Cycling
Gritty effort by town riders in Shrewsbury

Buy photos » Sulli Berry catches a Halesowen rider up and passes a Lichfield rider on the steep incline on the last lap to finish a further four places ahead. (s)

THE SECOND round of the Waldrons West Midlands Cyclo-Cross League was held on a very cold and eventually rainy day in Shrewsbury on Sunday.

The event was hosted by Mid-Shropshire Wheelers and the first race, as always, was the U10s race. First over the finish line for Redditch was Sulli Berry who achieved his best result ever on a very technical course with 12th place.

Patrick Crump was next over the line in 37th after being held up by an early crash in the busy field and Ryan Oldfield was 42nd but the second U6 boy home.

Aleksandra Franks was also held up by the crash and she and Phoebe Shaw both worked very hard to score good league points in a tough race.

After a false start the U12s race was hotly contested with quite a few spills. James Ralph held off a late surge from Sam Wainwright as they finished 19th and 21st respectively, whilst Scott Matthews picked his way through the field with some good technical riding to finish a creditable 28th.

In the U16 category Abel McLinden was first Redditch rider home on a fast course in 20th, with Chris Knight improving on the previous week's result by eight places to come 30th.

Gareth Richardson was 22nd in the U14 category and Fraser Salkeld battled hard to finish a creditable 31st in his first year in this age group.

Joe Greehan had the biggest smile of the day after finishing his second ever race and riding for 50 minutes, with his coaches commenting on the big improvement he had made from the previous week.

Olivia Salkeld rode her first race of the season after marshalling last week and sped to a great result to be second placed U16 girl home.

Having to race for almost 50 minutes made this a hard race for all those who travelled to take part.

The seniors and veterans race was again a fast affair with the winner Dan Booth finishing over three minutes ahead of his closest rival.

Terry Richardson continued his rich vein of form for Redditch in the veterans section as he beat a competitive Paul Salkeld by one place.

Mike Matthews had a good first race of the season and along with Tony Crossland and John Potts they all scored well in the league.

Hats of to the veterans who had to race for 70-plus minutes in the cold and wet in what is meant to be a 50-minute race.

The final results represent another strong showing from Redditch Road & Path Cycling Club whose members competed strongly in all age groups against clubs with far superior resources, which shows the strength of the club's riders, coaches and volunteers.

For more information visit www.rrpcc.co.uk. Family membership is only £12 per year so come along and get involved in this most successful of sports.

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