National Road Race Championships: Wiggins wins in another Team Sky 1-2-3

Team Sky got a clean sweep of the podium for the second year running in the National Road Race Championships at Stamfordham this afternoon - and it will be Bradley Wiggins who'll proudly wear the Great Britain stripes at the Tour de France, with defending champion Geraint Thomas second and Peter Kennaugh, last year's runner-up, third. Wiggins had attacked his two team mates on the final lap and it proved to be the decisive move as he quickly built a gap on the two younger riders.

With a little under half of the 122-mile race gone, six riders had broken broke away from a 12-man group that had earlier formed at the front of the race, and that group was subsequently itself split in two on the first of three laps of the closing circuit.

Besides the trio that made up the podium, those six comprised another Team Sky rider, Ian Stannard – third last year – 2009 champion Kristian House from Rapha Condor Sharp and Motorpoint’s Ian Bibby.

As happened last year when it was Thomas, Kennaugh and Stannard who had broken clear in Pendle, the three riders out in front worked together to keep the pace high.

That meant there was no chance for their pursuers to get back on, with House and Bibby not helped by the fact that the third man riding with them, Stannard, had no incentive to close the gap on his team mates.

Entering the final lap, the lead trio had a gap of around 2 minutes 45 seconds over the three riders behind them, and it was clear they wouldn’t be caught.

Further back a number of big names made the decision to bring their afternoon’s racing to a premature end, including Mark Cavendish of HTC-Highroad, Team Sky’s Alex Dowsett and Garmin-Cervelo’s Daniel Lloyd, plus two former champions – Sky’s Jeremy Hunt and Garmin’s Roger Hammond.

Pos  No Name             Team                          Cat   Time
1    2  Bradley Wiggins  Sky Pro Cycling               Elite 04:41:08
2    1  Geraint Thomas   Sky Pro Cycling               Elite       35
3    5  Peter Kennaugh   Sky Pro Cycling               Elite       st
4    4  Ian Stannard     Sky Pro Cycling               Elite    05:41
5   46  Ian Bibby        Motorpoint Pro Cycling        Elite    08:02
6   34  Kristian House   Rapha Condor Sharp            Elite    08:05
7    3  Ben Swift Sky    Pro Cycling                   Elite    08:13
8   67  Yanto Barker     Pendragon - Le Col - Colnago  Elite    08:20
9   82  Scott Thwaites   Endura Racing                 Elite    08:28
10 125  Andrew Fenn      An-Post                       Elite       st
11  17  Erick Rowsell    100% ME                       Elite       st
12  24  Richard Handley  Team Raleigh                  Elite       st
13  14  Simon Yates      100% ME                       Elite    09:56
14  16  Luke Rowe        100% ME                       Elite    10:44
15  86  David Clarke     Endura Racing                 Elite       st
16  13  Tom Moses        100% ME                       Elite    10:47
17  49  James Sampson    Motorpoint Pro Cycling        Elite    10:51
18  35  Andrew Tennant   Rapha Condor Sharp            Elite    11:16
19 122  Joshua Hunt      UVCA Troyes                   Elite       st
20 129  Ben Stockdale    Team Qoroz                      1st       st
21 145  Tom Last         Sigma Sport-Specialized CT      1st    11:21
22  40  Joe Perrett      Twenty3c-Orbea                Elite    11:25
23  74  Simon Richardson Sigma Sport-Specialized CT    Elite    11:27
24 117  Adam Yates       Maxgear RT                    Elite    11:29
25  45  Andrew Griffiths Twenty3c-Orbea                  1st    11:31
26  85  Robert Partridge Endura Racing                 Elite    11:42
27  91  Andrew Hawdon    Herbalife/Wheelbase             1st    12:09
28  27  Matt Gee         Team Raleigh                    1st       st
29  93  James Stewart    Team UK Youth                 Elite       st
30  50  Will Berjgfelt   Motorpoint Pro Cycling        Elite       st
31 102  Robert Hassan    Endura/Pedal Power Development  1st       st
32 138  Tomas Swift-Metcalfe Tavira/Prio               Elite    12:11
33 135  Rob Carter       Velo 29 CT                      1st       st
34 136  Alex Coutts      Giant Kenda Racing Team         1st    12:13
35  33  Ben Greenwood    Rapha Condor Sharp            Elite       st
36  75  Steve Lampier    Sigma Sport-Specialized CT    Elite       st
37 146  Richard Cartland Team Corley Cycles            1st      12:20
38  81  Ian Wilkinson    Endura Racing                 Elite       st
39  23  Dan Fleeman      Team Raleigh                  Elite       st 

 Rest of field retired at the bell