Kennaugh beats Swift to British national road title

Peter Kennaugh (Team Sky) beat Ben Swift (Team Sky) to the win in the British national road race in a Sky dominated race in Wales. The pair settled the race with a close sprint with Kennaugh coming out on top. Simon Yates (Orica GreenEdge) finished third after being dropped before the final sprint.

"It's amazing. The last lap it was hard to race to race against such a good mate. I sat on for almost half the last lap and I thought that it was all over when I didn't drop him," Kennaugh said at the finish.

The pair were still alone as they made their way through a tight final 100 meters with Swift on the front. On paper Swift is the better sprinter and he duly opened up his sprint first. However he left the smallest of opening on his right hand side, just enough room for Kennaugh to exploit and win his first national road title at the elite level.

"I thought that maybe with the 200 meters I still had a chance. I gave it my best shot and I couldn't believe that I was coming around him. Today was my day."

"I think this almost tops everything. I have so many fantastic memories with the Tour de France last year and the Olympic Games but I've been close here so many times but this is special."

Over the 186-kilometre course in Monmouthshire, Team Sky were on the hunt for their fourth national title in fifth years and to reclaim the jersey they had relinquished to Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma QuickStep) 12 months ago.

Cavendish was a non-starter due to illness, and Sky made their numbers and strength in depth count at several points in the race.

Luke Rowe infiltrated an early break and with just under 60 kilometres covered, the group swelled to Josh Edmondson, Kennaugh and Swift (all Team Sky), and Scott Davies (Madison Genesis), Mark Christian (Raleigh) and Adam and Simon Yates (Orica-GreenEdge).

This group would decide the race and over 10 laps of the circuit. A whittling down process began and went until only Swift and Kennaugh remained – Simon Yates the last rider to be dropped. Kennaugh tried several late attacks but the eventual outcome would be decided in a sprint.

"I’ve done so many training sprints with Swifty and he just leaves me, but today was my day obviously," Kennaugh said.

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