Rory Townsend rolled home in seventh as JLT Condor’s Brenton Jones sprinted to glory in round seven of the Tour Series in Motherwell.
And impressive efforts from Harry Tanfield in 11th, Sam Lowe in 17th and Jack Pullar in 18th look to have secured BIKE Channel Canyon third spot in the team standings on the night.
Individual glory went to Jones, though, who added to his victory in round two in Stoke as he kicked clear from a large group to take the chequered flag in the North Lanarkshire town.
The Aussie beat Team Raleigh’s Enrique Sanz, while ONE Pro Cycling’s Steele von Hoff was third. His efforts also helped JLT claim the team prize from series leaders Madison Genesis.
After a minute’s silence in memory of those who died in the Manchester terror attack last night, the race got under way and Tom Mazzone, of Metaltek Kuota, hit the front.
But it wasn’t long before Tim Elverson’s squad were asserting their authority on the contest. First Townsend took up the pace before he was joined by two team-mates on the second lap.
Within a matter of moments, all five BIKE Channel Canyon riders were sat on the front and beginning to put the hurt on the pack.
Townsend went on to take the opening Wiggle sprint, from the points leader Sebastian Mora, of Team Raleigh, and JLT’s Brenton Jones.
World cyclocross champion and junior Paris-Roubaix winner Tom Pidcock was prominent in the colours of guest team PH-Mas, as was Evan Oliphant, riding for Wheelbase Altura.
It was still all together at the second sprint, though, which was taken by Mora, from Metaltek’s Bertie Newey, with Tanfield third to cross the line.
A dig from Pullar, which drew out Madison rider Matt Holmes, came to nothing before the former chased a move from ONE Pro Cycling’s Kristian House.
Adria Moreno, of Raleigh, wasted no time in attempting to bridge across and soon the trio had opened up a gap of 10 seconds on the peloton.
Their advantage fluctuated but they were still clear for the final sprint of the night, which Pullar took from House, with Moreno crossing the line in third spot.
That lead was wiped out soon after as Bath winner Connor Swift led the charge for Madison. However, it was Townsend who clocked the fastest lap to that point with a 1min 30.671sec.
House was at it again as the race approached its final five laps. He dragged Graham Briggs away in one move before taking Townsend and Raleigh’s Grant Martin with him soon after.
Nothing was sticking, though. And as the pace slowed with three laps remaining, riders began looking at one another to see who was going to make the first move.