TEESSIDE'S world track champion Chris Newton underlined his road form when he scored his second win in four days in the York Cycleworks race over a 104-kilometre course based on Sheriff Hutton, North Yorkshire.
Newton, who last Wednesday won Lancashire's Colne Grand Prix town-centre race (round seven of the national Elite Circuit Race Series), out-sprinted South Yorkshire's Kevin Dawson and Derby's Robin Sharman at the end of a punishing course which took in six climbs of the one-in-six Bulmer Bank.
Dawson is an accomplished road race rider as well as being the British best all-rounder against the clock, while Sharman is a rising star of British road racing and could win the Premier Calendar series by taking next month's Havant International GP in Hampshire.
But neither held any fear for Newton, who rides with Sharman in the Recycling.co.uk-MG Xpower team, and the Stockton rider was happy to leave the outcome to the final sprint as he and Sharman performed the one-two on Dawson, who rides for the rival Planet X team.
Newton, Dawson and Sharman escaped on the first lap along with Yorkshire's Stephen Ward and Grimsby's Julian Gromett and, when Newton launched a savage attack on Bulmer Bank with two laps to go, only Dawson and Sharman could stay with him.
Ward and Gromett were swallowed up by the chasing bunch with just five miles remaining, and Ward was outsprinted for fourth place - nearly six minutes the leading trio - by Bishop Auckland's Matt Kiping (Alpine Rootz.com).
Newton had gained another sprint verdict - this time over Belgian-based Steve Cummings - at the end of the 44km Colne town-centre race.
The two came across the line just seven seconds ahead of their fellow GB track squad rider Paul Manning.
Sixth place in the latest round was enough to keep Darlington's Rick King (Bannatyne CRT) in the overall lead ahead of Matt Kipling in the League International midweek race series on the Croft motor racing circuit.
Race victory went to junior Simon Whitfield, of Stockton Wheelers.
Hannah Conlin, riding for the Science in Sport.com team, was the first woman and also leads overall.
In road time trials, Steve Fullerton (Richmond and Darlington CC) was a clear winner of Stockton Wheelers' 25-mile event on the Crathorne course.
Fullerton clocked 53min 4sec to finish with 1min 32sec to spare over Simon Campbell, of Houghton CC.
Iain Jones (Alpine Rootz.com), second to Geoff Robinson in the previous weekend's Wensleydale Wheelers 25-mile event, was just six seconds behind Campbell in third place.
Gary McBean (Adept Precision RT) was sixth overall in 56-48 to lift the veterans' (age 40-49) award, and Sharon Wright (Ferryhill Wheelers) was best of the women in 1-03-21.
Steve Fullerton had travelled to Scotland to take sixth place, in a time of 21min 34sec, in Fullarton Wheelers' ten-mile event on the Eglinton Country Park course in Ayrshire.
Chris Newton's Recycling team-mate Dean Downing, winner of the opening round in April, marked his return from injury by winning the eighth event in the national Elite Circuit Race Series at Milton Keynes Bowl.
Downing, who broke his left collar bone and thumb when he crashed in a race in America at the beginning of June, crossed the line four seconds clear of Ben Hallam, himself a recent winner in Belgium, who out-sprinted Downing's team-mate and world track champion Rob Hayles for second place.
Downing, in only his second race since the crash, broke clear of a leading quartet on the last of 30 laps.
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