Cycling spotlight was on Basingstoke at the weekend as Folly Farm hosted the first post-lockdown mountain bike event on the British Cycling calendar.

The adapted-format Southern XC event saw 150 riders compete in a time-trial format in separate ‘bubbles’ across the weekend with social distancing in place.

“It was fantastic”, said Basingstoke rider Ruth Miller, of Essex Road. “The Eventrex organising team really had pulled out all the stops to get this event on – smaller field sizes, separate parking and toilets, lots of hand sanitiser and social distancing, staggered starts, and a different course to allow more easy passing places if you did need to.”

Organiser Adam Buckland, whose Eventrex business is based in Greenham Common, was delighted to get up and running. “It was so good to be back. It was a relief after so many months of uncertainty to see people enjoying racing their bikes again. The feedback from the riders has been brilliant, and we’ve really enjoyed putting the event on. The venue has been really supportive as we had to postpone from the original date and totally change the course to ensure we were able and confident to deliver an event that felt safe and was fun. Having to look at things a bit differently this year has also actually given us some positive ideas about how we might run some alternative events in the future; staggered start format seemed to really appeal to less experienced riders. It was a great weekend and we look forward to more of the same at The New Forest MTB this weekend.”

Elite rider Abbie Manley (Southampton, Campinense - Velo Performance) won the overall women’s event from Anna McLeod (Twyford), with Ruth Miller (Basingstoke, Ben Thomas Coaching) third. Manley’s former team-mate Amy Perryman (Hargroves Montezuma’s RT) would have been close to challenging for the win if she hadn’t suffered a snapped chain to lose 5 minutes running home on her last lap.

In the men’s event, Patrick Atkinson (Hadleigh, Renvale RT) took the win as only 13 seconds covering the first five places after four laps. Paul Hopkins (Shaftesbury, Merida Factory Racing) and Sam Bishop (Woking, Sigma Sports Vittoria) rounded out the top three, with Paul Lloyd (Banjo Cycles/Specialized/Raceware) and Joe Beckingsale (Wales Racing Academy) not far behind.

The event moves to the New Forest for round two, with round three at Checkendon on 6th September. Fore more information, visit: eventrexuk.com/southernxc/ and facebook.com/britishcyclingsouth.

Photo credit Kevin Sheldrake Photography https://www.kevinsheldrakephotography.com/