Mark Cavendish claims the second road race title of his career at the British Championships in Dumfries and Galloway

Mark Cavendish (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl) claimed the second British road race title of his career in wet and windy conditions in Dumfries and Galloway.

Usually renowned for his bunch sprinting, Cavendish produced an all-action display. He was part of a core group of 14 riders on the finishing circuit before making the cut when it split in two.

Cavendish came out on top at Castle Douglas in a three-rider sprint finish in a time of 4:31:06. U23s rider Samuel Watson – part of Groupama-FDJ’s development team – came second.

Alexandar Richardson, riding as a privateer, finished in third after being pipped to the line by Watson.

“I came good out of the Giro [d’Italia],” Cavendish said afterwards.

“I’m going so much better than last year and you know what happened last year I won four stages of the Tour de France and the green jersey.

“It’s unlikely I’ll go to the Tour de France so I might as well use it today and at least show the reason I’m not going on the Tour is not because of bad form.

“I love the nationals, it’s a racing race. Especially around this course. You just have to put yourself in the race. Quite often I sit and have to sprint but I enjoy racing. This course gave me the possibility of that.

“We’ve got a lot of classic style riders in Great Britain now and to race like that with these guys is pretty special.”

In the elite women’s road race at the British championships, Alice Towers (Le Col-Wahoo) claimed a stunning victory.

The 19-year-old soloed to victory with 40km to go and her time of 3:28:02 saw her finish more than a second ahead of Pfeiffer Georgi (DSM) in second and Anna Henderson (Jumbo-Visma) in third.

“I can’t really believe it happened,” Towers said afterwards.

“It’s actually the first time I’ve ever won a road race, so to win the national championships is really special.”

“It was very spontaneous,” she said of her attack.

“It probably was the best thing to do at the time with the conditions, being out front was better than being in the bunch.

“The time get going out and kilometres kept coming down. All I could do was keep plugging away.”

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