FOUR McKinlays 1st Chard Wheelers riders represented the South-West at the inter-regional youth track racing championships over four days at the Manchester Velodrome.

Ruby Bond, Emily Attfield, Joe West and Ryan White all raced well and gained invaluable experience.

They contested a series of team and individual races of many different types against the best track riders from all over the UK and a couple of overseas teams.

The young Wheelers are mostly road racers who do some track racing in the winter league at Newport but here they were up against the nation’s top track specialists.

The intense competition meant they had to excel merely to stay in contention, which they did, and some great performances resulted.

In the Girls Points race Emily Attfield rode strongly in support of team-mate Lauren Dolan who took a bronze medal, while Joe West and Ruby Bond both made strenuous efforts for the team.

Ryan White recorded a personal best in the ‘Flying 200’ and a sprint win, however this still wasn’t enough to be in medal contention.

White, paired with Seb Dickens from Kingsbridge, took a commendable tenth place in the Madison race having ridden 12.5 miles at over 30mph.

The team events on Sunday again saw the Wheelers ride quickly with some good times and the event proved a tremendous experience for them.

Four time trial riders took to the roads of Wales on the R25/3 course and recorded some excellent times for the 25 mile event.

Buster Lawrence topped the list with 58m 27s while Ben Moran recorded a best of 58m 41s.

Mark German stopped the clock for his best time (58m 46s) for over ten years and Dave Moran rode just over the hour in 1hr 1m 3s.