The coronation weekend was jam packed full of racing action, as the world’s best downhill riders came to Fort William, while Scots were racing across Scotland, the UK and Europe.
National Downhill Series – Fort William
Fort William was the venue for the latest round of the Scottish Downhill Association Series, which doubled up as a British Series round and a UCI Class 1 event.
As the host venue for the UCI Cycling World Championships later this year, riders from across the world took to the start line as a final opportunity to race the course before August.
Englishman Laurie Greenland (Santa Cruz Syndicate) clocked the fastest ever time down the Fort William track with 4:25.609 to take the elite men’s win against some of the best riders in the world. The top Scot on the day was Ben Cathro (Pinkbike) in 18th place, with Jamie Edmondson (Rockshox RT) just behind in 19th place.
In the Elite women’s, 2022 World Championship silver medallist Nina Hoffman (Santa Cruz Syndicate) was victorious with a time of 5:10.582, but there were several excellent Scottish performances. Phoebe Gale has graduated the juniors and hit the ground running in the Elites, riding to a fifth-place finish with a time of 5:18.157 and local rider Mikayla Parton (Resolute Racing) was just behind in seventh place.
In the Juniors, Aimi Kenyon (Pinkbike) rode to a strong second place with Emily Carrick-Anderson (T-MO Racing) swapping codes from the cross-country scene to the downhill variety and finishing third in her first ever downhill race.
You can catch the best of the action by re-watching our livestream here:
Winchester
There was an imperious ride from Charlie Aldridge (Cannondale Factory Racing) to claim victory at the latest British Mountain Bike Series round in Winchester on Sunday, on a very muddy parcours.
The Crieff rider was part of a group of five, which included fellow Scots Grant Ferguson (Hope Factory Racing) and Rory McGuire (Leslie Bike Shop), who broke away from the bunch on the first lap, however over the following two laps of the circuit Aldridge was able to put distnace between himself and his rivals, powering to victory by nearly a minute. Another great ride from Ferguson, who’s form has been progressing nicely this season, saw him take third, with McGuire in fourth. There was another top ten ride from U23 Sam Chisholm (The Cycling Academy) in eighth place.
Isla Short (Ghost Factory Racing) was in great form in her first race in three months, with the Scot riding to a very strong second place finish. Just behind was Anna McGorum (Edinburgh University CC) with younger sister Elena (Peebles CC) taking the final spot on the podium in fifth place. Jane Barr (Velocity 44 RT) rode to another top ten in sixth place, with Joanne Thom (TORQ Performance) in eighth place.
With exam season well underway in Scotland, several junior, youth and juvenile riders opted not to travel to Winchester, however, there were still some strong performances, notably Innes McDonald (Scotia Off-Road Team), finishing in fifth place, whilst Xander Graham (Scott Racing) rode very well to finish in third place in the Juveniles.
However, the best performance from the young team was from Oliva Poole (Deeside Thistle), who rode excellently in the Juvenile girls' race to claim a dominant victory by over three minutes.
Saturday also saw the Short-Track events takes place with four podiums from the Scottish riders. It was a one-two for the McGorum’s with Elena taking the win from Anna in the Women’s race, while Grant Ferguson finished in third in the Men’s field. In the youth’s, Daisy Wilkinson (Scotia Off-Road Team) took a strong second place.
Full Report
Para World Cup
In Ostend, the latest round of the UCI Paracycling Road World Cup took place with a pair of Scots in action in Great Britain colours.
Fin Graham was victorious yet again with the Highlander winning both the C3 Road Race and the Time Trial in Flanders. After narrowly missing out on the road race gold in the last round of the World Cup in Italy last month, the Scot swept up both gold medals in Belgium.
On the tandem, there was medal success for Jenny Holl as she piloted Sophie Unwin to a gold medal in the Women’s B Road Race and a silver in the Time Trial.
Coronation Crits
West Lothian Cycle Circuit opened its gates to a brilliant first weekend of action, with Saturday seeing a RACE National session take place, led by the Scottish Cycling performance coaches, before Sunday’s day of circuit racing.
Tim Shoreman (Wheelbase CabTech Castelli) claimed victory in Open Men’s race after besting Lewis Martin (Studio Velo) and Cameron Mason (Trinity Racing) in the sprint to the line, that trio having broken away from the main group early on in proceedings.
In the women’s race, Youth A rider Erin Boothman (East Kilbride RC) showed no mercy to her senior rivals taking victory in another bunch sprint, with Rebecca Saunderson (Studio Velo) in second place and recently crowned Zimbabwean Road and TT champion Skye Davidson (Jadan Vive le-Velo Glasdon) in third place.
The Youth races formed the latest round of the Youth Circuit Series. In the Youth A and B girls, it was Youth B rider Melanie Rowe (Deeside Thistle) that claimed the victory pipping Boothman to victory as the duo were joined by Kayla Dinnin (Dumfries CC) in the winning move.
In the boys’ races, James Sweeney (Edinburgh RC) bested Struan Shaw (Edinburgh RC) and Evan Marsh (Johnstone Jets) to take the win, with the trio, in a similar manner to the girls’ and men’s races, riding away from the rest of the field. The winner of the Youth B race was Andrew Levinson (Edinburgh RC).
Tel-Aviv Track
In Israel, Scottish track team Glasgow Track Racing Club were in action at the UCI Class 2 track event in Tel-Aviv.
Scottish national sprint champion Niall Monks claimed a silver medal in the Sprint, and a bronze in the Keirin while Marcel Laurenz claimed a brace of sixth place finishes. Monks’ podiums represent the first UCI podiums from Glasgow Track RC.
