Last weekend’s World Cup at Vallnord saw another round of great results for the young British Cycling tea, as well as other British riders competing on the circuit.
Evie Richards made it three under-23 podiums out of three in Vallnord, as she finished third in the Andorra round of the 2017 UCI Mountain Bike World Cup. Ella Conolly made huge improvements on her previous world cup outings by finishing in 18th place. Fellow Brit, 21-year-old Isla Short finished in eighth place for OMX Pro Team, her best ever world cup finish.
Frazer Clacherty started in the second row on the U23 grid and fought hard throughout the six-lap race to finish in 16th place.
In the Elite field, Annie Last put in another strong performance for her team OMX Pro Team, finishing 17th in a large field of 62 riders, while Grant Ferguson was the best placed of the British contingent in the elite men’s race, finishing in 23rd position for his team CST Sandd American Eagle MTB Racing Team.
All these riders, plus Iain Paton and Kerry MacPhee (Scottish Cycling), are now setting their sights on the next round, which takes place this weekend in Lenzerheide.
Lead coach Simon Watts said: “We saw some really strong performances in Vallnord, with Evie finishing in third and Ella finishing in a career best 18th place. Frazer placed 16th which I was pleased with as his hard work is paying off and he’s starting to show consistency within the race.
“The course in Lenzerheide is technical with a mixture of natural woodland with exposed roots and rocks and man-made jumps and drops which make it spectator friendly. I’ll be looking for all three of the riders to build on what they’ve learned from the world cups so far and to back up their results from last weekend with more good performances this weekend.”
