Results – British University Champs

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Harry Tanfield of Pedal Heaven RT and Alice Sharpe winners at the British University road championships at Sheriff Hutton in Yorkshire

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Results – British University Champs
Images: Ellen Isherwood 

Tanfield and Sharpe Beat Bulmer to Take BUCS Road Race Crowns

Alice Sharpe and Harry Tanfield can now call themselves the 2016 University Road Race Champions after storming to victory in two thrilling races in North Yorkshire on Saturday.

BUCS women's winner

The BUCS Road Races are the annual national championships for university students from across Britain. With over 50 universities being represented in the men’s and women’s races, it was expected to be a hotly contested event and it certainly delivered.

Both of the winners from 2015 were unable to make this year’s event and so with the pre-race favourites not on the start line, the win was there to be taken but there was a tough course to overcome first.

The undulating course caused a near immediate split in the women’s race and the leg-sapping climb of Bulmer Bank was certainly challenging the riders lap on lap.

At the mid-way point, there was a strong bunch of 9 riders at the front of the women’s race working well together to maintain a significant gap over the chasing groups. These riders stayed together until the sprint for the line, where Alice Sharpe of SunSport Velo, representing Manchester Metropolitan University took it from Emily Baker in second place with Charlotte Redden finishing third.

Alice Sharpe was delighted with her victory in her first BUCS Road Race. Speaking after the race, Alice said that it was a ‘tough course’ but she felt ‘strong on the hills’ and this shows why she was a worthy winner on the day.

Tanfield BUCS

With such a great women’s race in the morning, the expectations for the men’s race were very high. Over 70 men started this race with some well-known names on the start line. From the gun the pace of the mens’ race was very quick, but unlike the women’s race the bunch stuck together.

It was then with a few laps to go where the winning break of four riders made their move and they managed to maintain a consistent gap ahead of the chasing pack. With four in-form riders working well together, it was going to take a big effort from those behind to pull the break back in.

One the final lap, the four riders became three, with Harry Tanfield making the move on the back end of the course and storming to a convincing victory over Andrew Nicholls in second place and Alex Dalton in third.

Tanfield, representing Teeside University but wearing the colours of his trade team Pedal Heaven, said that it was a ‘hard, hard race’. Having not ridden the circuit before, he said he was shocked by parts of the course and was at the back of the bunch going up the main climb of Bulmer Bank for the first couple of laps, but he was thankful that he felt ‘stronger and stronger as the race went on’.

It must have been the 21 one-year-old Pedal Heaven rider’s racing experience that lead him to follow the winning break and take a deserving victory to conclude an action-packed day of racing.

Provisional Results

BUCS Women’s Road Race Championship
1. Alice Sharpe
2. Kate Baker
3. Charlotte Redden
4. Tamara Davenne
5. Charlotte Burford
6. Hannah Rhodes-Patterson
7. Freya Rawlins
8. Emma Cockcroft
9. Molly Patch
10. Sophie Household
11. Flora Gillies
12. Elisabeth Reiner
13. Gail Brown
14. Lucy Scott
15. Bethan Stubbs

BUCS Men’s Road Race Championship
1. Harry Tanfield Pedal Heaven RT
2. Andrew Nicholls
3. Alex Dalton
4. Alex Luhrs
5. Matthew Clark
6. Peter Anderson
7. Rhys Williams
8. Isaac Munday
9. Thomas Travis-Pollard
10. Peter Barusevicus
11. Matthew Nowell
12. Sean Noon
13. James Lamton
14. James Mckay
15. Patrick Clark
16. Oliver Hayward
17. Harley Matthews
18. Jude Taylor
19. Ciaran O’Grady
20. Kieran Savage

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