OVER the Bank Holiday weekend, Neil Rollins travelled to represent Ilkley Cycling Club in the three-day, four stage, Tour of The Abberleys in the Over 50s event.

He started the weekend with a strong time trial performance with 12th place.

He then followed that with two seventh places on the next two stages before fading slightly on the hilly final stage to 16th.

Overall, this gave him a strong 15th place, including fifth in the 55-59 age category.

Rollins was hoping for better and exhausted and emotional following the last stage.

He said: “I tried to chase too many moves, I was desperate to get away......it was fruitless, my legs were not in it.”

Over in Cheshire, Pete Kettleborough managed to finish safely mid-pack in a large and hectic bunch sprint for the line in the Steve Gutteridge Memorial Race.

In round two of the CDPP series at Colne, Michael Strange rode to 12th in the 3/4 cat race.

Dave Wilby undertook a gruelling eight-hour mountain bike race at Keilder.

He covered approximately 76 miles, including 9,500feet of climbing which gave him eighth place and sixth V40.

In time trialling, Joe Turnbull was first under-14 in the Holmfirth Cycling Club 10m event, where he had to battle a fierce, cold northerly wind on the return leg.

This was good reward for lots of hard races in tough company recently for Joe.

On Thursday evening, Simon Warren, organiser of the Ilkley Cycling Club time trial series, was pleased to have mild weather and light winds for the season’s opening event.

Riders were rewarded with some great times, which will be hard to beat as the season progresses.

Climbing specialist Tom Garnett looked super smooth on his way to take the win, but Tom Asher and Cam Blake were not far behind.

So there looks to be the prospect of some fine competition over the summer months.

Results: Tom Garnett 25.55, Tom Asher 26.19 , Cam Blake 26.21, David Kinloch 26.46, Thomas Tordoff 27.01, Ged Millward 27.14, Michael Strange 28.06, Ben Cook 28.09, Arthur Wilson 29.21, Liam Rees 29.35, Jonathan Asquez 30.30, John Tate 30.32, Stephan Brown 31.27, Mike Blake 33.15, Jill Tate 33:55.