Keighley Sport
World progress for lone rider Moses
11:01am Thursday 2nd February 2012
Keighley’s Joe Moses had to win two battles at last weekend’s World Cyclo-Cross Championships in Belgium.
Firstly the 17-year-old had to make it to the start line after national champion Hugo Robinson, fellow junior men’s rider Alex Welburn and national under-23 champion Steve James were taken sick the night before the race and ruled out.
National Trophy Series winner Moses was therefore the only British starter in the junior men’s race at Koksijde.
His second task was to better last year’s finish, which he succeeded in doing. He came 39th, six minutes down on the winner and a solid improvement of eight places on 2011, when he was lapped.
After the race, Moses spoke of his battle from the back of the grid, where he avoided a start-straight crash and went on to make positions as the race progressed.
He said: “I made places and kept out of trouble in the opening lap but there was a lot of pushing. Towards the end it got really hard, especially running.
“I had a good performance though after getting back into it last week.”
He added, however: “It was hard being on my own. I missed the company of my team-mates who I was with all week.
“We were all looking forward to the race and had been training together as a team, hoping to race successfully.”
Three British under-23 riders made it to the start of the dunes course, with British Cycling mountain bike olympic academy athlete Kenta Gallagher producing the best result.
He moved through the field to finish 30th, Halifax’s Jack Clarkson being pulled when 40th with one lap left in what was his first year in the category. Luke Gray was 52nd at three laps.
There was much better news in the women’s race, Nikki Harris finishing a superb sixth, while Helen Wyman was 13th.
Ian Field was 36th in the elite men’s race at three laps, with Paul Oldham failing to finish.