2012 Youth Tour of Scotland
Posted on: 10th April 2012
Article by: Alan Denman
The first ever Youth Tour of Scotland took place over the Easter weekend. The event for youth A boys and youth A & B girls was based around the beautifull Perthshire countryside and supported by the Perth & Kinross council. Details of this beutifull area can be found at www.perthshire.com
The event organisers put together an entry & accommodation package for 150 bike racers and 90 adult helpers and parents at the stunning Strathallan school, which was also used to host the prologue and team time trial stages of the tour as well as three support races for younger youth categories.
The boys race was a hard fought affair with the overall victory going to former Scottish resident Joe Evans from the Velocity Race team with a superb display of power and class taking the jersey after stage 3 and holding it on the last day.
The girls event was a good display of the level of girls bike racing with the lead in all the classifications constantly changing, culminating with the yellow jersey and the polka dot jersey both changing hands on the last stage with a brilliant breakaway by Melissa Lowther and Amy Gornall.
It was great to see the improvement of youth bike racing in Scotland with many youth teams taking place and most centres putting together teams for the racing. The Scots were all prominent in the racing and the event was a massive development and learning opportunity for all.
There were some excellent stage results for Scottish riders with Stuart Balfour, Edinburgh RC / Martin Currie race Team taking an excellent 5th place on the first open road stage around St.Davids and Sean Noon also from Edinburgh RC taking 11th spot on the same stage.
On the last road stage around the hilly Forgandenny circuit Circuit Edinburgh RC / Martin Currie Race Teams Hamish Carrick and Stuart Balfour came in 8th and 11th respectively.
Doing the girls proud were Lucy Grant who rides for Peebles CC and was competing for the East of Scotland CA managed 7th at St Davids and an excellent 6th at Forgandenny.
First year youth B Rhona Calendar also had an excellent race climaxing in 14th place on the last stage.
Scottish Cycling wishes to pass on their congratulations to all Scottish riders and clubs for the efforts in the race and the build up.
The race organisors would like to thank the following for making the event a success:
Perth & Kinross Council
Tayside Police
The Gannochy Trust
Live Active
The Bicycle Works, Edinburgh
Fat Spanner
Stathallan School
All the volunteers and officials
Full results will be available at www.youthtourofscotland.com
