THRILLS AND SPILLS FOR ELY MTB RACERS
Ely & District Cycling Club - B&T Motor Repairs riders Mathew Eley and Mikie Burrell were both racing in the HSBC UK National MTB series at the weekend, in the second round of the series which was held at the Hadleigh Farm course built for the 2012 Olympics, and both riders had their fair share of excitement during their races.
Eley was racing in the Expert category again, and having finished 18th in the first round in Nottinghamshire Eley was looking for another good result. However, he was held up during the first lap by other riders crashing in front of him, and then had a crash of his own on a technical rocky uphill section. Despite being tempted to abandon the race due to cramp and lower back pain, Eley continued to the finish and ended up in 22nd place. Mikie Burrell was racing in the Sport category, and also had an eventful race, crashing on the second lap when his front wheel lost traction and slid wide. Despite going over the handlebars and injuring his shoulder and knee, Burrell also climbed back on board to finish the race in 27th place.
The Ely & District Cycling Club - B&T Motor Repairs road racers were also in action, with Darran Bennett and Rob Golding racing in the VTTA time trial held on the E33/25 near Newmarket. Bennett was the fastest rider in his age category, finishing the 2-lap 25 mile course in a time of 57 minutes 32 seconds, with Rob Golding two places behind in the same age category finishing just outside the hour mark with a time of 1:00:07.
