Newton takes title, despite rough race

Cycling

OLDHAM-based track cycling ace Chris Newton secured overall victory in the World Cup Series points race, but could only finish eighth in the final event of the series in Denmark after a tactically difficult race.

Newton, the 35-year-old rider who secured bronze in the same event at the Beijing Olympics last year, was leading the series heading into the final round at Copenhagen after winning the race in China last month.

After comfortably making it through the heats and into the final, Newton missed the decisive break and was playing catch-up for much of the 15km event.

But the three points he secured were more than enough to take the overall victory, with second-placed Glen O’Shea of Australia not riding in Denmark.

With the World Championships in Poland next month at the forefront of everyone’s minds, Newton had changed his tactics to prepare him for a different kind of race.

“In the last few races, I have been sprinting from the front and the worlds are going to be another 10km so I wanted to hang back a bit and try something different,” he explained. “A lot of the usual suspects didn’t get anything either because they were marking me out.

“I have learnt something from the race so there is some good. It is not always easy to get someone to go with you and when I did, they were reluctant to work. That was a very hard race though.”