British Cycling has today confirmed the full list of riders who will compete at the forthcoming HSBC UK | National Road Championships – with ten elite world title winners and four Olympic gold medallists all set to ride in Norfolk next week.
The new national time trial champions will be crowned on the Royal Sandringham Estate on Thursday June 27, while the road races will be contested on Sunday June 30.
The women’s time trial will see the reigning champion return to defend her title. Hannah Barnes (Canyon /Sram Racing) beat her sister Alice (Canyon /Sram Racing) into second place last year, and the siblings will again compete for the title at Sandringham.
Looking to challenge their dominance will be 2018 bronze medallist Neah Evans (Team HUUB), 2015 and 2016 champion Hayley Simmonds (BTC City Ljubljana), Britain’s most successful female Paralympian Dame Sarah Storey (Storey Racing) and Olympic track champion and 2017 bronze medallist Katie Archibald (Team HUUB).
The elite women, under-23 men and under-23 women will all race over a 16.5-mile course.
In the men’s event, Harry Tanfield and five-time winner Alex Dowsett (both Katusha – Alpecin) finished second and third respectively behind Geraint Thomas last year, and the duo will be looking to claim the top spot on the podium this time around.
Steve Cummings (Team Dimension Data) – the 2017 champion – will also be amongst those to tackle the 25.9-mile course, as will Ian Stannard and Olympic track champion Owain Doull (both Team Ineos), John Archibald (Ribble Pro Cycling) and Scott Davies (Team Dimension Data).
Four-time Tour de France winner, Chris Froome (Team Ineos), was forced to withdraw due to injuries sustained in a recent crash. Thomas (Team Ineos) will also miss this year’s HSBC UK | National Road Championships to focus on the defence of his Tour de France title in the wake of his crash at the Tour de Suisse.
Sunday’s road races will see reigning men’s champion Connor Swift (Team Arkea-Samsic) return to defend his title
Looking to prevent him doing so will be a host of riders who have past experience of national road race success, including 2016 champion Adam Blythe (Lotto Soudal), 2013 winner and former world champion Mark Cavendish (Team Dimension Data) and 2012 national champion Stannard.
An impressive field also includes the likes of 2019 Tour de Yorkshire winner Chris Lawless (Team Ineos), Gabz Cullaigh (Team Wiggins Le Col), Hugh Carthy and Dan McLay (EF Education First), Ethan Hayter (VC Londres), Scott Thwaites (Vitus Pro Cycling p/b Brother UK) and Charlie Tanfield (Canyon DHB p/b Bloor Homes).
The women’s road race will bring the curtain down on a spectacular weekend of racing, and with reigning champion Jess Roberts and four-time winner Lizzie Deignan not riding, Hannah Barnes is the only name in the field to have previously won the national title.
All looking to win their first ever national road champion’s jersey will be last year’s bronze medallist Ellie Dickinson (Drops), Lizzie Banks and Norfolk native Sophie Wright (both Bigla), Alice Barnes, Archibald, national circuit race champion Anna Henderson (Brother UK Tifosi – p/b OnForm), Olympic and world track champion Elinor Barker (Drops) and double former junior world champion Lucy Garner (Hitec Products Birk Sport).
The championships form part of the four-day Great British Cycling Festival, which will also include a number of mass participation events. One of these is a 100-mile sportive, following in the tracks of the professional riders on Sunday June 30. Thousands of locals are expected to pedal their way through traffic-free streets of Norwich on the Sunday morning, as free-to-attend cycling festival HSBC UK Let’s Ride also rolls into the city. For more information, or to enter, visit the website.
