Hales extend his Series lead as Charles makes her mark

Hales claimed the overall victory while first-time rider Charles made an immediate impression by claiming both the Female and Junior wins on the tough Oswestry Paragon Mount Road course.

Hales doubled his Series lead to 20 points with an excellent effort of six minutes 22 seconds to see off a challenge from the rapidly improving Jack Young, back in 6:45, with this runner-up spot easily his best performance of the Series.

Hales much prefers the shorter distances, but rose to the challenge – literally – on the climb towards The Old Racecourse.

“One of the tougher hill climbs of the Series, however this year we did get a slight tail wind up there," said Hales. "I just wanted to hold a good pace on the second kick up to the never-ending finish.”

Young has ridden every climb of the Series so far, and was the only other rider under seven minutes on roads local to him as he pushed Mid Shropshire Wheelers’ Andrew Wakefield into third in 7:24.

But the ride of the event came from 12-year-old Charles, riding her first ever hill climb, having just reached the minimum age allowed to compete on open roads a few days before.

Charles took to it like a duck to water, storming up the climb in 9:27 to take eighth spot overall and win both Female and Junior categories – the first by exactly 30 seconds from Sorrell Williams and the second by an amazing 1:39 from Mid Shropshire Wheelers’ team-mate Florence Parkinson.

“The Oswestry Hill Climb was my first hill climb, having just turned 12 at the beginning of September," said Charles.

"It was great testing my climbing against others. I enjoy trying new cycling-based challenges and look forward to my next hill climb."

In the Veterans' category, Neil Coles took his third win from three events to move up to second in the standings thanks to his 8:01 climb, taking fifth spot overall and having narrowed the gap to Oswestry Paragon team-mate Peter Fletcher, who was 30 seconds back.

Round five of the Series produced an unbelievably close finish as David Scott finally took victory on the short, sharp Homer Bank climb in the Shropshire Cycling Clubs Association’s promotion.

Hales was runner-up in 2:03.67 in the closest finish of the Series so far.

Kirk Vickers was making his third appearance of the season, and being the course record holder, looked odds on given he had won his two previous rounds.

Here, though, he was consigned to an uncustomary third spot in 2:10.04, not troubling his own 1:52.56 set in the inaugural event in 2020 despite having a helping tailwind at times.

While Vickers didn’t score a personal best, female winner Claire Blackwell-Smyth did, registering 4:04.04 to move second in the Veterans' standings.

Best-placed Veteran was unattached rider John Woodward, making his first appearance of 2025, with an impressive winning time of 2:19.01, which took fourth spot overall.

County winner Coles took his second maximum points tally on his comeback from injury, beating Oswestry Paragon team-mate Peter Fletcher by 1.14 seconds.

Picture: Rob Jones