Nikki Juniper (Ford EcoBoost) stormed to victory in the final round of the British Cycling Women’s Road Series, the Ryedale Grand Prix, on Sunday morning.

The 34-year-old from Brentwood in Essex made it three wins in a row in the Ryedale Grand Prix, and capped a superb season in which she also won the British Cycling Women’s Road Series with three races to spare.

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Early in the race the strong riders came to the fore, and they were barely up the first climb on lap one when the field of 59 starts had been whittled down to around 30 at the front, with several riders dropping off the back of the bunch.

As riders finished the first climb on lap one, the gap between the leading group and the remains of the bunch was 55 seconds and growing. Several riders were trying to bridge across to the leaders, but the pace was high and they mostly found themselves stranded in no man’s land.

As the race completed the first lap the gap from the leaders to the backmarkers had grown to around two minutes, with Team Ford Ecoboost having strength in numbers in the leading group – including Series winner Juniper – while other well represented teams include Podium Ambition, Drops CT and Fusion RT.

With so many top names in the leading group, the pace kept heading north, and with half of the second lap completed the gap to the remains of the bunch was timed at nearly four and a half minutes.

The pace eventually proved too much for the 30-strong leading group, and ten riders managed to get clear of the rest of the break – including Juniper, her team-mate Julie Erskine, Podium Ambition’s Beth Hayward, Annasley Park (Team Breeze), Alice Sharpe (Sunsport Velo) and Lydia Boylan (Team WNT).

As they completed the penultimate lap their gap had grown quickly to 2-20, and as they chewed up the last of the smaller eight-mile laps that gap was hovering around 1-46 as they began to prepare for the finish.

In the uphill blast to the line, it was experience that proved key for Juniper as she held off the rest of the break to take the win with her arms aloft, while Annasley Park (Team Breeze) took second and Alice Sharpe (SunSport Velo) third.

After the win, Juniper said: “As soon as we had done the two big laps I pushed it on the front and tried to thin it out and we got a really good group of ten, then nine, and I had Julie [Erskine] and Lizzie [Holden] with me who really looked after me, and I’m so pleased I finished it off.

“I’m so proud of the whole team, everyone did such a lot of work. It was such a good field today.”

Results:

1. Nikki Juniper (Team Ford EcoBoost) 2:51.14
2. Annasley Park (Team Breeze)
3. Alice Sharpe (SunSport Velo)
4. Lydia Boylan (Team WNT) all same time
5. Beth Hayward (Podium Ambition) at 4sec
6. Elizabeth Holden (Team Ford EcoBoost)
7. Natalie Grinczer (Team WNT)
8. Julie Erskine (Team Ford EcoBoost) all same time
9. Jennifer Hudson (Fusion RT-Fierlan) at 16sec
10. Chanel Mason (Army CU) at 1.53