Kenway is king of the hill climbs in double-header

Adam Kenway was in fine form in the two hill climbs held in Matlock at the weekend.

Local rider Adam Kenway announced himself as one of the favourites for this weekend’s National Hillclimb Championship by winning both in course record times.

The tough Riber event was held in mild weather but a swirling wind and a damp road surface near the top of the climb led to some tricky conditions.

Despite this Kenway romped up the climb with a course record of 3:24.01 to take the win from his Team Zenith-Buzz Cycles teammate Joseph Clark by nearly ten seconds.

Leading the Matlock CC contingent was John Johnston, recording 3:45.07 for sixth place. Arthur Green was fastest junior with 4:11.01 with clubmates Steve Strange 15th, Chris Green 17th and Chris Statham 19th.

Next up was the Bank Road hill climb held in the afternoon and Kenway repeated his victory but this time the margin was much closer, his time of 1:46.06 just 0.2 seconds quicker than Lee Baldwin, witch Clark another four seconds back.

Johnstone was again Matlock CC’s fastest rider recording 2:00.09 with Green fastest junior rider.

Youngest rider of the day was Matlock CC’s 12-year-old Sarah Briggs finishing in 3:22.12.

Velo Club Nottingham hosted round five of the SRAM Notts and Derbys Cyclocross League at Bingham Leisure Centre.

The races saw some great performances from Matlock riders. In the U9s, Ben Mellor continued to cement his position at the top of the league table with another win, with club mates Oscar Atkinson and Charlie Ross not far behind.

In the U12s Libby Smith produced a fine ride to clearly win the girls race by over a minute with clubmate Lizzie Webster finishing third girl. Harry Large rode strongly and finished fastest Matlock U12 boy in ninth.

In the youth races, Elena Smith (Fossa Racing) took the U14 girls win with Matlock CC’s Amelie Wayte second and Sarah Briggs third.

The junior men’s victory was taken by Matlock CC’s Arthur Green while in the seniors John Johnstone again rode strongly in his first cyclocross season to finish 12th.

The veteran men’s race was won decisively by Zepnat’s Dan Alexander with Matlock’s Chris Green seventh.

Marianne Heffron (Zepnat) took second in the ladies veteran race and Zepnat took victory in the V50 race as well, with a resurgent Tim Gould continuing his comeback to racing and taking the win.