National 50 Championships
National 50-Mile TT Championship | June 25 | North Yorkshire
In-form Dan Bigham added the National 50-Mile Time Trial Championship to his palmarès in North Yorkshire on Sunday, taking his tally of national titles in 2017 to six.
The 25-year-old Brother Nrg-wattshop rider from Staffordshire covered the outand-back course near Boroughbridge in 1:36.23 to take the win by almost a minute from rival Kieron Davies (drag2zero) and add to his National Team Time Trial and National Circuit Championship medals, as well as the kilometre, individual pursuit and team pursuit wins in the National Track Champs.
“I’ve never ridden this distance before so I wasn’t sure what to expect out there,” said Bigham. “I found it really hard going in the first 25 miles so I had to pick it up in the second half of the race.” Team Bottrill’s John Dewey had been up at the halfway point, and Bigham third behind Davies, but come the finish line as Bigham won, Dewey dropped back to third, 16 seconds behind Davies.
Bigham said: “I’ll now be taking a bit of time off before the National 25 then I am switching back to the track. But I feel time trialling really does help me.”
As Bigham contested victory, new 100-mile competition record holder Adam Duggleby (Vive le Velo) saw his chances hobbled by an unshipped chain, the same issue he had en route to victory in the ‘100’ last week. He had been on track for a medal before the mechanical, however, this time he wasn’t able to overcome it and ended up placed fourth.
In the women’s race Kate Allan (drag2zero) claimed her first national title after defeating team-mate and new women’s 100-mile national record holder Alice Lethbridge by 36 seconds.
Allan, formerly a triathlete, only switched to cycling in 2015 and recently returned to competition after having a baby last year.
“I’m really pleased with the performance,” Allan said. “It was windy today but I wasn’t worried, as soon as I got my race head on I knew I was OK!”
The 32-year-old was just outside her personal best in 1:52.11, with Lethbridge second and Katie Greves (AS Test Team) completing the podium in third.