Paul Manning wins the Tour of the Peak and Robin Sharman cements the Overall Premier Calendar win with a well earned 3rd place.

Robin Sharman is also having the season of his life and has rightly been selected for the World Championships
“I think it’s a good end to a season that’s been steadily getting better and just adds to the palmares of the team. Two riders going out to the Worlds out of one team is pretty good,” he said after his selection.

Recycling teammate Russ Downing was also up for selection and is a reserve for the road race, Robin continued: “I heard that I was up for selection but I thought Russ would probably get picked, I’m disappointed for him obviously because I know he really wanted to go.”

Sharman has just completed a very successful Tour of Britain too, taking an excellent 2nd place on Stage 2 where he was away with Britain’s Roger Hammond who will lead the British squad in the Elite Road Race, he explained:
“I was away in the break with Roger and he seemed to be impressed with how I was going there, I’ve ridden the Under-23 Worlds twice, so they’re familiar with me and they know that I’m a good team player.”

And of the impending World Championships he said:
“All the World’s best competition come together, it’s going to be a huge step up. I’ll be looking to do my job, play the team role and to help them to the best of my ability.”

Tour of the Peak
1. Paul Manning – Recycling.co.uk/Litespeed 3:22:23
2. Mark Lovatt – Planet X @0:09
3. Robin Sharman – Recycling.co.uk/Litespeed @0:11
4. Julian Winn – Pinarello RT @0:37
5. Ben Greenwood – Recycling.co.uk/Litespeed st
6. Matthew Stephens – Sigma Sport st
7. Kevin Dawson – Planet X @0:48
8. Alex Coutts – Scotland @1:14
9. Roy Chamberlain – Team MK @3:59
10. Danny Axford – Arctic-Shorter Rochford RT @4:02

Premier Calendar – Final Overall
1. Rob Sharman – Recycling.co.uk-MG XPower-Litespeed – 213 points
2. John Tanner – Planet X- Cycling Plus – 166
3. Russell Downing – Recycling.co.uk-MG XPower-Litespeed – 151
4. Matt Stephens – Sigma Sport – 136
5. Yanto Barker – DFL – 111
6. Mark Lovatt – Planet X- Cycling Plus – 105
7. Evan Oliphant – Recycling.co.uk/MG-Xpower/Litespeed – 104
8. Kevin Dawson – Planet X- Cycling Plus – 98
9. Duncan Urquart – Viner Bikes/Agisko Sports Nutrition – 95
10. Julian Winn – Assos RT – 86
11. Chris Newton – Recycling.co.uk-MG XPower-Litespeed – 78
12. Ben Greenwood – Recycling.co.uk-MG XPower-Litespeed – 74
13. Malcolm Elliott – Assos RT – 71
14. Scott Gamble – Ashfield RC – 69
15. Roy Chamberlain – Team Milton Keynes – 66
16. Martin Ford – DFL – 65
17. Tom White – Team Adidas – Science in Sport – 64
18. Dean Downing – Recycling.co.uk-MG XPower-Litespeed – 62
19. Paul Manning – Recycling.co.uk-MG XPower-Litespeed – 61
20. Matt Brammeier – Team Adidas – Science in Sport – 53

Newport Nocturne
Despite heavy rain for most of the evening, the 2005 Newport Nocturne saw yet another big crowd come to watch the thrills and spills (and there were many) for the night’s racing. The opening event, Past Masters, saw a solo victory for Ian Fagan and then in the Olympic Challenge Junior World Champion, Andy Tennant, was fastest on the one lap challenge ahead of many well known names, notably; Jason Queally, Roger Hammond, Rob Hayles, Paul Manning and the winner of the Elite race Chris Newton.

In the Elite Circuit Race series, the race started with Tom Smith getting away alone followed by lone attacks from Rob Hayles and Chris Newton. It was the latter who stayed away and won the event comfortably although he did admit afterwards the last part of the race was very hard for him. The most notable thing about the race was the crashes. Many were expected on the wet cobbles and most of the field seemed to come down at some stage with cuts and bruises and broken bikes the order of the day. Roger Hammond publicily apologised after retiring when he crashed and he was not alone. Rob Hayles was another who fell heavily and Adam Blythe broke his frame when he fell. Newton admitted that it was far safer out front on his own and he was one of the few who did not fall.

1. Chris Newton – Recycling.co.uk
2. Julian Winn – Pinarello
3. James Taylor – www.sportscoaching.com
4. Ben Swift – JE James
5. Adrian Timmis – Pinarello
6. Evan Oliphant – Recycling.co.uk
7. Ian Holt – Agisko Viner
8. Malcolm Elliot – Pinarello
9. Warrick Spence – London Dynamo
10. Paul Manning – Recycling.co.uk