Location: Skipwith, near York
Event: 28 June 2012
Report: Julie Rodman
A superb round of the North Yorkshire Road Race League was staged by Clifton CC on the Thornaby-Wheldrake course on the outskirts of York, where earlier thunderstorms subsided for a lovely evening of racing, perfect sunny weather and not a cloud in sight.
Fifty one riders took to the start line for three laps of the 16km circuit. A few riders tried to get away from the main bunch which on the previous races had ended up in one large bunch gallop.
Tonight eventually one rider did get away, and was then followed by a few others who came together to form a nice group of six with two to go. They worked well with each other and at one point had a 30 second gap.
However on the final lap through Thornaby the main bunch decided to try and pull them back. But with 3km to go it became apparent the break would stay away for a sprint finish, with a well deserved win by Daniel Shoreman (Crosstrax) who has been a constant top 10 finisher over the previous weeks.
He was followed by Ady Rudd, then a close call for Chris Fothergill who got third by a lunge followed by Richard Siddle with Paul Hickman and David Henson taking the 5th and 6th places. 15 seconds later Lewis Jackson who is leading the league won the bunch gallop for 7th from Ben Roberts, Ed Nicholson and Mike Salkeld.
The only disappointment of the night was a crash with two kilometres to go to the finish in the main bunch with the promoting club’s Toby Everett sustaining a badly injured knee, while team-mate Ruben Barrett also went to hospital.
Luckily for the riders the police were passing through the village and quickly summoned the emergency services. We send good wishes to all the riders who fell, especially Toby and Ruben.
On a positive note it was lovely to see villagers along the route with signs lifted stating Allez Allez - the Tour de France came to Yorkshire villages tonight.
Results:
1 Daniel Shoreman (Crosstrax)
2 Ady Rudd (Dirtwheels Cycles)
3 Chris Fothergill (Rock Racing)
4 Richard Siddle (BBM Revolution)
5 Paul Hickman (Malton Wheelers)
6 David Henson (Rock Racing)
7 Lewis Jackson (Cottingham Coureurs)
8 Ben Roberts (Bridlington CC)
9 Edward Nicholson (York Cycleworks)
10 Mike Salkeld (unattached)
British Cycling would like to thank the organising team, officials and everyone else who helped promote this event. Our sport could not exist without the hundreds of people, many of them unpaid volunteers, who put in many hours of hard work running events, activities and clubs.
