Swindon RC rider Kirsty finishes second in downhill mountain-bike race (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Swindon RC rider Kirsty finishes second in downhill mountain-bike race

AFTER a disappointing result in the National Championships, where she crashed on one of the practice runs, Swindon Road Club downhill racer Kirsty Price sought better fortunes in round three of the National points series.

The course which went through the Glentress Forest, near Innerleithen, was a tricky one, and the variety of possible racing lines made practice vital.

Kirsty's start was delayed by a crash further down the course, which unnerved her and led to a mistake at the beginning of her race run.

Nonetheless, she made a determined effort to catch up the lost time and was rewarded with fourth place overall behind Caroline McKinley (SDR), Nicky Belton (astonhill.com) and Anna Collins.

Downhill racing then moved on to the Eastridge track, near Shrewsbury, for round six of the Midlands Super Series.

The women's combined field was encouragingly large with several first-timers taking part.

And Kirsty had a storming first run to finish in 2min 8sec to take first place over her coach and elite rider, Jules Coventry (Ancillotti) and regular combatant Nicky Belton (astonhill.com).

A reverse start order applied to the second run. First off the start ramp was Jules Coventry, who had clipped a tree first time down.

She cleanly took the doubles and sprinted to the finish for a time of 2-5.3 and top spot.

Next into view came Nicky Belton, not so cleanly over the doubles, but a massive effort for the line gave her a time of 2-9.

But Kirsty powered over the doubles and took a really tight line through the right-hander before pedalling like a demon for the line.

The clock stopped at 2-5.9, just point-six of a second off Jules Coventry's time to take second place.

In decidedly mixed weather, riders competed in last week's Swindon Road Club ten-mile time trial. It started to rain as the first rider went off and then stopped about 20 minutes later.

But it proved a good evening for Graham Messer, who seems to be really flying at the moment, as he came within six seconds of beating the winner on the night, Jason Costello. Results are as follows:

J Costello 22.58, G Messer 23.04 (PB), A Smith 23.48, P Gregg 24.09 (PB), D Higgs 24.23 (PB), T Jordan 25.01, D Gibson 25.04 (PB), C Hall 25.44, S Hardy 26.00, M Allen 26.06, J Foster 26.09, R Cantwell 27.04, M Mason 27.09, A Smith 29.24.

For news and information on Swindon RC, see their website on www.swindon-rc.co.uk