The British National Championships are held in Sheffield and features one of the longer road races in all NCs: a 236km hilly race, featuring a loop with several short and not too steep, but challenging climbs. Definitely made for the three big guns, who will start here..
Bellis (Rothaus) faces a two-headed Jaguar-monster with Froome and Dowsett (which also have some strong support in Bibby and a 7-men-team in total). Bellis all alone.. A tough, but promising matchup!
Wiggle (with Diggle/6 riders) and local team Pendleton's (6) are the two other strong teams in numbers. Some sprinters like Rowe, Blythe or Kennaugh may hope for a less selective race. Let's get it on!
It took two attempts to build a working breakaway group, that is also allowed to go clear: 5 riders made it and will set the agenda early in the race.
Opie (Simply Red Bull)
Thwaites (ANC)
Rowe (Wiggle)
Wiggins (Pendleton's)
Williams (Mobil-Castrol)
So both Wiggle and Pendleton's give up on the responsibility to chase today's break of the day, which is all Jaguar's job now. Star-sprinter Rowe also is a real threat in this group, if they manage to survive.
We're jumping into the second half of the tough race - 236km in total and (we are in Great Britain) it's raining.
Jaguar did what they had to do and started chasing the breakaway, keeping the gap at 5 minutes with 90km remaining.. bad news though:
Dowsett crashed on those slicky roads! His team couldn't really stop chasing, but fortunatelly the pace ain't too brutal by now, so Dowsett (who looks fine after his crash) catches up to the peloton quickly..
So Jaguar keeps pacing and the early escapees are facing tough times against a totally focussed team..
28km remaining and the Jaguar-train is still pacing (with now only Bibby as domestique left) and the bunch is reduced to just 12 riders with the early escapees leading by only a minute.
All favorites (and those, who may hope for a surprising coup) are in this group, which is soon to catch up to the break..
Yes, the escapees are reeled in 23km before finish and as soon as they are, we see the first top-favorite launching his move:
Froome goes!
This is likely to be a crucial move and of course the other two top-favorites would know that:
Bellis and also Dowsett jump behind Froome immediately, while facing a 15"-gap though!
Solo-leading Froome yet managed to hold the duo off - 6km to go and he's looking strong with a 41"-gap on the two behind.
The peloton (and all those, who obviously didn't hope for a surprising coup) sits up and enjoys the better weather now..
For obvious reasons, Dowsett wouldn't help Bellis closing the gap to his teammate Froome - so he wheelsucks his former teammate.
But Bellis is fighting hard and the even though it looks like a comfortable gap, he actually manages to narrow this gap a bit with 3km remaining..
And then it all went so quickly (we obviously underestimated the power of Bellis here) and just a few moments later (we're under the kite for the final km) the duo somehow caught up to Froome!
The former solo-leader really suffers from his effort, it seems:
Dowsett takes advantage of his position behind powerhorse Bellis and kicks the sprint off with an impressive speed! Froome ain't looking like he would counter, but will Bellis do so?
He tries, but Dowsett established a nice gap quickly! This looks like it's in the bag..
It is! Alex Dowsett (Jaguar) celebrates a dominating sprint-finish and the road title 2013! He obviously had no problems after his crash halfway through the race.
Bellis 2nd with 17" behind, Froome 24".. tough luck for both (Bellis had to chase and Froome had to pace - Dowsett "just" had to suck), but Jaguar's tactics obviously paid off. So Bellis always knew he would have had a tough challenge.
Jaguar will also feature the top-favorites for the flat TT: Stannard, Tennant and Bibby may only fear Wiggins (Pendleton's) as the most dangerous opponent..
Ian Bibby hits the road quite early in the event and he sets the first notable BT for sure: 54'38" may be the time to beat.
Yes, it is. Looking at the split-time, Bibby even managed to gain 3" on top-favorite Stannard! An also strong Tennant is 17" behind, just like Jaguar-competitor Wiggins..
..who might have hoped for more than this: Wiggins won't challenge the Jaguar-duo today, he finishes even behind Tennant (by the smallest margin of under a second) as provisional 3rd..
So it's up to top-favorite Stannard now.. the 3" he lost in the first half ain't too much to call his mission impossible..
..but he loses some more seconds on teammate Bibby and eventually finishes 8" slower for the runner-up! Bibby with a stunning performance to complete Jaguar's (somehow expected) double!
British National Championships are held in Sheffield and features one of the longer road races in all NCs: a 236km hilly race, featuring a loop with several short and not too steep, but challenging climbs. Definitely made for the three big guns, who will start here..
