The West Suffolk Wheelers were in action in events on all three days of the annual Mildenhall Rally. With events across a range of discipline and distances, the August bank holiday weekend had a variety of cycling events for all types of cyclist.

The weekend began on with an Audax on Saturday. About a dozen Wheelers took part, including John Steed, Mark Eastwood, Chris and Will Curtin, Richard Lines, Mike Bowen, Nigel Stemp and David Young all on the 100k route and with Deane Hill doing 300k.

The youth grass track riders took centre stage on Saturday. In the under 14 grass track Omnium saw Alan Trolove dominating, giving the judges a problem when lapping the field in the Devil, and then riding off the front again. He made took a more conservative approach to the distance race, staying in the bunch till three laps to go, and then simply riding away from the bunch for a convincing win. Ed Ballam rode very well too, and despite pulling his foot out of the pedal twice in the sprints, found himself in second place overall coming into the final race. He rode very strongly and hung on very well to hold on to second overall, out of about 18 riders from all over the country. There are more photos of the grass track racing in the photo gallery.

Also impressive was 13 year old Jonathan Sjolin who won the U14 Duathlon on Saturday and freewheel races on Sunday and Monday, as well as competing in the Mad Madison Cross on Monday. This event comprised over 200 riders of all abilities, all in teams of two, doing alternate laps of a cyclo-cross course that wound its way around the school site, off into the woods, and back into the main arena, ten laps for each team. With over 100 riders battling their way around the tight twisty course there were inevitable traffic jams on the first lap, but riders gradually sorted themselves out and great fun was had by all. Barry Denny was paired with veteran ace Tim Butler, who came through on lap one in fifth position, and felt obliged to race hard to minimise lost places ~ he failed, but at the end of the ten lap race they were still in the top twenty. Meanwhile Alan Trolove was trying out a new ‘Alan’ cross bike, and paired with James Carpenter finished well up the order. Jonathan Sjolin was paired with another young rider and rode gallantly in this new discipline for him.

This year we had only one competitor in the main grass track events. Ian Pettitt rode Monday, preferring the shorter distance events. He recovered from a poor start in his 800m heat, having to clip his foot back in after pulling it out, to come from 8^th to 3^rd. Starting near the scratch position in the 500m handicap and moving through the riders ahead, he ran out of distance and finished forth in the rush for the line. The day finished with a very respectable finish in the hotly contested Devil, surviving to half distance before elimination.

Let’s hope that 2010 sees a larger contingent of Wheelers taking part ~ let’s plan to have at least a team of four so that we can challenge Mildenhall again in the Team Pursuit as we have in previous years.