2019 saw a bit of a decline in road racing both nationally and within the club, there were fewer races promoted in general and fewer riders. We lost a couple of riders at the end of last year deciding not to race in 2019 and another emigrated to Australia. The loss of the evening circuit races at Rockingham made a severe dent in the local race calendar as the venue has been bought by new owners.
On a positive note there were some good results, our oldest road rider Malcolm Smith just missed out on two wins with second places in both the Tour Of Cambridgeshire for the second year in a row and our own club’s promoted LVRC road races. At the other end of the age scale, 15 year old Harry Garfield took a few top ten placings in youth circuit races and is now competing in the Lincs cyclo-cross league. On the ladies’ side Katie Ward took a few top ten places and we also now have a second lady road rider with Lisa Jane Lait also taking part in the National Masters Circuit champs.
Other riders competing regularly in road races included Dean Musgrave and Alan Brophy who left the club in July and moved to Melbourne, Australia. Another new member competing on the road this year was Martin Mason, in all we had about a dozen riders road racing for PCC this year.
We promoted a handicap road race as part of the NCRA series in the Spring and then 3 LVRC races for different age categories all on one day in May. All races ran smoothly but once again we had to source help from outside the club due to the lack of willing helpers. A big thank you to all the members that did come out and help.
In 2020 we already have a handicap road race planned for the end of March/early April for which we will need helpers. There will likely be one more road race during the year which is most likely to be an LVRC event again instead of BC.
We once again enjoyed some assistance from our sponsors, Qualitetch, Alston Country Homes and Rutland Cycling, giving benefit to most riders who rode open road races this year.