Guide: British Cycling National Road Championships – Road Races

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Historic Lincoln will see the 2015 British road race champions crowned as Britain’s top male and female riders battle for the champion’s jersey on Sunday 28 June.

Laura Trott and Peter Kennaugh will both return to defend their elite titles but will face stiff competition from a stellar field of world, world cup and former British champions.

The contenders

Elite men

Defending champion Peter Kennaugh is in superb form following an excellent ride in the Criterium du Dauphine earlier in June, where the 26-year-old Manxman took the opening stage and with it the first yellow jersey of the traditional pre-Tour French stage race.

Last year Kennaugh’s chief rival was fellow Team Sky man Ben Swift, with whom Kennaugh battled all the way to the line on the roads of Monmouthshire. This time however Swift is absent, recovering from an injury earlier in the season.

And with the late withdrawal of Geraint Thomas, Kennaugh has a golden opportunity to become the first man since Roger Hammond in 2004 to take back-to-back elite men’s British road race titles.

Kennaugh has parcours knowledge on his side, having ridden to victory in the 2013 edition of the British Cycling Elite Road Series Lincoln Grand Prix, which uses many of the roads that will be used for the championships, including the famous uphill cobbled climb of Lincoln’s historic Michaelgate.

Simon Yates takes the young riders' jersey at the 2015 Criterium du Dauphine.

If Kennaugh is to triumph however, he must overcome the sprinting talents of Mark Cavendish, who won the British title on the hilly street circuit of Glasgow in 2013. And with 2014 bronze medallist Simon Yates also in attendance, the job is tougher still, the Orica GreenEdge pro in excellent form following his young rider jersey triumph at the Dauphine.

Threats will come from within his own team too, with powerhouses Ian Stannard (2012 champion) and Luke Rowe also in attendance.

Start list - men

Elite women

Laura Trott at the 2015 Aviva Women's Tour

Laura Trott is likely to have a battle royal on her hands if she is to successfully defend the title she won a year ago in South Wales.

Trott got the better of hot favourite Lizzie Armitstead in Abergavenny, beating the 2014 UCI Women’s Road World Cup champion in the sprint after an elite group including Dani King and Emma Pooley reeled in Armitstead who looked locked in for a solo victory.

Current world cup leader Armitstead’s challenge for the 2015 title failed to be derailed by the heavy crash she suffered on stage one of the Women’s Tour in Aldeburgh.

Lizzie Armitstead

The 26-year-old from Otley was air-lifted to hospital after a collision just moments after winning the stage but miraculously Armitstead suffered no broken bones. However it remains to be seen what effect the collision has had on her nationals form.

Behind Trott and Armitstead is a myriad of challengers capable of upsetting the pundits’ predictions.
Pearl Izumi Sports Tours International field a strong team including Dame Sarah Storey, on superb form this year, with two para-cycling world titles on the track and a solo win at the hilly Cheshire Classic Women’s Road Series event to her name.

Teammate Katie Archibald is also in great form but with the time trial the Scot’s primary target her efforts may be deployed to help Storey or on-form stablemate and excellent climber Ciara Horne.

Last year’s silver medallist Dani King returns for Wiggle Honda and is always combative, as is the multi-talented Nikki Harris, a lone rider for the Young Telenet Fidea Cycling Team.

Another lone rider with the firepower to snatch victory is Sharon Laws. Racing for the Bigla Pro Cycling outfit, Laws was strong at the Women's Tour and is a former British champion, winning in Ampleforth in 2012.

Start list - women

Under-23 men

Scott Davies

With a strong field of under-23 riders taking the start at the same time as the elite men, the battle for young rider honours will be an intriguing one.

Five of the eight Team Wiggins riders taking the start will be under-23 competitors, with Owain Doull likely to be a key protagonist for honours.

Doull was Great Britain Cycling Team’s lead under-23 rider through the early season UCI Under-23 Nations’ Cup events and the 22-year-old from Cardiff will be keen to challenge for the jersey in his final year in the category.

The 100%ME outfit will field seven of Great Britain Cycling Team’s top road talents, including 2014 British under-23 time trial champion Scott Davies, who has produced superb performances so far this year at the Jayco Herald Sun Tour and the Tour de Yorkshire.

Davies proved that he could climb with the best on the short, sharp ramps of Yorkshire and the parcours of the Lincoln finishing circuit is likely to suit the 19-year-old from Carmarthen.

Tao-Geoghegan Hart too will be keen to lay his hands on the under-23 prize, however the talented Axeon Cycling Team rider is without team support and is likely to be a marked man.

Start list - men

Under-23 women

Hannah Barnes celebrates her Premier Inn Best of British riders jersey at the 2015 Aviva Women's Tour.

Laura Trott took both elite and under-23 honours last year, underlining both her prowess and the strength of young talent in the women’s field.

Katie Archibald was in the elite selection last year, taking silver in the under-23 competition ahead of Trott’s Matrix Fitness teammate Elinor Barker, who rode well at the Aviva Women’s Tour.

Fourth in 2014, UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling’s Hannah Barnes is in stellar form after taking the best British and young rider jerseys at the Aviva Women’s Tour, which also saw strong riding from Liv Plantur’s Lucy Garner.

Start list - women

The course

2015 British Cycling National Road Championships - Road Race - Long Circuit

Racing starts on Lincoln’s Burton Road, after which all riders head out onto a 45-kilometre open road circuit north of Lincoln. The women race one lap while the men tackle two, before racing reaches its climax on the shorter 13-kilometre Lincoln finishing circuit.

2015 British Cycling National Road Championships - Road Race - Finishing Circuit

The men will complete 8.5 laps of the city circuit, while the women will ride 4.5 laps. For both the key point will the cobbled climb of Michaelgate in the heart of historic Lincoln, with the race finish positioned shortly after.

How to follow the racing

  • Live reporting on the British Cycling website from 9am covering the women’s and men’s races.
  • Live coverage on British Eurosport (Sky channel 412 or 410 for HD) (Virgin channel 521 or 522 for HD) from 11:30am joining the women’s race and continuing until the end of the men’s race.
  • Updates on Twitter @BritishCycling.
  • A one-hour highlights programme on ITV4 (Freeview channel 24, Sky channel 120, Virgin channel 118) on Monday 29 June from 6pm.