After a busy weekend of Cycling action at the British National Road Championships in Lincoln, Alex Dowsett, Peter Kennaugh, Lizzie Armitstead and Hayley Simmonds came away with the major honours. Dowsett's time trial victory was his fourth in five years, after Sir Bradley Wiggins had stepped in last year to temporarily halt his dominance in the event. Kennaugh won the battle of the riders from the Isle of Man in the road race, as he eventually managed to pull clear from Mark Cavendish on the final climb over the cobbles. Lizzie Armitstead was a convincing winner in the women's road race on her return to action after crashing in the Women's Tour event recently.
Men's road race
Kennaugh had been a proud winner of the road race title in 2014 but knew that he faced strong opposition this year in the form of the 2013 winner Cavendish and the ever-consistent Ian Stannard.
It was the two Team Sky riders, Kennaugh and Stannard who broke clear in the early stages to establish a healthy advantage of around 40 seconds. Luke Rowe worked with Cavendish to reduce the deficit though and they bridged the gap just before the end of the penultimate lap.
The final lap of 13km saw Stannard initially break clear, only to be reeled back in and then drop back with Rowe to leave Kennaugh and Cavendish to battle for gold.
Cavendish gutsily pushed him all the way but eventually had to give best on the final climb up Michaelgate, as his rival took the victory by 5 seconds at the finish.
Stannard completed the podium placings over 30 seconds behind the winner in third place, as he edged out Rowe.
The under-23 title went to Team Wiggins' Owain Doull back in seventh place.
Women's road race
Armitstead knew that she was in good form going into the road race, after winning the opening stage on the Women's Tour just 11 days ago.
Her preparations were not helped though by a crash shortly after the finish of that race in Suffolk, which had required her to be flown to hospital afterwards and to pull out of the rest of the Tour event.
Looking full recovered from her shake-up she had too much firepower for the rest in Lincoln, pulling well clear on the final lap to hold a commanding gap of almost two minutes by the finish.
The decisive moment in the race came on the penultimate climb up Michaelgate, when Armitstead committed herself to a solo attack that pulled her clear of the other riders on the way to a third title.
In a close battle for second, 19-year-old Alice Barnes was able to hold off defending champion Laura Trott, relegating the Olympic track champion to bronze on this occasion. Barnes took the under-23 title.
Men's time trial
With Wiggins opting to not defend his time trial title this year, as he continues his preparations for one final assault on the track at the Olympics in Rio 2016, Dowsett was a class apart. By the finish he had a three and a half minute gap on the next best rider, Edmund Bradbury, as he recorded a time of one hour, 11.13 seconds for the 28-mile course.
Ryan Perry finished third, a further 20 seconds down on Bradbury.
Women's time trial
The women's race at Cadwell Park went to Hayley Simmonds of Team Velosport. Her finishing time of 51:39.89 gave her a final margin of almost 80 seconds over Molly Weaver for the 21-mile distance. Dame Sarah Storey claimed the bronze medal position in a time just outside 53 minutes.
