The Pro Cycle Hire UK Racing Team started April with high expectations and entered a strong team into the 125km Chelmer RR with Andrew, Ian, Matt, James, Mark Howard and Dan Young starting. However none of the team’s breakaway attempts during the race managed to stay away. Some sketchy riding from the 70-rider field on the narrow lanes of the Roxwell circuit in Essex created a lot of nervousness and sure enough coming into the finish there were three crashes in the last 2km, with Dan fairing the worst and being brought down, with the rest of the team held up and unable to contest the sprint finish. Dan sustained nasty road rash and a broken bike meaning he was going to be sidelined for a couple of weeks.

The team has had riders in most other BC Eastern Road Race League races throughout the month in various road events in Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Essex each weekend. Most notable results were James’ 5th place in the GYCC Road Race and 12th in the Hackney Primavera circuit race at the Lea Valley Velo Park for 1/2/3 category riders, and Dan Young’s 7th in the Essex Roads RR with a strong finish on the fifth ascent of Radar Hill. We’re slowly getting there, and although we’ve had some bad luck with punctures in a couple of races, the results are starting to come in!

Mark Smith has been riding some higher quality National B races and getting well placed, and some good results are surely on the way very soon. This hasn’t stopped Mark supplementing his road racing for track and in the first Welwyn Track League event he scored 2 x 3rd places and a win in the Points race.

There’s a busy schedule of races in May and the form is starting to build now, so we’re looking forward to some more good results over the next few weeks.