This week sees the second hosting of the European Masters Cycling Championships, an event for riders over 30, at the Manchester Velodrome.

On Wednesday two of the Lichfield City Cycling Club members were riding in events with realistic medal prospects and did not disappoint.

Graham Truelove, a local postman, rides in the 60-64 category and in the heats of the 2000m Pursuit event he managed a time that put him into the head to head ride for the bronze medal against Frenchman Michel Briat. From the start the Frenchman went out quite fast and was soon 50 – 60 metres up on Graham but he concentrated on riding a consistent pace that he knew he could maintain. With trackside help from Beth Clayton, keeping track of his lap times, she urged him on. With 2 laps to go the Frenchman was slowing and Graham was slowly catching him, then with a final effort on the last lap it was obvious to everyone in the velodrome that he was in the lead and the applause rose. After collecting his medal he said he knew he could do it if he rode a steady race and didn’t go off too fast.

Steve Clayton was riding in a very different race in the 45-49 category, an 80 lap (20 km) points race, in which the leading 4 riders over the line every 10 laps gain points. Not only is it an event requiring stamina over 25 minutes but it also needs raw power to sprint for the line. After 10 laps Steve was third gaining 2 points. At the 20 lap sprint Steve really worked hard sprinting away from the pack with 150m to go but was chased all the way to the line gaining 5 points. It was obvious that he had had to work for those and in recovering over the next six or seven laps he dropped towards the back and scored nothing in the sprint after 30 laps. He picked up and went for the next sprint, coming third for 2 points, but again had to ease back and recover and again got nothing after 50 laps. For the majority of the race so far he had been towards the top of the points but never first. At the sixty lap sprint he again sprinted for the line and the second place gave him another 3 points. In the lap after this sprint a group of six riders made a break off the front and managed to get a half lap lead with Steve back in the main group. It stayed like this at the 70 lap sprint. At this point he was in Bronze medal position but if he stayed in that group he would not gain any points in the final race for the line and would drop out of the medals. Beth Clayton shouted to him that he was ‘losing the bronze medal’ clearly this focused his mind and he made a desperate effort to bridge to the leading group, almost turning himself inside out to do so. He caught them with a lap to go and managed to keep up with them and race for the final positions, coming second. That last 3 points moved him up into the silver medal. Another foot and he would have been first over the line and that would have been gold. Next year. After the race Steve said ‘that was hard I really had to work for that’.

Whilst Lichfield City riders have gained medals at national events in the past there have been few gained at international events. The most recent was the bronze that Graham Truelove won at the World Masters last year in Australia.