UCI World Cup
The last European leg of the Whoop UCI Mountain Bike World Series was in Lenzerheide this past weekend, with Charlie Aldridge and Isla Short in action in the weekend’s Cross Country Olympic events.
After former-teammate Alan Hatherly rode into an early lead, Charlie Aldridge (Cannondale Factory Racing) led the chasing pack, closely followed by Dane Simon Andreassen. A cagey race unfolded for the remaining podium positions, as Hatherly pulled out his advantage to 54 seconds on the penultimate lap.
Taking the bell, Hatherly had extended his lead to a minute over a four-rider chasing group who battled out the remaining podium positions. Aldridge pushed the pace in pursuit of a second-place finish, while Andreassen suffered a puncture to end his hopes.
There was one last twist as Hatherly had mechanical trouble with his chain and had to dismount on two occasions. However, the South African was able to nurse his bike home to take victory, with celebrating Aldridge second 32 seconds behind to take his best ever World Cup XCO result.
The Swiss result combined with Les Gets short track success is representative of the high watermark of the Crieff rider’s young career. Isla Short continued her impressive season in the elite women’s field with a 13th place finish, building the consistency from last weekend in Valais.
UCI Road Worlds
Kigali is the host for the 2025 UCI Road World Championships, and while we saw Remco Evenepoel catch and pass Pogacar yesterday, Scottish interest kicked off this afternoon with Peebles’ Callum Thornley in action in the highly competitive under-23 men’s time-trial.
Thornley started well, looking comfortable in a strong aero position, head tucked under to get every ounce of power and speed out of his efforts. With other competitors putting in some impressive rides around him, keeping his cool in the searing heat and passed the first checkpoint in third place, ten seconds down on Australia’s Nate Pringle, with eight riders to go.
By the second check, the gap had widened a little to 25 seconds and he sat in third before being overtaken by Pole Mateusz Gajdulewicz and dropping down to fourth. This put the pressure on in the final 13km to push hard and regain some ground if Thornley was going to get onto the podium.
Thornley responded as needed and pushed hard heading into the final climb, managing to put himself in a strong position crossing the line absolutely spent in 39:36.34, overtaking Canada’s Walton Jones to be in second position while the final riders came through.
After a fantastic effort, it wasn’t quite enough for the podium as the French and Swedish riders came across the line in medal positions, seeing Thornley finish fifth overall, within only a few seconds of the podium.
Scottish interest continues tomorrow morning with Erin Boothman chasing rainbow in the junior women’s time trial – she rolls down the start ramp, followed by the drums, just after 11 tomorrow morning.
Cyclocross Series
Cameron Mason (Seven Racing) dominated the field to take the win (and the prize daffodils), lapping the entire field in the process in the senior open event at the opening round of the HUPcc Scottish Cyclocross Series in Brechin. Solas Cycling’s Harriet Hendry would take senior female win after an excellent ride in at the equine centre in the Angus town.
You can read the full report from Angus here.
Track Inter-Regionals
From daffodils as prizes to daffodils as winners now as Glasgow played host to the British Track Inter-regional Championships, with the best young riders from the nations, regions and provinces of Great Britain and Ireland going head-to-head over two days of exciting track action at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome.
The team representing Wales would take the overall victory, with a great performance from the Scottish squad to finish in third overall of the 14 teams.
Discovery Juniors’ Eve Fairbairn impressed winning the elimination and points races, in addition to an excellent second in the tempo race, while teammate Millie Boothman (Glasgow Riderz) was just behind her teammate in the elimination race to take second place – making it a tartan one-two. Zara Main (Deeside Thistle) also claimed victory in the sprint.
Micah Myles claimed third in the keirin on day two to add to Scotland’s top three showings in the team pursuit and madison.
A huge thanks to the team at Johnstone Jets and all the volunteers for supporting the event.
BMX Open
Saturday saw the Scottish BMX Open at Broadwood with 104 riders heading to North Lanarkshire, competing for Scottish Open success.
Scottish Champions Eilidh Watson, Lewis Collins-Nimmo and Ruby Warren were among those that made two wins in as many weeks, while Ben Fitzsimmons and Holly Hume went one better – taking Scottish Open victories after silver medals last weekend.
Check out the Full Results here
Drummond Trophy
The Scottish road race season is officially at an end as John Archibald and Arianne Holland scored victories at the Drummond Trophy on Sunday in Strathaven.
It’s incredible to think that Archibald, now riding for HUUB-Wattshop, had failed to win the Drummond; after being arguably Scotland’s strongest road rider over the past decade. After a number of close calls, Archibald powered away from the key move in the final lap to take victory in the final Alba series event of the season, and put that hoodoo to bed. Ben Etherington would finish in second. Alba Series leader, Matti Dobbins (Edinburgh Bike Fitting RT) finished third — a result that not only secured his place on the podium but also clinched the overall series victory.
The Scotia Series event at the Drummond went to Arianne Holland (Handsling Alba Development RT), ahead of Daisy Taylor (Royal Albert CC) and Scottish road champion and series leader Lulu Bartlett (Team Boompods). Bartlett’s third place was more than enough to secure the Scotia Road Series crown.
GrALBA
Ballater hosted the final round of the GrALBA Series on Sunday with the Thrive Gravel. Full Results to follow.