Location: Holyport, Maidenhead, Berkshire
Event: 14 July 2013
Report: Snowdon Sports
Breaking away on the last lap, Ashley Cox (CC Luton) got the better of Eastern Region champion Andrew Hastings (Finchley RT) in a two-man sprint to win Python RT’s 85-mile road race in Berkshire.
A group of around 25 riders went clear at the six-mile mark in the nine and a half-lap race and, distancing themselves from the rest of the 79-man field, averaged 27mph as they stayed together until four miles to go when 30-year-old Cox, from Biggleswade, and Hastings made good their escape.
Cox took the sprint to secure his maiden road race win with a gap of around 40 seconds to the rest, who were led in by Oliver Rossi (Twenty3c.co.uk-Focus).
“I’ve ridden the circuit before, it’s pretty flat and hard to make a break stick, and I thought people would suffer later in the heat,” said Cox, “so for two hours I sat in the bunch and did absolutely nothing.
“With four miles or so to go there’s a little bit of a climb, I attacked over the top and Andrew Hastings went with me.
“We worked together to stay clear, and i made sure I was second wheel when we turned off the circuit on to the finishing stretch with around 500 metres to go into a block headwind.
“I’ve had seconds, thirds, fourths and fifths, the win had always eluded me, but eventually I’ve got one. I can relax now!”
Result:
1 Ashley Cox (CC Luton)
2 Andrew Hastings (Finchley RT)
3 Oliver Rossi (Twenty3c.co.uk-Focus)
4 James Lewis (NFTO)
5 Lewis Atkins (Pedal Heaven RT)
6 Matthew Jones (Team IG-Sigma Sport)
7 Ian Knight (Team Corley Cycles)
8 Jack Beezer (Edinburgh RC)
9 Owen Lake (Twenty3c.co.uk-Focus)
10 Mark Perry (Dirtwheels Cycles)
11 William Goulbourne (Team V-Sprint Racing)
12 William Pratt (Aprire Bicycles)
13 David Creggan (Pedal Heaven RT)
14 Jonathan Shuster (Team Corley Cycles)
15 Douglas Coleman (CC Luton)
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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.
