Peter Kennaugh came out on top in the hugely exciting and very selective British road race championships after Mark Cavendish (Etixx-QuickStep) nearly had upset three Sky riders in the finale. In the end it came down to a battle between the two Manxmen on the cobbled climb in Lincoln where Kennaugh emerged as the strongest while Ian Stannard made it two Sky riders on the podium by taking third.

Peter Kennaugh has again underlined that he has hit peak condition in time for the Tour de France by defending his British road race title in fantastic style. For the second year in a row, he will wear the British champion’s jersey and this time there is a big chance that he will get to wear it in the world’s biggest race.

However, Sky were nearly embarrassed in the tough race that came down to a battle between Mark Cavendish and Kennaugh and his teammates Ian Stannard and Luke Rowe. Despite being three against one, Cavendish nearly upset the big home team as he also showed that he is ready for the Tour.

After Kennaugh and Stannard spent a long time as a chase duo, Cavendish and Rowe joined the pair to form a strong front quartet. An impressively strong Cavendish road away with Kennaugh and those two riders ended up deciding the race on the short cobbled climb to the finish in Lincoln. Here Kennaugh had an extra gear and managed to distance Cavendish by 5 seconds while Stannard rolled across the line in third, 39 seconds behind his teammate.

Last year Kennaugh wasn’t selected for the Tour but went on to proudly show the jersey in the Tour Austria which he won. This year he is a strong candidate for the Sky roster and will get his first chance to show his jersey in front of his home crowd at the RideLondon Classic in August.

How it unfolded

The 2015 British road race championships was held on a 197.6km course in the city of Lincoln and covered 2 laps of a big country circuit and 8½ laps of the Lincoln Grand Prix town circuit that included the Michaelgate climb which led to the finish line.

It was a cloudy day in Lincoln when the riders rolled out from the start and they got it off to a brutal opening phase. The riders were in the gutter right from the beginning and it was a 21-rider leading group that emerged from the carnage.

At the start of the second lap of the big circuit, the group had an advantage of 1.30 and they managed to extend their advantage even further when a crash split the peloton. However, the peloton got organized again and when they hit the Michaelgate climb for the first time, the gap was only 45 seconds.

Stannard led Cavendish, Mark McNally and Jon Mould across the line for the first time as the breakaway was now again riding away from the peloton. When Kennaugh and Cavendish led them across the line for the 2nd time only 17 riders were left.

After the cobbles, the group split as only Rowe, Stannard, Kennaugh, Cavendish, Adam Blythe (Orica-GreenEDGE) and Scott Thwaites (Bora-Argon 18) made the selection and those six riders would go on to decide the race. They worked well together to distance their former companions before they hit the climb for the third time.

Stannard attacked on the steep slopes and was quickly joined by Kennaugh. Those two riders quickly got an advantage while the rest of the original break was 1.13 behind.

At the next passage of the finish line, Cavendish and Blythe had dropped Rowe and Thwaites and were trailing the leader by 27 seconds. Owain Doull (Wiggins) and Simon Yates (Orica) were next at 2.15.

The next time up the climb Kennaugh clearly had to slow down to wait for Stannard before they crossed the line with a 26-second advantage over their chasers who were back together. Yates and Doull were losing ground as they now were at 3 minutes.

Again Kennaugh had to wait for Stannard when they hit the climb again while Cavendish split the chase group, leaving Thwaites and Blythe behind. At the next passage of the line, the gap was still 23 seconds as they started the penultimate lap.

With an impressive performance, Cavendish gave Rowe an armchair ride back to the front halfway through the next lap and they were still together when they crossed the line to start the final lap. They were 1.45 ahead of Blythe and Thwaites and so it was clear that they would decide the race.

Stannard was the first rider to attack but Cavendish quickly shut it down before countering the move. Only Kennaugh could keep up with him. Those two riders rode together to the bottom of the climb where Kennaugh proved to be the strongest.