Junior takes Dales TT victory

With his sights set on impressing across Europe, junior Patrick Casey made light work of winning the Circuit of the Dales on Sunday.

The 17-year-old from Hebden Bridge in Yorkshire was the only rider to break the two-hour mark over the 50-mile course, finishing six minutes clear of his nearest rival.

The Anexo Group Race Team rider, who was crowned national junior 10-mile champion last season, posted a winning time of one hour, 56 minutes and 17 seconds.

After a tough homeward leg through the Yorkshire Dales veteran Richard Bideau (Pendle Forest CC) finished second in 2-02-45 while Richard Nesfield (Giant-kendalsidas.uk) was third.

“The conditions were pretty favourable, I paced it well,” said Casey after storming the victory. “There’s a lot of short and steep surges. If you know what you’re doing and keep the power down as you’re going over them you can normalise it out and recover what you lose on the climbs on the descents.

Casey has a season of road races across Europe planned and is hoping to target mountainous events with trips to Ireland and Spain on the horizon.

Christina Wiejak was unstoppable in the women’s event with her winning time of 2-19-20 some 10 minutes faster than the rest.

The Saint Piran rider also won the Barrow Central Wheelers hilly event last month and was again superior over the undulating course which begins in North Yorkshire and takes in parts of Lancashire and Cumbria too.

Molly Savill (Albarosa CC) led the battle behind taking second (2-29-35) while Joanna Cebrat (360cycling) was third in 2-33-06.