On Saturday (March 24) Ely and District Cycling Club (EDCC) member Mat Eley took part in the first round of the HSBC National cross-country mountain bike championship at Sherwood Pines.
Starting from 59th place on the starting grid for the Sport Race, Mat got caught up in a crash just after the start of the race, with the result that he had to race through the field from 71st and last place.
However, Eley battled his way up the order over the rest of the race to finish in 16th place at the end of the four-lap race.
Meanwhile, Alison and Martin Holmes took part in their first race in the 2018 SPOCO East time trial series on Saturday.
The event was organised by Plomsgate CC on the hilly 10 mile B10/9 course.
Alison finished in a time of 31:45 and Martin finished on 24:36, with Stuart Fairweather of Team Velovelocity the winner in a time of 22:20.
On the rather less hilly and significantly faster E2/10 course near Newmarket, three EDCC members raced in the ECCA event on Saturday afternoon.
Darran Bennett was the fastest Ely rider, with a time of 21:25, followed by Derek Ricketts on 22:13, followed closely behind by Steve Peck who stopped the clock at 22:17 in his first race in Ely colours.
The fastest time of the event was set by Liam Maybank of Twickenham CC with a time of 19:03.
Hoping to race in a rather longer event, Rob Golding had entered the N&DCA race which took place on the NC14 course with a length of 18.7 miles near Corby.
Unfortunately Rob had a mechanical issue which meant he was unable to finish the race.
On Sunday (March 25), John Manlow and Rory Havis took part in the Wisbech Wheelers 10 on the B10/2 course.
John finished in a time of 24:32, while Rory took 9th place overall in a time of 22:50, the winning time of 21:31 having been set by Daniel Bloy of Team Velovelocity.
Finally, father and son Mark and Ollie Sinden were also racing off-road, but this time in a downhill rather than a cross-country race.
Both took part in the Onza Mini DH race at the Forest of Dean.
In the Under 12s race Ollie finished in 17th place and in the Veterans’ race Mark was 11th.
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