In a strong national road race weekend for Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling, the black and orange team took two silver and two bronze medals in the Great Britain, Italian and Japanese championships.
Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling’s World and Olympic champion’s Laura Trott and Dani King took the Silver and Bronze medals respectively in the Great Britain national road race championships in Glasgow, Scotland. The black and orange team managed to control most of the race, but was just unable to compete with the final lap attack from pre-race favourite Lizzie Armitstead (Boels-Dolmans), who rode away to a solo victory.
With King having done the lion’s share of the work in the preceding laps, Trott was able to take second place, and the Great Britain under-23 road race title. Having caught and attacked the first chasing group, Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling’s Joanna Rowsell took fourth place.
“We did what we planned to, which was basically try to isolate Lizzie,” explained Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling directeur sportif Simon Cope. “But she was just the stronger rider in the end. I think the whole team rode really well to get into that position and then just try to use numbers.
“Laura just couldn’t hang on,” Cope added. “If the climb had been a bit shorter she would have stayed there. But this was the first nationals where they’ve been at the level to be able to compete, so it was good.”
Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling’s Amy Roberts made the first meaningful attack of the race, as she broke clear on the third of eight rolling 14.2km laps. The 18-year-old managed to hold off the chase until the end of lap four, when she was joined, first by Emma Trott (Boels-Dolmans), and then by Laura Trott, King and Armitstead. Having done so much work early on, however, Roberts was unable to hold the pace of the leaders and dropped back to the first chasing group, which also contained Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling Teammate Elinor Barker.
This group was also joined soon afterwards by Rowsell, with the newly crowned British time trial champion attacking soon afterwards, while the pace in the leading quartet saw it reduced to three as Emma Trott was dropped. Despite Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling’s numerical advantage, however, Armitstead put in a devastating attack midway through the final lap and soloed away to victory.
In Italy, former two-time World road race champion Giorgia Bronzini, riding in the colours of her ‘Corpo Forestale’ regiment, took a comfortable sprint for second place, and her best ever finish in her national championships in Rancio Valcuvia, in the province of Varese. The 29-year-old was by far the best of a five-rider chase group that arrived at the line behind winner Dalia Muccioli (Be Pink), and Bronzini was easily able to beat the others, with Rossella Ratto (Hitec Products) taking third.
Virtually alone, up against the big Italian teams, Bronzini was once again forced to prove that there is more to her than just one of the fastest sprints in the peloton.
“With four laps to go I took the long climb in first position, and did my maximum to split the big group,” she explained. “After that there were so many attacks from the big teams, and in the finale there were two girls in front: Dalia Muccioli and Susanna Zorzi [Faren-Let’s Go Finland]. In the last lap Elisa Longo Borghini [Hitec Products] attacked, and Zorzi came back, and we were trying to chase the two others in the last 15km.
“Longo Borghini had a very bad crash in the descent, and Muccioli was left alone,” Bronzini added. “We were chasing but we could do nothing more, but I won the sprint from the small group.
“I’m happy because I have so many bronze medals!” she laughed, referring to the four occasions in the past where she had finished third. “At the nationals it’s always hard. I’m happy because in the hills I was one of the strong riders, and that is important for me to know how my form is ahead of the Giro.”
Mayuko Hagiwara was unfortunately unable to successfully defend her title at the Japanese championships, which were run over six laps of an extremely hilly 15km course, featuring a total of 3000 metres of climbing. Eri Yonamine (Team Forza!) was the strongest rider on the day, winning the race alone, ahead of Hiromi Kaneko (Iname Shinano Yamagata), with Hagiwara taking the bronze medal in a race where only eight of the race’s 30 starters managed to finish.
Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling was also in action at the German national championships this weekend, where Anna-Bianca Schnitzmeier finished fifth, and Charlotte Becker finished eleventh, behind new champion Trixi Worrack (Specialized-lululemon).
Great Britain road race championship result
1. Lizzie Armitstead (Boels-Dolmans)
2. Laura Trott (Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling)
3. Dani King (Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling)
4. Joanna Rowsell (Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling)
10. Elinor Barker
12. Amy Roberts
Italian road race championship result
1. Dalia Muccioli (Be Pink)
2. Giorgia Bronzini (Corpo Forestale/Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling)
3. Rossella Ratto (Hitec Products)
Japanese road race championship result
1. Eri Yonamine (Team Forza!)
2. Hiromi Kaneko (Iname Shinano Yamagata)
3. Mayuko Hagiwara (Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling)
Photo credit: Simon Wilkinson/www.
