THERE is a new team in cycling and they’re quickly making a name for themselves.

The Ludlow Brewery Race Team, sponsored by Ludlow Brewery, Pearce Cycles and Martin Sharpe’s MS Midlands furniture business, has drawn together some of Shropshire's best racing cyclists, time triallers and mountain bikers and all their winter training is already paying dividends.

The team’s first successes came in the Stourport winter series of circuit races in which ten Brewers competed.

Simon Ward, Jack Wilson, Tim Spencer, Jacob Sparrow and William Coley all gained British Cycling ranking points in the men’s races and Catherine Coley was among the race winners and gained 29 national ranking points in the women’s series.

This was followed by the two-day University of Birmingham stage race last month in which Ward came second in the time-trial stage and Coley came fourth overall in the women’s race.

Off road, the Brewers have been represented by father and son Paul and Max Gibbons, and by Heulwen Gilbert and Penny Priest, all of whom competed in the opening round of the British XC series at Pembrey.

Now that the road-racing and time-trialling season is firmly under way, the Brewers are out in force at the Ludlow Cycling Club Tuesday time trials and are dominating the field. Riders have also competed at the Bill Jinks Memorial Road Race in Warwickshire, the Two Counties Road Race in Bridgnorth and the Gerry Hughes Memorial Road Race in Inkberrow where Paul Chubb came 13th in a hotly contested bunch sprint finish.

Coming up are the fearsome LVRC Tour of the Abberleys – a three-day race in Great Witley, Worcestershire, over the May Bank Holiday weekend – the Stan’s Grand Prix in Shrewsbury town centre on May 29, the Welsh national road-race championships on June 6 and a host of other events as the summer progresses. Watch out for the black and gold!