Location: Harrogate, North Yorkshire
Event: 05 August 2012
Report: Snowdon Sports
North West regional champion Matt Cronshaw (Node4 Giordana) proved strongest on the finishing climb to win round six of the Yorkshire League, the 72-mile Crosstrax Road Race over six laps of the Penny Pot circuit in North Yorkshire.
Ten riders reached the bottom of the 600-metre finishing climb together, including four of the team Raleigh-GAC squad, but it was 23-year-old Cronshaw, from Carnforth in Lancashire, who had the legs as the road kicked up at around 12 per cent towards the finish to win from Graham Briggs and Liam Holohan.
Attacks came thick and fast over the first one and a half laps without any break going clear, but two riders – Node4’s Dave Clarke and one from Raleigh – escaped on the second lap and stretched their lead out to two minutes until a group of 20 riders went off the front of a splintering bunch and steadily brought them back.
The leaders split last time up Pot Bank with six riders going clear and working well to establish a gap along the Penny Pot Lane straight, but Ian Wilkinson (Endura Racing) took up the chase behind them and after a number of attempts finally broke away with three other riders to bridge the gap to the front.
Local man David Shackleton (Wilsons Wheels) attacked with one kilometre to go, but he was caught 300 metres out with Cronshaw going on to land the win.
Results:
E/1/2/3:
1 Matt Cronshaw (Node4 Giordana)
2 Graham Briggs (Team Raleigh-GAC)
3 Liam Holohan (Team Raleigh-GAC)
4 Peter Williams (Node4 Giordana)
5 David Shackleton (Wilsons Wheels)
6 Bernie Sulzberger (Team Raleigh-GAC)
7 Ben Ives (We Love Mountains)
8 Evan Oliphant (Team Raleigh-GAC)
9 Ian Wilkinson (Endura Racing)
10 Steve Lampier (Team IG-Sigma Sport)
3/4:
1 Stephen Henson (Rock Racing)
2 Sandy Lockett (Biketreks RT)
3 Robert Shields (Gosforth RC)
4 Sean Newbold (Featherstone RC)
5 Paul McDonald (Slipstream RT)
6 Benjamin Pygott (Paul Milnes/Bradford Olympic RC)
7 Jacob Trotter (Squadra RT)
8 Mike Salkeld (Crosstrax)
9 Stephen Coates (We Love Mountains)
10 Paul Drop (Wilsons wheels)
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.
