Oli Beckingsale leads Roel Paulissen in Cyprus

Reigning British National Champion Oli Beckingsale has got his 2006 campaign off to a great start with a win in his first MTB event of the year. The Voroklini International MTB race in Larnaka, Cyprus, saw Oli take the win ahead of Giant team-mate Roel Paulissen. The Commonwealth Games in March is a big target for Oli and rival Liam Killeen, so this early-season win will be a big morale boost.

“A result like this is a great boost for my motivation in the early season, it shows that all that winter training paid off and it will help me focus even more on the Commonwealth Games,” said Oli.

It was a good race for the rest of the Giant team, too. As well as Beckingsale and Paulissen in the top two slots, Bart Brentjens was in fourth and Stefan Sahm was ninth. And Oli wasn’t the only Brit up there – Simon Richardson got into the top ten.