Cycling: Chris Young narrowly failed in his bid to retain his Three Peaks Cyclo Cross title on a thrilling finish at Helwith Bridge in the Yorkshire Dales.

The Gargrave rider was pipped by Ian Cuthbertson (Merlin Cycles-Rock Lobster) in a sprint finish at the end of the gruelling 60km race.

Young started as a red hot pre-race favourite and was the first to hit the front in an eventful race.

Having led over Ingleborough, Young also led the way to the summit of the second peak Whernside where he had the misfortune to puncture on the summit. This forced him to run down the descent to Ribblehead, a move that lost him 1 minute 41 seconds.

Onto the third peak Cuthbertson, who had hammered out a lead of more than a minute following Young's misadventure, looked to be heading for a win.

However near the summit a very determined Young caught Cuthbert-son on the final slope to the summit of Pen-y-Ghent where Young was first over the top followed by his main rival.

On the descent back to Ribblehead Cuthbertson punctured twice but was lucky enough for spectators to offer him their own wheels to minimise his time loss.

With a very short road section left the pair stayed together until the finish at Helwith Bridge where Cuthbertson turned into the final straight with an advantage of a couple of lengths and the straight was too short for Young to mount yet another challenge.

Bradford's Richard Thackray (Pace Racing) produced his best ever Three Peak result finishing third just over six minutes down on the winner.

Elsewhere at the weekend Kevin Dawson (Peter Read Racing) won the Harrogate Nova CC 50 on the A64 between Tadcaster, York and Selby clinching with it this year's British best all rounder title which he won last year. Dawson won in 1-41-50 to take the Harrogate event for the seventh successive year. His winning time was also a new event record clipping more than two minutes off the old figures he set last year.

The minor placings went to Peter Smith (Border City Wheelers) in 1-43-30, Rowan Horner (VC St Raphael) 1-44-17. After Dawson who comes from Doncaster the next best Yorkshire rider was Barnsley's Wayne Randle (Pro-Vision) 1-44-10.

The fastest ten-mile time trial of the season was held on Sunday. The Brough Wheelers event was won by John Charlesworth (South Yorkshire Police) in 18-51.

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