THE Kalas Cup two-day stage race was contested by teams of four riders from all the central, south and west regions along with Wales.

The best racers from the regions battled it out over a circuit race, an individual time trial and a team time trial, all of which took place at Merryfield near Ilminster.

Sunday saw a 75 mile open road race around the highways and byways of Somerset.

This was a senior event but a very strong South-West junior team (Under-18) entered and contained two local riders including Rob Hogg of McKinlays 1st Chard Wheelers.

The other former Wheeler Tom Baylis who lives near Combe St Nicholas but now races for the Haribo Beacon cycling team.

The South-West team cycled well throughout and their consistent performance saw them take third place overall.

Individually, 17-year-old Hogg was the top Junior rider and was second in the Under- 23 competition.

Under 12 George Bond also put in a great ride to take his first ranking points of the year in the Kalas Cup support races.

On Thursday evening the annual TVCRA team trials took place at Merryfield.

A team containing Hogg and Justin Dance from the Wheelers produced the quickest time of 40 minutes exactly for the 19.2 miles.

The next highest Chard team featured Dave Moffett, junior Oli Cooper and Under-16 Ryan White who stopped the clock at 43m 30s.

Another top performance came from Dave and Ben Moran who teamed up with Nigel Ware and ‘Buster’ Lawrence while the 1CW ladies consisting of Wiebke Rietz, Ruby Bond, Emily Attfield and Mary McFadzean of CS Dynamo also rode very well on a very warm evening. The Wheelers youth riders dominated their categories with Joe West and Rowan Ellis winning the Under-14 pairs from Chris Burrows and Mike Donaldson.

Sunday sees the next round of the South-West youth regional series at Paignton.