// RACE REPORT: ELMSTEAD WOODS
// Winter Series 2024/25. Elmstead Woods. Saturday 14th December 2024
1st round of the Winter Series was held at Elmstead Woods Primary School in south east London. This round of our multi-discipline series was the CycloCross race, and a wet week leading up to the race led to some soggy conditions underfoot. As usual the course included multiple technical challenges, not all of them rideable, so the true skilled CX riders were definitely at an advantage here.
U6
The U6’s started us off, with a reduced course that missed out the long uphill which would not have been suited to little legs, but still had the off camber challenges and the spiral. 5 riders in all, with 3 boys and 3 girls. Leo Tanner of our club came out on top in the boys race, with a considerable lead by the end. Very impressive ride from him as he didn't ease up at all, despite having a large gap from early on.
Both the girls were LEC riders, and this time Tina Cavers got the better of Gyte Armonaite, who suprised Tina here earlier in the season in the Go Ride league fixture.
U8
U8 were up next, also taking on the smaller course. It was an LEC trio of Woody Shearwood, Samuel Lake & Arto Cavers who were quickest off the mark here in the boys race, but it was the furtherst travelled competitor, Joey Wood from VC Deal on the South East Coast, who justified his long pre-race journey with a blistering performance. Very impressive win from Joey, with LEC's Arto taking 2nd and Fred Crawford rounding off the top 3.
As the only girl in the race, Eliza Gillard of LEC took the honours in her category.
U10
The course was extended now for the Under 10's. This was the most packed field of all the races on the day, 12 competing in the boys cat, and 3 in the girls.
Only 3 of the 12 boys were not in Limited Edition's colours, but unfazed by this, Ellison Green of Barking & Dagenham CC took the ‘W’ with a very accomplished performance. Inparticular he was very smooth on the tricky banked hairpins and off camber turns, which helped him extend his lead every lap.
Elias Petruskevicius & Kasper Rackley (both LEC) came home in 2nd & 3rd respectively, but an honorouble mention goes to Arthur Crawford who suffered a catastrophic mechanical only about a third of the way thru the race, but ran his bike around the course for the remainder to ensure he at least secured some points and not a DNF. Courageous effort from Arthur!
In the girls race all 3 competitors were LEC so it was always destined to be an all green podium. At the recent Go-Ride fixture on the same course, Lola Stewart came out on top in the mass race, but crashed on the Time Trial with Enyo Rackley expertly capitalising on Lola's mistake. It was Lola fastest off the mark and taking the holeshot, but Olive Connor surprised Enyo by following Lola and pushing into 2nd place with one of her best ever starts. Lola stayed out front for the win, but Enyo stayed calm managed to get past Olive on the later laps and take 2nd place on the day.
U12
In the girls race, Sofia Savarese from LEC was the sole competitor (come on girls, we need more of you signing up!) so she took maximum points,
In the boys race, LEC's Kien Chu and Jake Kalogiannopoulos from Woolwich had a battle in every sense of the word! Matching each other very closely in the 1st few laps, a little too close perhaps, as they came together twice on the off camber section. Some untimely slips from Jake cost him dearly tho and Kien's consistency meant there was no way back for Jake. Daniel Furlong (LEC) rounded off the top 3 here.
U14
In the boys race Taylor Green looked like he had received some course Intel from his brother, Ellison, who was victorious earlier in the day. Another fantastic performance from Barking & Dagenham, again looking very assured on the hardest part of the course, taking the off camber turns without losing much momentum and also not letting up despite the early gap he had opened up. Local favourite Floyd Connor had to settle for 2nd place, despite winning on this course earlier in the season in very impressive style. Floyd's LEC teammate Dylan came home in 3rd place.
In the girls race, Edie Wright was the solitary rider (sorry to keep banging on about this, but COME ON GIRLS, Where are you all?!) and she set about her task in true Edie style, smiling from start to finish!
U16
Keira Smit continued her first ever cyclocross season with an outing here as the only U16 girl. By this point in the day, the sun had eventually came out, but the previous races had cut up the course considerably, so a lot of the trickier sections were becoming unrideable.
In the boys race, Elliot Howard from Herne Hill youth came out on top ahead of his brother, Barney, also of Herne Hill Youth. Last year's U14 Winter series winner, Oskar O'Rawe of Southborough Wheelers was 3rd.
Full results linked at the bottom of this page…
Next Round sees a Crit style race at Herne Hill Velodrome on Sunday 19th January.
