Tour of Britain
Scotland hosted aUCI Women’s WorldTour race for the very first time with the final two stages of the Lloyds Tour of Britain visiting Glasgow and the Scottish Borders.
After two hectic stages in the North East of England, Saturday’s 143km route around the Scottish Borders, starting and ending in the market town of Kelso was set to be the queen stage of the race.
The Borders crowds turned out in force despite the grim conditions on Saturday, and they were not to be disappointed with the racing. For the third successive day on the race, there would be a victory for the break, with a small group contesting the win. It would be former Youth Tour of Scotland winner Cat Ferguson (Movistar) who would take the win on the wet cobbles in Kelso – which would give the Skipton rider the race lead.
Lauren Dickson (Handsling-Alba) would come home inside the top 20, to move up to 17th in the general classification – an excellent achievement after a late puncture on the opening stage lost the Edinburgh rider nearly a minute in Redcar. A special mention too, to Amy Gornall who battled the weather to ride 110km solo, to make it inside the time limit.
Sunday morning’s final stage saw the streets of Glasgow once again host the world’s best riders.
It would be European Champion Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) that would take the stage win in the sprint – but the real drama would happen behind. Cat Ferguson went into the day three seconds ahead of New Zealand’s Ally Wollaston (FDJ Suez) – but bonus seconds won in the intermediate sprints would leave the two level pegging into the final.
Wollaston’s third place on the stage would be enough to claim an additional four precious bonus seconds and take the race win, from the extremely impressive Ferguson in second overall. Morven Yeoman (DAS-Hutchinson) would come home top Scot in 27th on the stage, while Dickson would secure an impressive 17th overall in her maiden WorldTour event.
UCI Mountain Bike World Series
Leogang in Austria was the venue for the latest round of the UCI MTB World Series, with the Scots in action in all four disciplines across the weekend.
Enduro & Downhill
Highlander Ella Conolly would claim her second World Cup win of the season after a brilliant display in the heavy rain in the Austrian Alps. It all seemed to be plain sailing for Conolly when she opened up a 38-second gap on Kuchyňková in the opening three stages,
However, an uncharacteristic off-stage on the arguably less challenging fourth stage brought the rest of the field right back into contention, as Conolly fell and lost 20 seconds to her closest rivals.
That advantage was whittled down still further when nearest rival Kuchyňková claimed her second successive stage on a Knappen Trail that made sticking to the right line almost impossible. So Conolly entered the final stage with an advantage of 16 seconds knowing she likely couldn’t be overhauled with a clean run, but any mistakes could hand the round to the Slovakian.
But the Scot produced a champion’s response by refusing to lessen her commitment and claiming the stage and the round – to extend her lead in the World Cup standings.
In the men’s William Brodie claimed an excellent stage victory on his way to finish fifth overall. While, in the downhill, Lou Ferguson (Axess Intense FR) rode to a top 10 finish.
Cross Country
Isla Short recorded her best ever World Cup finish in Leogang, with the Borders-native producing an excellent performance in Austria to come home in seventh place, making the most of the muddy conditions that the rain in Saaldfelden produced. This came after another extremely good performance in the Short Track from Short, who after only getting a start last minute, would ride from the back of the field up to 14th, a career best short track performance. Conditions for the short track on Friday night were extremely fast and dusty, a complete contrast to what Sunday would serve up. Whilst the extremely hilly XCO course wasn’t to Charlie Aldridge’s (Cannondale Factory Racing) liking, he scored yet another podium in the Men’s Elite short track, coming home third, after attacking for the win up the final climb.
Back home in the UK, Tong played host to round four of the British Cross Country Series, Innes McDonald (SORT) continuing where he left off at Glentress with a commanding win in the Junior Open, following a fourth place finish against the Elites in the short track the previous day. There were also wins for Olivia Poole (Specialized Youth Development) and Gus Lawson (Pedal Power) in the Youth races, whilst
Freya Mowbray (SORT) would take a fine third in the Junior Female race, teammate Daisy Wilkinson in fifth. Guy Rorke (Pentland Racers) would also bag a podium in the Juvenile Open.
It came after another extremely good performance in the Short Track from Short to finish in 14th, while Charlie Aldridge scored yet another podium in the Men’s Elite.
Road
Edinburgh RC hosted the opening round of the Scotia Road Race Series -the Pippa Handley Road Race on Sunday.
It was newly-crowned Scottish Champion Lulu Bartlett (Team Boompods), who rode away from the field to take the victory, resplendent in her national champions bands. Rebecca Saunderson (Studio Velo) came home in second place with Charlotte Beaton (Edinburgh RC) taking third.
Saturday saw the latest round of the Scottish Youth Circuit Series at Kames Motor Racing circuit.
Fraser Gemmell (West Lothian Clarion) continued his good form, taking the Youth A victory from Xander Graham (Grit Cartel) in second and Reuben McLardie (Johnstone Wheelers) in third. In the female race, there would be success for Zara Main (Deeside Thistle) – winning out from Izzy Barbour (Edinburgh RC), with Kasey Park (Edinburgh RC) in third. Eilidh Scally (Johnstone Wheelers) and Gregor McNaught (Glasgow Riderz) won out in the Youth B races.
Well done to Louise McParland and all the team for organising the racing, on a soaking day in Ayrshire.
Abroad there was an excellent podium ride from Eilidh Shaw (UAE Team ADQ) at the Antwerp Port Epic, as the Scot came home third at the sprinters classic in Belgium. Elliot Rowe rode excellently to come home sixth place overall at the UCI Nations Cup in Jeseníky in Czechia.
BMX
The latest round of the Scottish Regional BMX Series took place at Knightswood BMX centre in Glasgow on Saturday.
Western Titans produced an excellent round up of the racing here.
Gravel
Last week saw the first of three Gravel Crits at Whitlee Windfarm, this summer, which is perfect preparation for the Scottish Champs at the same venue in August – enter here.
There was an excellent ride from Lusia Steele (Johnstone Wheelers) to claim victory in the female race, which must be the biggest race win of her career. Tomas Bruno (VC Glasgow South) claimed the victory in the evening’s A Race.