European MTB Champs
Portugal would host the European MTB Champs, with six Scots in contention for continental honours.
Cross Country Olympic
It was a fantastic 1-2 for Great Britain in the elite men’s XCO race as Tom Pidcock scooped the title, as Crieff’s Charlie Aldridge followed to take the silver medal.
Teammate Aldridge continued his impressive form this season and, stayed focussed on keeping his competitors away. Aldridge worked hard to cross the finish line with a comfortable 28 seconds between him and third place, to take his first European championships medal in this event, having previously been European Short Track champion.
Isla Short also scored an excellent top-10 finish with ninth place, in the women’s elite, while in the under-23 women’s race Daisy Taylor put in a good shift after a hard weekend of racing to finish 26th overall.
Corran Carrick-Anderson would ride to a 14th in the under-23 event, while Innes McDonald came home 21st after a crash in the juniors.
Short Track
Thursday night saw the Short Track event, Charlie Aldridge held on in a completely chaotic men’s race, taking seventh overall.
Starting conservatively, Aldridge sat just outside the top 10 at the half way point, before putting in a huge effort to get into second place behind eventual winner Luca Schatti (Switzerland). A shock move in an unpredictable race saw him drop into 12th in the final laps, before managing to pull it back to finish seventh. Corran Carrick Anderson rode to a solid 33rd overall in the combined elite and under-23 field.
While in the juniors, Innes McDonald started at pace, sitting just outside the top 10 in 11th place on the first and fifth lap. By lap six he had dropped to 15th and by the final two laps was just unable to hold on, finishing 29th overall and Freya Mowbray finished 17th in the women’s race.
Tour de France
You can read all about Oscar Onley’s magnificent fourth at the Tour de France here.
Sam Robinson
Struan Shaw (Tofauti Everyone Active) claimed the overall victory at the Glasgow Nightingale CC Centenary Stage Race – which included the Golden Jubilee of the Sam Robinson Road Race – first ran in 1975.
Shaw claimed the victory in the opening Prologue, and followed it up with a strong showing to take second to Philip Campbell (HUUB WattShop) on the flat stage one around the Lake of Menteith, before the Sam Robinson on Sunday.
Attacks were neutralised in large part by the headwind in the closing stages of the queen stage. Philip Campbell doubled up to take two stage victories, but a strong fifth place for Shaw was enough to take the general classification win, by 18 seconds to Ian McCaul (Le Col RT) and Thomas Selby (Royal Navy Cycling).
You can find out more about the history of the race and the ‘Gales here.
Hardline
Louise Ferguson has made history by becoming the only woman to complete the final of the Red Bull Hardline in Wales.
The 29-year-old Highlander slalomed through the rugged course at the hardest downhill event in the world to qualify on Saturday; Ferguson, then followed it with an excellent ride on Sunday – to become the first Hardline women’s winner.
Elsewhere
At the Six Days of Pordenone in Italy, Logan Maclean alongside partner Red Walters claimed third place in the madison after a week of excellent riding. In the sprints competition, Niall Monks (Glasgow Track RC) claimed third in the keirin and eighth in the sprint.
Alfie George (SCO-Dijon) claimed seventh at the UCI 1.2 GP de Pérenchies in France, another strong result from the Abernyte rider.
West Lothian Cycle Circuit hosted a brace of criteriums in the week with the fourth round of the Richard Moore Youth Series on Tuesday (read how it went here) and Thank Crit It’s Friday, on, unsurprisingly, Friday – read the report here.
Deeside Thistle’s APR was held on Thursday night with Ythan CC’s Hamish Battle taking the win.