R9 Friction Hydraulics Series: Hafren CC 10

Tomos Hales moved level at the top of the Friction Hydraulic Series standings with his fifth win from seven rounds he has entered in Round 9, the Hafren CC 10. Held on the smooth A483, the advantages of the fast road surface were somewhat negated by a block headwind for the return leg, wearing riders down as they battled southwards. Reigning Friction Series Champion Hales stopped the watch on 20 minutes 55 seconds, indicating the toughness of conditions to push Series leader Jonathan Mills-Keeling into the runner-up spot by 1:01, clawing back the narrow five point margin the Aerologic rider held pre-race. These type of conditions can best be described as ‘character building’, and it’s down to the rider’s mental capacity regarding how much pain they can take to punch through the wind, as Hales indicated: “A breezy night left a very tough return leg in the Hafren 10. The outward leg went well and I held a good speed. However, I always know the last two miles are very tough. I managed to save some power for the end and to squeeze under the 21 minute mark. I was happy to take the win, so thanks Hafren for organising”.

Both Hales and Mills-Keeling had been racing the evening before in a Ludlow CC SB Series event, and back-to-back races can sometimes affect racing strength, which seems to have been the case for Mills-Keeling: “A hard 10, back-to-back racing after Brimfield the evening before I could definitely feel it. Another evening of gusty side winds, I pushed as hard as I could on the way out and hoped for a tail wind back but it didn’t happen. Another great win for Tomos”. Mills-Keeling did however have some reason to celebrate after extending his lead in the SB Veterans Series standings to 105 points after pushing out the rider lying in second overall, Chris Riley with a fine +4:55 to Riley’s +4:36.

Taking third spot in both Overall and Veterans competitions was Riley’s Paramount team mate Simon Romei, with a 22:04 actual converting to +4:27 on Veterans Standard. Having missed three rounds strong previous points tallies mean he hangs onto third place in the Overall standings and lifts himself up to third in the Veterans competition ahead of team mate Jonathan Goh. Romei was pleased with his efforts, but again showed how tough things were on the return: “Happy to have claimed County third at the Hafren 10, it’s always a tough race to judge as its super quick on the way out, only to return into a block head wind. I think I went out too hard and paid the price on the way back in. Thank you to all the marshals and timekeepers for doing a great job and ensuring this race ran nice and smoothly”.

Whilst Goh has an eye on the Veterans standings he extended his lead at the head of the Road Bike standings with another fine win, recording an actual 23:56, four seconds behind team mate William Preston. However, when the age and gender-related handicap was applied this converted to 23:34, seeing off Preston by 18 seconds. Goh now holds a 70 point lead over another Paramount rider, Andrew Dawson in a competition the club have undoubtedly taken to their hearts, as he explained: “I enjoyed the shorter distance. It felt like it was over quickly. Although I was expecting real help from a tailwind on the way out, the reality was that it was more like a challenging crosswind out and back. Well done to Will Preston for beating me in real time. It was only down to my senior years and age adjusted time that I took the win. I would encourage anybody with a road bike to come and have a go at this distance – there’s no need to put pressure on yourself, and you’ll probably have some good fun”!

In the Female Series Hayley Wells took another dominant win, crossing the line in 22:51, with closest challenge coming from Thea Osmund-Smith in 25:35. Wells extended her Series lead to 85 points, but like Hales and Mills-Keeling had been racing the previous evening where she scored an all-time personal best, and that resulted in the dreaded ‘heavy leg’ syndrome: “A breezy night meant a quick out leg, but the return felt like you were going backwards in parts! My legs felt heavy from a quick blast at Ludlow the night before, so I couldn’t quite hold the power I would have liked on this course. Great to see a handful of lovely ladies on the start line to share the course with, thanks to Hafren CC for organising”.

One of those females was Jess Bufton, the first entrant to the Friction Junior Series for 2025 who has really improved during 2025 thanks to a busy schedule of road and circuit racing in recent weeks. She was delighted with her 26:33 effort, just two seconds off third place female, team mate Jan Davies, stating: “I was really happy to take the Junior win at my club’s time trial. I always really enjoy riding the Berriew course as it is a fast course. It was really windy, so I had a really big tailwind on the way out but as soon as I turned around the roundabout it was a block headwind which was very hard. I was very happy to get a time of 26:33 which is not too far off my personal best of 26:26. It was really nice to be racing against a really strong field of competitive women who all rode really well. I would like to thank all the organisers for putting on such a great event and I would like to thank all the marshals who stood out in the cold and made this all possible”.

