National road race championships roundup

With nationals weekend underway in Europe, we round up results from some of the key nations.

Notable victories included a third Spanish road race title for Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), a ninth German time trial championship victory for Tony Martin (Jumbo-Visma), and road race wins for Lisa Brennauer (WNT-Rotor) and Warren Barguil (Arkea Samsic) in Germany and France respectively.

Belgium

Jesse Vandenbulcke (Doltcini-Van Eyck) won the women’s road race championships in Ghent.  The 23-year-old beat Ann-Sophie Duyck (Parkhotel) and Julie Van de Velde (Lotto-Soudal) in a sprint finish.

Tim Merlier (Corendon-Circus) beat Timothy Dupont (Wanty-Gobert) and Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma), who came second and third respectively in the men’s race. It was a surprise result for Merlier, having raced cyclocross for the majority of the season. However, his team placed him perfectly for the sprint finish.

Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) continued the dominant time trial form he displayed at the Criterium du Dauphine with a win in the time trial, while Lotte Kopecky (Lotto-Soudal) won the women’s.

France

Jade Wiel (FDJ Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope) beat her teammate Victorie Guilman and Aude Biannic (Movistar), in a sprint finish in the road race to take the national road race title.

Warren Barguil (Arkea-Samsic) will be wearing his new national champion’s jersey at the Tour de France, having beaten Julien Simon and Damien Touze (both Cofidis) in the men’s race.

Benjamin Thomas (Groupama-FDJ) won the men’s time trial championship, some consolation for not being selected for the Tour de France, while Séverine Eraud (Doltcini-Van Eyck Sport) took the women’s title.

Germany

Lisa Brennauer won the road race from a sprint, beating newly-crowned national time trial champion Lisa Klein (Canyon-SRAM), who came second. 2018 champion Liane Lippert (Sunweb) came third.

Max Schachmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) won in the men’s, with teammates Marcus Burghardt and Andreas Schillinger taking the remaining podium places – fitting for a race that was dominated by Bora-Hansgrohe from the outset.

Tony Martin (Jumbo-Visma) took his ninth time German trial title, saying “I’m very proud I can wear this jersey for another year. It was my last race before the Tour de France, so this was a good test. I’m going to the Tour with a lot of morale.” Klein won the women’s race.

Spain

World champion Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) took the national championship road race title, beating Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana) into second in a two-man sprint. Jesus Herrada (Cofidis) took third.

The victory marks Valverde’s third national title, however, he will not be wearing the national jersey while he still wears the rainbow stripes of the world champion. “I’m sorry that I’m not going to be able to enjoy this jersey for the time being, but I couldn’t let a victory like that slip through my fingers,” he said.

Lourdes Oyarbide (Movistar) won the women’s race, beating her teammate Irene Mendez with a late acceleration. Mireia Benito (Massi-Tactic) came third.

In the time trial, Jonathan Castroviejo (Ineos) won his third consecutive title, and will play a key part of Ineos’ team time trial unit for stage 2 of the Tour de France. Sheyla Gutiérrez (Movistar) won the race for the women’s championships.

Netherlands

Lorena Weibes (Parkhotel Valkenburg) beat Marianne Vos (CCC-Liv) and Amy Pieters (Boels-Dolmans) in a reduced bunch sprint in the road race.

Fabio Jakobsen (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) beat Moreno Hofland (EF Education First) and Bas van der Kooij (Monkey Town – à Bloc CT) in the men’s race from a sprint finish.

In the absence of Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb), Jos van Emden (Jumbo-Visma) won the time trial, with reigning time trial world champion Annemeick van Vleuten (Mitchelton-Scott) dominating the women’s, winning by 1:34.

Italy

Davide Formolo (Bora-Hansgrohe) won from a long-range solo attack in the road race, with Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain-Merida) and Alberto Bettiol (EF Education First) taking second and third respectively.

Filippo Ganna (Ineos) narrowly pipped Bettiol to take the time trial title.

UK

Ben Swift (Ineos) denied teammate Ian Stannard with a surprise late comeback to take his first national road race championship title. John Archibald (Ribble Pro Cycling) came third.

Swift suffered a serious crash while training in February and this result marks a strong comeback.  “In the past I’ve been a bit too eager, done a bit too much, but today I was like ‘don’t do anything, just wait’, and that’s what I did,” he said. It worked out really well.”

In the time trial, Alex Dowsett (Katusha-Alpecin) took his sixth national title and will next be racing at the Tour de France in July. Alice Barnes (Canyon-SRAM) took the time trial title away from her sister and teammate, Hannah, who won in 2018.

Among the other nations, Alexey Lutsenko (Astana – Kazkhastan), Toms Skujins (Trek Segafredo – Latvia), Juraj Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe – Slovakia), and Patrick Konrad (Bora-Hansgrohe – Austria) were some of the notable newly-crowned champions in the road race.

The U.S national road race championship will be contested on Sunday over a 114km course for the women, and a 191km course for the men. The women will start at 9am ET, and the men will start at 1.15pm ET. Both races can be streamed live on USA Cycling’s YouTube channel and Facebook page.