O'Connor overcomes the conditions to take points

Phil O'Connor rode to a promising 12th place in the Fleche Walthone Road Race.
Phil O'Connor came 12th for Shutt Ridley RTPhil O'Connor came 12th for Shutt Ridley RT
Phil O'Connor came 12th for Shutt Ridley RT

The Shutt Ridley Race Team rider headed to Husbands Bosworth in Leicestershire for the first of a series of national age group events.

The Fleche Waltone is always hotly contested and conditions made racing very difficult. Eventual winner Chris Quinn attacked from the gun and was never seen again.

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O’Connor stayed safe in the pack, covering the dangerous moves. The finish was brutal as a sprinting pack charged up a narrow 13 per cent climb but O’Connor held firm for a solid 12th place overall and seventh in his age group.

Justin Belcher and Leon O’Rourke took on the Lovelo Cinelli Road Races.

The conditions held the group mostly together with O’Rourke and Belcher comfortably holding in the main group. A few moves went and came back and all the riders struggled to cope with some awful road surfaces.

A total of 44 riders out of 80 did not finish as punctures, potholes and crashes took their toll. In the end it was all both Shutt Ridley RT riders could do to hold station in the finale and come away with top 20 positions.

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Tim Hiscocks, Martyn Morris, David Beesley and Jered Allcock headed to Birmingham for the Behind Bars circuit race.

The conditions there were slightly better as the rain held off and the surface was reasonable, all the riders felt the benefit and the result was a super fast paced race in both the 3rd/4th category race and Allcock’s Elite/1st/2nd cat race.

Only Hiscocks and Allcock managed to hold on and get involved in their respective races. Hiscocks had to shut down small gaps in the last few laps and burnt all his matches to roll in with the top 20.

Allcock put in an impressive sprint and took a single point for Shutt Ridley RT with 15th.

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Mark Boyles and Simon Kisley won the second of Banbury Star CC’s Wednesday evening time trials, the popular annual 2 Up TT which consisted of only eight teams because of the conditions.

Experienced Star riders Boyles and Kisley posted a time of 30.18 for the 20km event, 44 seconds ahead of young duo Lydia Watts and Cameron Foster in 31.02. Reuben Trotter and Gregor Kelling were third in 31.44 while Team Cherwell’s Kim Shaw and Heidi Yates finished sixth.

Ten riders elected to ride solo with Jonathan Ward setting the only sub-30 minute time with 29.52.