National Youth Circuit series continues

Last Saturday was the 5th round of the National Youth Circuit series, hosted by Team MK Youth at the Milton Keynes National Bowl. PPYCC had 5 riders competing in the U12/14 boys races, with all riders performing well, and representing the club in their usual brilliant style!

In the U12’s race was Josh Golliker, and the 25 minute race had 43 competitors. The weather was warm and sunny, and the group was pretty cohesive for the majority of the race, with Josh taking a long turn on the front, working hard and maintaining the pace. There was a sudden change of weather in the last 2 laps, with drizzle and dark clouds, rendering the course wet and slippy. Josh unfortunately lost his lead place in the final lap and finishing sprint, but still managed a very impressive 12th place. Well done Josh!

Josh warming up before his race!

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The U14’s had four PPYCC riders competing, Rahul Fortescue Talwar, Adam Churchill, Tom Pughe-Morgan and Lukas Nerurkar. This, along with the U16 boys race, was the biggest field of the day, with 80 competitors riding off the start line. Unfortunately the drizzle which started in the U12 race increased to a full rain shower, and the during the opportunity to ride the course pre-race all competitors got wet!

Warming up in the rain!

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The U14 girls race was next, and the rain continued for part of this. Thankfully the rain stopped, and it stayed rain free for the U14 boys race. However, the rainfall made the course treacherous to ride, with 5 hairpin bends to negotiate on each lap. All four boys managed the technical aspects of the course brilliantly throughout the race, and despite several nasty crashes for other riders, they all stayed on their bikes for the whole race! However, some of the crashes split the initial group into 3 distinct groups, chasing each other on the course. Initially Tom managed to close the gap between himself and the lead group and the boys were racing together within this. Following another crash, Rahul and Adam were able to keep within the first group, but Lukas and Tom’s evasive actions to avoid a pile up meant that they fell back into the 2nd group. All four boys rode really strongly for the 45 minute race, with impressive average speeds of  37-40 km/hour, and PPYCC sends a big congratulations to all our riders!

THE BOYS IN RACE ACTION!:

Adam Churchill, 27th place:

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Lukas Nerurkar, 48th place:

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Tom Pughe-Morgan, 38th place:

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Rahul Fortescue Talwar, 22nd place:

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