British Road National Championships: Sam Watson solos to victory in elite men's road race

Sam Watson (Ineos Grenadiers) soloed to victory to claim his first elite men’s road race at the British road championships in Aberystwyth, Wales. Watson, runner-up to Mark Cavendish in 2022, had time to celebrate, crossing the line 29 seconds ahead of a chase group.

Matthew Brennan (Visma-Lease a Bike) claimed the field sprint for second place ahead of Ethan Vernon (Israel-Premier Tech). Defending champion Ethan Hayter (Soudal Quick-Step) was fourth.

Brennan (19) took home the U23 title.

Watson launched a massive seated acceleration from the lead group as the fifth and final lap of the 187km race began. Behind him, the chase group struggled to organise despite Israel-Premier Tech having three riders in the mix. Brennan put in a significant effort, but the group couldn’t bring back the determined Yorkshireman.

“It’s pretty unbelievable to be honest, I’m over the moon. It’s a bit of a dream, I’ve always wanted the bands on my sleeves for the rest of my career, and to have at least one year in the national champions jersey is an incredible feeling," Watson said.

“I didn’t feel good all race, probably because it was so hard and I was on the limit. That probably helped me because I was willing to lose the race to win, as soon as I had the gap, I just had to go full gas to the line. I didn’t know what the gap was, it was only at 200 metres to go that I realised I would win.”

After the start on the seafront, the peloton headed out of town on a picturesque yet testing 23.4km anti-clockwise loop, before heading back towards Aberystwyth to tackle the 12.4km finishing circuit which started with the steep 9.1% Moriah climb.

After the peloton split halfway through the race following a crash, four riders pulled away with three finishing laps to go to form the break of the day. Though Jacob Bush (Development Team Picnic PostNL), Oliver Knight (Cofidis), Owain Doull (EF Education-EasyPost) and Callum Thornley (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe Rookies) worked well together, they never managed to get a substantial gap to a chase group.

Though not riding in unison, the chase group, including Brennan, Hayter, Lewis Askey (Groupama-FDJ), Max Walker (EF Education-EasyPost), Alex Beldon (Muc-Off-SRCT-Storck), Vernon and his teammates Jake Stewart and Joe Blackmore, kept the gap around the 30-second mark to the quartet.

One lap later, bad luck struck Knight, who suffered a mechanical after hitting a pothole. Having to stop to untangle his twisted chain with the help of neutral service, Knight lost 25 seconds, forcing him to chase back from the third group on the road.

The three whittled-down front groups came back together at the end of the penultimate lap. Doull again went on the attack but was quickly reeled in before Watson made his move on the wide road at the start/finish straight.

Watson quickly grew his gap to the chase group, which once again could not seem to get organised as no one wanted to bring fastman Brennan to the line. So Brennan took the front to set the pace, and then Israel-PremierTech also added a rider, but it was too late. Hayter made one final dig, but the chase group came together to the line to sprint for the podium places.

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