Winning all three stages, double Olympic champion Laura Trott dominated the CDNW Surf and Turf Two Day in Preston to take maximum points from the fourth round of the British Cycling Women’s Road Series.
The weekend turned into a battle between Trott’s Wiggle Honda team and Katie Archibald (Pearl Izumi Sport Tours International), who finished second on all three stages to end up 12 seconds down in second place overall.
Wiggle Honda’s Dani King and Elinor Barker finished third and fourth overall ahead of first-year junior Grace Garner (RST Racing Team) with series leader Nicola Juniper in seventh place to retain her lead in the series.
Trott finished two seconds clear of Archibald in the 1.6-km prologue time trial at the UCLAN Sports Arena with Garner two seconds further down in third place, and the three riders filled the same positions in the following 45-minute criterium, held on the same circuit as the prologue, with Trott winning a tight sprint after being led into the finishing straight by King.
Numbers told again in the concluding 81-km stage, over 13 laps of a tricky circuit, with Archibald the only one able to stay with the Wiggle Honda trio but missing out again to Trott in the final sprint – Garner leading home the bunch in fifth place but, two minutes down, losing her third place overall.
Phil West (VC St Raphael) won the first two stages in the supporting Regional A men’s race, but missed out on the time bonuses on the final leg to see overall victory go to stage winner Hamish Graham (Green Jersey RT) by a single second from Sean McGovern (Teamwallis CHH RT).
Sean Noon (Edinburgh RC) outsprinted his rivals in a six-man break to win the seventh round of the BC Junior Road Series, the Bikeline Tom Simpson Junior Road Race on an amended course, due to roadworks, over 18-laps of an undulating triangular circuit in South Yorkshire.
The leaders, originally numbering seven, broke away early in the second half of the race and, 45 seconds up at the bell, had just enough in hand to hold off the chasing pack – Noon taking the uphill sprint ahead of Alexander Braybrooke (Velocity WD-40) and Joey Walker (RST Racing Team), the highest-placed overall of the group at the start of the day in sixth in the table.
The bunch were led in by second-placed overall Matt Gibson (Velocity WD-40), closing the gap on leader James Shaw (HARIBO Beacon CT).
Attacking inside the final five kilometres, Adam Blythe (NFTO Pro Cycling) soloed to victory in the 140-km Pearl Izumi Jersey International Road Race.
Blythe came in 14 seconds clear of second-place Steve Lampier (Node4-Velosure) and Guernsey’s James McLaughlin, riding for a composite Channel Islands team – the three away in a break which, also including Ian Bibby (Madison Genesis) and Yanto Barker (Team Raleigh) went clear on the first lap over the climb of St Catherine’s Hill.
In a four-man break that formed ten miles into the race, Peter Murdoch (Paisley Velo RT) won the sprint prime and the award for the most aggressive rider before attacking eight miles from the finish to score a deserved win in the 75-mile Hugh Dornan Memorial Race to Roseneath, in Scotland.
Murdoch jumped away on a climb as a chasing group closed in on the leaders and crossed the line nine seconds clear of Gary Hand (KTM road-nad-trail.com) and his own clubmate Scott McCrossan.
Al Murison (Bikeshed-UEX) came out on top in a bunch sprint in the feature elite race of the Omega Criteriums, at Winchester ahead of Deacon Cutterham (NFTO) and Mitch Webber (Pedal On).
Back on the calendar, the Pete Taylor Memorial Road Race was won by Alex Orrell-Turner (Wheelbase Altura MGD) who instigated what proved to be decisive break on the first lap of the Yorkshire Wolds course and went on to prevail in a ten-man sprint ahead of Steve Guymer (Clay Cross RT) and a former winner of the City Road Club (Hull) promotion, Richard More (Squadra RT).
