Gifford RR
Men’s Race – 120km – Alba Series (Nat B)
Scottish National Champion Logan Maclean opened the Alba Road Race Series with an excellent breakaway win at the Gifford Road Race in East Lothian.
A glorious day in the village of Gifford saw the first round of the Alba Road Race series – the 120km Gifford Road Race – organised by Edinburgh Road Club.
An early break was established on the second of nine tours of the 12km course. First formed by Sam Chisholm (Edinburgh Bike Fitting RT) and Toby Tanfield (Leadout Performance) who was joined by teammate Ross Turner, after he bridged across a lap later.
The trio were kept on a tight leash by the bunch, and their advantage would not grow more than 30 seconds, before eventually they would be reeled in by an interested bunch.
The key move would come with four laps remaining, Maclean would be clear of the bunch alongside Alex Ball (BCC Race Team), Noah Bleteau (Paris Cycliste Olympique) and James Jobber (Hurricane and Thunder CT).
The four would work well together and continue to grow their advantage of the field – which itself had fractured in two.
Coming into the finish – held just outside the village of Gifford – Bleteau would launch his effort early in the final kilometre. Jobber would be unable to follow, while Alex Ball would launch his sprint early also to pass the former Cycling Academy rider. Maclean would follow over the top of the rise and manage to cross first – a bike length clear of Ball – with Bleteau coming third.
Credit: Charles McSherry
Female Race – 52km E1234
It was great to see a healthy field size for the female event – including a number of first time road racers.
Jenny Holl (Loughborough Lightning) claimed the victory in the Female race on Saturday lunchtime.
The Stirling native was part of a four rider move alongside Anna Flynn (Spectra Racing), Amy Gornall (Handsling-Alba) and Rebecca Saunderson (Studio Velo). The quartet worked well over the 50km race to build a decent advantage over the peloton behind and come the final lap it was clear that the leading four would contest the win.
Holl was able to use her track speed to her advantage and was able to power her way to the line, with a great dash in the final few metres enough for Flynn to claim second, and Saunderson rounding off the podium.
A massive well done to Emma and the whole organising team at Edinburgh RC for kicking off the 2025 road race calendar in style.
There’s plenty of upcoming events to get stuck into over the coming weeks – you can check them out here.
Scottish Regional BMX Series
Sunday saw Round 1 of the Scottish Regional BMX Series, held at Clydebank, organised by Western Titans.
Harrison Bell (Western Titans) won out in the 17-29 open category from Ben Fitzsimmons (Cumbernauld Centurions). Youth winners include Eilidh Watson (Cumbernauld Centurions), Holly Diver (Western Titans), Brodie Geddes (Cumbernauld Centurions), Ruby Warren (Western Titans) and David Fairlie (Cumbernauld Centurions).
Full Results can be found here.
Round 2 takes place on Sunday 30th March in Cumbernauld – enter here.
UCI Series events
Lauren Bell, off the back of her excellent trident of golds at the British Track Championships, was back in action at the UCI Nations Cup. The Highlander was part of the Great Britain squad that claimed silver in the Team Sprint at the first event at the new Konya Velodrome in Turkey.
Innes McDonald (Scotia Offroad RT) rode to an excellent fifth place in the UCI MTB XC Junior series event in Marseille. The Scot has made an excellent start to the season scoring podiums in the first three rounds, after his exploits in Spain in the last few weeks. Not too bad for a rider who broke his leg in November. Freya Mowbray (Scotia Offroad RT) was also in action in France in the women’s event, coming home in a strong 24th place.
Credit: Red Bull-Bora
Scots on the road
Callum Thornley (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe Rookies) and Mark Stewart (Solution Tech-Vini Fantini) were in action at the Istria Spring Tour (UCI 2.2) in Croatia.
Thornley continued his great start to the season with three stage top tens, including second on Sunday’s final stage – to come home third on the overall general classification – a first-ever UCI stage race podium for the team. Mark Stewart’s strong riding saw the former Black Spoke rider come home in 12th overall in the Adriatic race.
Over in France, Sean Flynn (Picnic-Post NL) survived the snow, wind, hail and downpours to finish Paris-Nice, and probably deserves some form of accolade for doing so in one of the strangest editions of the race in years.
Erin Boothman (Great Britain) was in action at the Trofeo Binda Juniors. The Glaswegian has enjoyed a great start to the season with medal success on the track at the British Championships, and Apeldoorn Next Gen meet adding to a fantastic road win in Spain in February. That form continued to prosper in Italy with a fifth place finish, with fellow Scot Arabella Blackburn finishing in the field in 27th place.
In the Belgium kermesse scene, Lauren Dickson (Handsling-Alba) made her debut at the 82km National A race – the GP Dermaut in Ooike coming home 12th in a field packed with UCI level riders.
While in Eeklo, Kayla Dinnen (Solas Cycling) came home seventh at the junior event there, in her first race since breaking her collarbone.