2012 National Wattbike Fire Service Championships

Posted by Ben Addison on Feb 01, 2012

We've received a wonderful review of the first ever National Wattbike Fire Service Championships, held at the Friary Grange Leisure Centre in Lichfield.  We often talk on the blog about individuals using the Wattbike for training, for rehab and for various charity events but there is also a great race feature within both the Expert Software and Power Cycling Software.  The Fire Service competition replicated a full range of track cycling events and we've even got some great video footbage of the Team Sprint.

Here is the review, direct from the Fire Service...

The FSSAA cycling section entered a new era with the introduction of a new angle of cycling – Wattbikes!

On the 16th of January the British Fire Service Cycling Section held its national competition, dominated by West Midlands, but with a competitor from Cheshire entered it made it a National event.

The racing format consisted of two groups of four riders, starting with a 400m time trial. Richard Whitley from Cheshire coming in with the fastest time, taking an early lead in the overall event. The next race was the 3000m scratch race - a painful event for a sprinter. Endurance paid off though for Steve Horsley, taking a clear win by 13 seconds.

The Team Sprint followed, with teams made up of two riders decided by times from the 400m time trial to give each team an equal chance of wining. Steve Nutt and Lewis Commins proved they were the fastest over 2 x 250m.

With a choice of events including a devil, points and 2000m scratch for the fourth race the majority voted for the latter. Again Steve Horsley showed true form to come in 11 seconds in front of the rest of the field.

The final event was a 400m handicapped race and with this advantage Julie Cooper took the final race, closely followed by Steve Nutt and Iain Evans.

The scores were totalled and the positions were as follows:

1st Steve Horsley
2nd Steve Nutt
3rd Lewis Commins
4th Andrew Savage
5th Iain Evans
6th Richard Whitley
7th Julie Cooper
8th Paul Cockburn

After receiving positive feedback from all persons involved, with more support there is the potential of Wattbikes becoming an annual competition for the British Fire Service cycling section.

Goody bags were received by all, so a big thank you to all that sponsored the event including Friary Grange Leisure Centre. West Midlands Fire Service Academy and Zipvit.

Thanks for the update and we hope to see the 2nd National Wattbike Fire Service Championship in 2013!