VETERAN rider Mick Ives rolled back the years to make cycling history again after winning the LVRC National Road Race for riders aged 75 and over.
The seven-time former World Masters Cycling Champion took his British Cycling Championship race wins to an incredible total of 78 after a superb performance over a tough 40-mile course Napton, Priors Marston and Staverton on Sunday.
Ives, who is the boss of Coventry-based cycling club M.I.Racing, defied gale force winds, flooded roads and steep hill sections to claim the win ahead of team mate Derrick Woodings and finish seventh overall on the day.
Ives is hoping to take his total to 80 race wins by the end of the year and has three British Championships to achieve his goal.
It proved to be a race to forget for fellow M.I.Racing rider Howard Baker who was riding in the 65+ category.
Baker, who taking part in his first race of the season, hit a pot hole just half-a-mile into the race, which caused him to crash and take out several other rider. He was taken to hospital with wounds to his face as a precaution.
Elsewhere, the team’s mountain bike star, Peter Busby, maintained his brilliant form last Friday by finishing second to former British Champion Pete Harris at Mallory Park in the last but one event of the Friday Evening Summer series.
Busby has a clear lead in the series and followed that performance up with victory in the Midland series in the Wyre Forest near Kidderminster.
And Anne Murray kept the team’s colours to the fore with a brilliant win in the Scottish Mountain Bike Series to retain a championship title she has won for the past two years.