One hill too many for Oxford's Bikers
The Mountain Biking varsity contest this year was hosted by Cambridge and was held at the Beastway race circuit in east London. With a demanding track containing a fair few steep descents and climbs and some spectator friendly jumps it promised to be a good race.
The race was run on a cyclo cross format in which the riders tried to complete as many laps in the space of 1 hour. Andrew Cockburn (cucc) led pretty much from the start and went on to win the race. Adrian Lobito and Oliver Parkinson helped to keep the Oxford side alive by powering through to take 2nd and 3rd positions respectively. The rest of the Oxford positions were taken by John Binham who after a good start dropped back to 6th with a stitch, Ed Whyte 13th and Oliver Williams 14th both of whom had to battle with traffic and still put in a very strong performance. Unfortunately Rob Campbell had to retire but put in a valiant performance since he was riding his road bike!
Overall, taking the points of the top 3 riders for each, Cambridge won 23 points to 22, a narrow defeat but a fantastic contest.
17th Oct 2002