MTB Worlds
It was a week of mixed fortunes in Switzerland at the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships for the Scots.
Isla Short has had arguably her best season to date, despite a shortened race calendar as a privateer. The Innerleithen rider continued her strong showings this season at the Worlds in Valais.
A strong short track showing saw Short finish in a very creditable 15th place on Tuesday. Saturday’s Olympic event would see Short go one better; starting back in 26th place, the Scot would rise up to 14th after a very creditable performance.
Charlie Aldridge was ruled out of the short track in midweek due to an illness, but was able to take to the start of the Cross Country Olympic on the front row.
Aldridge went out fast, sticking in the top 10 throughout most of the first tour before crossing the line at the end of lap one in 12th. By the end of the second lap, as eventual winner Hatherly and others pushed the pace in smaller groups, Aldridge rode just off the back, sitting in 19th place. With a technical course that really tested the skill and tactics of the riders, Aldridge did well to stay on and keep moving over the nine laps.
The back end of the race, would see Aldridge flip-flop positions with Martin Kossmann and Maximillian Foidl, placing in between the two in 21st place overall after a challenging championships.
It’s been an excellent season for the Crieff rider – claiming his first World Cup win in Les Gets recently – and he’ll look for that bouncebackability in Lenzerheide this weekend.
Corran Carrick-Anderson battled through the field, from his 72nd place on the grid, to finish 41st in Valais in Saturday’s Under-23 Cross Country Olympic event.
BMX Champs
Sunday afternoon played host to the Scottish National BMX Championships at Knightswood BMX Centre in the North West of Glasgow, with 16 national titles up for grabs.
Read about the best of the racing in our report here.
British Para Champs
The British Para-Cycling Road Championships took place over the weekend with the Scots fighting for British success. There was double delight again for Fin Graham in the Men’s C3 – taking both time trial and road race victories to add to his already fantastic palmares this season.
Jenny Holl and stoker Sophie Unwin also tasted success with victory in the Women’s Tandem, while Calum Deboys claimed silver in the Men’s C2 Time Trial to round off an excellent weekend for the Scottish riders.
Hope CX
As you can probably tell from the recent dreich weather, the Cyclocross season has officially started. The Hope Supercross in Yorkshire kicked off the winter (yay!) action with a brace of races this past weekend.
The Team HUP duo of Ishbel Strathdee and Sam Chisholm were the two top Scots in action.
Scottish Road Race Champion Chisholm traded his Saltire skinsuit for it’s winter counterpart and scored 11th place in Sunday’s Class 1 event, to back up his 17th place in the Class 2 event 24 hours prior. It would be a similar story for Strathdee with a 17th place on Saturday being bettered by 13th in Sunday’s round two.
The opening round of the Scottish Cyclocross Series takes place this weekend in Brechin.
British Gravel Champs
The British Gravel Championships went ahead on Sunday in Dalby Forest with plenty of Scots heading down. Scottish champion Caroline Livesey was the best in the women’s elite in eighth while Cameron Mason came home best of the elites in the open to take 13th place.
Image: Chris Smith
Falling Leaves
It was great to see the return of the Falling Leaves Stage Race in Aberdeenshire, with Sam Carrotte (Edinburgh Bike Fitting) taking the win from Milo McIntosh (Kalas 2000) in second and James Sweeney (Beeston CC RT) in third.
Road Abroad
Lauren Dickson (Handsling-Alba) impressed again at the Tour Feminin l’Ardeche (2.1) with a fifth and a sixth place on the final two stages in France. The Edinburgh rider also came home third on the Queen of the Mountains competition, in a field stacked with top WorldTour teams such as FDJ-Suez, SD Worx and Visma-Lease A Bike.
There’s no Canada like French Canada, and Oscar Onley (Team Picnic-PostNL) was racing in Quebec at the brace of one-day classics. Sunday evening’s GP Montreal saw the Kelso rider in decent form on the course that will host next year’s World Championships – with the Scot coming home in 19th at the end of a block of racing that included the Lloyds Tour of Britain.