Another packed weekend of action for our nation of cyclists, with the opening #SCNatChamps of the season taking place in Dunfermline, as Scots dominated the opening round of the British Cross Country Series in Yorkshire.
While the opening round of the Scottish DH series went ahead in Dumfries; in addition to fantastic performances abroad from Isla Short and Oscar Onley to report in this week’s round-up.
Scottish National Junior Road Champs
Elijah Kwon and Eilidh Shaw were victorious at the first #SCNatChamps of the year in Dunfermline, read our full report of the racing here.
UCI MB World Cup
Isla Short continued her recovery from Covid-19 with a 25th place finish in the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup round in Petropolis just outside Rio de Janeiro. Although Short wasn’t particularly suited to the short track in Brazil, a Top 25 finish and narrowly beating friend and rival Annie Last shows that the Scot is bouncing back to her best form.
Scots dominate British MTB opener
Staying with the Mountain Bikes – the first round of the British Cross Country Series took place at Parkwood in Yorkshire with Scots dominating the action.
Elena McGorum (Peebles CC) produced the ride of the weekend in the Elite Women’s race, narrowly beating out Scottish National Cyclocross champion Anna Flynn (Spectra-Wiggle p/b Vitus) by 15 seconds to claim victory and take the series lead. Joanne Thom (TORQ Performance) and Jane Barr (Velocity 44) were involved in a great battle for third, with the former just winning out by just over 30 seconds, as they were part of fantastic Scottish 1-2-3-4 atop the podium.
Not to be outdone by the Elites Emily Carrick-Anderson (T-MO Racing) stormed the field to claim victory in the Junior Women’s event by nearly three minutes, with Christina McGorum (Uno Forza) finishing in third. Blue Jersey winner at last week’s Youth Tour of Scotland Daisy Taylor (Royal Albert CC) beat the overall winner Cat Ferguson to claim victory in the Youth Girls event.
In the men’s event, the Scots were to replicate the success in the womens as a three-way all-Caledonian battle brewed between Cameron Mason (Trinity Racing), Corran Carrick-Anderson (T-MO Racing) and Charlie Aldridge (Scott FR) for victory. All three riders know each other very well, having spent a week together in February as part of a Scottish Cycling performance camp in Spain and stayed very close to each other throughout.
The former junior world champion Aldridge was able to force his way to victory leaving his two compatriots behind as he won the opening round of the series by 32 seconds from Mason in second and Carrick-Anderson in third. Rory McGuire (Leslie Bikes) also produced a great rider to finish in fifth to make it a Scottish 1-2-3-5 on the podium.
There were also strong rides in the juniors from Rueben Oakley (ROTOR RT), Sam Chisholm (The Cycling Academy) and Finn Mason (The Cycling Academy) who finished sixth, eighth and tenth respectively, while Innes McDonald (Edinburgh RC) came home in fifth in the Youth race.
The second round takes place in Newcastleton this weekend.
SDA Series in Ae Forest
Scotland’s best downhill riders assembled in Ae Forest in Dumfries and Galloway for the opening round of the Scottish Downhill Association Series.
Callum McBain beat out Scottish DH Champion George Gannicott by 4 seconds to claim victory in the Men’s Elite race. Former World Champion Reece Wilson (Trek FR) came home a second further back in third, while Ryan Brannen (555 Raaw Gravity Racing) continued his recovery from injury to finish fourth.
Junior rider William Brodie produced an excellent time that was the second quickest of the weekend to win the 17-18 Men’s from Douglas Goodwill (555 Raaw Gravity Racing).
Mikayla Parton (Greenpower Racing) was the quickest in the Women’s Event with a time of 2:15.0, which was only just quicker than the junior winner Pheobe Gale (Canyon Collective) who posted a time of 2:15.994 and looks to continue 2022 how 2021 finished off.
Congratulations to Emily Merry (University of Aberdeen) and Archie Gilmore (University of Edinburgh) on winning the respective Scottish Student Sport DH titles at Ae Forest.
Round 2 of the SDA Series which will serve as a UCI Class 1 event will take place on Aonach Mor in Fort William on the 7th and 8th May.
Scots Ab-road
Oscar Onley (DSM Development) rode to a fantastic fifth place in the general classification at the UCI 2.2 Circuit des Ardennes. Finishing only 18 seconds down on the overall winner, the Scots’ impressively consistent riding saw him finish no worse than 17th on any of the four stages in France.
The improvement this year is telling as Onley only manged 34th in this race in October last year, which shows how much work the 19-year-old Scot has put in over the close season. This top five in a UCI stage race also meets one of the road qualification standards for the Team Scotland squad for summer’s Commonwealth Games.
