Cyclist David Clarke of 2 Moat St Church Gresley.MERCIA Cycling Club’s professional cyclist, David Clarke, has joined the Azerbaijan-based Synergy Baku UCI Continental team – put together by David McQuaid and David McCann – for 2013.
Church Gresley rider Clarke, 33, will be the only English member of the 16-man team, which includes his former Node 4 Giordana team-mate Rico Rogers, of New Zealand.
Also in the team are Northern Ireland’s Connor McConvey, a former An Post-Sean Kelly rider and noted climber, Irishman McCann, who has three Olympic Games, three Irish road titles, six TT titles and 49 victories in UCI races under his belt, and Malaysian sprinter Anuar Manan, who has 18 UCI career wins, with three victories and 17 top six placings in 2.HC Tour stages.
Denmark’s John Kronborg Ebsen has one UCI stage win and two top-six placings in 2.2 races in his palmares, while former Namibian national champion Dan Craven rode in the UK with IG Sigma Sport last year.
German sprinter Christoph Schweizer, Russian Kirill Pozdnyakov and Ukraine’s Oleksandr Surutkovich complete the foreign element of the team, while there are also six local riders, in Elchin Asadov – who won the TT national title last season – Tural Isgandarov, Elvin Naghiyev, Ruslan Mustafayez, Aqshin Ismayilov and Samir Cebrayilov.
Joshua Walters claimed fourth place overall in the Notts and Derby Cyclo-Cross Under-16 League following a 37th-place finish in the final event of the 2012-13 season.
After the cancellation of what was due to be the final event at Darley Moor because of heavy snow, Waters instead travelled to Peel Park in Bradford.
He finished nine minutes behind winner Thomas Craig (Team Scott UK), from a field of 51 riders.
The overall placings saw Waters end with 871 points, a tally only beaten by winner Tom Weeds (Derby Mercury, 897 points), William Gascoyne (Matlock CC, 896) and Oliver Peckover (Nottingham Clarion, 873).
Mercia’s Christian Aucote finished 20th place in the Senior category with 1437 points, some way off overall winner Andrew Naylor (Fossa Racing), who claimed 1788 points.
Peter Rose finished in the money with a fifth place standing in the Midlands Veterans series after completing six time-trial events – three 10-mile, one 23-mile and two 25-mile – in the 67-years-and-over group.
At the annual dinner and prize presentation at Kings Court Coughton near Alcester, Rose also picked up age standard medals at at 10 and 25 miles, and was elected president of the Midlands Veterans Time Trial Association.
On Sunday, February 17, Mercia Cycling Club are holding a 50 and 100-kilometre reliability trial, starting at the National Forestry Centre in Rosliston at 10am, and non-members are welcome.
