The English teams have maintained their stranglehold on day two of the Tour of the North. This morning’s TT was won by Rupert Graham (Spirit Tifosi) with his team mate and stage 1 winner, Marcus Burnett taking runner-up spot and keeping his hold on the yellow jersey.
Graham also went on to win this afternoon’s road stage while Pro Vision RT’s Jack Stanton Warren took over the race lead. Warren is now four seconds ahead of Burnett with the leading home rider, Darnell Moore (Caldwell Cycles) a further five seconds back in third. Powerhouse Sport’s Lindsay Watson is another local rider who is still very much in contention, just 20 seconds back as the race finale takes place tomorrow.
Details of the final stage can be seen in the race preview by clicking here.
Results from today can be downloaded below.
Stage 3 report from the race organisers
Stage 3 of the Dixon’s Tour of the North was run over 65 miles on the epic Roguery circuit, which was so popular with spectators last year. Although this looked like a shorter, flatter stage, it was run at a fast pace and five ascents of the mighty Roguery and the dead roads surrounding took their toll on the hardy men who pushed the pace all afternoon.
Breaks formed from the flag drop but nothing stuck firmly until the last lap where the elastic finally snapped and two groups went clear at the top of the last ascent of the back breaker that is Roguery.
Spirit Tifosi’s Rupert Graham, who animated yesterday’s stage took the win on the line from Lindsay Watson (Powerhouse Sport) with Jack Stanton completing the podium. These riders were part of a group of five riders who gave the bunch the slip over the last ascent of Roguery, pushing ahead to to the line.
Leader after stage 2, Marcus Burnett (Spirit Tifosi) finished 20 seconds back, coming in with the second group on the road. This means that the ever present Jack Stanton moves into yellow going into tomorrow’s final stage over Torr.
The Dixon’s King of the mountains Jersey has been retained by English outfit, Spirit Tifosi’s Charlie Passfield. Passfield snatched 3 points on the last ascent of Roguery to keep the Jersey by 3 points ahead of young gun Brendan Flanagan (Powerhouse Sport). With the mountains tomorrow, this will be an interesting battle which should test the mettle of everyone involved.
Former leader, 19 year old Marcus Burnett hangs onto his Dixon’s young rider’s jersey for another day. Darnell Moore of Caldwell Cycles is just five seconds adrift however and there are six other under 23 riders who are just over a minute behind so this will be a big battle on stage 4.
With small time gaps and big rewards on offer in all competitions, stage 4 will surely be an epic. The race begins in Galgorm at the community centre with roll out at 9.45.
