The Welwyn Wheelers Youth Cycle Squad got their 2008 season underway on Saturday when 10 riders and a support posse made the trip to Milton Keynes to race at the National Bowl which is more used to hosting the likes of Robbie Williams and Green Day.

Welwyn had riders entered in all five age group, Under 8 to Under 16, and recorded 3 podium finishes. Club Chairman Peter Waghorn who was lending his support to the young riders said “this is a very good start for our young riders, particularly as a number of them have not raced anywhere other than on the track at Welwyn.”

In the Under 8’s event Tom Street and Tom Durkin recorded 2nd and 3rd places respectively, whilst the ride of the day must go to Will Street who not only won the Under 10’s race but managed to lap all the rides up to 5th place. This race saw a good performance from debutant Isobel Scott who finished in 4th place (2nd Girl).

At Under 12 Welwyn fielded 3 riders with Chloe Evans finishing as 2nd Girl, 6th place overall, with Nick Brown and Sophie Scott finishing slightly further down the result sheet. George Bateman and Alex Anderson put on a good show in the Under 14’s event but paid the price for doing too much work early on and suffered as the pace increased at the end of the 15 laps. They finally finished 6th and 5th respectively after a crash 10 meters from the line saw one rider disqualified and one fail to finish.

See the Gallery for pictures from the event.

In the last race of the day Tom Gallacher finish 6th, with the winner, local rider Jack Waller, lapping all but the rider finishing in 2nd place. Meanwhile Under 12 rider Joe Fry, due to family commitments, chose the Hillingdon Circuit in West London to open his 2008 campaign and claimed another 3rd place for the club

Peter Waghorn concluded “It’s great to see the youngsters racing. They are all products of our Saturday Club sessions at Gosling and we must have at least the same number of riders again who we will be encouraged to come along and give racing a try later in the season.”