Location: Corley, Warwickshire
Event: 25 March 2012
Report: Snowdon Sports

Promising Cycle Premier rider Tom Black secured victory in the Bill Jinks Memorial Road Race, which was staged over a 64-mile course based around Corley in Warwickshire on Sunday.

The 21-year-old Isle of Man rider took the solo win more than a minute ahead of Fred Williams Cycles’ rival James Ratcliffe, while Congleton CC veteran Mike Harrison, 45 and from Sandbach, was third.

Black attacked with around 50 kilometres to go, and managed to keep clear of the chasing bunch for the remains of the race to take a strong victory by more than a minute.

The supporting race for third and fourth cat riders, which covered 45 miles of the same course, was won by Newark’s Blake Cowley, while Birmingham’s George Bate (MJS Racing) took second, following up from his victory the previous day in the Victoria Park Criterium in Leamington Spa.

What they said

“It was a good full field, and I followed a few wheels early on, but I was a marked man and it was looking hard to get away,” said 2/3/4 winner Tom Black.

“But I kept in the top 10 or 15 riders, and there were still attacks coming and going but nothing was sticking. There was a climb on the circuit which levelled out before another rise, so I sat tight for another lap, then hit them hard with five laps to go.

“I was hoping a few more people would come with me to get working, but nobody did, so I was on my own for 50 kilometres. I just settled into a good rhythm and was feeling good. With two laps to go I knew I had it in the bag because the gap was pretty big, and by the line it was over a minute.

“It was a really good day for racing, the first day really where you had to use your head, keep drinking and keep hydrated.”

Results:

2/3/4:
1 Tom Black (Cycle Premier RT)
2 James Ratcliffe (Fred Williams RT)
3 Mike Harrison (Congleton CC)
4 Tom Marshall (Cadence Cannondale RT)
5 Matthew Bonehill (Stafford RC)
6 Mike Simpson (GS Henley)
7 Liam Stones (Team Corley Cycles)
8 David Watson (Coventry RC)
9 Tim Allen (Clay Cross RT)
10 Nick Noble (Bristol RC)

3/4:
1 Blake Cowley (unattached)
2 George Bate (MJS Racing)
3 Paul Chubb (Epic RC)
4 Dean Parkes (iOptix.co.uk)
5 Richard Barnett (Stone Wheelers)
6 Simon Ward (Epic RC)
7 Stephen Edwards (Wolverhampton Wheelers)
8 Jack Mills (Halesowen A&CC)
9 Michael Greaves (Gannet CC)
10 Joseph White (Lindsey Roads CC)

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.