Anna Shackley produced a sensational ride to claim the National Champions jersey as she dominated the field in the Women’s Under 23 Time Trial in what was the big story in the first day of action at the HSBC UK National Road Championships in Lincoln.
The 20-year-old SD Worx rider blitzed the 29km course round Lincolnshire in a time of 43:55.839, over 90 seconds clear of second-placed Team DSM’s Georgi Pfeiffer (45:30.370). A spirited ride by Abi Smith (Team TIBCO-Silicon Valley Bank) saw her claim the bronze medal nearly 2 minutes 30 seconds behind winner Shackley. Fellow Scot Beth Morrow (Storey Racing) came home in ninth. Such was the Scot’s dominance that only one rider - Anna Henderson - was able to beat her time in the Elite event.
On her victory Shackley said:
“It feels really good to win. I wasn’t really expecting that because I’m not usually the best at Time Trials but I think I’m starting to enjoy them, when they go well.
“[I think the course] definitely helped me, that hill in the middle of the lap helped me a lot. It’s a hard course and quite technical with the wind as well.
“It’s been a bit of a cherry on top of the cake this year. I’ve really enjoyed 2021 and hope to build on it next year”
Another Scot who rides for a Dutch professional team, Oscar Onley (DSM Development), was also on the podium this morning, with his time of 39:37.78 over the same distance enough to claim a bronze medal in the Under 23 Men’s event. Onley who has raced with the full DSM Pro Team this season on occasion – most recently the Tour of Norway - was beat out by trade teammate Leo Hayter for the National bands with Ben Turner (Trinity) in second.
Finn Crockett (Wheelbase-CabTech Castelli) will take encouragement from his 18th place finish as he looks to tomorrow’s Criterium; teammate Logan Maclean came home in 22nd. Whilst Lee Rosie (University of Aberdeen) and Matti Dobbins (RT23) finished in 25th and 29th respectively.
The afternoon saw the turn of the Elite riders. John Archibald (Eolo-Kometa) went into the Men’s Individual TT as one of the favourites, however he rode to a respectable fifth place - 1:58 down on the winner. Michael Gill (Saint Piran Devo) produced another encouraging ride to finish 11th – which builds on his recent track success riding for Scotland at the 3 Jours d’Aigle.
The Women’s Elite was the final event to take place, with a number of Scots in action. Jennifer George (Memorial Santos) was the early pacesetter with a time of 45:51, which was enough to come home in eighth. The hotseat was later usurped by fellow Scot Becky Storrie (CAMS-Basso) who was 24 seconds quicker over the 29km course, which would eventually be good enough for seventh place. New Alba Development RT signings Victoria Smith (AeroCoach) and Sophie Lankford (Jadan Vive-le-Velo) came home in 11th and 16th, respectively.
Tomorrow, some of the riders, such as Finn Crockett and Beth Morrow, will go again as the floodlights will shine on the city centre of Lincoln for the Criterium Championships.
