TEAM MI Racing Townsend Vehicle Hire riders celebrated success and also suffered heartbreak across a number of disciplines.
The Coventry-based team competed in a number of events throughout the month of May.
The 34th year of the Friday Night Summer Series of mountain bike races took place across various different venues in the Midlands.
Team riders Jefferson Tear-Verweij, Michelle Paget, David Garrett, Nick Popham and James Garrett competed in the first five rounds of the series.
Recent signing J Garrett rode to a strong second-place finish in round four of the senior’s race in the pick of the rides.
Paget also took part in the Dirty Nocka endurance mountain bike race in Cannock Chase in a three-hour solo race and finished on the podium in third place.
The road racing season is also well underway with several team riders taking part in the Lotus Cars Cycle Race League.
Racing took place on the Lotus test track in Norfolk as Richard Perham, Andrew Braithwaite and Ray Cochrane finished 24th, 27th and 29th in the first race.
New team signing, Braithwaite, also competed in the second race and finished 15th, improving on his previous performance.
Back in the Midlands, Jack O’Neill raced in the Banbury Star Cycling Club open road race over 92km which included four ascents of the famous Edge Hill as he finished 24th overall.
And several team riders made the trip to Gatehouse of Fleet in Scotland to race in the Gralloch – a UCI World Gravel Championship qualifying race.
The 111km course includes over 1,700m of climbing and attracted more than 2,500 riders from around the world.
In the men’s 55 to 59 age category, Nick Whitley entered the final few miles of the race with two other riders with a separate lone rider a couple of minutes ahead.
Whitley prepared for a three-way fight for the final two podium spots.
However, he dropped a chain which caused him to stop and lose crucial time which ended his hopes of finishing on the podium as he crossed the line in fourth place in a time of 3 hours 45 minutes.
Whitley has now qualified for the World Championship final which takes place in the Netherlands in October.
In the same race, Andy Jackson finished 143rd with Andy Oliver 178th and Greg Ashley 196th.
And in the women’s 45 to 49 age catgeroy, Zoe Shepherd placed 26th with Lynsey Whitley 27th in her first-ever gravel race as she completed the course in 5 hrs 58 mins.
The team’s time trial riders continue to produce impressive results in races across the country.
In the Northampton and District 10-mile time trial series, Rugby-based rider Shepherd won the women’s race with Ashley fifth in the men’s road bike category.
And Nuneaton-based riders David Mead and Simon Law finished first and second in the Royal Sutton Cycling Club 10-mile time trial in Staffordshire.
Further back, Joe Murray placed seventh with Mark Wise eighth and Michael Wills 12th.
The combined times of Mead, Law and Murray saw MI Racing take the team prize.
Several team riders also competed in the Melton Olympic CC 25-mile time trail in Nottinghamshire.
And Mead once again finished on the podium with a third-place finish in 49 mins 40 secs.
Teammate Murray placed 15th in 55 mins 31 secs with Wills 30th in 59 mins 33 secs.
Leamington-based rider Wise competed in the West Pennine CC 10-mile time trail in Cumbria.
The first 12 riders all dipped under the 20-minute mark as Wise placed 27th overall in a new course personal best time of 20 mins 56 secs.
