BURY Clarion's junior riders came to the fore in the first two weeks of July with a series of impressive performances.

Jake Wright, aged 17, performed admirably to complete the gruelling Junior Tour of the Basque Country.

After stage two he was fifth of the first-year juniors, but mechanical trouble and a crash hindered his progress and he finished 55th overall among the 105 finishers after 85 dropped out during the surviving the five stages.

Francis Woodcock, aged 13, rode well in the Rossendale Road Club’s Sporting courses event, finishing the 11-mile course in 30mins 41secs.

Completing the hilly circuit at an average speed of 21.5 mph is a quality performance for a competitor of his age.

Oliver Philbin, aged 14, rode his first event last weekend when he was a member of the club's B team in the National Clarions 25-mile team time trial in South Yorkshire.

The other two members of the team were John Bunting and Phil Shaw.

They had had very little practice riding together and were pleased with their time of 1:10:23.

It is two years since Gavin Wright was last in competitive action but he has remained racing fi and was a key member of the club's A team at the event alongside Joe Cadwallader and David Stammers.

The course was technically demanding, with many corners to negotiate, and the windy conditions making fast times difficult, but they completed the course inside an hour, a benchmark for the distance, finishing in 59:49.

They were only 3:41 behind the winning Tuxford Clarion team.

Jon Longworth's time of 1:00:09 was enough to finish 23rd out of a 70-strong field in last Saturday’s Valley Striders CC 25-mile time trial on the famed Boroughbridge course in Yorkshire.

Andrew Williams set a new personal best of 1:02:33 in last Thursday’s Southport CC 25-mile time trial.