National Road Race Championship Course 2013 Glasgow
Former world champion Mark Cavendish heads a field packed with star names that will take to the streets of Glasgow a week on Sunday to contest the British national road championship, while Olympic silver medallist Lizzie Armitstead will be aiming to take back the title she won in 2011.
Team Sky have dominated the championships for the past three years, with Geraint Thomas, Bradley Wiggins and Ian Stannard all winning the right to wear the British champions’ jersey.
So far, that’s a prize that has eluded Cavendish, now with Omega Pharma-Quick Step, on the rare occasions he’s contested the race, but he looks like the man to beat in Glasgow – the profile of the 14-kilometre course above exaggerates the climbs, with a maximum elevation of around 50 metres.
Instead, it’s all those corners that are likely to cause problems during the 13 laps of the men’s race and eight laps of the women’s one.
Sky will be here in strength, but other WorldTour team riders looking to end their dominance include Steve Cummings of BMC Racing and Scots Andy Fenn of Omega Pharma-Quick Step and David Millar of Garmin Sharp.
NetApp-Endura’s Russell Downing, champion in 2005, will also take to the start at Glasgow Green, as will the last non-Sky rider to win, Rapha-Condor-JLT’s Kristian House who together with team mate Ed Clancy spearheads a strong domestic challenge.
In the women’s race, Armitstead will face competition to recapture her title from riders including defending champion Sharon Laws, recovered from injury, plus an in-form Hannah Barnes and a Wiggle-Honda line-up that includes Olympic team pursuit champions Laura Trott, Joanna Rowsell and Dani King.
That trio will also be riding in the time trial, which takes place a week today on Thursday 20 June in East Ayrshire, the first time it has been held to coincide with the road nationals. In the men’s version, Alex Dowsett, winner of an individual time trial in last month’s Giro d’Italia, will be going for his third national title in a row.
Highlights of the event will be broadcast on ITV4 on Monday 24 June at 19.00 and further information, including full entry lists, is available on the event website.
Born in Scotland, Simon moved to London aged seven and now lives in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds with his miniature schnauzer, Elodie. He fell in love with cycling one Saturday morning in 1994 while living in Italy when Milan-San Remo went past his front door. A daily cycle commuter in London back before riding to work started to boom, he's been news editor at road.cc since 2009. Handily for work, he speaks French and Italian. He doesn't get to ride his Colnago as often as he'd like, and freely admits he's much more adept at cooking than fettling with bikes.