Shannon Lawrence wins Sinclair Packwood Memorial Race (Update)

It would be no three-peat for Dominique Mayho as a mishap in the final mile of the race cost him a chance for the title.

Team Tokio rider Shannon Lawrence was able to take full advantage of Mayho’s mishap to take his first Sinclair Packwood Memorial title with Winner’s Edge rider Mark Hatherly finishing second.

Zoenique Williams won the women’s title.

Last year Lawrence finished fourth in this race, which was his best finish prior to this year’s title.

Lawrence said winning “was amazing. Each year, as I’ve done this race, I moved up a position so it’s good to finish off being in first.”

Lawrence said Team Tokio’s strategy was “to keep strong and not do so much work in the beginning and see what we could do towards the halfway point.”

It was on Church Street that Mayho had his problem and Lawrence was ready to jump to the front.

“I saw Dominique’s foot come out of the pedal and my teammate seemed to lose a little bit of breath so I decided to shoot forward just in case. That was it from there.”

Hatherly also went to make his move but had to brake slightly to avoid hitting Mayho giving Lawrence a bit of room.

Lawrence said: “I looked around and saw thought ‘Oh, wow! There’s a gap. Let me keep pushing on in case Mark has a lot of juice left in his engine.”

Hatherly was second, the third time in his career he’s missed the top spot of the podium in this race by one.

He told the Bermuda Sun: “This is the 10th year I’ve done this and this is probably the strongest I’ve felt.

“It was unfortunate for Dominique as he had an accident going into the last left-hand turn. I had to check-up and that gave Lawrence too much of a gap and I couldn’t pull him back.

“When Dominique unclipped, he was fine, but he managed to regroup and he came back out of nowhere and tried to make the left-hand turn and he came in a little bit too hot. I had a feeling he wasn’t going to make it and he lost the front and slid right across the street. I was behind him, so naturally I tensed up a bit and that gave Lawrence enough of a gap.

“Shannon is pretty strong this year and it’s hard to close up on a guy on a downhill finish.

“My team had done a lot of work today. I sat in, paid attention and was saving everything up for the finish. I was unlucky — again.”

There wasn’t as much drama in the women’s race as Williams rode to a comfortable victory after finishing third last year.

Williams said: “I feel excited. I feel overwhelmed.”

The Team Winner’s Edge rider said she is a lot stronger this year and “team tactics played a big role. Our team went out hard from the beginning. If one person attacked, we had to counter-attack.”

Williams made her move at Waterlot and pulled away.

She said the at the top of Inverurie Hill “I saw the rest of them at Manse Hill and I put my head down and started time trialing. When I came up by the (Crow) Lane, I looked back and didn’t see anybody so I had to just keep going.

“When I looked back on Front Street and didn’t see anybody, I started smiling as I knew I had it now. I could enjoy (the rest of the race).”