Raven stars for UYCC in road race

Jamie Raven secured an impressive second second-place finish for UYCC in the first of six rounds in the North Yorkshire Road Race League.

For most of York’s five-strong team, it had been a while since their last race and it was obvious a few pre-race nerves were kicking in.

The course was a flat, straight five mile loop, with two very short ‘kicks’. A total of six laps made for 30 miles of racing. It was clear for all to see after the first lap that the pace was above par and most of the 50 riders were already suffering.

The pack looked a little choppy but fortunately York’s riders were towards the front keeping out of trouble. However, a few laps later, this was no longer the case.

Two riders dropped off around half way, continuing to ride for two more laps, before Luke Fox retired and Samuel Godfrey-Mayes punctured, leaving a brisk walk back in his road shoes.

With three laps to go, Raven was still in the main group looking fairly comfortable and attempting to eye up potential riders for the win.

Meanwhile, Ben Snowden was throwing solo attacks at the main field before being swallowed up and just falling off the pace. Kaj Scarsbrook and an Airedale Olympic rider soon joined him to form a three man group.

With one lap to go, there were no breakaways and the race looked destined to finish in a fourth cat death sprint. Jamie began working his way up the group in plenty of time to ensure a good sprint position and the sprint started after the final corner at least 300m before the line.

It looked as though Jamie was nowhere to be seen until he launched his sprint at around 100m to go hurtling past the top ten riders and just being pipped to the line by around a quarter of a wheel length. Kaj and Ben finished a few minutes down after a brilliant effort to finish the race.

The second round takes place on 31st May at North Duffield.