On a balmy Sunday afternoon in quaint Stamfordham, Sky did ‘what England expected’ and grabbed the first four places in the British elite road race championship over 197 hard Northumbrian kilometres; and the skeletal Bradley Wiggins will start the Tour in the white British champion’s jersey after jumping his team mates on the run in; defending champion Geraint Thomas took silver, Peter Kennaugh was third and Ian Stannard fourth.
We were on the scene early – in time to catch the end of the ladies’ championship.
‘That was savage, Ed!’
Was Vik’s summary of the that particular race; there were four away, Emma Pooley, Sharon Laws, Lizzie Armistead (Cervelo) and Nicole Cooke (MCipollini), then – much later, the bunch at pedestrian speed.
But what’s slower than ‘pedestrian’…?
The next big group was moving at Cyclists Touring Club speed – ‘savage‘ is probably the best word.
Through the finish, the chase groups were down on the drops, but out on the circuit it’s back on the tops, catch a few rays, have a chat.
Chequered flag time and it’s Lizzie who zips into view first with a desperate looking Nicole a few seconds back then Sharon and Emma giving three Garmin-Cervelos in the first four.
We did the rounds before the start; Evan Oliphant (Endura) looking lean; Dan Fleeman (Raleigh) fully recovered from 8th in Beauce; Dan Patten (Flanders) still smiling about his win in Flanders, last week; Andy Fenn (AN Post) making last minute adjustments to that Dolan; Alex Coutts (Giant) hasn’t done much lately due to opening his bike shop – he’ll have fun, today.
We decided to miss the start and get on the Ryals climb; our take was that Sky would explode it early and we wanted to be there.
Not easy – maybe it was a marshall giving us a bum steer but we ended up lost.
If there were race arrows, we didn’t see then.
Let’s moan first – the big circuit was too big at an hour round; it should be half of that and do you really need a ‘death climb’ so early?
Sky were always going to try to eliminate most of the field there.
And it shouldn’t be out in the wilds – what’s wrong with passing shops, bars and toilets ?
OK, now that’s out of the way.
Lap one, top of the Ryals climb and the race could well be over; around a dozen are away, with three Sky’s – Froome, Dowsett and Thomas plus ‘our Dan’ Fleeman, Kristian House (Rapha), Steve Lampiere (Sigma) . .
Just behind, Wiggins, Stannard and Kennaugh for Sky – looking like they’ll make it up.
With team mates Swift not far behind and Downing not far away either.
And those who won’t figure today; in no particular order – Jez (Sky), Cav (HTC), Roger Hammond and Dan Lloyd (Cervelo), Rob Hayles (Endura), Dan Patten, Malcolm Elliott (Motorpoint), Adam Blythe (Lotto)…