A team of four Team Microgaming Isle of Man junior riders - Jack Wolstencroft, Alex Haddock, Jonathan Cregeen and Thomas Mazzone - competed in last Sunday’s British Junior Road Race Championships in County Durham. This year’s championships consisted of three circuits of 27km followed by three smaller circuits of 13km. There was only one small climb, around three miles from the start, the rest of the circuit was undulating and it was going to be a wearing down process over the 78 mile race. The riders set off at noon from the picturesque backdrop of the Bowes Museum, half a mile from the town centre of Barnard Castle where the race would finish. The conditions were very hot and as soon as the race was out of the neutralised zone the attacks started, six riders got away and gained a gap of 40 seconds. Later on the same lap Jonathan Cregeen attacked and went clear in a breakaway of three riders. By the time they had reached the hill at the feed station on the second lap the six riders out front still had a 40 second gap over Cregeen’s group - but the advantage over the peloton had grown to three minutes with no one willing to chase. On the following lap, seven other riders attacked out of the peloton and bridged the gap to Cregeen's group, but with a few top riders now with the Manxman it wasn't long before the peloton reacted and both groups were reeled back in. Around this time Jack Wolstencroft suffered a puncture and couldn’t make it back into the peloton after he got spare wheel. On the start of the smaller circuits on lap four, Thomas Mazzone attacked three other riders including the pre-race favourite Jonathan Dibben (Hargroves Cycles), this only lasted a few miles as the peloton once again reacted to the danger. On the penultimate lap Alex Haddock was caught behind a crash and with no chance of regaining contact decided to call it a day. With all of the favourites marking each other on the final lap it was left to lesser known riders to take their chance. Daniel Pearson (Port Talbot Wheelers) took the title ahead of Jim Lewis (Glendene CC) and Alex Bottomley (Fietsen Tempo). Thomas Mazzone finished in the middle of the bunch in 21st place, with Jonathan Cregeen not far behind at the back of the same group. Due to the effects of the heat and the pace most of the 82 starters failed to finish. - ENDS -