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Mildenhall grass track
Don't forget mildenhall senior racing tomorrow. Max is hoping for a good turn out of Ashwell riders on the day, no pre entry from the club!!
EOL from 11 - racing from 12. Weather looks AMAZING!!
EOL from 11 - racing from 12. Weather looks AMAZING!!
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Just Ellie racing in blue today in the youth categories. She did the jersey proud, the highlight being a textbook win in her keirin heat.
Prizes were presented by Tour rider Vin Denson. Hopefully he'll be there tomorrow - what more incentive do you need to get on the podium Richard?!
It was good to see the rebooted three-day festival working well and I was there to consider doing the whole camping thing next year. I'd say it bodes well for a club trip: the facilities were excellent and the atmosphere great. The weather helped, of course.
There's a free bouncy castle for the kids, with kids events throughout each day. There's proper stalls and coffees and stuff. Jumble sale. Inquisitive locals. The food in the village hall was very good.
The Youth racing was on Saturday. I only know that Ellie Mitchinson was there for CCA and was first girl - well done.
Sunday was just a seniors omnium - Men and Women, with a fun omnium for kids and seniors on Monday. With a pub quiz on Sunday evening to keep you nearby.
The usual sort of Men's omnium, with around 25 riders; we had a sprint race, brutal 8km endurance race, fun Bristow Devil - but very technical if you want to try and score points, 3km scratch race, longest lap race and an unknown distance race at the end when we were tired. I guessed it would be one lap and went for it. It was flippin' 7 or 8 and I was knackered. As ever, the racing is very jovial and good natured. Everyone should give it a go.
The circuit was the same as last year. It's tiny at 250m - so there's no proper straight and almost circular. It was very hard and fast in the dry weather with vibrations in the handlebars so strong, my wedding ring has bruised my finger.
Richard seems to be on great form and I was quite pleased with how I was doing. As Mitchy and Luke are second-claim CCA, we were able to enter the 3km 4-man team pursuit race. There was only 10 seconds between 1st and us in 3rd place. We were sort of relieved to miss the final! Mitchy and Luke were in excellent form. Mitchy came 3rd overall and Luke had some great results - this being his first go at grass track too.
The overall winner was the bloke who crashed off the track last year and cycled into a parked car to fracture his pelvis. So, it was nice to see him succeed here.
The women's omnium was good to watch, with a very interesting rivalry of the top two riders.
All good - and less than an hour away. Let's all go for it next year.
Camping makes sense of Mildenhall. It really then becomes a festival of cycling.
Well done all.
Agree with your comments Martin. Irritatingly the CX (pre) season does risk treading on its toes a bit.
Personally I loved the new venue and Mildenhall CC have really upped their game. The organisation of this event must be unbelievable and all credit to everyone involved.
Lots of bargains to be had in the cycle jumble and the trade sale always provides cut price/good quality kids kit which for me having a child who can grow an inch in 5 weeks, being able to pick bargain training kit is a must.
The Mad Madison is evil!!! Emma Pell and I took part in this 2 years ago and I will never forget trying to ride up the side of a potato field with a third of the wheel deep in mud in a rainstorm of biblical proportions!!!! The comm ended up cutting out most of the racing loop and cutting the race short as it had become too dangerous to ride - soggy bottoms all the way home!!!
A great weekend for sure and the lack of electricity means the children are playing cricket/rounders etc etc and having fun running around in the fresh air. Brilliant!!