Thursday Night Thunder….and rain….
Round 3 of the Manchester BMX Summer Series saw the whole range of dramatic weather turn up with spectators glad of the British Cycling easy up shelter to keep them out of the worst of the elements, whilst us racers got on with it.
Elena Stafford was on fine form in Pocket Rockets, with Harvey Howard putting in another good night’s racing too. These guys will be stars in the future.
Speaking of stars, two of Manchester’s rising young ones went head to head, with Valerie “The Manchester Mosquito” Zebrokova taking on “Superfast” Sabien Brown. It’s easy to forget the fact that Valerie hasn’t been in the sport long, as she looks like she’s been doing it for years. Sabien is rapidly becoming a force to be reckoned with, with a snap that many older riders would be proud of! Honours went to Sabien on the night.
With Cruiser leader Neil Harbour and 25+ leader Ross Gill both MFA (missing from action, kinda like MIA but without them showing up in the first place) precious points were up for grabs. Ross has come to 20″ racing from riding park and has very quickly discovered that firstly, he’s got the potential to do well at it and secondly, that he’s insanely competitive…His absence was due to being on a family holiday in Denmark, which didn’t stop him wanting to know the results so he could see if he still had the lead.
The racing welcomed Pete Hosker on 20″, only back on his bike for a week after recovering from a ruptured achilles (OUCH) he looked as though his skills and speed were intact as he challenged for the win. Kev Blackman was fast as usual, and will now be challenging Ross for the overall lead. On the big wheels, Mark Ferguson continues to show improvement but the real star was matthewglynn.co.uk, who waited til three mississippi in the first moto before overtaking myself and Mark by practically jumping over us….Andy Dreli was performing pen marshall duties and apparently can’t do any power training cos Neil has nicked part of his weight bench…Hmmmm…rivalry is strong between clubmates!
Kyle Evans, fresh from earning the E5 plate in Denmark was on hand, along with Jordan Hayes, Adam Smith, Michael “Hurricane” Hawker, Greg Holloway and Jack “The Guv” Rasburn in 16+ to show the rest of us a thing or two… The guys tore round the track lickety split, apart from their 3rd moto when they decided on an impromtu pump race, which was blatantly showing off their skill. Kyle took the win with his usual display of speed, skill and sheer confidence on a BMX.
One of the highlights of the evening was seeing several novices from the Youth Club stay on and race, these guys have been coming along for a while and are definately improving every week.