Tomos Hales adds more victories to his tally

The first County Championship of the time trialling season saw a new name added to the 50-mile Trophy as Wrekinsport’s Tomos Hales claimed victory.

Hales led the field home in an incident packed race that saw Friction Series leader Tim Beardmore crash out and loose his place at the head of the standings, while four riders missed their start times which had bearing on the Veterans' competition in round 6 the SB Sports Injuries Shropshire Championship 50.

Wet roads with slippery corners covered in diesel resulted Beardmore taking a fall and suffering cuts to his elbow and bruising. He also damaged his gear changers, putting an end to his race and leaving Bridgnorth CC team-mate Jonathan Mills-Keeling to take over the lead in both the Overall and Veterans' competitions.

Mills-Keeling took 50 silver after finishing two minutes 55 seconds behind Hales, who has been on tremendous form of late, navigating four laps of the Tilstock-Prees circuit in one hour 56 minutes, 48 seconds.

Hales led Wrekinsport to Team 50 gold too, with great support from Phil Roberts and Adam Mumford in a combined 6:15:18 as they moved to just 20 points behind Bridgnorth CC in the Top Club Award standings.

"I'm very happy to take the Shropshire 50 title, even if it was a bit of a surprise," said Hales.

"We had a good turn out from Wrekinsport which put our team in a good position. With the longer time trials you just have to break down the ride little by little. I was counting each climb up over Prees."

Mills-Keeling went home with a brace of silver medals after also taking the runner-up spot in the Veterans' 50 Championship in 1:59:43 actual and +18:30 on veteran standard.

The Veterans' bronze could have seen a dead heat or a displacement – if only two Hafren CC riders had made their starts on time.

Emma Serjeant suffered a 15 second penalty, while Bryn Davies was penalised 2:27 thanks to turning up late – something affecting four riders in total – and which could have produced a very different result.

Not detracting from his efforts, Revolutions Racing’s Graeme Donnell was the beneficiary of this confusion, recording a fine veterans' standard of +15:23.

Serjeant did not go home empty handed, however, taking the Women's 50 mile Trophy and Women’s 50 gold by over 10 minutes in 2:12:56.

Like many, she described the experience as one as much about mental state as physical.

“I find 50s hard mentally," she said. "I had to break it down to four laps rather than the mileage to get my head into it. It was also very slippery after the rain so I was really pleased to have got the time I did and take the win."

Women’s 50 silver went to a first-timer, with Wrekinsport CC’s Bethan Till stopping the watch on 2:23:02.

Oswestry Paragon’s Helen Tudor took the bronze in a time of 2:30:02.

Friction and Hydraulic Services Shropshire Championship Points Series – Round 6