Cromarty to host road race championships
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MORE than 70 cyclists will be heading to Cromarty as the village will be hosting the Scottish National Road Racing Championship on Sunday.
The top riders from across Scotland will be racing around the county as the event returns to the Highlands for the first time in over 10 years.
A total of 58 men and 17 women will be competing with last year’s men’s champion Mark Robertson favourite to defend his national title.
But he is expected to face strong competition this year as Ardross cyclist Kyle Gordon, who represented Scotland at the Commonwealth Games earlier this year is also competing.
The championships will start and end in the village. The women’s course will be 51 miles with the men’s race 102 miles long.
The course is a 17 mile loop with women doing three laps and men doing six.
Inverness based Moray Firth Cycling Club (MFCC) successfully bid for the competition to come to Ross-shire and club spokesman Eric Davidson says they are expecting a close contest.
“Kyle Gordon will be taking part and it will be an interesting event to see how he gets on as road racing is not his forte.
“But he is one of these people who can turn up to a race and adapt to the conditions as he has that class about him.
“To ride 100 miles is a long distance and we don’t think that anyone will breakaway from the rest of the field.
“Some cyclists might find the distance too much and fall by the wayside. MFCC also have riders taking part including Gavin Dempster, Lewis McFarlane and Donald MacRury who we think could do quite well.
“There will also be nine riders from a team called Bioracer-Project Go who if they don’t win their racers will certainly be up there animating the race in a significant way.
“But Mark Robertson will be the number one rider at the competition.”
Davidson said preparations for the road race are also going well.
He said: “We are appreciative of the Cromarty community for allowing us to use the area and the village hall for the event.”
