Luke Houghton returned to winning ways at the Bovingdon Bomber this week with an impressive win after returning to racing since finishing the final year of his Civil Engineering Degree Apprenticeship.
And Houghton is not the only Verulam Reallymoving rider enjoying racing at Bovingdon this year as new signing Alice Butcher, 22, has also had a string of strong performances, already achieving a third place at Bovingdon despite this being her first full season of circuit racing.
Verulam CC’s Matt Wight was another rider who managed to avoid the early crash at Bovingdon this week, and was active throughout the race, taking third place on the line.
Houghton said: “It’s great to be back at the front of races. I’ve had to prioritise my studies this year, so racing has been paused until June. I’ve now raced most weeks. In my first week back at Bovingdon racing I was dropped - so I’m grateful to have improved so much already.
"There was a crash on the last lap that split up the race this week, I was lucky enough to avoid it, although I had to catch up with the front few racers. I managed to overtake them in the final few bends and carried my momentum through to the line, with enough time to celebrate my first race win in nearly two years. Thanks as ever to Andy Fleet and the Hemel CC team for organising these great evenings."
Verulam Reallymoving was also in off-road action at the latest round of the Beastway Mountain bike racing series at Hog Hill.
Andrea Bartoluccio was first in his category and third overall, with Matt Davey taking sixth place in his category, while Steve Dunn was fifth out of 81 in the over-50 class on gravel in the two-day Gritfest event in the Cambrian Mountains in mid-Wales.
Verulam Reallymoving is now looking forward to racing in their Fete du Velo ‘home race’ and go into the event hugely fired-up off the back of Houghton’s win.
Racing on Sunday (July 3) starts with the Masters Handicap at 10am, followed by the Category 2/3/4/J Women (10.50), Category 2/3/4/J Men (11.40), Scooterthon (12.40pm), Parent and Child Relay (1pm), Open Course Riding (1.20pm), U8 Boys & U8 Girls (1.45pm), U10 Boys & U10 Girls (2.05pm), U12 Boys & U12 Girls (2.25pm), U14 Boys & U14 Girls (2.50pm) and U16 Boys & U16 Girls (3.25pm), before racing ends at 4pm.
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