There was plenty of action for cycling fans to enjoy at the recent 2017 British Cycling National Road Championships, as road bikes stockist Leisure Lakes Bikes has found when looking back at the thrilling June event that took place across the Isle of Man…
2017’s winners
This year’s National Road Championships got underway with the time trial championships on Thursday June 22nd. Three short days later on Sunday June 25th, there were more events to take in courtesy of the road race championships.
Time trials for the women and under-23 men’s competitions were the first action that fans gathered at the Isle of Man had the chance to enjoy — with both events covering the same routes and distances. Starting and finishing at Tynwald Hill, in St John’s, entrants worked their way around one lap of a 13.8-mile loop. The lap goes clockwise up to Kirk Michael, before turning and going south to Ballig (it’s the same route as the Isle of Man TT course), and then back towards St John’s. While the men’s race took place on the exact same route as the other time trial events, they needed to complete two laps in order to get a time and so were required to race for 27.6 miles. Team Wiggins’ Scott Davies won the under-23 men’s race in a time of 28:20:33, while Claire Rose of Visit Dallas DNA Pro Cycling claimed the women’s time trial title in a time of 32:11:32, and Stephen Cummings of Team Dimension Data the men’s time trial crown in a time of 57:18:66.
Three days later, and the action continued with the road races, beginning with the women’s race that set off from Douglas’ TT Grandstand. From there, riders completed a lap of the 37.7-mile-long Isle of Man TT Snaefell Mountain Course — the Snaefell mountain road climb was a part of this route that entrants needed to pay particular attention to. There were then six laps of a 4.5-mile clockwise finishing circuit to undertake once back in Douglas, before crossing the finish line that was set out alongside the start line at the TT Grandstand.
Those who caught the women’s race would have been familiar with the men’s race route, seeing as though the two shared many similarities except that the men’s event included two more laps of the main circuit and an additional ten laps around the finish circuit. As such, the men’s race encompassed 120.6 miles of tarmac, while those in the women’s race were tasked with completing 64.45 miles for their event. Boels Dolmans Cycling Team’s Elizabeth Deignan won the women’s road race in a time of 2:44:18, while Stephen Cummings completed a prestigious double at the 2017 National Road Championships by winning the men’s road race in a time of 4:28:49.
Prestigious winners of the National Road Championships over the years
By chalking up a victory in at least one of the races at the 2017 National Road Championships, Claire Rose, Elizabeth Deignan, Scott Davies and Stephen Cummings have joined very esteemed company. This is because the following Olympians are all former champions at the prestigious competition:
