On a day when all the talk at the start was about the wind, it was Ciaran McSherry and Natalie Stevenson who overcame the difficult conditions to take the Scottish National Olympic Time Trial titles.
In the junior categories Isla Easto (JRC-Interflon) continued to show how good she is by setting an excellent time over the slightly shorter distance while Sam Edgar (Ribble-rechrg) took 26 seconds out of Cameron Adam (Spokes RT) to clinch gold.
Host club Torvelo Racing had devised a 15.5 mile (or 26km) loop, starting just north of Fenwick on the old A77, with the Junior Female route consisting of a truncated 12 mile course.
Fast, exposed outer leg with a tailwind saw the riders fly towards Newton Mearns before turning left onto the Malletsheugh Road and left again onto the Stewarton Road.
Suddenly that fast tailwind was a bloc headwind as the riders battled up past the quarry and onto the more exposed section passing the loch. Up and down, twisting left and right before the sharp left onto the Clunch, a climb that starts hard, goes through a few switchbacks before the final right hander and the long drag to the finish, the chequered flag flapping in the wind.
With the Junior female distance being slightly shorter, the start timekeepers set Isla Easto (JRC-INTERFLON Race Team) off a few miles into the main course before relocating to the official start. Easto, who has beeen racing on the track, road and in the muddy fields that the cross season brings, is adding the time trial discipline to her bow and returned an excellent time of 36:38 to take the Junior Female title.
We then had a slight wait before the first senior rider appeared over the brow of the hill. This was Fiona Cockburn (Torvelo) and she was motoring, climbing up to the finish in a time of 46:06, good enough for the bronze medal position today.
It was great to see Carole O’Hare, known to everyone as the queen of the velodrome, come through and complete the course in under the hour, more to come there from Carole in future we hope!
The fastest women were coming through now and it’s been a tussle all season between Vanelli-Project Go’s Alexandra Hayden and Natalie Stevenson (Glasgow Ivy). It was great to see them battling it out again with Stevenson coming home in the faster time with a 40.15 to Hayden's 42:29 the Gold and Silver medals sorted out for this year.
In the race for the Junior Men’s title it was another close battle between riders representing Ribble rechrg and Spokes RT, Sam Edgar and Cameron Adam. And by the time they’d both finished there was only 26 seconds in it with Sam finishing in 37:28 to Cameron’s 37:54. As is so often the way in junior men’s racing, these times were good enough to place them 5th and 6th overall. After claiming the 50 mile junior title a few weeks back, Inverness CC's Tyler Clare came home strong to claim the bronze medal in the espoirs.
The final category of the day was the senior men and the times quickly dropped under the 40 minute mark as more and more of the riders finished. There was a fight for what would eventually become the Bronze medal position with Craig Paterson from Spokes completing in 36:47, however Liam Scott Douglas (JG Cycles CC) would take another seven seconds off that to clinch his spot on the podium.
Alastair McNicol (Dooley's cycles) has been flying this year and finished a full minute ahead of the time of Liam Scott Douglas in 35.40 but there was nothing he could do about the man that started one minute behind him. Ciaran McSherry (The Cycling Academy) caught and passed the Dooleys rider just before the bottom of the Clunch and would take almost another half-minute out of him on the climb to the flag, finishing in 34.13, an excellent time for the course and one that saw him climb to the top step of the podium and claim both the Gold medal and the Olympic TT title for 2023.
When many others may have chosen not to opt for disc or deep section wheels, The Cycling Academy rider stuck to his guns and tried to used his on-bike positioning to take the title as he told Scottish Cycling:
"I knew that some others might struggle with the crosswinds, but I knew that the more time I could stay in the drops in an aero position, I would be making time up on them, so I just had to lean into the wind and hope for the best!"
It was back to the Race HQ at the Fenwick Bowling Club where organizer Doog Carruthers called the bingo numbers, awarded the prizes and gave a very special shout out to Mhairi Laffoley and her team for taking on the time-keeping duties, and a massive thanks to the commissaire team for ensuring the racing could go ahead.
Keep your eyes peeled on the Scottish Cycling social media accounts (@scottishcycling) for a recap later in the week.
