Scottish favourite John Archibald had a fantastic day out at the HSBC UK National Road Championship in Norwich this weekend, taking the Bronze medal in the road race.
The 190km men’s race was punctuated by frequent attacks from the relentless Stannard, who took over from the trio of Dan Bigham (Ribble Pro Cycling), Chris Lawless (Team Ineos) and Michael Mottram (Vitus Pro Cycling p/b Brother UK) who animated the early stages of the race until the latter suffered an unfortunate crash.
From then, Stannard was a virtual ever-present at the head of the race, although his lead group of six – made up of John Archibald (Ribble Pro Cycling), Swift, Scott Thwaites (Vitus Pro Cycling p/b Brother UK), Matt Bostock and Alex Richardson (both Canyon DHB p/b Bloor Homes) – was caught by a chasing group which included the likes of Adam Blythe (Lotto Soudal), Alex Dowsett (Katusha – Alpecin) and Ethan Hayter (VC Londres) with little over 20km remaining. Archibald rode strategically throughout the race, barely touching the front for the first 100km.
That group was eventually thinned out to four, with Stannard continuing to attack in an attempt to claim his second national road race title. Dowsett was the first to fall away, while Stannard’s final attack also looked to have shaken off his remaining contenders, Archibald and Swift.
However, Swift timed his superb counter-attack perfectly, sweeping past his team-mate in the final kilometre, over-taking Stannard as the race entered the closing stages in Norwich city centre and crossing the line comfortably clear to claim the national jersey.
Stannard claimed silver and Archibald bronze, which represented a second medal of the championships for the Scot, who also claimed silver in Thursday’s time trial. Read more about the time trial HERE.
On the race Archibald said, "It was just amazing. I got third and I got turned over, but I really enjoyed it. To get a result like this is pretty hard to top, although winning it would have been ideal."
The top ten was completed by Dowsett, Hayter, Richardson, Erik Rowsell (Madison Genesis), Mark Christian (Team Wiggins Le Col), Bostock and Thwaites. As the first under-23 rider over the line, Hayter claimed that title, with Bostock and Jake Stewart (Equippe Cycliste Continentale Groupama-FDJ Team) completing the under-23 podium.
Sunday was the final day of the HSBC UK | National Road Championships, which formed part of the wider Great British Cycling Festival. On Thursday, Dowsett and Alice Barnes claimed the elite national time trial titles, while today’s road races were complemented by a number of opportunities for amateur riders to take advantage of the celebration of cycling – this included over 5,500 people taking part in a HSBC UK Let’s Ride event on the closed roads of Norwich city centre.
