Marcel Schubert (Darlington Cycling Club) was just five seconds off the course record as he snatched victory in the Velo Club Cumbria 10, while under-23 rider Abi Smith (Team Breeze) dominated the women’s event.

With two other podium positions to his name already this season Schubert, aged 39, from Darlington, recorded an average speed along the A66 of 30.8 miles per hour on his way to winning his first race of the season in a winning time of 19 minutes and 28 seconds.

His time was just five seconds shy of the 19-23 course record but was enough for victory by just six seconds after a hard-fought event in which the top four riders was separated by just 21 seconds.

The weather was dry but cool for the Velo Club 10 on Saturday afternoon with riders starting outside Beck Wythop alongside Bassenthwaite Lake and continuing past Braithwaite and Portinscale to the turn at Keswick.

Schubert had finished third in the Cleveland Wheelers hilly 25 and Stockton Wheelers 23 in recent weeks but was victor on the more traditional 10 course.

He edged a tight battle for the podium positions with Alex MacRae (Crimson Orientation Marketing RT) taking second on his first outing of the season in 19-34 which was a single second faster than leading veteran Douglas Watson (GTR - Return To Life).

Second veteran on scratch David Crawley (Velotik Racing Team) was unfortunate to miss out on the podium positions in fourth (19-49) while Jason Bateman (Team Bottrill) was third veteran on scratch in 20-33.

Schubert had travelled down from the North East to check part of the course used for the National 25 Mile Championships on the L2529 in August.

“It was really good and I was pleased with it,” said Schubert.

“The conditions were perfect and it is a course that really suits me. The previous two weeks I raced on hilly courses and I managed third places but they didn’t suit me that well as a heavy guy.”

Steven Hilton (Warrington Road Club/Horton Light Engineering) was quickest veteran 50+ (21-21); Russ Richardson (Teesdale CRC) fastest veteran 60+ (21-34) and Lee Foster (Border City Whs CC) was quickest veteran 70+ (23-31).

The fastest team of three was Velo Cumbria with David Gleave (20-55), Kenneth Brown (21-31) and Brian Payton (21-35) all combining.

The quickest under-23 rider was Lloyd Wise (Bikestrong-KTM) who finished eighth overall in 20-40 while Syd Brown (FTP (Fulfil The Potential) Racing) was fastest junior in 21-09.

Meanwhile, in the women’s event Smith took her seventh victory on the bounce clocking an average speed of over 27.9 miles per hour on her way to setting a time of 21-30.

The 19-year-old, from York, added the win to her victories in the Cleveland Whs hilly 25, VTTA (Yorkshire) 25 and East Lancashire Road Club 10 in the past few weeks.

On this occasion Smith’s time was a minute and 18 seconds faster than leading veteran Christina Murray (Army Cycling) in 22-48 while fellow veteran Rachel Jeff (Velo Club Cumbria) took third (23-37).

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