Tyler Hannay displayed his climbing ability to win the Fred Kelly road race that finished close to the Sulby reservoir entrance on Sunday morning.
In what was his first local event of the year, the Saint Piran Pro Cycling Team member managed to break away from his initial group and bridge across to the combined lead group, before finally climbing clear at the head of the race on the lower part of Tholt-y-Will.
The race, the last of the local classics, had been neutralised from the start close to the former Tholt-y-Will Hotel, with the field of almost 30 riders escorted down the Sulby valley and over the junction to the Sandygate/Summerhill/Jurby/Pillbox course.
This was then completed 10 times before riders returned to Sulby crossroads and up the bulk of the steep climb as far as the reservoir entrance.
The entry was divided into three groups and it was group two that remained together longest.
Callum Salisbury (The Cycling Academy) made an early break from group three (the strongest) and was away for quite a while, joined at one point by team-mate Niall Quiggin, but Hannay closed them both in and went through to ride away solo on lap five of the four-mile ‘circuit’.
The 20-year-old eventually made contact with the middle group containing a number of veterans, senior men, leading woman and several strong juniors. Included in that group were the likes of Mark Harrison, Richard Curphey, Dave Cain, Jess Carridge and Zach Jones. Most of group one had been dropped, with the exception of two or three.
When Hannay rode past, a number from the combined group managed to hold on until the Saint Piran rider kicked again on the first real ramp up to Tholt-y-Will.
There was no holding him on the steeper parts of the climb and he powered ahead to win by 39 seconds from young Zach Jones (RL360 youth), who rode extremely well to hold off Salisbury and first junior Will Curphey, whose father Richard was only a few feet off his wheel at the line.
A couple of weeks after his 15th birthday, this was Jones’s best result to date in an open race. He’d previously said that he was not a climber, but after Sunday’s result he might change his mind.
Ivan Sorby finished sixth in front of leading veteran Harrison and women’s race winner Carridge.
‘The middle group worked well and most stayed together until the ramp,’ said the five-time Isle of Man champion.
Carridge finished among the top 20 women in the Traka 200km gravel event at Girona in early May, then headed to Kansas, USA for the 200-mile Unbound amateur race in which she was first female home of more than 60 in a time of 11hr 41min.
First youth girl on Sunday was the plucky Abi Clayton in 13th place from group one on her 15th birthday, and first youth boy Alec Sorby in 20th from group three.
Tyler Hannay will not be defending his title in the Gran Fondo this Sunday as he is riding a stage race in Brittany, followed by the National 25-mile time trial championships in Cheshire on August 4. He is hoping for a place on the Tour of Britain team in early September. Fred Kelly Road Race results, Sunday: 1, Tyler Hannay; 2, Zach Jones; 3, Callum Salisbury; 4, Will Curphey; 5, Richard Curphey; 6, Ivan Sorby; 7, Mark Harrison; 8, Jess Carridge; 9, Niall Colquitt; 10, Mark Horsthuis; 11, Tom Broadbent; 12, Dave Cain; 13, Abi Clayton; 14, Simon Harding; 15, James Kinrade; 16, Michael Faid; 17, Niall Quiggin; 18, Nathan Hinks; 19, Ben Corkill; 20, Alec Sorby; 21, Orry Lund; 22, Matino Macchia; 23, Nick Whitehouse; 24, Michael Moss; 25, Lee Clayton; 26, Joel Jenkins. DNF: Lily-ann Scott, Richard Gault.
