Location: Sharlston, West Yorkshire
Event: May 11 2013
Report: Andy May
The weather forecast of persistent rain was thankfully wrong and the field of 55 riders who started the 37th annual John May memorial road race did so in blustery wind but with fairly clear skies above.
Ridden over a circuit which passes through Sharlston, along Normanton bypass then along the A655 through Warmfield, the 10-lap race distance covers a total of 110 km/ 68.35 miles and always produces a worthy winner. Today was no exception.
The decisive move of the race happened within the first couple of miles when Elite riders Tom Moses of Team Raleigh and Tommy Bustard of Herbalife were joined by Ben Kellett of Hope Factory RT and exploded away from the field.
Although Ben was the least experienced of the trio at 20 years old he knew what it took to win on the circuit having won the Ian Mountain Memorial Road Race, which uses the same route, last year.
These three worked incredibly well together and by the end of the first lap had built a lead of 50 seconds on the Peloton.
With Moses' Raleigh team mate Graham Briggs marshalling everything at the head of the main bunch their lead grew steadily by around 20 seconds a lap and they never looked in danger of being caught.
At the midway point of the race the incessant pace of Moses and Bustard got too much for Kellett and the three man lead group became two.
Things were shaken up in the Peloton as well when Dave Shackleton of Wilsons Wheels, Jacob Scott of Team Sportscover and Alistair Kay of Herbalife broke away and gave chase to the two leaders.
Whilst they quickly put time into the main bunch they never looked like catching the front two and it was left to them to contest the final sprint, which Tom Moses won comfortably.
Wakefield CC would like to thank the Commissaires, marshalls and all the friends and helpers without whom the race could not be run.
Results:
1 Tom Moses (Team Raleigh)
2 Tommy Bustard (Herbalife)
3 Dave Shackleton (Wilsons Wheels RT)
4 Jacob Scott (Team Sportscover)
5 Alistair Kay (Herbalife)
6 Matt Pilkington (Metaltek – Knights of Old RT)
7 Danny Lowthorpe (Langsett Cycles)
8 Graham Briggs (Team Raleigh)
9 Jamie Burgan (Langsett Cycles)
10 Josh Cole (Bike Box RT)
Please credit www.britishcycling.org.uk and link back if you use any of our race results.
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.
