Awesome pedal-power earned the roadmen of Southend and County Wheelers a top six finish in Essex race meetings.

Phil Holloway came fourth in the Glendene CC Hell of the Ends competition at Great Saling over 140kms and in the Chelmer CC ERRL contest over 102 kms all four Wheelers riders clocked up points.

Dean Shannon finished the race sixth, Holloway kept up with the leaders again in a creditable seventh place, and team mates Pete Anderson, 13th, and Pete Humpreys, 15th, were close behind.

In the club 50-mile time trial on the A13, Colin Wilgress made the most of the hot conditions with a winning time of 1.56.23.

Mick Hutson came second in 1.59.31, with Fred Little third in 2.05.09 and John Silvey fourth with a time of 2.23.36. Colin Lazell took the handicap award.

This Sunday the Wheelers return to the West Hanningfield road race circuit, at Church Road, for the first time in six-years when they promote the veterans riders' competition.

The eight mile lap around the reservoir sees two events run ten minutes apart, with the first race starting at 9am over 50 miles for the 40-54 age groups and the second event beginning at 9.10am over 42 miles for the 55 plus bracket.

l Southend Wheelers have been encouraging young cyclists to get on their bikes and take part in the Improve Challenge 1999 competition.

Children competing in the contest, which was organised by Southend borough council's youth development service and held at the town's leisure and tennis centre, battled it out against each other through a series of skills tests and speed trials.

The knock-out heats produced winners streamed into three different age categories - Kai Burton, 6, Samantha Wilkins, 7, and nine-year-old Daniel Wilkins - who now progress to the regional final.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.