Peter Kennaugh and Laura Trott took the road race titles at the weekend's British Cycling National Road Championships in Monmouthshire.
Team Sky's Peter Kennaugh took an unlikely sprint win against teammate Ben Swift to become 2014 British road champion in Abergavenny.
Kennaugh, who attacked Swift repeatedly on the final two laps of a seven kilometre circuit, could not shake the well-known sprinter. Swift stuck to the back wheel of Kennaugh on each attack seemingly consigning the Manxman to second place. However, Kennaugh took the sprint win against the odds, after the race expressing his surprise at the end result.
Commenting after the race, a delighted Peter Kennaugh said:
"It's an amazing feeling.
"On the last lap it was hard to race against such a good mate. He sat on for most of the last lap, and I thought it was game over. But I knew the last 200 metres was downhill and I thought I had a chance. I couldn't believe I won it!
"I've done so many training sprints with Swifty and he leaves me behind every time, but today was my day! I've been so close to this title for so many years, this has to be a really special result for me!"
Simon Yates finished third after he was worked over by a Team Sky quartet that originally made up the race-defining break of the day.
Ed Laverack of Rapha Condor JLT took the under-23 men's title ahead of the Zappi's Racing Team duo of Daniel Pearson (silver) and Dante Carpenter (bronze).
In the women's race, Laura Trott (Wiggle Honda) chased down and outsprinted defending champion Lizzie Armitstead (Boels Dolmans) to take the title.
With five kilometres to go of the 101km race, it looked like Armitstead would defend her title as she rode with a ten-second lead established on the first of four laps of the eight-kilometre finishing circuit. However, a concerted chase in the closing stages meant 22-year-old Trott and teammate Dani King regained contact with Armitstead and would have a chance to sprint for the win.
Double Olympic champion Trott, guided expertly by King, proved strongest to deny Armitstead who had tried throughout the race to avoid a sprint - first attacking to form the 13-strong lead group and again, in the closing stages, trying to win solo.
Speaking after the race, an emotional Laura Trott commented:
"It's such an amazing feeling, it's up there with winning a world championships for me.
"I was really disappointed (after Thursday's time trial), I felt I had a lot more form than what the time suggested and I know the course didn't suit me with the hill at the finish but I don't understand why my time wasn't good enough.
"So to come here today, I was so, so up for it. I woke up this morning and I was like 'don't even speak to me'. It was really early, I was so in the zone, I just wanted to get out and get it done."
Trott's victory also earned her the title of under-23 champion for the second year in succession. Her track team pursuit teammates Katie Archibald and Elinor Barker picked up silver and bronze respectively.
The ITV4 highlights programme from the championships are available to watch in full on the British Cycling Events YouTube channel.
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