R1 Mower Mec 2-Up Series: Paramount CRT 10

The Mower Mec 2-Up Series opened for 2025 with the Paramount CRT event, with a strong win for Jonathan Mills-Keeling and Scott Palmer – despite a sapping block headwind and a wrong turn. A new pairing on an unfamiliar dog leg course punched their way through the opening, tough six miles from Cruckton to the A5 before getting some relief on a fast leg to join the A458 towards Welshpool. However, that unfamiliarity saw them miss the finishing turn up Shoot Hill – and have to frantically retrace their steps, still finishing with a 1 minute 4 second advantage in 22:04.

The strength of the ride saw the Aerologic pair take the early overall Series lead ahead of Paramount’s Chris Riley and Rob McGregor, the 2022 Champions on a course both have been itching to try, as Mills-Keeling explained: “A new course for me I’ve wanted to ride for years. A strong head wind for six miles, but we completely miss the final left turn which messed up the time, still happy to get the win with Scott and thanks to all involved”. Palmer revealed just how much time they lost negotiating a turn on a major road and had an element of ‘What if’ about his comments: “A new course for me, I really like the dog leg course. There was a block headwind to the island, with me and Jon on for a high 20 until we missed the turn to Shoot Hill… I was still pleased with a win, thanks to Paramount for putting on the event”.

Riley and McGregor weren’t thinking of racing, but despite McGregor’s ongoing recovery from illness showed their familiarity with each other’s riding styles. Riley is current reigning champion, and showed his form with a hurried and unexpected warm up to finish runners-up in 23:08, 1:12 ahead of Oswestry Paragon’s Peter Fletcher and Jack Young. Riley explained: “It was great to be riding with my 2022 winning partner again, Rob McGregor. It was all a bit hurried as neither of us expected to ride. We took off our marshal’s jackets and donned our race gear after a brilliant turnout from Paramount helpers – well done everyone”. McGregor added: “It was a last minute decision to ride having been unwell earlier in the week, so I wasn’t at my best. It was great to ride with Chris again, and was my first time riding the D1/11 course. I was really happy with second place and hope to build on that in later events”.

2024 Mixed Team Silver medallists Sorrel Williams and Karl Lombardi are looking to go one better in 2025 with a solid show of 25:18 to take the first 20 points on offer. 2024 was a learning curve for the pair which they are looking to put to good use in their 2025 campaign, as Williams explained: “It was nice to be back out racing with Karl. We put some of the learning from last year into practice to hone our strategy for this particular course, which both of us find harder than other courses due to the constant rolling terrain. It was great to see everyone again and to kick start the season”! Oswestry Paragon member Lombardi concurred in his comments, echoing Williams; sentiments: “It was great to be back again with Sorrel, although our experience on this course last year wasn’t ideal. We made some strategy tweaks to accommodate some lessons learned, and all went mostly to plan. We improved on our time from last year in similar conditions and we felt better overall about our effort. I hope to see a few more riders out for round 2, thanks to the organisers”.

One underrepresented area of the sport has been low, or in 2024 no, entries from all female teams; but that was instantly put right for 2025 as the Paramount pairing of Emma Brown and Liz Hagen teamed up for the first time, crossing the line in 29 minutes exactly. Neither Brown nor Hagen are experienced time triallists, with Hagen entering her first ever race. Both however are strong club riders, as Brown explained: “I have only done a few time trials over the past two years, I started with the 4-Up in 2023, then did a few individual time trials and the 4-Up again last year. This year, encouraged by a few Paramount members I decided to enter some rides in the 2-Up Series and persuaded Liz to join me as she is also a good strong cyclist! We had not done any time trial training together prior to the event and this was Liz’s first event. We thought it would be a good opportunity to try something different, support another local marshalled SCCA club event, win a few points for the club and have just fun! It would be great to see more ladies in the rides, but at the same time, means we might have to train a bit if we had other female teams to compete against”! Hagen meanwhile seemed to enjoy her first ever time trial, adding: “It was great fun, and taking the 20 points for the club made it extra special. Thanks to all those involved in making it happen”.

Full:

Mixed Team:

Female Team: