Lovatt
Wins After Newton Crashes Out
Courteousy of British Cycling. Report Paul Tomlinson. Images
Dave O'Nyons
An extremely classy field contested the AA Brown Road Race in the sun-kissed
countryside of Northamptonshire on Sunday, with the Recycling team out
in force with the likes of Chris Newton and Robin Sharman up against Matt
Stephens and Planet X's Mark Lovatt.
The race split on the first of 6 laps with 10 riders going clear. The
main instigators of the break were Mark Lovatt, Matthew Stephens, Alex
Higham, Malcolm Elliot, Chris Newton, Roy Chamberlain, Dan Staite, James
Williamson, Chris Bartlett, Mark Wordsworth and Robin Sharman. Working
well together they steadily pulled away from the bunch.
At half distance they had a lead of over 2 minutes extended to 8 minutes
on the final lap. On the final lap with 8 riders left from the original
break the final attacks were beginning. Unfortunately, in the village
of Haselbech, on a difficult left hand bend, Chris Newton had to take
evasive action to avoid a tractor. Chris was extremely lucky to come away
with a few scrapes, however his bike was mangled beneath the tractor.
Following the incident the lead riders split with a group of four going
away: Matt Stephens, Malcolm Elliot, Alex Higham and Mark Lovatt, left
chasing were Dan Staite, James, Williamson, Robin Sharman and Mark Wordsworth.
On the run in to the finish up to Naseby from the lead group of four Mark
Lovatt took the sprint from Matt Stephens and Alex Higham with Malcolm
Elliot taking 4th place suffering from cramp. Roy Chamberlain brought
home the second group at 1:48, from the original break Mark Wordsworth
had a well earned 9th place. Mark Jervis took 10th place from a fragmented
bunch at 7:42.
1 Mark Lovatt Planet X 02:47:01
2 Matthew Stephens Sigmasport RT 1sec
3 Alex Higham Agiscover 3 sec
4 Malcolm Elliot 0 37 sec
5 Roy Chamberlain Team MK 01:48
6 Dan Staite Rapha Condor 01:53
7 James Williamson Agisko-Dart-Cycling.TV "
8 Robin Sharman Recycling.co.uk 02:14
9 Mark Wordsworth JE James Racing Team 04:55
10 Mark Jervis Python RT 07:42
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