Ben Greenwood (Rapha-Condor Recycling.co.uk) was out injured but second claim members, Matt Cronshaw and Jack Pullar riding for their sponsored team 'Kinesis UK' and another ex-member Simon Ernest was riding for AWCycles.co.uk.

The first stage on Easter Saturday was a 65-mile road race which was won by Russ Downing (Pinarello RT) in 2:34:57.

Pullar, who himself was injured only a couple of weeks ago in the 'Bike Line 2 Day', lost over 45 minutes on this stage when, only eight miles into the stage, an official's motorbike came down in the mud, also bringing down Pullar.

With a badly injured knee, it seemed as though his race was over but he gamely continued to finish in 54th place.

Cronshaw had ridden this race before, finishing 36th in 2007, and started well taking third place on the first 'King of the Mountains' prime early in the stage.

What experience can't account for are punctures and Cronshaw suffered two, losing more than four minutes, and was then given a 10-second penalty for 'receiving service on the right' putting him in 56th place overall nine seconds behind Simon Ernest in 50th place.

In Saturday evening's 16.5 mile circuit race, Cronshaw showed his true form, finishing in the mass bunch sprint only one second behind stage winner which was again Russ Downing.

Sunday's stage was the longest of the race at 89.1miles out from Girvan to a circuit at Newton Stewart and contained three 'category 3' climbs.
The Kinesis UK team were out to support Kit Gilham, the strongest climber on the team.

The main attacks came after the last KoM Prime in the moorland stretches buffered by strong crosswinds. When the main split finally came, Gilham was the only Kinisis rider in the front group. Seeing the danger, Pullar recovering from his crash the day before, made a huge effort to drag both Tom Last and Cronshaw across into what was the decisive break of the day, leaving three riders in the front group.

The Kinesis riders continued to show good tactical skills and Cronshaw claimed an excellent third place on the stage to move up to 21st overall.

The final stage on Easter Monday was a 72-mile road race starting and finishing in Girvan and was supposed to be the hardest day, with three 1st Cat climbs and a 3rd Cat climb.

The high level roads of the Nick o' Balloch climb and Tairlaw summit were affected by snow and ice so the course was re-routed to lower levels leaving only one of the 1st Cat climbs.

Gilham was in a very strong position for the KoM jersey in joint second place, only six points behind the leader.

The main climb of the day, Hadyard Hill, came 10 miles later and everybody was still together at the base of the climb.

Over the top of the climb, Gilham was alone in the lead group but on the descent of the climb, two crashes on the narrow rough and wet descent left Gilham out of the race.

Like the day before, with 20 miles to go, the attacks were coming thick and fast with all the GC contenders there and once again three Kinesis riders.

Along the windy back roads of the finishing circuit, Cronshaw and his team-mates did a great job of countering and covering moves, but a group of four riders had slipped away and Cronshaw attacked to bridge the gap.

Joined by Andrew Bye (Sigma Sport) the two worked hard but didn't quite close the gap with Cronshaw riding in solo for fifth place only 31seconds behind the stage winner Kristian House (Rapha-Condor Recycling.co.uk).

That moved him up to 14th place (third Espoir rider), only 4:29 the overall winner Russ Downing, despite the problems on the first stage.

Tom Last, in 11th, was the highest-placed Kinesis rider while the team finished second making it a successful event.

Further back in the field, Simon Ernest finished in 37th place overall at 16:55 and Jack Pullar finished 54th at 1:06:06 but both did well to finish such a prestigious race.

This Sunday, action moves to the Tour of the Reservoir at Edmundbyers, County Durham on Sunday.

All four of the Lune RCC's second claim elite riders – Ben Greenwood (Rapha-Condor Recycling.co.uk, winner of the event in 2006), Ashley Finn (Pearl Izumi-Planet X–High 5 RT) and Matt Cronshaw and Jack Pullar (Kinesis UK) are down to ride.