Cotswold League

THE season-long Cotswold League series (www.thecotswoldleague.co.uk) began on Sunday with the first race taking place north of Gloucester and hosted by Velo Vitesse.

A full field of 60 riders took to the starting line for the men's race with Colin Parry of Ride 24/7 in Cirencester coming out on top.

After a flurry of early attacks a break finally went clear, and that proved to be the winning move.

With only one of their riders in the break the Performance Cycles team had to work hard at the front of the bunch to bring the break within striking distance, mainly down to the efforts of Jacob Pilkington.

The graft paid off as teammates James Stewart and Gareth Turner sprinted to join the break.

As the finish got closer, Matt Woods (Performance Cycles) and Colin Parry (Ride 24/7) got clear, but Colin proved the stronger, crossing the line a few bike lengths clear.

In the afternoon the girls took to the roads, with a field of nearly 40 riders.

Despite a large number of attacks, no one broke clear resulting in a big bunch sprint to the line.

The Performance Cycles team of Jo Jago, Marta Heinz, Kate Baker and Rebecca Waters worked perfectly in their first competitive outing together, with Rebecca out-sprinting the field to take the win and Kate completing a one-two.

Rebecca now takes on both the Steele Davis leader's jersey and U23 jersey (which will be worn by Kate in round two), and in the men's competition Matt Woods now leads the U23 classification.

The Cotswold League is set to continue on Sunday, May 15, before the big local race on May 29 hosted by Performance Cycles as part of the South Cerney Street Fair weekend.

Latton Time Trial

PERFORMANCE Cycles rider James Stewart picked up where his teammate Dan Guest left off the previous week with a winning ride at the Latton Time Trial last Thursday.

On what felt like a slower night than the previous week, James bettered his previous finishing time with 21min 20sec to take the win from Pete Hutchinson of Cotswold Veldrijden (22.15).

But the ride of the night was from relative newcomer to the sport Jacob Pilkington (Performance Cycles) who finished just one second behind Hutchinson in a time of 22.16, riding his road bike with clip-on aero bars and a non-aero helmet.

Although missing a number of riders who had dominated proceedings the previous week, Performance Cycles still posted five riders in the top 10 and had the fastest lady (Charlotte Berry), proving that they are going to be the team to beat in the 2016 series.

LATTON RESULTS (Performance Cycles riders unless otherwise stated): 1, James Stewart 21.20; 2, Pete Hutchinson (Cotswold Veldrijden) 22.15; 3, Jacob Pilkington 22.16; 4, Niel Dunnage (Cotswold Veldrijden) 22.27; 5, Peter Garnett (Swindon RC) 22.31; 6, Alex King 22.36; 7, Chris Wood 23.29; 8 jt, Gethin Musk 23.46; 8 jt Richard Cooper (Swindon RC) 23.46; 10, Gary Smith (Ride 24/7) 23.49; 11, Tom Denley 24.09; 12, Jason Costello (Corinium CC); 24.23; 13, Mick Sharratt (Swindon RC) 24.43; 14, Joe Barry 24.49; 15, Matt Seddon (Corinium CC) 24.51; 16, Pete Jeans (Team Swindon Cycles) 25.00; 17, Bryan Telford (Team Swindon Cycles) 25.01; 18, Tom Radburn (Veloton) 25.18; 19, Steve Buckley (Ride 24/7) 25.19; 20, Rowan Brown (Swindon Wheelers) 25.44.

For more details about Performance Cycles, the rides we offer and what we get up to as a club/team please visit www.performancecycles.cc.