Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling’s Laura Trott and Charlotte Becker finished in second and third places in yesterday’s second Milk Race for women, around the streets of Nottingham, behind Katie Archibald (Pearl Izumi-Sports Tours International). Becker, a last minute replacement for team manager Rochelle Gilmore – having flown in overnight, fresh from her Tour of Zhoushan Island victory in China just two days ago – blew the race apart with repeated attacks, but was just unable to get rid of Archibald on the City centre course.
“The team led from the front and, along with Dani [King] and Charlotte, we had three of the four riders in the breakaway and took the team’s second double podium here in as many years,” said Trott. “The race has a great pedigree with many of the sports greatest names having won here in the past, and there were some very strong riders out there today.”
Pressure from Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling’s Becker, Elinor Barker, Amy Roberts and Anna-Bianca Schnitzmeier in the first half of the race saw the leading group whittled down to just twelve riders. A big attack from Trott after half an hour then saw that that reduced to five; another from Becker saw the German briefly go clear but, as Archibald was followed across by Trott and King, the lead group was down to just four.
“I felt better than I thought I would feel after this long travel,” said Becker. “It was a really nice race with all the crowds there as usual in Great Britain, and it was a nice course as well. We were really lucky with the weather!”
A big move from defending champion King was thwarted as the defending champion crashed on a sharp bend, causing the Olympic champion to lose contact. A massive effort from Becker around the closing laps was unable to get rid of Archibald, however, and she was just able to get her wheel ahead of Trott’s in the sprint for the line.
“Maybe we could have done a few things different to get the win,” Becker admitted. “I think we were strong enough to do this. We maybe should have done more attacks instead of keeping the speed high.
“Katie was too fast in the sprint and I think we all didn’t expect this,” the German added. “Unfortunately Dani crashed with five laps to go. With her the the chances of winning would have been higher for sure.”
“The Wiggle Honda girls made it a hard race, they really couldn’t have raced harder,” said Gilmore. “Katie deserves full credit, we can’t take anything away from her. The race was one of the most exciting, and fastest races of the year so far. Wiggle Honda gave everything but sadly it didn’t quite work out in the end.
“The support was incredible, the event had a very professional atmosphere,” Gilmore added. “The Milk Race is a really prestigious event, and we’re already thinking about coming back next year to reclaim our title.
“The level of racing in the UK is at a really high standard, and Katie and the other British-based riders are very hard to beat.”
Result
1. Katie Archibald (Pearl Izumi-Sports Tours International)
2. Laura Trott (Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling)
3. Charlotte Becker (Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling)
Photo Credit: John Pierce
