National Track Series
Ellie Stone (Glasgow Track RC) was the big winner at the latest round of the National Track Series in Newport.
The Highland sprinter won both the sprint and keirin events in Wales, to take the overall series lead. Potentially, more importantly, Stone took another large step towards Glasgow 2026 eligibility, with her flying 200m time in qualifying meeting the Team Scotland criteria.
Sarah Johnson (Edinburgh RC) rode to third in both the keirin and the sprint events in the Geraint Thomas National Velodrome. While Charlotte Wardrop also taking the victory in the B field.
The riders are showing great form before the next big track event the Scottish National Championships on the 5-7 December.
Sticking with track action, the Young Team were in action at the NextGen meet in Stavanger against top riders from the Nordic countries, with some robust racing from across the junior fields.
Eve Fairbairn showed some excellent racing with victory in the scratch race, as well as a second place in the tempo race on Saturday, and two more second place finishes in Sunday’s points and scratch races.
There would be a Scottish 1-2 in the men’s individual pursuit, with Colin Johnston’s 3:24.359 over 3km claiming the win over Brodie Duncan in second. Johnston would add to his podium haul with a brace of thirds in Saturday’s tempo race and Sunday’s scratch in Stavanger.
Not be left out Zach Barbour claimed second in Sunday’s 20km points race, after claiming third in the previous day’s identical event. Fraser Gemmill claimed second place in the Kilo too, with a strong 1:07.936, just ahead of the aforementioned Duncan in third.
Cyclocross
Cameron Mason (Seven Racing) produced two absolutely fantastic performances across the weekend at the Superprestige Merksplas and the X2O Badkamers Trofee in Hamme.
Saturday’s racing through the strawberry fields of Merksplas saw the Linlithgow rider lead and pile the pressure on throughout the midpart of the race, forcing the key selection of six riders at the front.
Attacks late on would see the Scot drop to fifth place – but another excellent performance on a parcours which featured a lot of sand.
Sunday would however, see the Scots’ finest ride of the season. The mud in Hamme was a course that perfectly suited the Scot, and he would lead out front throughout the early stages with Belgian champion Thibaut Nys in tow.
After a change in bike setup, the Belgian would take the lead towards the final lap, with it being clear that a two-up battle that would decide if Mason could take his first win on Belgian soil. Nys would attack several times, but was unable to create a major gap to Mason of more than a few bike lengths.
The Belgian would come out the final corner in the lead, and would just manage to hold on to take the win; with Mason coming home just behind him to take another fantastic podium.
Mason would take solace in cutting the gap to X2O leader Nieuwenhuis to just 24 seconds – and has won even more popularity in Belgium for his bilingual skills.
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With the muddier stuff closer to home, a number of Scots headed down to deal with the wake of Storm Claudia, and no we don’t mean the ending to Celebrity Traitors, as riders made their way to the Midlands for a very muddy round four of the Lloyds Cyclo-cross National Trophy series.
Eilidh Scally (Johnstone Jets) was not to be deterred by the course, as she would take the Under 14 victory in West Bromwich. The young Scot won by nearly 30 seconds on Saturday afternoon. That was her third win of the series so far. In the open event, Sam Kingan (Pentland Racers) would claim sixth place.
Xander Graham (Grit Cartel) rode to an strong fourth place in the juniors, showing his progression again this season.