Callister weathers storm to claim Series success

Starting in sunshine and held over two laps of The Tiddly triangle, Callister was first off and crossed the finish line for the first time on exactly 21 minutes – precisely when the heavens opened.

With all riders out on the course the sky turned black, the rain bounced off the road for the rest of the event in some of the worst racing conditions in living memory.

The totally unexpected hazard of tractors repeatedly using the lane with over 30 trips in both directions in the near dark, as well as a steady stream of motorbikes, made for a challenging evening everyone was pleased to see the back of.

Callister took the first points away from reigning champion and 2024 Series leader Tomos Hales with a course record-breaking effort of 43 minutes, 49 seconds.

The Aerologic rider was delighted when a trawl back through several years of records confirmed he had sliced a huge 29 seconds off the previous benchmark.

“My first course record – very pleased with that, and in not great conditions on second lap,” he said. “I was hoping for no rain, but it really started coming down the last lap. I couldn’t see much due to rain. There was a big headwind up to Peplow which was tough, but I managed to pace it well.”

Hales took the runner-up spot in 45:24, pushing out Callister’s Aerologic team-mate Mark Pritchard by 1:40 in 45:24, extending his Series lead to 12 points over Jonathan Mills-Keeling. Mills-Keeling finished a strong fourth overall and took the Veterans’ win for his fourth straight SB round in a row in +9:02, 25 seconds ahead of Chris Riley. he has now opened up a dominant lead of 38 points at the head of the SB Veterans Series thanks to this effort.

With only one woman in competition, Hayley Wells was guaranteed another maximum 20 points for finishing, also making it a straight four out of four wins.

Junior winner Ben Southgate was one place and eight seconds back from Wells in 52:27.