HULLBRIDGE rider Lloyd Chapman stormed to his first win of the new season with a superb ride at the Eastern Region Championship Road Race.

Chapman edged out Basildon rider Russell Hampton in a sprint-finish on a notoriously winding and grippy circuit of the Abberton Reservoir, making it consecutive wins for the Richardsons-Trek cycling team after Andrew Hastings won the 145km race last year.

Well supported by Andy Lyons, Andrew Griffiths, Simon Alexander, Kieran Brady, George Wood, Owen Lake and Hastings, the team were confident of retaining the championship, with the latter involved in an early break.

The four-man team, including Hastings, were caught after 40km of racing with the peloton closing down a number of mini-breaks in that time.

And, as Hastings was brought back into the group, Chapman burst from the main pack to sprint up the road, building up a gap of 50 seconds after almost 100km of racing.

A small group bridged the gap, including teammates Brady and Lake to extend the distance over the chasing peloton. But back they came, with the two-minute gap closed to 30 seconds.

Chapman pushed on and launched another solo break, soon caught up by Hampton, of PolyPipe RT.

The pair worked in tandem but Hampton couldn’t drop the Hullbridge rider as the sprint finish loomed.

A small chase group had formed further back with Hastings and Wood following closely but the main action was at the front.

Hampton and Chapman carried on until the finish with Hampton sitting behind Chapman but he couldn’t pass him and it was the Richardsons-Trek rider who took the win.

Hastings won the bunch sprint front the small chase group rounding off the podium with Wood coming home in seventh position.

Team manager Andy Lyons said: “It was a great day for the team, a true team effort and congratulations to Lloyd on a super impressive ride and a thoroughly deserved win.”