A summer of local cycling success.
A summer of local cycling success.
What a year it has been for local cycle sport, with a string of achievements to celebrate from our athletes competing at all levels. It seems that it takes more than a pandemic to slow our local riders as we watched a string of successes play out over what has turned out to be a spectacular year for homegrown talent.
Stevie Williams
Recently Aberystwyth cyclist Stevie Williams followed up his first professional stage win with his first professional tour victory, taking first in the Cro Race 2021 (formerly Tour of Croatia).
Josh Tarling
September saw the UCI World Championship of Road Cycling in Flanders where Ffos-y-Ffin's Josh Tarling took Silver in the Junior Time Trial event. Josh is having a stellar year as he also rode his way to an impressive double haul of European titles, claiming gold in both the Junior Team Pursuit and Individual Omnium events on the track.
Gruff Lewis
Talybont's Gruff Lewis put on one hell of a performance in this years Tour of Britain, offering us probably one of our greatest ever cycle sport highlights here at the shop. Stage 4 brought the race right past our own front door and we were offered a truly memorable moment as Gruff joined a breakaway group and led the race through Aberystwyth and right past Summit Cycles. He went on to take the sprint in Borth and although he didn’t get the stage win he gave us all a day of nail biting cycle sport that will be very hard to better.
As if that wasn’t enough excitement for one year, Gruff also went on to take Victory in the Welsh National Road Championship Time Trial Championships, he also put in strong ride at the British Road Race Champs with a 13th place finish. He's now been a Welsh Road, Cross, MTB XC and Time Trial champ, quite a string of achievements.
https://www.welshcycling.co.uk/welsh-cycling-welsh-championships/welsh-road-tt-championship-report/
Griff Lewis
Clarach’s Griff Lewis scooped an impressive double this year, bagging both the Welsh Jr Road Race Gold and Welsh Jr Crit Gold.
And if that's not enough....
These victories alone would be an impressive local haul but it doesn’t end there. There’s been a deluge of local success in 2021, a year in which we’ve seen Anita Saycell take Silver at the Welsh Masters Women's TT Champs. Ieuan Andy Davies has been busy too, taking Gold at the Welsh Masters Road Champs, another Gold in the Welsh Masters Crit Champs and a Silver Welsh Masters TT Champs.
On the MTB front we have seen Cari Morgan-Williams gain Gold in the under 12 girls Welsh XC Champs and Steffan Jewel take a Bronze in the under 8 Boys Welsh XC Champs. Another Junior on good form is Dafydd Wright who gained a Bronze at this year’s Welsh Junior Time Trial champs.
Would you like to get involved in cycle sport? The best first step is to join a local cycling club. Our local club is Ystwyth CC. You can find out more about the club, their activities and endeavours on the club's website and Facebook page.