SCCA:

Pos’n	Forename	Surname	Club	Cat	Machine	Time	Points
1	Tomos	Hales	Wrekinsport CC	S	TT	00:20:55	60
2	Jonathan	Mills-Keeling	Aerologic RT	V	TT	00:21:56	55
3	Simon	Romei	Paramount CRT	V	TT	00:22:04	50
4	Bryn	Davies	Hafren CC	V	TT	00:22:42	45
5	Christopher	Riley	Paramount CRT	V	TT	00:22:48	40
6	Hayley	Wells	Wrekinsport CC	F	TT	00:22:51	35
7	Paul	Duncan	Paramount CRT	V	TT	00:22:54	30
8	Robert	McGregor	Paramount CRT	S	TT	00:23:09	25
9	Paul	Edwards	Wrekinsport CC	V	TT	00:23:36	20
10	Mark	Hill	Hafren CC	V	TT	00:23:51	15
11	William	Preston	Paramount CRT	S	RB	00:23:52	10
12	Jonathan	Goh	Paramount CRT	V	RB	00:23:56	5
13	James	Elgar	Paramount CRT	V	TT	00:24:40	5
14	Neil	Vose	Hafren CC	V	TT	00:24:54	5
15	Thea	Osmund-Smith	Paramount CRT	F	TT	00:25:35	5
16	John	Westhead	Paramount CRT	V	TT	00:25:36	5
17	Andrew	Dawson	Paramount CRT	V	RB	00:25:47	5
18	Les	Boughey	North Shropshire Wheelers	V	TT	00:26:18	5
19	Robert	Garbett	Wrekinsport CC	V	TT	00:26:21	5
20	Jan	Davies	Hafren CC	FV	TT	00:26:31	5
21	Jess	Bufton	Hafren CC	FJ	TT	00:26:33	5
22	Tim	Evans	Newport (Shropshire) CC	V	TT	00:27:14	5
23	Emma	Brown	Paramount CRT	F	RB	00:27:17	5
24	Helen	Tudor	Oswestry Paragon CC	FV	TT	00:27:29	5
25	Hugh	Ashworth	Paramount CRT	V	RB	00:28:46	5
26	Peter	Rickard	Paramount CRT	V	RB	00:28:57	5
27	Dave	Wynne	Hafren CC	V	RB	00:29:09	5
28	Gill	Snelson	Paramount CRT	FV	TT	00:29:39	5
29	Doug	Brown	Paramount CRT	V	RB	00:30:03	5
30	David	Cannell	Paramount CRT	V	RB	00:31:59	5
.	Nick	Hickman	Paramount CRT	V	TT	DNS	.
.	Deb	Hutson-Lumb	SCCA Private Member	FV	TT	DNS	.
.	Ashley	Kirkham	Wrekinsport CC	V	TT	DNS	.
.	Daniel	Watts	SCCA Private Member	S	TT	DNS	.

Veterans:

Vets Pos’n	Forename	Surname	Club	Cat	Machine	Vet +/-	Vets Points
1	Jonathan	Mills-Keeling	Aerologic RT	V	TT	+4:55	60
2	Christopher	Riley	Paramount CRT	V	TT	+4:36	55
3	Simon	Romei	Paramount CRT	V	TT	+4:27	50
4	Bryn	Davies	Hafren CC	V	TT	+4:04	45
5	Mark	Hill	Hafren CC	V	TT	+3:33	40
6	Paul	Duncan	Paramount CRT	V	TT	+3:32	35
7	John	Westhead	Paramount CRT	V	TT	+3:30	30
8	Paul	Edwards	Wrekinsport CC	V	TT	+2:30	25
9	Jonathan	Goh	Paramount CRT	V	RB	+2:30	20
10	Jan	Davies	Hafren CC	FV	TT	+2:22	15
11	Neil	Vose	Hafren CC	V	TT	+2:16	10
12	Andrew	Dawson	Paramount CRT	V	RB	+2:01	5
13	Robert	Garbett	Wrekinsport CC	V	TT	+1:53	5
14	Les	Boughey	North Shropshire Wheelers	V	TT	+1:47	5
15	Helen	Tudor	Oswestry Paragon CC	FV	TT	+1:46	5
16	James	Elgar	Paramount CRT	V	TT	+1:26	5
17	Tim	Evans	Newport (Shropshire) CC	V	TT	-0:17	5
18	Hugh	Ashworth	Paramount CRT	V	RB	-0:22	5
19	Gill	Snelson	Paramount CRT	FV	TT	-0:46	5
20	Dave	Wynne	Hafren CC	V	RB	-1:21	5
21	Peter	Rickard	Paramount CRT	V	RB	-2:00	5
22	Doug	Brown	Paramount CRT	V	RB	-2:07	5
31	David	Cannell	Paramount CRT	V	RB	-3:35	5

Females:

Female Pos’n	Forename	Surname	Club	Cat	Machine	Time	Female Points
1	Hayley	Wells	Wrekinsport CC	F	TT	00:22:51	60
2	Thea	Osmund-Smith	Paramount CRT	F	TT	00:25:35	55
3	Jan	Davies	Hafren CC	FV	TT	00:26:31	50
4	Jess	Bufton	Hafren CC	FJ	TT	00:26:33	45
5	Emma	Brown	Paramount CRT	F	RB	00:27:17	40
6	Helen	Tudor	Oswestry Paragon CC	FV	TT	00:27:29	35
7	Gill	Snelson	Paramount CRT	FV	TT	00:29:39	30
.	Deb	Hutson-Lumb	SCCA Private Member	FV	TT	DNS	.

