ANDY Edwards is tearing up the streets to good success after trying his hand at criterium racing this season.
The Dursley Road Club member had never given the cycling discipline, where riders race around a short circuit, a go but the former Wotton-under-Edge rider has found it is bearing fruit.
Edwards rode for the first time in crits around the Castle Combe race track but the man who was classed in the lowest order of British Cycling’s rider bands – category four – soon found himself in Winchester having a go at their Cycle Fest, part of British Cycling’s Tour Series.
And he came within a wheel of winning the final Tour Series race for his category, which was one of the support events to the main televised racing that day, in Bath last month.
The former Wotton ace followed that up with a couple of races in Bristol where he just came outside the top ten on June 20, when challenging the field at the Bristol Grand Prix.
And, on the day he celebrated his 40th birthday, Edwards rode at the Bristol BikeFest, which was just seven days before the city’s Grand Prix event although the BikeFest included a race in which the Dursley RC man and the rest of the field did not take seriously as it involved taking a swig of cider every lap. Hardly the best way to be competitive.
Nevertheless, Edwards is pleased to have made such good progress in cycling and earned enough points from riding in the serious races to move up from a fourth category rider to the more challenging third category.
Edwards said: “I grew up in Wotton and have been a member of Dursley Road Club on a couple of occasions over the years.
“Over the past 15 years, I’ve done long distance events – mountain bike marathons, mountain bike cross-country races and a couple of ironman triathlons.
“This year, I wanted to do some local races and the best option seemed to be local crits. So throughout the summer. I’ve done four crits at Castle Combe and then the Winchester, Bath and Bristol events.
“Bath went even better than expected and I just got pipped at the post and managed second place in the fourth cat race.”
But moving up to the third and fourth category Bristol Grand Prix race was a whole new experience from riding with the lowest-ranking group.
“It was tough,” added Edwards. “I didn’t make the front group and spent the whole race chasing down the second group for one reason or another.
“But there were lots of lesson to take away.”
And so it is onwards and upwards for Edwards as he looks to add further races to his criterium portfolio before the summer season ends.