Location: New Sharlston, West Yorkshire
Event: 13 May 2012
Report: Snowdon Sports and

Langsett Cycles RT’s Danny Lowthorpe won the John May Memorial Road Race in New Sharlston on Saturday on a circuit with plenty of climbing.

After a few unsuccessful breaks on the first lap the decisive move of the race came on lap two when Ben Ives, Jack Cutsforth, Ashley Brown, Simon Wilson, Julian Pearson, Mark Perry, Matthew Robinson and James Allen broke away. They were quickly joined by nine other riders including 2nd cat Danny Lowthorpe of Langsett Cycles and Elite rider Martin Ford of In Gear Quickvit Trainsharps. Working well as a group they stormed out into an unassailable lead, leaving the main bunch with nothing to ride for but training miles.

Unfortunately punctures and mechanicals put paid to the chances of several riders, but with one lap to go the lead group of 16 or so riders were still all together. Sportscovers Ashley Brown went for a long one going up the windswept Normanton bypass, but the pack brought him back as they reached the summit. Then, as they came down Pineapple Hill for the final time, with less than two miles to go Danny Lowthorpe jumped off the front and critically no one reacted to the move until it was too late. Showing fantastic form that belies his 2nd cat status he rode away from the lead group to take a comfortable and deserved win.

“With three laps to go there was quite a lot of attacks starting and people looking at each other,” said Lowthorpe, who was proud to secure a first ever race win for Langsett Cycles RT.

“With three kilometres to go I went on my own and didn’t look back, with about one kilometre to go I looked back and saw I had the gap so I carried on to take the win.”

Results:

1 Danny Lowthorpe (Langsett Cycles RT)
2 Ben Ives (We Love Mountains)
3 Martin Ford (In-Gear Quickvit Trainsharp)
4 Simon Wilson (Metaltek Scott)
5 David Shackleton (Wilson Wheels RT)
6 Jack Cutsforth (Herbalife-Leisure Lakes Bikes.com)
7 Ash Brown (Sportscover Altura RT)
8 Craig Battersby (Team Bglobal)
9 Alistair Kay (Herbalife-Leisure Lakes Bikes.com)
10 William Brown (Blackhawk 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.