7 Andrew Parry (Bynea CC)
8 Mark Davies (Cardiff JIF)
9 James Nixon (mtb-marathon.co.uk)
10 Adrian Peall (Forza Cycles)
Veteran: Mark James.
Junior: William Worrall.
Woman: Claire Bowen (Abergavenny RC).
U16 Boy: Joe Holt (Bynea CC).
U16 Girl: Emily Haycox (Maindy Flyers).
U14 Boy: Teifion Best (Abergavenny RC).
U14 Girl: Jessica Roberts (Towy Riders).
U12 Boy: Joe Beckingsale (Abergavenny RC).
U12 Girl: Megan James (Abergavenny RC).
U10 Boy: Guto Dafydd (Towy Riders).
U10 Girl: Emma Finucane (Towy Riders).
U8 Boy: Joshua Tarling (Towy Riders).
U8 Girl: Heledd Hunt (Towy Riders).
British Cycling would like to thank the organising team, officials and everyone else who helped promote this event. Our sport could not exist without the hundreds of people, many of them unpaid volunteers, who put in many hours of hard work running events, activities and clubs.
