R4 Mower Mec 2-Up Series: Mid Shropshire Wheelers 10

Chris Riley and Rob McGregor sealed the Mower Mec 2-Up Series title following Round 4 with another perfect score as Mid Shropshire Wheelers promoted their 10 mile event on the Queen’s Head to Gobowen course. Taking the win by 13 seconds in a fine time of 21 minutes 46 seconds from Mixed Team winners Sarah Grant and Mark Milton, the Paramount CRT pairing scored another maximum 20 points to put themselves into an unassailable position with two rounds to go.

Having struggled in Round 3 Riley and McGregor had no such issues this time out, as Riley reflected: “We’ve gone from an aimless thrashing of our legs and arms in disarray during the previous weeks Bridgnorth event to being the smoothest 2-Up combo we might ever be. The Mid Shropshire Wheelers’ 2-Up was held on a balmy summers evening and was the setting for perhaps our best performance during this Series and we both enjoyed every minute of it. A very friendly atmosphere and great fun racing in 2-Up pairs – thanks to Mid Shropshire Wheelers, and of course to Rob McGregor for his 30mph efforts”. When told of the Series win he added: “Being a winner is just the icing on the cake. At last year’s SCCA awards Rob and I conspired to have a crack at these events and have thoroughly enjoyed this most rewarding style of racing. It’s fast, technical and not so easy to get right but as a result, we’ve both learned heaps and hopefully become better bike riders. It’s perhaps a shame the events weren’t better attended by more of the active competitors within the SCCA clubs. Many thanks to all the organisers involved and of course the SCCA for promoting such a wide range of local competitions“

McGregor was also pleased adding: “I’m really happy with the way Chris and I rode, we really got the best out of ourselves as a pairing and it felt fast. It was brilliant to take the win by a narrow margin! Thank you to Mid Shropshire Wheelers for hosting a great event. I’m also really happy that Chris and I were able to win the Series; I’ve enjoyed it and learned a lot. Hopefully we will return next year to defend the title”.

More used to holding the Women’s title Sarah Grant teamed up instead with Mark Milton to challenge for Mixed Team honours, pushing out former holders Emma Serjeant and Mark Hill by 1:21 to take the Overall Runner-Up spot and the Mixed Team win in 21:59. Evenly matched in ability, the long downhill straight to the finish seemed however to see Milton ramp things up, with the final 100 metres kicking slightly and causing legs to turn to jelly when on the rivet, as Grant revealed: “Our first 2-Up this season and it was a scorcher! We worked really well together; thanks to my awesome team mate for shouting encouragement up to the line while I was hanging on for dear life! Love the 2-Up Series, great to see everyone”.

Serjeant and Hill stretched their Mixed Team Series lead slightly from Oswestry Paragon’s Adam Riley and Vikki Jones with their 23:20 effort which was good enough for third spot Overall, with the Hafren CC pair also occupying the Overall Silver medal spot. However it is very easy to suffer for trying too hard to not let down your partner in this format, but Serjeant revealed that experience paid dividends to assist recovery: “I went off far too hard on my first turn and paid for it a couple of miles in, but Mark took some longer turns and settled us back into it and I soon recovered and got back into a good flow on the return leg. Thank you to Mid Shropshire Wheelers, and super well done to Sarah Grant and Mark Milton for an awesome ride to take the Mixed Team win”.

Having ridden the Hafren CC 2-Up with Karen Proctor, Jan Davies had the highly unusual distinction of tying with herself for top spot in the Women’s Series after this time teaming up with Olivia Hughes. This was a maiden pairing for the team, who poste a respectable 25:12 to take the maximum 20 points on offer. Davies commented: “My first 2-Up with Olivia, so still lots to learn about each others riding style. We settled into more of a rhythm on the way back; thanks to all the organisers”.

Full:

Mixed Team:

Women’s Team:

Cumulative Standings after four rounds

Overall

Mixed Team

Women’s Team