A TEENAGE cycling star showed his continuous improvement by taking second place in the latest round of the West Mids Road Race League.

Competing against some of the best adult cyclists in the region Will Truelove, aged 17, from Dilwyn, proved his talent to sprint to second place after 70 gruelling miles of racing.

Truelove, who studies as Hereford Sixth Form College, is in his first year of adult racing after moving up from the youth category last year.

His latest race, titled the Phil Ward Memorial, saw some of the best teams in the Midlands fielding four or five riders while Truelove raced solo under his Abergavenny Road Club team.

The race distance was 70 miles with seven laps including a 1.5 mile climb up a shallow hill of between three and five per cent, on top of which was the finish line.

Some early breaks were successively brought back until 40 miles to go when two riders got away and Truelove fought hard to bridge across with three others.

This break of six riders road well together and increased their margin to over one and half hours to stay away to the finish.

Despite averaging 26 miles per hour for the two-and-a-half hours race duration Truelove saved just enough to sprint for second place out of 76 starters.

Finishing in the bunch behind were fellow Herefordshire riders Dean Jones (Ely Race Club) in 23rd and Will Perrin (Bikestrong-KTM) in 24th.

Meanwhile Andy Turner, from Ross-on-Wye, took victory in stage two of the KALAS Cup Stage Race which took place last weekend in Somerset.

Chasing the overall race victory Turner finished alone to take the win, but had to settle for second overall after losing time in the previous day's time trial.