Preview of National U-23 Open Series Race, Welland, 14 June

Halesowen Academy is fielding a 6-rider team for this race, potentially the biggest line-up on the start sheet. This numerical strength reflects well upon the riders’ ability to manage their seasons and it will be great to see this prestigious road race on local roads this year. It’s also an event for which the Academy can claim some credit, as it was inaugurated as a round of the national open under-23 series last year, before handing the organisation on to another local club, Stourbridge CC.

The team is Ben Arey, Dan Ascroft, Luke Harris, Kaleb Herbert, Harry Howlett and Luke Mannings, and there is collective strength here as well as some recent good form which hopefully will make a difference here.

The course is a rolling 15-mile loop starting in the village of Welland, close to Great Malvern, and incorporating country roads close to the town of Upton on Severn, before finishing off-course up a one-mile climb to the finish at Hollybush Church, on the south side of the Malvern Hills. There is nothing massively challenging on the course, other than a particularly exposed section across Castlemorton Common early on the lap, so what tends to tell in races on this course is the distance – in the Regional ‘A’ Academy Road Race here in March a very strong break went late in the race, while the same thing happened in last year’s National under-23 series race here.

The field isn’t a full one, with around 60 riders expected to start, but there is a lot of quality here, starting with the winners of the two previous rounds this season – Luca Nicholson (VC Baracchi) winner of the PB Performance race in late March, and Alex Foster (Cycling Sheffield), who won the Danum Trophy in South Yorkshire in mid April.

Foster brings a team which is arguably the most cohesive in the race – Nathan Edwards and Denhom Edwards have both placed highly in previous rounds. Another pre-race favourite will be local rider Lewis Tinsley of Beeston, along with Maxwell Hereward of Team Zappi – who took 3^rd in this event last year – and Iestyn Jones of PB Performance who won our race here back in March.

In terms of Halesowen riders’ form, Ben Arey comes into the race off the back of a fine fourth place in the Yorkshire regional championship, while Harry Howlett has just got round his first attempt at a National series race, placing a respectable 32^nd in the Tour of the Reservoir. Dan Ascroft achieved a breakthrough Nat B performance a few weeks ago with 11^th in the National university championships, while Kaleb Herbert and Luke Mannings both rode strongly for 6^th and 8^th when the race was run on the Welland circuit at the start of the season.

Photos: Matt de Beger