19-Jul-81
19-Jul-81
| Stokesley Road Race |
Mark Langston, 21, took the senior title by a 30-second margin after catching the almost race-long leaders, Stockton Wheeler Paul Curran and Mark Adamson (Richmond and Darlington CC) midway through the penultimate lap of the Stokesley, Hutton Rudby, Potto circuit.
He then made his decisive, attacking move only five miles before the finish of the 99-mile senior race.
Curran and Adamson mounted the attack which took them clear of the rest before the completion of the first 11-mile circuit and quickly built a 40-second advantage, which they almost doubled during the next circuit when the bunch failed to react positively.
As they increased their lead to almost three minutes, a number of attempts were made to get across to the leaders, the most sustained involving the eventual fifth and sixth placed men, Stockton Wheeler Hilton McMurdo and Thornaby's CRT's Alan Thompson during the sixth and seventh laps.
But they were overhauled as the bunch closed on Curran and Adamson at Potto with only 16 miles left.
With the leaders within striking distance, only Langston seized the chance of making contact and launching a fast-moving attack, taking Curran and Adamson clear again.
The move was so effective they put 52 seconds between themselves and the bunch, half a lap later.
When on the final climb over Skutterskelf bank, Langston attacked, the two men who had for so long been in command could muster no serious reply and the Thornaby CRT man won by 30 seconds as they were pulled back by the bunch.