By Snowdon Sports Editorial

AFTER claiming his third gold medal in National Time Trial Championships, Chris Newton (Linda McCartney RT) made an impressive return to bunched racing with a win on his local roads in the Stan Robson Trophy event at Stokesley, North Yorkshire, on Sunday.

Newton outsprinted his new McCartney team-mate Matt Stephens by four lengths at the end of a tough 86-mile course in the Middridge CRT event, sponsored by Middridge Precision Engineering with support from Durham Pine, BikeTraks and Lovell Sport.

The event attracted only 30 advance entries, but exactly half of those were elite category riders. Wayne Randle (Pro Vision-Planet X) completed a breakaway trio and scuppering a McCartney clean sweep, with Rob Reynolds-Jones and Jon Clay leading in a chasing group of eight riders, just under two minutes down.

What proved to be the decisive move came after just 15 miles as the field started the second of six laps of a circuit taking in the climbs of Skutterskelfe Bank and Weary Valley.

In the break with the eventual winners were Danny Fox (Team Marie Curie), Mark Wordsworth (Dinnington RC, Scottish visitor Neil Brown (Deeside Thistle), Alastair Kay (York Cycleworks), Mike Moss (Cottingham Coureurs), former winner Dave Cook, his Middridge team-mate Ian Childs and Steve Fullerton (Richmond and Darlington CC). They worked well together, and a chase group of seven riders failed to close the gap.

Newton attacked on the bell lap, with 22 miles to go, as they took the Weary Valley climb. Randle spotted the danger and, marked by Stephens, quickly jumped across the gap. As this attack split the group, Childs and Fullerton lost contact, leaving three leaders and eight chasers. Childs eventually salvaged 15th place but Fullerton, feeling the effects of a 56-minute 25-mile ride the previous evening, abandoned after going back through the field. Newton took the final sprint from Stephens, with Randle just three seconds off t he pace.

Newton, who won on this circuit as a junior and had previously finished second to Paul Curran on the same course, is the latest in a long line of distinguished winners of the Stan Robson event, including Curran, Mark Walsham, Dave Cook and Paul Sherwen.

1. Chris Newton (Linda McCartney RT) 86m in 3-17-19
2. M. Stephens (Linda McCartney RT) st
3. W. Randle (Pro Vision-Planet X) at 3sec
4. R. Reynolds-Jones (Linda McCartney RT) at 56sec
5. J. Clay (Linda McCartney RT)
6. D. Fox (Team Marie Curie)
7. M. Wordsworth (Dinnington RC)
8. N. Brown (Deeside Thistle)
9. A. Kay (York Cycleworks)
10. M. Moss (Cottingham Coureurs) all st.