Hill champion Evans lives up to star billing

Evans produced a dominant display to win the Oswestry Paragon Mount Road event by more than 13 seconds, outpacing the course record-breaker from the first two rounds, Jonny Morris, with a fabulous time of five minutes 46.83 seconds.

Despite that effort Evans failed to lower the course record he set in 2017 but was pleased to open his season with a win.

“As usual Oswestry Paragon put on a great event.,” he said. “The hill was its usual disgusting self, that last ramp taking an eternity to climb and leaving us all gasping for air at the finish.

“The new chip and tar surface seems to have slowed the course down considerably, with most times seemingly 10-15 seconds slower than usual.”

Morris took overall runner-up after stopping the watch on 6:00.19, 6.11 seconds ahead of David Scott.

Series leader Kirk Vickers was in for a shock as for the first time this year he didn’t take maximum points – that honour went to Revolutions Racing’s Sam Morris.

The 19-year-old had taken county thirds in the opening two rounds but really came into his own on this longer hill to take the county win with a fine 6:08.24.

Vickers had to settle for the 18 points from county runner-up thanks to his 6:14.02 ride, but is certain to come back strongly in the upcoming rounds in the face of this year’s uprated competition.

While Vickers dropped his first points of the Series, that wasn’t the case in the Veterans’ championship with Ian Coupland adding another 20-point maximum to his tally from three events.

Coupland pushed out Gareth Sanger by 2.66 points to end his afternoon on 7:10.40.

The Series is proving popular with young riders who have a natural weight advantage on the climbs, and after missing roudHafren CC’s Sam Holwill made up for lost time, taking took a fine win in 6:27.55, which earned him sixth place overall.

In the Women’s competition there was no stopping Evans’ wife Jess. She clocked 7:46.34 to win by nearly 46 seconds from Hannah Pearson.

Meanwhile, Oswestry Paragon member Liz Breeze helped herself to the maximum 20 points on offer with her 10:49.36 effort and moved into joint second in the Women’s championship.

Standings after three rounds

Overall:1 Kirk Vickers SCCA Private Member 58; 2 Sam Morris Revolutions Racing 52; =3 Ian Coupland Mid Shropshire Wheelers, James Satoor Mid Shropshire Wheelers, Sam Holwill Hafren CC 28.

Veterans: 1 Ian Coupland Mid Shropshire Wheelers 60; 2 Mark Hammond Paramount CRT 52; 3 Neil Coles Oswestry Paragon CC 38; 4 Jason Harland Revolutions Racing 28; 5 Andy Collins Mid Shropshire Wheelers 24.

Junior: 1 James Satoor Mid Shropshire Wheelers 40; 2 Sam Holwill Hafren CC 38; 3 Lewis Page Mid Shropshire Wheelers 34; =4 Charlie Price Mid Shropshire Wheelers , Lucy Hart Mid Shropshire Wheelers 30

Women: 1 Lucy Hart Mid Shropshire Wheelers 38; =2 Liz Breeze Oswestry Paragon CC, Rebecca Richardson Hafren CC 20; 4 Daphne Jones Mid Shropshire Wheelers 16.