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It was the 5th round of this year’s North West cyclo-cross league on Saturday at Stadt Moers country park, near Whiston, and the normally muddy course lived up to expectations. Several Rossendale cyclists were sidelined by illness and injury, but there was plenty to cheer about for those that did attend.
In the junior races, brothers Joey and Riley Holt continued to make progress and Helmshore’s Elsie Haygarth scored her first podium of the season, taking 3rd place in the U16 girls, just one place ahead of Iona Simcock of Ramsbottom.
Jacqui Simcock was 2nd V50 Lady and 19th overall, whilst husband Phil had a tremendous ride to take 1st place in the V50 men’s event. Simcock, riding for the Ramsbottom club JMC, had a race long battle with Andrew Brindle of Horwich CC, with the lead changing continuously, and it was only on the last lap that Simcock opened up a gap to win by 25 seconds. In the same race, Rossendale RC’s Mick Taylor finished 32nd, Carl Nelson 36th, Richie Watts 41st and Paul Warrener 48th.
The V60 event followed and it was Rossendale Harrier’s Phil Warner who took the honours, finishing 12th overall and 1st V70. Graham Wright managed to avoid punctures to finish 18th, but he couldn’t avoid being beaten by over 2 minutes by Adrian Watts in 17th.
The Men’s V40 race produced another local win with Ramsbottom’s Lewis Craven riding for Wheelbase Castelli taking the honours. Ashley Holt is beginning to make his mark in the sport and took 25th place in this highly competitive class.
The final event of the day was the Men’s Elite senior class, and the heavy downpours and previous races were making the course heavy going. It was national champion Giles Drake who took the win by over 2 minutes from Rob Jebb. Matt Toman slipped from his previous top 20 placings to 25th, but Rossendale’s Craig Venske finished 34th in his first league outing, with U23 Max Hereward of Crawshawbooth battling through to 41st.
In warmer climes the 70.3 (Half Ironman) World championships were taking place in St.George, Utah, and Rossendale had a representative in James Eastwood, a member of both Rossendale RC and Rossendale Harriers.
James has been training hard all summer and this paid off at the European championships in Elsinore, Denmark, where he qualified for the World’s. The World event consisted of a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike and 13.1 mile run. A bad cold leading up to Utah resulted in some disappointment with his finishing time of 4:50:15 but he still finished in 1076 place from the 4341 starters. The 2023 event will be in Lahti, Finland and James will be back in training early in the New Year to make his mark again.
Photos:
Ashley Holt battling through the mud at Stadt Moers
James Eastwood crossing the line
And receiving his finisher’s medal
