NEWS: RST/Cycle Division Youngsters go close to a medal at Nationals

The Nelson sisters Emily, Josie and Lucy and Alice Towers (all RST/Cycle Division) go close to a medal in the Team Pursuit at the British Track Championships

NEWS: RST/Cycle Division Youngsters go close to a medal at Nationals

World Madison champion Emily Nelson (Left) combined with her younger sisters Lucy and Josie as well as Alice Towers (right) to go close to winning a Bronze medal at the British Track Championships in the Team Pursuit, an event Emily has won before. It was quite a performance for a team that went into the event for experience and almost came away with a medal.

The four riders in the RST/Cycle Division racing team colours (wearing RST skinsuits), two of them first year juniors and one of them with zero team pursuit experience along with the multi world championship winning Emily, started the competition with a time good enough to take them into the final for the Bronze medal despite it being their first ride together in this event. In the bronze medal final, they came up against GB Junior academy team riders and went within a second of achieving that as well as riding eight seconds faster than their qualification ride.

It was quite an amazing performance. Josie Nelson has been making a name for herself competing in cyclo-cross all winter pushing the British elite riders, both in Britain and Belgium, whilst first year junior Alice Towers, back in Britain after a successful trip to South Africa, had done a total of twelve minutes on TT bars and never ridden behind anyone in that position on a bike up to that point yesterday.

She was also still riding her Under 16 gears on a track bike she got at the end of 2018 and up until the Championships, she had only ever done four youth track league meetings and the Paarl Boxing meeting in South Africa. Her Cero wheels though were special having been used by new signing for Madison Genesis in 2019 and Sheffield GP winner, Joey Walker during his track racing days.

The team only entered at the last minute thinking that Emily could pass on some experience to young Josie and Alice and for them to enjoy the experience. Lucy Nelson said she would ride even though she hasn’t done as much on the bike recently. The plan was for them to do the event for experience and see what they could do next year and the answer to that surely has to be they have the foundation to do very well indeed!

The team said afterwards after missing the bronze medal “there was no disappointment at all because they had no expectations at all other than to qualify. With the riders being so young, the experience of taking on the GB junior academy riders was amazing for them and they were buzzing to have pushed them so close.”

Congratulations to them all for such a memorable performance and good luck in the future…