News: Mildenhall Grasstrack This Weekend

The crème of the Country’s top women grass-track riders will be racing on Sunday in the Mildenhall Cycling Mini-Fest as they compete to become this year’s Women’s National 800m Champion.

News: Mildenhall Grasstrack This Weekend

The crème of the Country’s top women grass-track riders will be racing on Sunday in the Mildenhall Cycling Mini-Fest as they compete to become this year’s Women’s National 800m Champion.

The defending champion Jo Smith (Thanet RC Race Team) who is a regular at the Mildenhall track meetings is an elite rider currently ranked 18th in the UK! She will face some tough opposition from last year’s runner up Matilda Gurney (Spalding CC) as well as Harley Pell (Liv Awol), Madelaine Gammons (Datalynx Paranesis Cycling) and Katie-Ann Elliston (Southend Wheelers) from the strong field of 14 women.

This is a crown worn on several occasions by the Club’s Golden Member Victoria Pendleton CBE in her younger days before she went to win titles on the World and Olympic stages. The women maybe headlining the two-days of grass-track racing but the meeting will also be staging rounds of the Men’s National Endurance and Sprint Leagues on the Sunday, while the Juveniles will be racing on the Saturday. Racing on both days starts at 1pm.

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The Mildenhall Cycling Mini-Fest is still located in nearby West Row with its wonderful facilities set in a peaceful and tranquil rural setting around the Village Hall, where refreshments will be provided from over the two-days. It is just under three miles from Mildenhall which can be reached very safely by cycle using the tarmacked Wamil Way bridleway.

The whole event begins at 5am on Saturday (24th August) when the 300km Audax ride starts. This timed-touring ride is the longest one being promoted by C.T.C. (Cyclists Touring Club) Suffolk with 200, 160, 100 and 57km versions available from 8am, all under the auspices of the Audax organisation. After last year’s successful trialling, the organisers will once again be staging their ‘Come and Try It On/Off Road Time Trial’. The competitors will set off at one-minute intervals from 10am on Saturday to pit their wits against the clock over a mixed 23km course of byways, tarmac and Fenland Droves!

This is a unique type of course that only the Fens can offer. Despite this, every single rider that competed in last year’s test event, for time-trialling’s governing body in the UK Cycling Time-Trials (CTT), thoroughly enjoyed it. On Saturday afternoon from 4pm there will be a Cycle Jumble which this year, will be held in the Village Hall, with its licensed bar also open.

Although camping on site will unfortunately not be available, West Row has three campsites and the organisers are very much encouraging regular visitors to previous events to still come and spend the weekend in Suffolk cycling and at the Mini-Fest. The Club’s own Cycle Routes will be available to buy over the weekend from the village hall, where light refreshments will be served on both days.

The Festival and its predecessor the Cycling Rally, have always attracted many up and coming names from the world of cycling and in addition to Victoria Pendleton, there have been Laura Kenny CBE, welsh starlet Nicole Cooke MBE, Ben Swift, Jason Kenny OBE and Steve Burke MBE before they went onto international acclaim.

Further details of the Mini-Fest are available at www.mildenhallfestival.bike