David Clarke (KTM) gave his competitors the slip to sprint to victory in the Drummond Trophy in Lanarkshire, Scotland, on Easter Sunday.
A strong field of riders included NFTO riders Dean and Russell Downing and James McCallum, while David Lines (Starley Primal Pro Cycling) and Evan Oliphant (Team Raleigh) also started the 85-mile Scottish classic.
But it was Clarke who formed an early four-man breakaway and despite a chasing group trailing for most of the race they could not close the gap to the leaders.
By the final lap Clarke battled out for the win with Peter Murdoch (Paisley Velo RT) and Ben Hetherington (Achieve-Skinnergate).
Clarke, 34 and from Swadlincote, sprinted to a narrow victory ahead of Murdoch with Hetherington coming in on his own for third.
Dean Downing (NFTO) was left chasing the leaders on his own and finished fourth, 2-58 behind the winner.
After the race, Clarke said: “Usually Peter is faster than me at the finish, it was a really close sprint and we were neck and neck until 10 yards to go when I knew I had won.”
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Robert Moore (Pedal Heaven) won the overall in the SERRL Stage Race over Easter. Lawrence Carpenter (Catford CC Banks) won the final stage, while Jamie Pine (Pedal Heaven), Jacob Tipper (KTM) and Elliot Porter (Rapha Condor-JLT) also won stages.
And on Easter Monday’s Alan Rosner Memorial at Hog Hill, Andrew Griffiths took the win, and was joined on the podium by Richardson’s Trek team-mate Simon Alexander in third, while Josh Green (Neon Velo) was sandwiched in between in second.
At the Pro Cycle Hire Essex Classic it was Andrew Nichols (Langsett Cycles) who sprinted out of a six-man breakaway to clinch victory in the 95-mile race based near Saffron Walden.
An early break including Nichols was caught by an 18-man chasing group and it was a late breakaway out of the leading group which succeeded.
Nichols was joined by Simon Alexander (Richardson Trek), Dean Shannon (Richardson Trek), Chris Bartlett (Metaltek), Rhys Lloyd (Metaltek) and Douglas Coleman (CC Luton).
In the sprint finish it was Nichols, aged 24, from Sheffield who was fastest taking his second victory of the season from Coleman in second and Lloyd in third.
On Good Friday it was Jonathan Harris (GS Avanti) who sprinted to victory in the E/1/2 race at the Eagle Road Club Circuit Races at the Redbridge circuit
Despite several strong moves going during the race nothing got established and it came down to a bunch sprint.
Harris was the fastest taking victory from Lewis Atkins (Pedal Heaven) in second and Alex Minting (Neon-Velo Cycling Team) in third.
Jonathan Mould led a 1-2 for NFTO in the elite race at the Castle Combe Easter Classic.
The winning move went after eight laps and included Mould, Joseph Wiltshire and Samuel Williams from NFTO, Rhys Lloyd (Metaltek Kuota) and George Pym (Starley Primal).
On the bell, Mould attacked and held off the chasers with Williams clinching second and Lloyd in third.
Chester Road Club’s Jonathan Huck won the fifth race in the CDNW League at Bickerstaff, Lancashire, on Saturday.
In a bunch gallop at the end of the 41-mile race near Ormskirk, Huck took the win ahead of Maciej Furczyk (Manchester Wheelers) with Wayne Greenhalgh (Champion System) third. In the women’s race, Eve Dixon (Team 22) took the win – again in a big sprint finish.
And in the Sandie Radford Memorial Road Race in Nomansland, Wiltshire, Primera UK rider Andrew Syme, 20, took the honours ahead of Kim Little (Merida Factory Racing) and James Horton (Cannondale).
Snowdon Sports is a long-established independent sports news agency, which supplies editorial to a range of media outlets - such as Cycling Weekly - as well as sports governing bodies. Snowdon Sports often covers results at Cycling Time Trials events in the UK and has long been a source of information and imagery to Cycling Weekly.
