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Report: Fred Williams Track League

Event: 11th May 2011
Promoted by: Wolverhampton Wheelers
Venue: Aldersley Leisure Village, Wolverhampton
Report: Dave Brookes

Results | Rankings (after 2 rounds)

Possessing its own track is an enormous asset to any cycling club and the effective management of that asset brings much needed benefits to the whole club. An essential part of utilising this facility is organising a track league which for more than a decade has fallen on the shoulders of Dave Cunningham. Under his stewardship the league has flourished and raised the profile of Wolverhampton Wheelers. A presentation was made to Dave last week in recognition of all the hard work he has put in over the years and now the mantle passes on to John Ireson. John has a hard act to follow but we are all confident he is well up to the job.

A successful league attracts interest from various sources, not least the readers of these reports, but also a variety of entrants. Club members consistently feature strongly especially younger competitors who have come up through, and continue to enjoy, an excellent coaching structure. Local clubs also feature and last year's winner Jack Hibberd of Halesowen competes again this year. New to the league this year and making their presence felt are athletes from the University of Birmingham cycling club with Xavier Disley currently lying third in the Senior A rankings. Will Rudgard leads Senior B with female competitor Lara Nyman in 9th place.

The Freewheelers events included block handicap and points races but it was the Italian pursuit that first brought the evening alive with sterling efforts from, amongst others, Seb Bacon, Dan Morris, Rebecca Simmons and Matty Lewis. The Freewheelers concluded with Will Manfield taking the A Handicap, Sam Jones second and Georgia Hilleard third.

Senior A, B and Youth followed a similar pattern and here again the action really started to kick in for the Team pursuit races with some interesting combinations of team members. In Senior A team members included Xavier Disley, brothers Jack and Tom Hibberd and Jess Wieckowski who managed victory over a team including Jason Colledge, Adam Lewis, Tim Metcalfe and Alan Cooper. Meanwhile in the Senior B's the team including father and son Nick and Luke Selibas managed second place. There has been a marked improvement in Luke's performance recently and we watch with interest how this develops.

The evening concluded with a 10 km Handicap with an Intermediate sprint at 5 km. Youth rider Jack Escrit took the 5 km with ease going out on his own to establish an early lead which couldn't be matched. Luke Selibas took second place here but at the end of the full 10 km it was Xavier Disley again who took first place, with Jack Hibberd second and Adam Lewis third.

Results | Rankings (after 2 rounds)