Crawforth keeps hopes alive in round five

Jody Crawforth kept alive his slim hopes of defending his National Trophy Cyclo-Cross Series title with victory in the penultimate round at Peel Park in Bradford on Sunday.

The same course where the 29-year-old from Leatherhead in Surrey won the 2009 National Championships, it was a happy return to Peel Park for Crawforth who won by 43 seconds over series leader Paul Oldham (Hope Factory Racing) after a race-long battle.

"To be honest it was one of those weekends where I didn't feel too great," said Crawforth afterwards. "My legs didn't feel good and I was just going to see how it went.

"On the first couple of laps I tried to stay out of trouble, and when it split early on I knew the winner would come from that group.

"I changed me bike a couple of times early on. I didn't have a very good tyre so I changed that and started getting more grip on the corners, which boosted my confidence."

Crawforth was an early leader alongside Paul Oldham, while regular National Trophy visitor Jan Van Dael was flying the flag for Belgium just a few seconds behind. He took his turn at the front as did fellow Belgian Angelo de Clerq, but after gaining some good grip Crawforth battled on.

He dropped Oldham, and after Van Dael tagged onto his wheel he did so again, and the effort told as the Belgian dropped back and was then overtaken by Oldham.

Crawforth was a clear winner, while Oldham was also alone in second spot with Van Dael 37 seconds back.

Rob Jebb (Wheelbase) took fourth, while just three seconds separated the next three riders with top under-23 de Clerq taking fifth from Lewis Craven (Wheelbase) and Stuart Bowers (Hargroves Cycles).

"It's nice coming to the course where I won my first national championship," added Crawforth afterwards. "It was a pretty good course - it was more technical and slippery than the championship course. It didn't used to be one of my favourite courses, but I quite enjoy it now.

"I'm probably a bit far down on Paul to win the overall now, but we will see. You never know what might happen. But it's a long time to the next round.

"The big aim for me at the moment is the National Championships, and then hopefully the Worlds in Czech Republic at the end of January. I really want to break into the top 15 in the Worlds, I think when I'm on top of my game I can achieve that, but first I've got to do well at the nationals."

Veterans Trophy Series leader Chris Young secured another victory, he JD Cycles rider from Keighley in West Yorkshire being cheered on by a partisan crowd as he crossed the line five seconds ahead of Coventry RC's Darren Atkins, while Geoff Giddings (Raleigh Avanti) was third.

Halfords Bikehut's Annie Last was best of the women, crossing the line 42 seconds ahead of Lily Matthews (100 Per Cent ME), while Team Corridori's Corrine Hall was third, ahead of series leader Hannah Barnes in fourth.