A LARGE crowd watched as Stratford Cycling Club juniors excelled at the West Midlands Youth Closed Circuit series which was held on closed roads in Birmingham city centre as part of the British Cycling Let’s Ride event.
Many of the crowds from Sunday’s public event stayed to watch the juniors racing on the roads in what was a thrilling set of hotly-contested races.
The course, which contained a fast downhill leading into a sharp right-hand bend, a steep uphill section and a 180 degree hairpin which had the added interest of a kerb on the outer edge, produced very different racing conditions to what the Stratford CC boys were used to.
The club was represented in the U10 boys’ event by Charlie Shalders who rode a brilliant race around the shorter – but still hilly – course to finish a fantastic sixth.
In the U12s event Stratford had Sam Abbott and Sam Greenwell in action and the latter made a storming start and narrowly missed being in the lead group.
Throughout the race he was hotly pursued by Abbott who rode valiantly to close the gap and Greenwell finished a superb sixth and Abbott 11th.
In the U14s event numerous boys represented Stratford in a fierce race which broke up before the first bend.
Oscar Martin and Matthew Jordan from Stratford CC and Spencer Corder (from Rotor) made the cut and rode in an elite second group, mainly led by Jordan who tried to break up the group by driving a constant fast pace.
Lewis Tinsley (Rotor), Luke Brennan and Alex Burden battled to try to catch them but they proved too strong on the day.
In the final sprint Corder came home fourth, Martin fifth and Jordan eighth, whilst unfortunately Tinsley retired with injury during the race. Brennan finished 13th and Burden 15th.
