Last updated 19:42, Thursday, 27 March 2008

CYCLING in winter is always dependant on the weather but by March events are appearing on the calendar, a notable event in the county was the Peter Taylor Memorial Ride, organised by Derwent Valley Cycling Club.

Peter died last year. He was a keen club cyclist and owned the cycle shop in the Market Square, Cockermouth.

The ride, over a distance of 60 miles, attracted 50 cyclists and followed a route from Eaglesfield over Bewaldeth and north around the Solway Plain to Abbeytown, on to Allonby and back over Bothel, through the hailstones, to finish back at the village hall, Eaglesfield for refreshments.

Easter weekend is traditionally the start of the time trialling season and Cumbria has always hosted the start of the national time trial season with the Rudy Project Circuit of Bassenthwaite Lake.

The veterans were off first, to brave the elements with one lap of 15.2 miles. The fastest rider, Ian Dalton, of the Cherry Valley racing team, clocking 34.39.

In the veterans on-target time category, Eaglesfield’s Ken Hargreaves, Team Swift, was fourth and fastest of the over-65s in 41.02.

The next group to start were the ladies, won by Sarah Storey, VC St Raphael in 38.15 and Victoria Ware, Keswick Bikes finished 12th in 45.19.

Local interest in the junior race was on 16-year-old junior Richard Houghton, from Haile, Keswick Bikes.co.uk who finished fourth in 38.22. Tom Walker, Torq Colnago won in a time of 35.08.

By the time the seniors started, the sun was out but still cold with them doing two laps.

The winner, Mark Holton, Probikekit.com clocked a time of 1.8.28, for the 31.2 miles, saying at the finish he could not feel the pain in the race because his legs were numb from the cold.

Brian Payton ,VC Cumbria was fastest of the local riders finishing fifth in 1.12.09 with Peter Brear seventh VCC, in 1.12.50 and Alistair Robinson, Keswick Bikes.co.uk finished ninth with 1.13.37.

Mark Amor with 12th place in 1.15.31 placed VCCumbria as top team.

This year, the event had been organised by Border City Wheelers.

The next open event is on Sunday April 13, a 25 mile TT from Cockermouth, organised by Velo Club Cumbria.