Ellie continues fine form in a successful weekend

Round seven of the NDCXL was held at Swadlincote Ski Centre last weekend, hosted by Mercia CC.

With a mixture of the traditional and technical, the course ensured some great racing action across all categories.

In the U9 race, the previous week’s winners Ben Mellor (Matlock CC) and Lola Jamieson (Cycle Derby CC) repeated the feat to win the boys’ and girls’ races respectively. Mellor was backed up by strong rides from his Matlock CC clubmates with Charlie Ross finishing fourth, Tom Woolf eighth and George Parker tenth.

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The girls U12 race saw Lotta Mansfield (Nottingham Clarion CC) finishing ahead of the Matlock CC riders Elizabeth Webster and Michaela Dick.

In the U12 boys race Ben Chilton from Derby Mercury took the win in a close fought contest with Joshua Giddings (Heanor Clarion).

Matlock CC’s Harry Large was seventh and Sam Gould 16th.

Fossa Racing’s Wirksworth-based U14 rider Ellie Smith rode a strong race ahead of older riders to to win the youth girls race, ahead of Xan Crees and Isabelle Boon, both Derby Mercury U16 riders. In the youth boys race Matlock CC’s John Webster was eighth.

The U14 boys race saw Matlock CC’s Nick Edwards finishing 12th.

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The veteran men’s race saw Matt Crouch (Fossa Racing) take the win with Matlock’s Chris Green third.

In the veteran women’s race,Matlock CC’s Christine Howard and Louise Wainwright finished fourth and fifth.

The junior men’s race saw Matlock CC’s Arthur Green come home in third.

Sunday saw the West Midlands Cyclocross League event at Wolverhampton with Tim Gould, riding for Matlock’s Zepnat.com, continuing his progress up the national rankings to third place by winning the 50+ veterans category by a large margin and beating the current national and National Trophy Champions into second and third placings.

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Matlock CC’s Sam Gould rode in the U12s event finishing 14th.

Sunday also saw Fossa Racing star Ellie Smith head to Wakefield to compete in the Yorkshire Points Series.

In this league, the youth boys and girls all start at the same time and Ellie quickly carved out an impressive lead over the other girls to win by a comfortable margin from Ava Oxley-Szilaggi of Kirklees Cycling Academy.

Ellie, who is a member of Matlock Cycling Club but rides for Fossa Racing for the cyclo-cross season, lies second in British Cycling’s National Trophy Series (U14 Girls)