Birthday boy Matt Bostock (Canyon dhb p/b Bloor Homes) made it four wins from four in the HSBC UK | National Circuit Series with a commanding performance in Colne.
Bostock was too strong for second and third placed Jon Mould (Madison Genesis) and Oliver Wood (Canyon dhb p/b Bloor Homes) in the bunch sprint, and will now be looking to secure an overall series victory in the penultimate round in Barnsley on Friday evening.
In a lightning fast start to proceedings Rob Scott (Team Wiggins Le Col) was the first rider to launch a break, building an early lead of 18 seconds over a chasing bunch including Scott Auld (Ribble Pro Cycling), Gabriel Cullaigh (Team Wiggins Le Col) and last year’s winner Joey Walker (Madison Genesis).
After Scott was reeled back, the Ribble Pro Cycling trio of Auld, Mark Stewart and William Brown all enjoyed spells on the front, and Auld was soon joined by Jonathan McEvoy (Madison Genesis) as the pair established a commanding gap on the bunch as the race entered its second half.
Next it was the turn of Cullaigh to launch a blistering attack, and as the bunch struggled to coordinate the chase the Team Wiggins Le Col rider quickly established a 19 second gap. Some good work by Madison Genesis soon brought the race back together with 10 minutes to go, and it was Bostock who was strongest once again in the bunch sprint for the line.
Speaking after the race, Bostock said:
“I’ve been going okay all season but I just seem to have clicked a bit and the confidence helps. Once you get that first win the belief is there and you sort of find your own luck then – you just know where you need to be and what you need to do.
“It’s a really fast course here and although an hour seems quite short it’s actually a long time and you can make up a lot of ground in the last five or ten minutes. I made sure that nobody got too far away and kept an eye on the favourites to make sure that nothing too dangerous went off, and I had a good team so I knew I’d have the firepower to bring it back.”
Bostock now enters Sunday’s HSBC UK | National Circuit Championships in Rochester as one of the clear favourites, and knows he will be a marked man given the season he has had so far.
“It sort of feels a bit like it’s mine to lose, and I don’t know if I like that now. It’s not that I’ll be gutted if I don’t win, but I’d trade these four wins for the national champs.”
The penultimate round of the HSBC UK | National Circuit Series takes place on Friday (19 July) in Barnsley, before the series finale on Wednesday 24 July in Sheffield. To find out more click here.
