Youngsters post top times at Manchester Rollapaluza

Cycling stars of the future kicked butt at the Manchester Velodrome over the weekend, but they weren't out on the track - they were competing on the Rollapaluza rollers.

Over 170 riders competed on the rollers riding roller-specific Condor bikes. 250 times were actually posted because so many of the younger riders wanted to try and better their first times. Rollapaluza was at the Manchester Velodrome providing some extra track side entertainment at round one of this Winter's Revolution track series. Riders could compete over two distances (if they were young enough) with 250m competitions for Boys and Girls as well as senior competitions for Male and Female riders.

The 250m titles were won respectively by 12-year old Christian Braybrooke in a time of 13.54 seconds and 9-year old Hanna Reid in 14.12 seconds - who pipped another 9-year old, Lucy Crookall, by 0.06 seconds to take the win in the Girls competition.

The old timers didn't have it their own way in the seniors competition won by 14-year old Matthew Rotherham (we're guessing he's the same Matthew Rotherham who was pulling up trees in the Newcastle Track league over the summer) in a time of 20.21 seconds. In second place, half a second down was 15-year old James Claydon. 

So why were the boys competing against men? Winston from Rollapaluza explains: 

"The men's competition isn't decided on age but height. We have two kids bikes and two adult bikes, if they're big enough to race on the adult bikes then they take part in the adult competition. Matt has already competed in Rollapaluza and has got a lot of potential!"

Experience did count in the Female race though, which was won by Susanna Jolly in a time of 22.37 seconds.

Full results can be viewed on the Rollapaluza site and we've got more pics here