Kieran Jarvis won the Senior men’s race at the Stow Scramble at Haughley Park after Eastern League rival James Madgwick fell while in the lead and – in a carbon-copy of their collision last week - Jarvis ran into him, writes Fergus Muir.
This time Jarvis recovered before the next competitor caught them and held on to his lead to the finish. Madgwick took a bit longer to get his bike into some sort of order and had to settle for an eventual fourth. Fortunately the pair were laughing about the incident after the finish.
The races were held at an entirely new venue for cyclo-cross, widely praised and found by the Stowmarket & District club on the Haughley Park estate near Woolpit.
Some of the course was in open woodland on the fringe of the old park while the larger part made use of hills and holes on land restored following the making of the A14 cutting nearby.
Elspeth Grace won the Women’s race, recovered from her usual slow start to join newly crowned Junior champion Lauren Higham in making the pace. Eventually Grace, perhaps rather more confident in claiming her leader’s right of way when passing tail-enders, drew ahead to take the Senior win while Higham was second overall and Junior winner.
Alison Hogg (Push Sport) was third. Next came V40 winner Jo Newstead and then Gemma Melton (Pedal Power Ipswich) who is now assured of the Women’s League Championship.
Colchester rider Ellie-May Pledger was second Junior, while Molly Cutmore (Hadleigh CC) took the third step on the Junior podium with a ride which equalled her season’s best points score.
Returning to the Senior/Junior Men’s race, behind the crash-prone leading pair came Pedal Power Ipswich’ Liam Manser, riding a bike lent him by his work boss Steve James who was League Champion last year. Manser actually led for the first half lap. Probably he thought the lead was the safest place for the boss’s bike during the hectic shoulder-to-shoulder racing of the first minute.
Anyway Manser soon settled into racing a few places back with Junior Angus Toms (Iceni Velo). Toms then sprung a surprise by making his last lap his fastest of all – when others were sagging - and taking second overall as well as the Junior prize.
Jimmy Piper (Renvale) scored his ninth straight win in the Vets 50-plus, but still needs one more good result to complete ten League rides and to replace incumbent League Leader Richard Muchmore
Likewise Matt Webber (Forest Side) who won the V40-49 by a big margin also needs one more ride to dislodge teammate Ben Lewis from the top of theV40-49 League.
Lewis, partly through riding many races, now actually leads the National V40 age-group rankings. At Haughley he was second after dropping Stuart Price (Strada Sport) with whom he had spent most of the race.
Martha Lebentz (Hadleigh CC) and Mia Rutterford (Iceni Velo) were U16 and U14 Youth winners. Top local Youth Boy was Josh Boyer (Ipswich BC, third U16), while Bury rider Oliver Griggs (10th) put in his best result of the season.
There was a proper interesting course to be enjoyed by the various Under 12 classes. A win for George Collins (Colchester Rovers) in the U10s means that he is certain U10 League Winner.
For full results see www.easterncross.org.uk
Several local riders travelled to Shrewsbury for the final National Trophy round. Eleventh place in the V50 race put Richard Muchmore (Renvale RT) into 13th place overall in the Series while other good results include 19th at Shrewsbury from Bury triathlete Mike Bowen and 20th in U16 from Joseph Smith (Iceni Velo)
The East District Cycling Association Prize Presentation will be on Sunday 27th January at Carbrooke Village Hall near Watton, IP25 6SW.
A 50 km Reliability Trial will start at 10am. Beans on Toast and drinks will be available from 12 noon while the actual presentations will begin at 1pm.
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