Nick Noble wins fourth round of Kalas Winter Series

Report by Snowdon Sports

With Sunday’s Perfs Pedal road race falling foul of the flooding in the south of the country, 2013 winner Marcin Bialoblocki (Velosure-Giordana RT) settled for a ride at the fourth round of the TVCRA Kalas Winter League in Somerset where he was edged into second place by veteran campaigner Nick Noble (BH-Solidor-WAM Youth).

Bristol-based Noble, 48, sprinted home ahead of Bialoblocki and Alexander Murison (Equipe CMI) from a six-man leading group after an hour of racing in windy but bright conditions on the Merryfield airfield circuit at Ilton.

Ed Bradbury (Cambridge University CC) made it three wins in a row in the East London Winter Series at Hog Hill and closed the gap on overall leader Gunter Zechmann (London Phoenix CC) to two points after five rounds.

Zechmann had to settle for sixth place on the day in a front group of eight as Louis Modell (Catford CC) led out of the final bend but was overhauled by Bradbury on the climb to the line.

Aylesbury’s Ed Clemens (Spirit Bikes RT) won the final round of the Imperial Winter Series at the Hillingdon circuit in West London ahead of James Wilson (VC St Raphael) as veteran Vince Halpern (Handsling Racing) was rewarded for his consistency across the eleven events by taking the overall title.

Middlesbrough junior Charlie Tanfield (Adept Precision RT-NE Healthcare) took the elite race honours in the second round of the Velo 29 Winter Series in North Yorkshire, holding off Nathan Wilson (Clay Cross) and Ben Hallworth (Ilkley CC) for victory on the Croft circuit.

Hail and 40mph gusts failed to stop Simon Brooks (VC St Raphael) from scoring his seventh win in eight races as the Winter Apres League continued at Preston Park in Brighton, the 46-year-old’s latest success coming at the main expense of Ryan Visser (Redhill CC).

In time trials, Rob Sharland scored a win for promoting club Kingston Wheelers CC in the Gil Jessop Memorial Sporting event over a windswept two-lap course based on Ripley, Surrey.

Leading by 15 seconds at the bell, Sharland all but doubled his advantage on the second lap as he finished in 31-28 for the 13.58 miles to win from Tejvan Pettinger (Sri Chinmoy CT), 31-57, and Liam Maybank (Twickenham CC), 32-51.

Mountain biker Stephen James (Renvale RT-Revel Outdoors) continued a successful switch to cyclo-cross by winning the Ely Cycles Eastern League end-of-season team finale in Essex, finishing 32 seconds clear of David Vaughan (North Road CC) after ten laps of the Furze Hill course at Mistley.