Milton in Canada was the venue for the latest round of the UCI Tissot Track Nations Cup with Scots Katie Archibald, Neah Evans, Jack Carlin and Mark Stewart all keen to make an impact as we near the 100 days to go mark until the Paris Olympics.
Friday evening saw Archibald lead the Great Britain Team Pursuit squad to a marvellous gold medal with a time of 4:10.193, beating Italy in the final. The British quartet narrowly bested the French in the First Round, which saw both teams deliver the quickest two rides of the round, eliminating the French from the Gold Medal final.
Mark Stewart returned from escapades on the road to the boards with his focus on the endurance events. The Dundonian managed an excellent third place in Friday’s elimination race, before following it up on Sunday with seventh in the madison, alongside Ollie Wood.
Jack Carlin was also in the medals, starting with an excellent silver in the Team Sprint on Friday, only narrowly missing out to the indominable Dutch outfit that has dominated the event in recent years.
The Paisley native followed up the team success with individual success on the Saturday in the Keirin. After narrowly making the gold medal final, the Scot produced an excellent ride to the bronze, in a tightly contested battle with the Dutch. Carlin started the final lap boxed in fifth place but stuck to his line on the inside to come through to the medal positions on the home straight.
The piece de resistance on Saturday evening was Katie Archibald and Neah Evans performance in the women’s Madison.
A dominant start from the Scots saw them claim three of the first five sprints in the 120 lap race, forcing the teams from the USA, France and Italy to try to force their way clear and look for lap gains. However, smart riding from the reigning World (Evans) and Olympic (Archibald) champion in this discipline saw them lead heading into the final stage of the race, with a slender advantage over France.
Winning the tenth sprint with 20 laps to go ascended their lead to seven points over the French duo, with another point added to the lead with ten to go. Claiming a spot in the top three over the line would win them the gold, but Archibald and Evans did not rest on their laurels, looking to finish with a flourish.
Neah Evans flying past the Belgian team in the final lap to storm home first to an excellent gold medal.
Not content with the two golds from the weekend, Archibald looked to Sunday’s omnium to look to make it three from three for the week.
It was clear that the Scot was back to her very best with victories in the first three events – the scratch, tempo and elimination races. This gave Archibald the equivalent of a one lap lead heading into the final points race.
Archibald rode conservatively, after claiming points at the second sprint, the Scot marked the moves and was able to cruise home to a marvellous third gold medal in as many days.
Mountain Bike World Series
The UCI World Mountain Bike World Series kicked off in Brazil this weekend, with Charlie Aldridge (Cannondale FR) and Isla Short (Ghost FR) in action in Sao Paulo.
After a bright start which saw Aldridge in the lead group, the sweltering heat of the equator took its toll on the Perthshire rider, with the Scot coming home in 45th place, however, there was plenty of encouragement to take from his performance in Mairipora.
After a strong 24th place finish in the Short Track event on Saturday, Isla Short rode to a strong 31st place in Sunday’s Olympic event, progressing through the field throughout to head for the next round full of confidence.
Both Scots will stay in Brazil for Round Two in Minas Gerais next weekend.
National Downhill Series
Rheola was the venue for the first round of the National Downhill Series, with a plethora of Scots making the trip down to Wales for a tumultuous weekend.
Saturday’s wet weather passed and Sunday saw the sun come out, dramatically changing the conditions from wet, slippy roots to claggy mud which caught several riders out. Due to time delays from red flags due to the harsh conditions, the seeding runs counted as the final results.
In the women’s elite, it was Phoebe Gale (Canyon Collective FMD) who stormed to the win in 3:44.497, taking the victory by over 30 seconds as the only female rider to dip under four minutes, with fellow Scot Beth McCully in fifth.
In the stacked men’s field, former world champion Reece Wilson (Trek Factory Racing Gravity), rounded off the podium in fifth place as he continues his comeback from injury.
You can read British Cycling’s report from Wales here.
East Cleveland Classic
The second round of the female National Road Series, and the first of the open series took place in the North East of England, with the East Cleveland Classic.
The Classic is a recent hit on the British calendar with the route consisting of undulating roads, featuring multiple ascents of Saltburn Bank, with the summit of its 15% slopes coming only 300m from the finish line.
In the female race, a group of around 25 raced to the line, with Eilidh Shaw (Alba Development RT) being the only rider able to stick to the wheel of Movistar-bound Cat Ferguson on the final ascent of Saltburn Bank. The Scottish Champion came home in second adding to her runner-up finish at CiCLE Classic in March. There was too, another excellent ride from Morven Yeoman (DAS-Hutchinson-Brother UK), to finish eighth.
The result sees Shaw take the lead in the National Road Series and it keeps Alba Development RT top of the Teams Classification.
The open race saw some frantic racing with many moves looking to get clear, eventually it was the team of Saint Piran that would dominate with a Rowan Baker taking a solo win for them.
However, once again Tim Shoreman (Wheelbase CabTech Castelli) showed the power he has by powering up the final ascent of Saltburn Bank to find himself in a three-up sprint for second. The fast-finishing Scot was able to go clear of his rivals in the kick to the line, to come home in a excellent second.
You can see full results from Cleveland here.
Youth and Junior
Elliot Rowe (Fensham Howes – MAS Design) claimed a superb second place at the Cadence Junior RR in Wales, which formed part of the National Junior RR series, with Ahron Dick (Huub BCC RT) claiming ninth spot and Joe Cosgrove (Fensham Howes) in 14th place.
Most of the Scottish young riders were taking a well-deserved week off from racing after the Youth Tour of Scotland and were in Linlithgow for a RACE National session where they were joined by Cameron Mason (Alpecin-deceuninck Dev) as they were put through their paces by the Scottish Cycling coaches Lusia Steele and Evan Oliphant. Many thanks to our fantastic team of volunteer coaches for supporting the session at the West Lothian circuit.
A number did travel down to the British Youth Series round – the Hog Hill GP in London – with Andrew Levinson (Edinburgh RC) finishing third in the Youth B event.
Scottish Student Crit Champs
It was Angus Toms (University of Edinburgh) and Anna Flynn (Edinburgh Napier) that claimed the respective student titles at the Scottish Student Sport circuit championships at West Lothian Cycle Circuit.