AT their recent Annual General Meeting members of Cycle Club Abergavenny took time to reflect on a particularly fruitful 2017 season in terms of event promotions, racing results and social cycling activity.
With excellent support from its members and club sponsor, JP Signs & Print, the club promoted several high profile and successful events on the Welsh cycling calendar in 2017, including the Abergavenny Festival of Cycling, Wales Open Criterium and a round of the Welsh Cyclocross League.
The club has been resurgent in terms of its racing activity and was delighted to see its Powys-based rider, Tim Davies from Crossgates, crowned 2017 British National Mountain Bike Champion in the Grand Veteran category.
Davies’s stellar form continued into the cyclocross season with a multitude of superb results in regional, national and international races, including a fifth place in the UCI sanctioned World Masters Cyclocross Championships held in Mol, Belgium, riding in the Masters 50-54 category.
In the Welsh Cyclocross Championships held at Llangattock in December Davies bagged three Championship medals. After victory in the Veterans 50 category race Davies lined up again for the Seniors category championship race and rode in for the bronze medal.
It was in this race that Davies was supported by fellow Powys based riders Joe Cooper-Lally of Glasbury and Mark Ayling of Hay-on-Wye in the trio’s quest for Team Championship medals.
Promising racing performances were also delivered by Davies’s sons, Oscar and Spencer, in the juvenile and Under 12s categories in mountain biking and cyclocross events throughout the season. Bronwyn Lally showed much promise with a fifth place overall in the Novice/Ladies category of the Welsh Cyclocross League.
There was success too for the club on the track with former Commonwealth Games rider Alun Owen picking up several bronze medals at the Welsh Track Championships early in the season.
Owen also tasted victory in the early season two up Port Talbot Wheelers time trial as part of a composite club pairing with former CC Abergavenny rider Matt Postle.
Ayling also rode well in local time trials, winning several rounds and wrapping up the overall at the Brecon Wheelers summer evening time trial series.
With a growing social cycling group, coupled with its events promoting and racing activities, the club is looking forward to another active season in 2018.