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2010 Mildenhall Cycling Rally
Story posted September 1 | Event Press Release
Laura Trott is the 2010 Women's National 800m Grass-Track Champion after powering her way to victory over Border City Wheelers starlet Jo Smith at the weekend's Mildenhall Cycling Rally. In a highly competitive field of 16 female riders, the three heat winners Trott, home rider Sarra Boyd and Sue Wood (Maldon & District CC) took three of the top four spots. Smith qualified for the final through the repecharge and did just enough to keep Boyd in the Bronze medal position.
Gold medal winner and a member of the Olympic Development Squad, Trott said afterwards "That was hard, especially after a tough week at the National's!" She is riding in the wheel tracks of some of the World's top riders with Nicole Cooke and Mildenhall Cycling Club's very own Golden Member Victoria Pendleton, who have been regular and previous championship winners at the Mildenhall Rally.
The National 800m was the highlight of a fantastic weekend's racing, with over 130 riders competing for a prize list of £2,000. According to one of the organisers, Mark Burchett, "The Rally bucked the trend at other grass-track meetings where entries have been down this year. What was even more pleasing was that on the Saturday, there were 64 riders aged under 16, which bodes very well for the future of the sport".
Not surprisingly, Trott, who flies out to India at the end of September in preparation for the Commonwealth Games, also won the Ladies Omnium ahead of Smith. The Boys under 16 and under 14 Omnium's were both won by West Suffolk Wheelers riders Alan Trolove and Ed Balham respectively. Mildenhall's Adam Gough finished ninth in the Under 14 group.
Phil Lisher (Team Welwyn) was victorious in both the final counting events of British Cycling's National Short and Endurance Leagues, the 800m Scratch and the 8km Mini-Milk race. In beating Rowan Elliot (VC St Raphael) in the 800m he won the Ernie Robinson trophy, while in the 8km he beat Cottingham Couriers pair Richard Lambert and Matthew Fenton.
The Rally had got underway at 4am on the Saturday with the first of the Audax rides, the 300km event starting, with hundreds more riding the 200 and 100km distances that started at the more reasonable times of 8.30 and 9am. Throughout the whole weekend, despite the rain showers, thousands more enjoyed the local countryside either using the touring routes Mildenhall Cycling Club were selling, or, finding their own way to local sights and attractions.
After last year's successful re-introduction, a Mildenhall favourite, the Roller-Racing on Saturday provided a pulsating evening's racing for the packed hall. Tom Rotherham (Sportcity Velo) won the Under 16's event, which consisted of a 500m time-trial, 750 scratch and a 500m handicap. In the over 16's event his elder brother Matt was fastest on the night ahead of experienced roller riders Mark Burgess (Team Terminator) and Max Pendleton (Mildenhall CC).
In Sunday's Duathlon, there were nearly 80 children competing in age group's as young as 3-5 years old. In the 6-7 age category Colin Mantle (Mildenhall CC) finished a close second to Border City Wheelers Matthew Egglestone, while in the 10-12 group his club-mate Jack Tuff's finished 18th. Yet again in the Cyclo-Cross races, the numbers of young riders taking part was high with 20 under 9's and 24 under 12 year olds! Mildenhall's Mantle finished fourth in the Under 9's and Tuff's 11th in the Under 12's races.
For the older and more experienced riders there were 45 teams competing in the Madison, with each rider racing alternate laps. Seasoned 'Cross riders Hugo Robinson and Nathan Millar finished first, although the prizes were awarded on a lottery basis as it is run as a fun warm-up event for the new season which starts in September.
The Rally isn't all about getting on your bike, as Sunday night's Quiz showed with 20 teams of 6 members competing to answer quiz-master Dave Sennitt's extremely hard questions! The Rally walk on Saturday was very well received, as was the Historic Town walk on Sunday that was provided by Mildenhall Museum.
The Children's Sports, Bouncy Castle, Face Painter, Magician and the Cycle Jumble, were all as popular as ever, proving that Mildenhall Cycling Club continue to have a winning formula in attracting thousands of people to Mildenhall.
"The Rally attracted cyclists from across the UK for our three-day cycling festival, with 2,000 alone camping in and around the Riverside Middle School. All of the local B&B's, hotels and campsite were full as well," said Mark Burchett.
This ensured that the traders in the very successful two-day Trade Show had a very good weekend. One of them, Kevin Dunseath of D-Tek based near Ely, Cambridgeshire, said "We had a great weekend, meeting old and finding, as always at the Mildenhall Rally, new customers. One of those included a couple from Teeside, who had come down to look at a machine they'd been discussing with us on the phone".
Another trader from Yorkshire, Kenny Downing sold six racing frames. "Without the huge amount of time given up by those club-members present and the volunteers, swelling the numbers helping in the running of all the events, the Rally could just not take place, for which we are very grateful." added Mark Burchett.
