Many thanks to David Cook for running the criterium racing on the weekend in sweltering conditions – not only doing a fantastic job of that but then also providing the following write-up – great stuff Cookie!

Despite the fact that it was New Year’s Eve, there was still a small contingent of riders at the track for mixed crits (7 to be exact) and a large portion of them being from the mountain biking realm.

Proceedings started with a 1 lap individual TT. Emily Wooster was first off the line with Iron Man Houlty bringing up the rear. There wasn’t much of a time gap between 2nd and 4th with a stellar ride from new junior Angus Apps.

The times were:

Emily Wooster: 2:06
Katherine Hoskings: 1:51
Angus Apps: 1:48
Pete Hoskings: 1:47
Dave Harris: 1:46
Mick Hoult: 1:40
Peter Wilkinson: DNF

This was then followed by a 10 lap, all in race, but everyone decided that they would just practice rolling turns until lap 8 and then it was game on from there. Needless to say by the end of the race Houlty blasted the whole field apart and took the win with Richard Wilkinson on his wheel. Not far behind this pair was Angus, Katherine and Pete with good rides all round.

1- Mick Hoult
2- Richard Wilkinson
3- Angus Apps
4- Katherine Hoskings
5- Pete Hoskings
DNF- Emily Wooster
DNF- Dave Harris

It was then decided to have an Italian Pursuit but it was almost certain the team with Houlty would win (even though he had to do two laps when the rest did one). Sure enough, although Houlty’s team of Angus and Emily were down as Mick started, he smashed out two extremely hot laps and they came in ahead of Katherine, Pete, Wilko and Dave.

Although the Italian Pursuit seemed to put some hurt into the not so youngsters legs, the youngsters pushed for one last race. It was decided that this would be a 5 lap teams race where the whole team would have to finish at the same time. This time the team of Dave, Katherine and Wilko came out on top of Mick, Angus, Emily and Pete. The afternoon was thoroughly enjoyed by all and there was some good racing on hand.

Thanks to everyone who came and made it the fun afternoon that it was and hope the 2017 season is a good one for all!