Lone star Barras claims victory

3:32pm Tuesday 18th March 2008

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Despite riding the event alone and with no team support, Keighley cyclist Tom Barras rode to an impressive victory in the CDNW League road race at Saighton, Cheshire.

Barras was riding alone with most of his colleagues on the Plowman Craven-Evans Cycles team riding the Hounslow Spring Road Race in Surrey.

He was one of the first riders to attack the field on the first of nine laps, and he was near the head of the race throughout until attacking on the final lap to cross the line five seconds ahead of his nearest rival.

"I'm really please to get a win, especially so early in the season," he said. "It takes the pressure off me a bit.

"I'm on a new team this year and it's good to be able to show them what I can do, against good opposition."

Barras was up against strong line-ups from the Kinesis UK team and Sigma Sport RT, and despite the break of nine riders which led for much of the race containing three Kinesis riders as well as other top names, he controlled the race superbly.

"I was happy to go for a sprint, but I would rather it was a group of four or five than nine or ten," explained Barras. "With 20 miles to go the three Kinesis riders kept attacking, so me and Tom Southam kept going with every move and pulling things back together.

"On the last lap James Williamson from Sigma Sport attacked, so me and one of the Kinesis boys went across to him and we got a bit of a gap on the rest. About two or three miles out I attacked, and held the others off to take the win."

This weekend, Barras heads to Scotland to ride the Girvan Three-Day event alongside the rest of his Plowman Craven team.