Location: Astley, near Stourport on Severn, Worcestershire
Event: 10 June 2012
Report: Snowdon Sports
Paramount CRT’s Mike Jones secured victory in the Stourbridge CC Road Race, staged over a 70-mile course near Stourport on Severn in Worcestershire on Sunday.
The 45-year-old from Shrewsbury crossed the line a bike’s length ahead of his rivals from an eight-man break which proved to be the decisive move of the race.
Early attacks came thick and fast as the riders tackled the first of five laps of a lumpy 14-mile circuit which has been used for rounds of the Rudy Project National Time Trial Series in the past, but nothing managed to stick.
The elastic finally broke after around 30 miles, and a group of eight escaped and began working well together to establish a healthy gap over the bunch.
“We stayed together until the final lap,” said Jones. “One or two people started to get edgy, and it was the young lad (17-year-old William Hier) who went first.
“His move split the leading group, but I just managed to take his wheel and get round him on the uphill sprint to the finish.”
Jones will now continue his preparations for the Hope Route, a sportive in mid-August which takes riders from Geneva to Nice.
“It’s only my third race this season, and I’m still a little rusty,” he added. “I used my experience to win this one, rather than my legs!”
Results:
1 Mike Jones (Paramount CRT)
2 Adrian Bird (Rapid Performance Coaching)
3 William Hier (Halesowen A&CC)
4 Matthew Jennings (unattached)
5 Matthew Bonehill (Stafford RC)
6 Mark Corbett (Worcester St Johns CC)
7 Joe Charley (Wolverhampton Wheelers)
8 Matthew Clarke (Halesowen A&CC)
9 Ian Alexander (Cheltenham & County CC)
10 Philip Mason (Climb On Bikes)
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.
