Bath Uni CC’s Doug Hall sent us this report of the night’s events…

The first two races were a success, if a little hampered by rain but this week, things were a little different, as the sun shone and club members descending on mass to host and marshal our first ever official competitive event.

Youths were up first with Adam Beddall of Gloucester CC continuing his clean sweep from round one and two to take victory. On what is becoming known as one of the hardest (both physically and technically) crit courses in the UK, all the Youths showed tremendous road-craft beyond their years. The sunshine seemed to bring out a few more women this week, a closely fought battle saw Adel Tyson-Bloor (VC ST Raphael) finish ahead of Team Hope Factory Racing’s Mim Freemantle and Nicole Walters.

The 3/4 race is fast in Victoria Park, the lure of big points on a circuit that tests the legs and bottle meant the fastest lap of the night came from this race rather than the E/1/2s. 30mins of racing saw 47 starters get quickly whittled down to a finishing bunch of just 16. Kieran Blair (VC Bristol/Webbs of Warmley) looked to have it all wrapped up until crashing within spitting distance of the finishing line, leaving Alec Rumball (Army CC) edging out last week’s winner Scott Chalmers (Dream Cycling) for the win.

With no Tour series round in the locality (watch this space), Vicky Park has played host to the best teams in the area, with a proper good ding dong between Wilier/Live to Ride, Felt-Colbornes RT, Cadence Cannondale and Dream Cycling. Nobody was going to let Alec Baskaya TT off the front again and Wilier/Live to ride went on the serious offensive sending man after man up the road. The other teams were forced to chase hard only dragging it all back together with a lap to go. Strength in numbers prevailed though as Mark Perry of Wilier/Live to ride pulled a fast one on the final climb, edging out Jason Flooks of VC Bristol/Webbs of Warmley.

The last two rounds have been a bit, well, inclement. So it was a much more happy and relaxed affair thanks to wall-to-wall sunshine and nice dry tarmac

Youths and ladies went off first, at the same time but staggered so they were racing separately. There was a bit of confusion in the ladies race as to whether it had ended; in the end the leaders regrouped and Nicole Walters, pictured, came third in the sprint.

There was a good field for both the 3/4 and the E/1/2 races, and plenty of action round the hairpin. Here’s Charles Coleman (Cadence-Cannondale) finding a bit of space on a wider line

Wilier-Live2Ride have dominated the E/1/2 racing and last night was no excpetion. Tavis Walker went off fairy early but was reeled back in later in the race.

Once he was caught he went off again though, this time with the help of teammate Colin Parry

The pack stayed pretty tight throughout the race with a high pace set from the front

Round 1 winner John Wager had to settle for fourth on the night

Ross Clayton (NFTO) takes the hairpin at full gas

Nick Noble (Bristol RC) on his way to a seventh place finish, with road.cc’s own Oli marshalling in the background

All in all a great night of racing, and we’ll all be back next week for another helping.

Watch this video on YouTube.

Club member John Whittington binned his normal Saturday diet of miles and instead ate up Park Street in Bristol to claim 2nd place behind Wiggle Athlete Ben Simmons.

After qualifying in the morning, John was selected to face off against the Redbull invited pro riders. Dispensing all comers John made the final and put on a great show for the thousands of specators that showed up. Nice one #Johnlad.

Earlier in the day, Mark Bleakley grabbed himself an unexpected 2nd place at the Ludgershall Winterseries. This puts him 1point away from gaining his 3rd Cat license. It is unclear how many gels Mark used in the process.

Next week the off road bunch are off to tear up the Forest of Dean. Boom.

Exams are in full flow so not much riding is getting done, but we are looking toward the light at the end of the tunnel. So much infact we are going to smash this up in Bristol in Feb…

So we’re holding the annual club Hill Climb next Sunday the 30th October. As it is every year it is quite a chilled out affair and the main aim of it is to have a bit of a laugh – but with a competitive edge. Because it’s Halloween next weekend there is a special Halloween fancy dress category, as well as the usual ones:

Fastest Road Bike
Fastest XC Bike
Fastest DH Bike
Fastest Fresher
Fastest Singlespeed
Best Halloween Fancy Dress

Big thanks must go to Road.cc our club sponsors who are providing us with a bag of stuff to give away as prizes. You legends.

The meeting time will be 10am at the bottom of Bathwick Hill by the bus stop. The course will run right to the junction of North Road, and after everyone who wants to has been up the hill we’ll go to Parade on campus for coffee and cake.

If you plan to ride or have any questions then hit us up on twitter @bathunicc, it should be a lot of fun.

Format will be classic TT start with riders starting off at specific time intervals. Please bear in mind this is not a race – purely a challenge with prizes  

Non students are welcome to tag in, but keep in mind this is very unofficial and organised by students and not to be taken seriously, otherwise we’ll make you buy cake at the pub.

Small print…

As we are riding on public roads, you must obey the highway code and ride sensibly. The club will disown you and have no sympathy if you hurt yourself riding like an idiot.

Feast your beautiful eyes on this bad boy.

We’ll be filming stuff for the next installment at the Hill Climb, so if you’ve got a rad idea then let us know…

Some of the XC riders decided that a trip to Bristol would be a good way to spend a Saturday, and they were right. 8 hours, two pump tracks, a BMX track and a hot lap of Ashton Court after they left, a noticably more tired group arrived back in Bath. Some awesome photos were taken, this one is my personal favourite. Watch this space for a vid on the way too.

No, not the one in Munich that lasts for two weeks, But the equally challenging 8hour end of season Enduro at the excellent Ashton Court trails of Bristol.

We fielded two teams of pairs, between John and Doug, Ed and James. Alumini Nicole Walters had lost her mind and entered solo.

After a manic start, and a couple of mechanicals per team both pairs settled into their eventual finishing positions by lunchtime.

John and Doug ended up winning by lap (defeating Uni of Nottingham in the process) thanks to some amazing riding by John by posting the fastest lap of the day and sneaking in with 4secs to go. Ed and James finished up in 7th position, top bombing considering the standard of racing.

Nicole kept pedalling and pulled back a few places to finish up 3rd on the Solo podium (we still think she has gone mad).