The Road Champs is always a very tough race, whether the course is brutally hilly or pan flat, every rider races hard in the hope that they will have a chance of winning or making the podium.With many World Tour and Pro Continental (Sky, Lotto Soudal, EF, Dimension Data, Aqua Blue, Quick Step) level riders competing the race is an opportunity for our youngest riders to gain experience riding against some of the worlds very best riders. Top 20 is a very respectable result at this race, but with an injury and illness depleted team we only started 3 riders. If Joe had a good day he could make top 20 or even top 10.
A 17 man group formed, but Joe wasn’t there. This group would become the winning move. The race ended for Joe at 150km due to a ongoing injury causing him problems. This was unfortunate as Joe was feeling very good. The group Charlie and Dan were in withdrew from the race at 160km. They had ridden very well to hang in, Dan in particular as a first year senior gained valuable experience. Although our lads hadn’t got up there, they drew confidence in their form and gained great experience, which they will use going forward and at next year’s Champs.We’ll be back next year.
The title was won by Connor Swift. Connor is a very talented rider indeed. He rode with us for 2 years before moving on to Madison Genesis. Along with many other people, we were extremely happy to see Connor win. This was an incredible and well deserved victory. We felt great pride to have helped in Connor’s development and to see a former team member achieve the status of British Champion at only 22 years old. Connor is likely to make another step in his career now as this result will have got the attention of World Tour and Pro Continental teams.
We aim to continue working to develop more success stories.
