Ava Luce Stars Award recipient June 2022
Ava Luce a 13 year old from Lossiemouth would have been glued to the media coverage of The Tour de France Femmes recently. She rode her first competitive cycling event when she was six years old. Her dad Gary took her to one of Forres cycling club’s evening events. Clearly, she was already watching the televised professional races, as her first question was “where are the cars with bikes on the roof”. Now she is aged 13, a member of the Forres club, and competes in events for her age group, 13 and 14 year olds, across Scotland and further south. Her ambition for the future is to be good enough to compete in these races where the competitors are supported by those team cars bristling with bikes on the roof.
Since 2016 Ava has raced across most of the cycling disciplines, and now realises that the cost of travel and the maintenance of different bikes for different disciplines had to be addressed. Her decision has been to focus on road racing, time trials and cyclocross events. Recently she travelled to Scarborough to compete in the British Youth Circuit Race championship. She competed in her age group and finished in the top half of the field. Being one of the younger riders she will have the opportunity to compete again in the same category next year when she will be stronger, faster and more experienced. It was a great ride and a great learning experience for the young rider. Indeed, Ava is very focused on developing the bike handling skills required for bunch racing as well as continuing to work on her fitness and speed.
The HiVelo trustees were agreed that although she had not quite reached the minimum age for the Stars Award, her progress thus far indicated that she was a young talent with the determination to keep improving.
Her next big event will be a stage race in Lancaster during August.
Ava receives a monetary award of £500 to assist her along the road to achieving her aims.
Good luck Ava from us all at HiVelo.
Applications for the next Stars Award close at the end of August,
