R10 SB Sports Injuries Series: North Shropshire Wheelers Battlefield 25

After no points in three rounds Jonathan Mills Keeling came back with a bang to take the bonus point victory available in longer races in the SB Sports Injuries Series in Round 10, North Shropshire Wheelers Battlefield 25 – but it nearly wasn’t so. Rearranged from June due to road works at Hadnall, a Wednesday evening start was by necessity converted to an early Sunday morning one, with Mills-Keeling feeling a little under the weather. He was glad he did turn up though as he took the maximum 26 points on offer in both the overall SB Series and the SB Veterans Series; being the only rider to duck below the hour on a course that takes no prisoners in 57 minutes 46 seconds on actual and +10:16 on Veterans Standard. This moved Mills-Keeling up to two points off John Westhead’s Veterans lead after pushing the Paramount rider into Veterans runner-up spot with +6:29, and ate into Tomos Hales’ impressive overall Series lead, reducing it to 46 points. The Aerologic RT rider explained: “Another early start; and I wasn’t feeling great. I nearly turned around on the way to HQ. However, I paced it sensibly and was happy to get the win, thanks to everyone involved”.

The rolling nature of this course suits some riders but not others, with the only flat through Hadnall. Some riders loose time on the climbs and can’t make it up; others seem to have the ability to push hard on the down hills after puffing and panting up the climbs. North Shropshire Wheelers’ James Neale expressed how getting up some of the climbs can wear a rider down, but in his first 25 for a while he took the Overall runner-up spot in 1:03:34 and the Road Bike win on a handicap time of 1:02:58 from Road Bike Series leader Colin Wells on 1:07:20. Neale explained: “I was a bit cautious not having done a 25 for about two years, and was not sure how I’d get on. I struggled on a few crests, but was able to get a fair bit of momentum on the flat and downhill. Fairly pleased with the performance and I enjoyed the aero road bike more and more. Thanks to all the volunteers again, we were lucky with the weather in the end after a gloomy start to the morning”.

The weather was at the forefront of Neale’s team mate Alex Paulukeiwicz who took third spot in 1:06:30 – a personal best, and all the more creditable for being taken on a tough course. His comment on the wind direction is typical of still conditions, which were in force on the morning where despite it seeming like you are pushing against it everywhere usually produces relatively fast times, as in his case: “An enjoyable race, even if it did threaten to rain, and the wind felt like it changed 180º halfway around the course. Luckily the rain came once back at the HQ! A month off training didn’t really help, but still extremely pleased with a new personal best”.

Female winner Kathryn Rossiter did not have the best of preparation with next to no warm up thanks to mechanical issues, but managed to take the SB Female win in 1:20:27 exactly six minutes ahead of North Shropshire Wheelers’ team mate Elaine Beckett. She stated: “It wasn’t quite the race I had planned as I had a problem with my gears before the start! I decided to race anyway and was very pleased to win as I had to work very hard. And the rain stayed away which was a bonus”.

Full

Veterans

Females

Road Bikes

Cumulative Standings after ten rounds

Overall:

Veterans:

Females:

Road Bikes:

Juniors