North Wales Road Race – Round One

Huge congratulations to James Smith of Team Aspire on the win today.
Many thanks to Simon, Mark, Chris, and everyone who helped make today possible.
The first reports are starting to come in – thank you to Nick Pilling of Chronomaster Racing, to Ryan Ashcroft of VCUK, and to Stephen Stuart for some great pictures of NWRR.*

“The first race of the North Wales Road Race Series kicked off with a bang on Sunday 10th April.
This race proved popular with the riders and reached its 80 rider limit more than 6 weeks prior to the event. 7.30am on a sunny frosty morning the Race HQ ‘The Centre’ opened its doors and the carpark was already starting to fill with riders and officials. VC Melyd setup the sign on tent outside and riders began to queue for their race numbers. 9.00am the marshals headed out to their allocated positions out on the circuit. There was a great turn out of marshals from both VC Melyd and local cycling club Ruthin CC.
Riders assembled behind the convoy vehicles in the car park for their briefing. The 80 riders rolled out of HQ at 9.30 and on to the open roads under neutral conditions towards Llanfair DC. The flagged dropped on exiting Llanfair DC and the race had started.
The peloton remained at a steady pace for the first couple of miles with no real attacks off the front. As the peloton reached the bottom of Nant Y Garth the pace increased with a few riders going off the front. As the race approached the top of the climb the majority of riders were back together and the race headed towards Corwen.
With the wind behind the riders attacks started to come off the front which caused a split at the back of the peloton. Ten riders dropped from the back as the speeds increased to more than 35mph. There was no real urge in the peloton to catch the breakaway as the race winded back towards Ruthin. Approaching Nant Y Garth again for the second time the pace increased causing more riders to drop from the back. The second lap was a much more of continuous faster pace rather than the short sharp burst of the first lap
As the riders completed the second lap the breakaway of 6 riders had 2 minutes on the peloton. The peloton pushed hard again on their final ascent of the Nant Y Garth and got within 50 seconds of the break before taking on the Horseshoe Pass climb to the summit finish. Jimmy Smith of Team Aspire attacked from the breakaway alone at the base of the Horseshoe Pass.
The peloton caught the breakaway before the summit but Jimmy Smith managed to hold off the rest of the field to take the victory. There were 49 finishers in total who completed the 58 mile race. It was great to see local support from residents of the passing villages out on the circuit and great crowds at the summit of the Horseshoe Pass. I would like to take the opportunity to thank all the officials and volunteers on the day who made the event such a success. We look forward to Round 2 now which is a 2 Day Stage Race on the 7th/8th May.“ — Simon Parkinson (Race Organiser)

The following results are taken from the NWRR FB Group –

RESULTS – Round 1

1. JIMMY James Smith
2. DYLAN KERFOOT ROBSON
3. ROBERT ROGERS
4. DANIEL NIETO
5. IOAN SMALLWOOD
6. NICHOLAS PILLING
7. DAVID PARRY
8. JOSEPH BOWERS
9. RHODRI OWEN
10. Ryan Ashcroft
11. JACK WILLIAMS
12. CHRISTIAN SMITH
13. ANTONY RICHARDSON
14. Tom Hanlon
15. ANDREW MARTIN
16. Alex Harvey
17. Jack Nash
18. STEPHEN FEENEY
19. GARETH McGUINESS
20. NICHOLAS WHITLEY
21. GARETH BALSHAM
22. Dan Evans
23. LEWIS BALL
24. David Watt
25. ANTHONY GREENHALGH
26. Tom Brereton
27. Darran Acton
28. CHARLIE EVANS
29. Tom Brazier
30. BEN PALMER
31. ANDY BENNETT
32. PAUL GIBSON
33. MATT LIMACHER
34. STEVEN FIDLER
35. SIMON PARKINSON
36. MARC HEUSTON
37. JONATHON PULESTON-JONES
38. LUKE BERWICK
39. JOSEPH EARLY
40. JONATHAN HUCK
41. Callum Dixon
42 HUW OWEN
43. GARETH HIND
44. Rhys Wainwright
45. CARON JONES
46. DAFYDD HUGHES
47. DILWYN DAVIES
48. WAYNE OWEN
49. STEFFAN JONES