HALESOWEN Cycling Club's Matt Clarke came close to landing a major win in only his second UK race of the season.

He came within half a lap of victory in the Totnes-Vire two-day in Devon over the weekend.

Clarke finished 13th in the first stage on Saturday, a timed climb up the lengthy Haytor ascent on southern Dartmoor, and then finished in the peloton in the afternoon's circuit race.

In the main road race stage on Sunday, he made it into the day's winning break but ran out of steam not far from the finish, dropping out of the break and finishing behind the main pack.

"I felt I was capable of winning as I was the fastest finisher in the break, but my legs just gave out," he said.

Also flying the Halesowen flag was new signing Cameron Biddle, who finished not far behind Clarke on the hill-climb, then came in fourth in the circuit race and eighth on the Sunday stage for a fine provisional placing of 13th overall.

Closer to home, James Phaysey and Patrick Fotheringham rode strongly in the first road race of the West Midlands season, finishing fifth and ninth respectively in the Two Counties road race near Bridgnorth, not far from the base of team sponsors Wenlock Spring mineral water.

Finally, in one of the oldest races in the Midlands, the Little Mountain Time Trial held at Shelsley Walsh, Halesowen rider Tom Swingler won the roadman competition coming home in one hour and 39 minutes. Local rider Simon Dighton took the honours in the VET’s 50 race with a time of one hour and 49 minutes.

Meanwhile, Kinga Ingram was invited to be one of four cyclists to represent the West Midlands under-16 girls team in the Youth Tour of Scotland last weekend

She joined team members Grace Lister (Wolverhampton Wheelers), Lucy Hart (Mid Shrops) and Josie Nelson (Lichfield).

On the last day, West Midlands had to collectively make up two minutes to take top spot. In an exciting final race on day three the team fought hard with three girls managing to get in the lead bunch finishing only 38 seconds behind Wales and second overall.

Kinga Ingram also finished highly overall coming in eighth in the general classification.