Jaffa Stages

Beautiful crisp conditions greeted the crews at Pembrey which meant only one thing, ice! Once this had thawed the usual grip issues with cow dung and low quality surfaces on the service roads, it proved to be entertaining on the stages. Kevin Tappin & Jonathan Hawkins (Escort Cosworth) were fastest on stage 1 by a single second from Paul & Nia Fowden (Impreza) on stage 1 and when Fowden punctured on stage 2 his challenge disappeared, (even with fastest stage times on stages 3 & 4).

UCI Track Cycling World Cup London

In a year of many firsts we made our first visit to the Lee Valley veldrome for the first major meeting since the London 2012 Olympic Games. The 6,000 strong crowd got what they wanted as Laura Trott rode a superb 25km race in the final discipline of the women’s omnium to net her 2nd gold of the meeting. The other two Brits involved in the proceedings on Sunday night did not medal. Jess Varnish only qualified for the kierin final after a fellow competitor was excluded from her semi-final and Jon Dibben was down in 5th after 5 events of the omnium, so it was a big ask. Still it was a great night and experience.

Rockingham Stages

Another year almost chalked off as our end of season foray to Rockingham saw a capacity field for the first time in 5 years. There was quality too with the top 4 all recent winners on circuit based rallies. In the end it was David Tinn & Marc Fowler (Satria Neo) who won by over two and a half minutes. They set a total of 7 fastest or joint fastest stage times across the 12 stages and were never out of the top 5 stage times for the entire rally. Josh Payton & Marcus Mizen (Escort MkII) were best of the rest overnight but retired early on day 2, after dropping to a minute behind Tinn.