Pete Williams (Node 4-Giordana Racing) secured his third consecutive victory in the CDW League when he sprinted to victory at the end of Sunday’s 75-mile event near Cockermouth in Cumbria.
The 25-year-old Skipton rider (pictured above) took the victory by three seconds from Vanilla Bikes rival Ben Greenwood, the 27-year-old who now lives in Dalgety, Scotland, who had won the Dick Longdragon Memorial Road Race in Aberdeenshire the previous day.
A group of three had gone away from the start of the E123 race, and quickly established a lead of around 40 seconds, but a group of ten – including Williams - chased them down and maintained their push in search of glory.
At the bell, Williams attacked and only Greenwood could stay with him, while the pace split the remains of the leading group apart, while the bunch were left struggling along more than five minutes back.
Inside the final kilometre Williams rode away from Greenwood, taking the win by three seconds while Node 4-Giordana’s Matt Higgins took third, another 39 seconds off the pace.
In the supporting 3/4 race, Velocity RT’s Will Thomas secured victory – again by three seconds just like Williams in the E123 race – and Thomas was the best of four juniors who dominated the top positions in the 56-mile race.
Four riders got clear on the first lap and established a 20 second lead, and they were joined shortly after by three others.
At the bell another three – including Will Thomas - came across to make a leading group of ten, and the 16-year-old jumped away with James King (Mountivation) to take the win.
Results:
E123:
1 Peter Williams (Node 4-Giordana) 2:58:28
2 Ben Greenwood (Vanilla Bikes) @ 3sec
3 Matt Higgins (Node 4-Giordana) @ 42sec
4 Matt Cronshaw (Node 4-Giordana) @ 50sec
5 Chris Latham (Champion System) @ 1:22
6 Gunnar Gronlund (RST RT)
7 Tom Stewart (RST RT)
8 Matt Holmes (Team Raleigh)
9 Keiran Frend (Node 4-Giordana)
10 Kit Gilham (Herbalife-Leisure Lakes)
3/4:
1 Will Thomas (Velocity RT) 2:16:50
2 James King (Mountivation) @ 3sec
3 Andy Leigh (Velocity RT) @ 10sec
4 Henry Hunter (Team Wallis CHH)
5 Brian Rigby (St Helens CRC)
6 James Warren (Bill Nickson Cycles)
7 John Agnew (Lune RCC)
8 Steven Clarke (Wheelbase) @ 36sec
9 Arron Sands (Lomond RCC) @ 56sec
10 Neil Robinson (Lune RCC)
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.
