On a mountain high
By John Wilkinson for Snowdon Sports Editorial. Pictures by Phil O’Connor

Stuart Dangerfield boosted his Olympic ambitions with a personal best performance over a hot and windswept lap of the TT course to gain first blood of the Manx cycling week on Sunday.

FRANKING the form which brought him his second national 25-mile title a fortnight earlier, Stuart Dangerfield (Camel Valley C&TC) got the Isle of Man Week off to a scintillating start with the third fastest lap ever on the renowned 37.75-mile Tourist Trophy circuit to win Sunday's International Mountain Time Trial.

Dangerfield went round in 1-2617, beating his own best for the course - set when he won the event for the first time in 1997 - by 1-40, to deny Chris Newton (Middridge CRT) a hat-trick of wins.

Newton led at the first time check, 7.5 miles out on the course at Ballacraine, with a tailwind-assisted 15-27 which took 23 seconds from Darryl Webster's 1986 record for the opening leg.

But a headwind on the approach to Ramsey and the steepest part of the climb towards the Mountain Box ruled out any hopes of a £500 bonus for breaking Chris Boardman's 1993 record of 1-23-54.

Newton, who went close with his winning 1-24-26 last year, lost time to Dangerfield all the way round after his opening salvo and finished in 1-27-25, his edge blunted by 10 days of training on the Manchester track with the rest of Britain's team pursuiters.

Ireland's David McCann, getting back to the form that brought him a superb win in the 1996 Manx International, pulled through to third place in 1-28-44, making up for four years ago when he also finished third, only to be disqualified for cutting inside the Quarter Bridge roundabout a little more than a mile into his ride.

Matt Bottrill (Middridge CRT) finished a best-ever fourth in 1-28-51, again underlining form from the national '25, and Manx rider Andrew Roche (Emyvale CC) extended his outstanding sequence in the event with fifth place in 1-29-29.

James Gilfillan (Team Hed) completed the top six on 1-30-15, followed by second Irish rider Tommy Evans, 1-31-51, and the best of the Continental visitors, Dane Mikael Laursen (1-32-37), who was riding for Belgium.

A sea mist, which had enveloped Douglas earlier in the morning, rolled away by the start, leaving blue skies and sunshine but a stiffening north-easterly wind which grew in strength as the event progressed.

Newton, starting 20 minutes after Dangerfield, set the pace over the early undulating miles and led by 20 seconds at Ballacraine from Bottrill with Dangerfield (15-51) in third ahead of Roche (15-56), McCann (1618), Evans (16-23), Laursen (17-00) and Gilfillan (17-13).

By Ramsey at 23.6 miles, Dangerfield (50-04) had pulled it all back and led Newton - who got there in 48-48 on his winning ride in 1998 - by 20 seconds going on to the climb, with Bottrill (50-49) still clear of McCann (51-32), who had moved eight seconds clear of Roche. Gilfillan was up to sixth and only a further 18 seconds back.

Dangerfield was also strongest on the climb, covering the five miles from Ramsey to the Mountain Box in 18-15 to miss Webster's 1983 record by 20 seconds, and he went through in 1-08-19 as Newton (1-09-08) lost a further 29 seconds.

Bottrill (1-10-10), struggling on the steepest part of the course, was still in third place ahead of McCann (1-10-34) and Roche (1-10-54), but the Irish rider revived memories of his 1996 International Road Race win - when he rode away from riders of the calibre of Robbie McEwen, Steve Hodge and Alexandre Vinokourov in the leading group on the descent from Creg-ny-Baa - as he pulled back his deficit to snatch a place on the podium.

The field for the UCI-ranked event was depleted by the absence of the teams from Estonia, France and Germany. All three were delayed by Saturday's air traffic control problem affecting flights across the UK and didn't arrive on the island in time to ride.

The Dutch made it but they were all over-geared for a real crack at the mountain climb and the best of their four riders were Maarten Jansen and Ben Van Egmond, who tied for 12th place on 1-44-30.

1. Stuart Dangerfield ................... (Camel Valley C&TC)........... 1 26 17
2. C. Newton (Middridge CRT) ...... 1 27 25
3. D. McCann (Ireland) .. . ......... 1 28 44
4. M. Bottrill (Middridge CRT) ....... 1 28 51
5. A. Roche (Emyvale CC) ......... 1 29 29
6. J. Gilfillan (Team Hed)........... 1 30 15
7. T. Evans (Ireland) .............. 1 31 51
8. M. Laursen (Belgium) ........... 1 32 37
9. G. Werckx (Belgium)............ 1 40 10
10. S. Morrison (Omega) ........... 1 40 45

THE FASTEST 20 RIDERS ON THE TOURIST TROPHY CIRCUIT

1. Chris Boardman 1-23-54 ...(1993)
2. Chris Newton 1-24-26 ...... 1999)
3. Stuart Dangerfield 1-26-17 . .(2000)
4. Darryl Webster 1-27-37 ..... (1983)
5. Andrew Roche 1-28-03 ..... (1997)
6. David Millar 1-28-11 ....... (1999)
7. Graeme Obree 1-28-15 . . . . .(1992)
8. Scott O'Brien 1-28-36 ...... (1991)
9. David McCann 1-28-44 ..... (2000)
10. Matt Bottrill 1-28-51 ....... (2000)
11. Anthony Langella 1-28-55 ...(1996)
12. Paul Curran 1-29-04 ....... (1988)
13. Matt Postle 1-29-12 ....... (1997)
14. Vadim Kravtchenko 1-29-13 .(1996)
15. Dave Lloyd 1-29-20 ....... (1982)
16. Charly Wegelius 1-29-25 .... (1999)
17. Zak Carr 1-29-5 .......... (1996)
18. Joe Waugh 1-30-06 ....... (1982)
19. David Lefevre 1-30-07 ..... (1996)
20. Stewart Duff 1-30-12 ...... (1997)