In pictures: West Suffolk Wheelers Cycling Club hosts national grass track races

Father and daughter Dave and Ellie Mitchinson ended up dominating the grass track races at Fornham All Saints last Sunday, in the event organised by West Suffolk Wheelers Cycling Club.

British champion Dave Mitchinson (Cinnamon Café/Saddledrunk) dominated proceedings in the 8km race, riding away from the entire field with only second-placed Paul Groombridge (Norwich Racing Team) and third-placed Martin Smith (Chesterfield Coureurs) finishing on the same lap.

Meanwhile, Dave’s daughter Ellie (Montezuma Race Team) was also the easy victor in the women’s 5km event, and they each took the honours in the overall omniums – where results of all races during the afternoon were taken into consideration.

The meeting was a round of the National Short Distance League which ran over heats, repechages, semi-finals and a final.

Another current national champion, Tom White from Braintree (SES Racing), took the win ahead of Dave Mitchinson and Laurence Lisher (Cinnamon Café/Saddledrunk) in the 800m.

There were plenty of races for young riders as well, from as young as six to 16 years old.

Sam Brook, from the home club, rode strongly to share first place in the Under-16 omnium with Arthur Smith of Chesterfield.

Bailey Groombridge (Norwich Racing Team) won the omnium in the Under-12 category.

Other local riders taking part were: Stephen Brook, Mark Eastwood, Ashton Dyson and Will Tate.

The event was organised by a strong team from within the Wheelers, headed up by David Young, event secretary, and Neville Pettitt, club president, who prepared a brilliant track of 250 metres on the playing field at the Fornham All Saints Community Centre.

Pettitt was very much involved in track preparation, which involved mowing it weekly beforehand, and marking out the oval track, start and finish lines, marker flags and the judges gazebo.

The club has run this event for many years, attracting riders from all over the country as well as some local riders, and always proves popular despite grass track being considered a minor branch of cycle sport.

But in past years, entries for the event have included Victoria Pendleton, Laura and Emma Trott, Russell and Dean Downing.

This year’s event was supplemented by a non-competitive audax event, for road riders with around 30 riders from across the region, riding 50 or 100 km routes around west Suffolk.

The audax rides started at 9am, with riders returning in time to watch the grass track racing which commenced at 1pm.