Oakworth’s Tom Moses broke away from a 12-strong group to come home alone in the two-hour Shugborough Kermesse, which brought the inaugural Staffordshire Cycling Festival to a successful conclusion.
The 21-year-old Yorkshire region road champion att-acked last time up the long drag on the Shugborough Hall circuit and stayed away over the top to take the win from Team Raleigh team-mate Graham Briggs.
The race broke up each time up the climb, only to come back together by the next time around until the decisive split was made with five Team Raleigh riders in the dozen.
“In that position it was our race to lose,” said Moses, who had team-mates Briggs, Tom Stewart, Rich-ard Lang and Lachlan Norris for company.
“I knew I had good legs on the climb, so I took a break and sat in for a couple of laps as the rest of the lads followed any moves, and then I went on my own from the bottom on the last lap and managed to stay away. There were groups going away every lap and then coming back before the climb.
“It was going to go at some point, and it was a case of making sure we were there – it was a great ride from the team and it was nice to finish it off.”
Briggs took second ahead of James Williamson (Node4 Giordana Racing) to repeat his result in the Stafford Grand Prix the night before when victory went to team-mate Tom Scully.
“You can’t help feeling sorry for Graham – it was his fifth second of the year and his second in two days,” said Moses. “But when it’s a team-mate who is winning, it’s not too bad.”
Result: 1 Tom Moses (Team Raleigh), 2 Graham Briggs (Team Raleigh), 3 James Williamson (Node4 Giordana Racing), 4 Sam Lowe (100% ME), 5 Ed Clancy (Rapha Condor JLT).
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