Road Bikes:

RB Pos’n	Forename	Surname	Club	Cat	Machine	RB Adj Time	RB Points
1	Jonathan	Goh	Paramount CRT	V	RB	00:23:34	60
2	William	Preston	Paramount CRT	S	RB	00:23:52	55
3	Andrew	Dawson	Paramount CRT	V	RB	00:24:03	50
4	Emma	Brown	Paramount CRT	F	RB	00:24:43	45
5	Hugh	Ashworth	Paramount CRT	V	RB	00:26:26	40
6	Dave	Wynne	Hafren CC	V	RB	00:27:25	35
7	Peter	Rickard	Paramount CRT	V	RB	00:28:04	30
8	Doug	Brown	Paramount CRT	V	RB	00:28:11	25
9	David	Cannell	Paramount CRT	V	RB	00:29:39	20

Juniors:

Junior Pos’n	Forename	Surname	Club	Cat	Machine	Time	Junior Points
1	Jess	Bufton	Hafren CC	FJ	TT	00:26:33	60

Top Club Award:

Pos’n	Club	Points
1	Paramount CRT Total	210
2	Wrekinsport CC Total	120
3	Hafren CC Total	80
4	Aerologic RT Total	55
5	Newport (Shropshire) CC Total	5
5	North Shropshire Wheelers Total	5
5	Oswestry Paragon CC Total	5

Cumulative Standings after nine rounds

Friction and Hydraulic Services Shropshire Championship Points Series

Position	Name	Club	Cat	Best 12
=1	Jonathan Mills-Keeling	Aerologic RT	V	430
=1	Tomos Hales	Wrekinsport CC	S	430
3	Simon Romei	Paramount CRT	V	340
4	Christopher Riley	Paramount CRT	V	290
5	Jonathan Goh	Paramount CRT	V	250
6	Hayley Wells	Wrekinsport CC	F	235
7	Robert McGregor	Paramount CRT	S	165
8	Oli Freeman	Wrekinsport CC	S	145
9	Mark Fenn	Shropshire CCA	V	130
10	Deb Hutson-Lumb	SCCA Private Member	FV	125

Friction and Hydraulic Services Veterans Championship

Vets Position	Name	Club	Best 12
1	Jonathan Mills-Keeling	Aerologic RT	455
2	Christopher Riley	Paramount CRT	350
3	Simon Romei	Paramount CRT	335
4	Jonathan Goh	Paramount CRT	305
5	Deb Hutson-Lumb	SCCA Private Member	250
6	John Westhead	Paramount CRT	230
7	Mark Fenn	Shropshire CCA	225
8	Andrew Dawson	Paramount CRT	195
9	Ian Laverie	Wrekinsport CC	140
10	Bryn Davies	Hafren CC	135

Friction and Hydraulic Services Road Bike Championship

Road Bike Pos’n	Name	Club	Cat	Best 12
1	Jonathan Goh	Paramount CRT	V	495
2	Andrew Dawson	Paramount CRT	V	425
3	Mark Fenn	Shropshire CCA	V	365
4	Emma Brown	Paramount CRT	F	300
5	William Preston	Paramount CRT	S	220
6	David Scott	Paramount CRT	S	140
7	Claire Blackwell-Smyth	Paramount CRT	FV	110
=8	Ashley Kirkham	Wrekinsport CC	V	85
=8	Billy Panter	Paramount CRT	S	85
10	Alvydas Janusauskas	Paramount CRT	V	75

Friction and Hydraulic Services Female Championship

Female Pos’n	Name	Club	Best 12
1	Hayley Wells	Wrekinsport CC	440
2	Emma Brown	Paramount CRT	355
3	Helen Tudor	Oswestry Paragon CC	320
4	Deb Hutson-Lumb	SCCA Private Member	240
5	Claire Blackwell-Smyth	Paramount CRT	145
6	Gill Snelson	Paramount CRT	125
7	Thea Osmund-Smith	Paramount CRT	110
8	Jan Davies	Hafren CC	105
9	Kathryn Rossiter	North Shropshire Wheelers	50
10	Jess Bufton	Hafren CC	45

Friction and Hydraulic Services Junior Championship

Junior Pos’n	Name	Club	Best 12
1	Jess Bufton	Hafren CC	60

Top Club Award

Position	Club	Total Points
1	Paramount CRT	1760
2	Wrekinsport CC	1185
3	Aerologic RT	585
4	Hafren CC	190
5	North Shropshire Wheelers	150
6	Mid Shropshire Wheelers	145
7	Newport (Shropshire) CC	95
8	Oswestry Paragon CC	70