Kristian House took his first win of the season in Sunday’s British national championships. For House and Rapha-Condor team manager, John Herety, the win closes a chapter on what has been a difficult season so far.
"Honestly, it’s a dream come true, it’s something I’ve wanted for such a long time,” House told Cyclingnews. “For it to happen in the team I’m in now, with the manager and all the people involved, it really is a dream come true.”
This year saw one of the strongest ever fields line up for the British championships. House worked his way into the race winning move on the climb of the Tumble before outsprinting Daniel Lloyd (Cervélo TestTeam) and Peter Kennaugh (100% ME) to take his first championship win.
Leading into the race House had been unsure how he would cope with the tough course in Wales. “It’s easy to say that it doesn’t matter now that I’ve won but going into it I was a bit unsure about how much I’d done, whether it would be enough,” he said. “John [Herety] was keeping our spirits up, telling us that we were actually going well, so when I got to the finale of [the national championships] I thought ‘Well, I’m not going to lose here’.”
Rapha-Condor have been regular visitors to the podium with Darren Lapthorne, Matt Cronshaw, Dean Downing and Tom Southam all winning races in recent months. Despite riding strongly at the service of his teammates throughout the year House has been frustrated by his own absence of wins. Happy to have now joined in the team’s success, House is looking towards the remainder of the season.
“The way the team’s been going the last couple of weeks, [with] these guys all starting to win races, I almost felt a bit left out, so it has taken a bit of pressure off now. I guess the morale of the team is just sort of snowballing and I think we’re headed for bigger and better things.”
“He’s been going well all season but he’s never actually been able to put it all together. In fact, he’s been quite frustrated in the last few months,” said John Herety. “So it’s good to see it all come good for him, it’s a just reward for all the hard work he’s put in over the years.”
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House will waste no time in displaying his national champion’s jersey. Rapha-Condor will head to the Tour of Qinghai Lake, in China, in two weeks time before returning for the Tour of Ireland and Tour of Britain. The team then expects to line up in Australia for the Tour of Tasmania and the Herald Sun Tour in October.
The new British champion indicated a specific goal during the team’s time in Australia, the world’s longest one day race: the Melbourne to Warrnambool. “That’s actually the race I want to win,” he said. “I’ve said it a number of times and it’s probably one of my favourite races.
“It probably hasn’t sunk in. The only jersey I’ve got now is the podium jersey so I think when I get my team kit printed and ‘Rapha-ised’, it’s going to be pretty special and I think it’ll hit me then.”
