RYAN Perry made it a great start to the season for the recently resurrected Metaltek-Kuota Racing Team by winning the Tour of the Mining Valleys, on the hills above Aberystwyth.

Perry, along with NFTO’s George Fowler, chased down lone escapee Ed Laverak of the JLT Condor team to forge ahead in the last five miles, after all three riders had been part of the day’s long breakaway.

Laverak had taken matters into his own hands once the race began the main climb at 58 miles - the one mile climb at Pontrhydygroes, known locally as the 49’er.

Earlier in the race, a seven-strong breakaway group had formed on the first lap of a 14-mile circuit, which included the fearsome 16 per cent Penywern climb.

Three laps of this last minute circuit were ridden, prior to the race resuming its original route towards Devils Bridge, as a result of a landslide on part of the original course during the week before race day.

Organiser Gareth Lewis, along Welsh Cycling’s Liz Slater, moved fast over the weekend to accredit a revised course, with the help of Dyfed Powys Police.

It revived an old road race course that had last been used in 1995 as the ‘Tour of Mid Wales’ and was used previously as the Welsh Road Race Championships.

With the bunch losing time on the break, Laverak’s attack on the 49’er looked to have won the race - and despite there being another 13 miles of racing left to ride, his gap at the front was over one minute back to the chasing Fowler and Perry.

A rolling run-in, combined with a strong Northern crosswind, however, enabled the twosome to claw back this advantage and on a very fast section of the course near the village of Pisgah, they surprised the young JLT Condor rider with a burst of speed that didn’t allow him to jump on.

The duo played cat and mouse in the final stages, with the Metaltek-Kuota rider edging the sprint at 1 minute 26 seconds.

Just half a minute later, another two riders from the break, Richard Bussell of AeroCoach and Andrew Feather of Saint Piran, rolled in after 72 challenging miles.

William Haynes of Reading CC came in sixth place with the look of a rider who had just finished a wet Belgian Classic, as did all of the riders thanks to a combination of sleet, hail and muddy roads.

The junior prize meanwhile went to Dan Coome of Planet-X-Northside Cycling.

Ystwyth Cycling Club would like to thank the full entry of riders from such a wide range of clubs, teams and areas who made the race once again live up to its reputation as a hardman’s road race.

The next promotion on this course is on 14 August with the Angela Davies Memorial Road Race for 2/3/4 category riders.