Dumfries Criterium Race - 24th May 2009

Here are some photos from the Dumfries Crit race last Sunday. Well done to Jamie, Ariana and Ewan and Jack for doing so well in the race.

Castle Douglas Criterium - 23rd May 2009

Here are a few pictures of the action from last Saturday's CD crit. Well done to Ariana, Jamie and Jack for giving 100% in this race.

Drumlanrig Root Rats Coaching Thursday 28th May

Coaching is on as per usual this Thursday night at the Castle. The U12 Sprogs group runs from 5:15pm to 6:30 and the U16 Yoofs group will run from 7pm until 8:30pm. This week the focus for the Yoofs will be gear selection and we will do the coaching on a combination grass areas near the car park and the "Chimes" single track loop up in the woods. Once again, we'll have Richard Lord here with us from Scottish Cycling to help out with the coaching.

I have attached a poster and entry form for our Dirt Crit Race, which is on the 20th June. Our coaching sessions will be working towards this race over the coming month and we are hoping that most riders from the club will take this opportunity to enter the race. Please feel free to circulate the poster to anyone else that you know who might be interested in the race, or put it up in your local shop / hall. Watch http://rootrats.blogspot.com/2009/05/drumlanrig-dirt-crit.html for more details / updates as the event approaches.

Finally, pay attention those of you in the club with old, damaged or unfashionable helmets. Rik has a special offer in his shop to club members only for the Bell "Ukon" helmet. This is a good chance to get yourselves protected at a knock down price.

Drumlanrig Root Rats Coaching Thursday 21st May

Both coaching groups will be back in action this week at Drumlanrig. The Sprogs (U12) group starts at 5:15 pm and finishes at 6:30, whilst the Yoofs will start at 7pm and go on until 8:30. We will have Richard Lord from Scottish Cycling with us for the evening for the coaching sessions and he has put together a session covering group riding, manuals and bunny hops.

This week is our last chance to put names down for the Fort William XC Sprint in June, so if you are interested, please let us know. There are more details of this event on the club blog at http://rootrats.blogspot.com/2009/05/scottish-cycling-youth-xc-sprint-fort.html.

There is town centre road racing on in both Dumfries and Castle Douglas this weekend as a part of the Original Bicycle Festival. Come along and support club riders Ewan Clark and Jack Taylor as they fight it out some of the top roadies in the country. See http://www.originalbicyclefestival.co.uk/Bikefest-Events.html#EventTwentyTwo for more details and times of the race. To get a flavour of town centre racing, why not watch the Tour Series city centre racing this Friday night at 7pm on ITV4.

Race Report for SXC3

The venue for yesterday's 3rd round SXC mountain bike race was Laggan Wolftrax near Newtonmore in the northern reaches of Perthshire. The course consisted of a 2 mile climb on a mixture of forest road and natural singletrack followed by an equally long singletrack descent punctuated by large sections of rock slab pavement requiring commitment from the riders.

Ewan Clark was first off for the Drumlanrig Riks Bike Shed team. Wearing the yellow series leader number board, Ewan was out to consolidate his position as top Junior. However, Sunday's race saw on form rider Kenta Gallagher take first place with an outstanding performance leaving Ewan to take a well earned second place and strengthen his position as the series lead.

Next off were Jack (pictured, centre) and Ally Taylor in the U16 Youth category. Jack was standing in the ditch when the race was set off meaning that he had to sprint hard to catch the last place rider. A solid effort from there on meant that Jack had made it back up to seventh place, his eventual finishing position at the end of the three lap race. Coming back after some time off the bike, brother Ally rode a steady race from start to finish coming in just off the pace. Meanwhile, veteran campaigner Graeme Scott had to retire from the race after his chain had snapped.

The Drumlanrig Root Rats were represented in the Primary School races by lone rider, Cameron Scott. Cameron showed his strength by powering into the race lead on the first climb and fought hard throughout the higly competitive race to secure a well earned fourth place.