The warm weather and light winds made for almost perfect conditions at Carlisle Cycle Circuit last night and spectators were treated to some fast racing.
The first race of the night was for Category 4 men and women and it attracted riders from quite a wide area, as well as a number of local competitors.
The pace was high from the outset and whilst a number of riders made attacks throughout the race, nobody was able to make a lasting breakaway from the main bunch and in the final lap the majority of the riders were sprinting for the finish line together.
It looked like the race was between Alan Hendry of the Royal Navy and Melvin Hart of Team Andrew Allan Architecture but in the last 100 metres the sole woman in the race, Carlisle rider Harriet Graham, accelerated past both men to take the top spot on the podium, much to the delight of the local supporters.
The second race was a handicap, allowing riders of different categories to compete against each other more equally. The field was roughly equally split between Category 2 and 3 riders and Chief Commissaire Kate Bent set the more highly ranked riders a very tough challenge by giving the Category 3s a whole lap head start over the 2s.
Some of the 2’s made repeated efforts to close the gap, notably Sam Barbour of the Ribble rechrg Race Team who was named Most Combative rider of the night, but it proved too big a challenge for them all and the podium was filled by Category 3 riders with Bruce Wallace of the Scottish Borders Race Team having the edge over the Muckle CC duo of Richard Davidson and Ryan Parkinson.
First Cumbrian rider across the line was Henry Hunter of Kendal CC and the fastest lap of the night was by Max Lutz- Atkinson. The Ribble rechrg rider completed the 1km Circuit in an impressive 1 minute 15.5 seconds.
There is no racing at Carlisle next week as the team is busy preparing for The Solway Coast Festival of Cycling in Silloth on Sunday June 4 but the evening series resumes the following Thursday.
