There was one of the strongest CUCC showings in years at the weekend’s National 25, with 7 riders qualifying for the event.
Hayley Simmonds, who submitted her PhD this year, continued her storming summer at the Womens’ event on Saturday. Having already won the BC national championships (and therefore the right to wear the national champion’s jersey), set new competition records at 10, 25 and 50 miles in the space of 2 weeks (and new club records in the process!) she was the favourite lining up for the start. She came home with a clear winning margin of over a minute and a half in a time of 54:57. Hayley has been a mainstay of the club’s BUCS effort winning more BUCS points on her own than probably any other athlete in Cambridge and it will be sad to see her go!
In the mens event there were 6 people riding- in itself an acheivement, really showing the strength in depth the club has at the moment. It was quite windy, making for a very fast first leg but depressingly slow second half. John Mulvey did best of the bunch doing a short 50 and coming 27th. The second man in the Varsity team, this now means that he has completed all the criteria and is the clubs newest Full Blue!
Hal came agonisingly close to joining him but fell short so is still a half blue for the moment