Claire Rose wins British national time trial title

Image 1 of 15

Claire Rose (Visit Dallas DNA Pro Cycling) won the women's time trial at the 2017 British Championships, clocking a time of 32 minutes 11 seconds on the lumpy 22-kilometre Isle of Man course. 

Runner-up a year ago, Rose was not to be denied this time around, and she beat Hannah Barnes (Canyon-SRAM) by 19 seconds, with Katie Archibald (Team WNT) rounding out the top three at 24 seconds back.

"I don't think that it's quite sunk in. It has been two years of hard work, and after last year I really wanted it, so it means everything,” Rose said just before stepping onto the podium. “It was always going to be tough today, and there were some really strong riders here, so I'm really happy.

"It was a really tough course. It was just about giving it all on the hills and then maximising recovery on the descents. It's a bit gusty everywhere, but you have to just get on with it and enjoy the gusts of wind blowing your disk wheel."

Defending champion Hayley Simmonds (Team WNT) was unable to take a record third straight title. She clawed back some time after posting only the fifth fastest time at the intermediate checkpoint, but it wasn't enough, and she finished fourth, just a few seconds behind her teammate Archibald.

Rose was the revelation of last year's national championships with her second place behind Simmonds, which also saw her beat her much more decorated teammate Sarah Storey. For this season, Rose has been racing stateside with the Visit Dallas DNA Pro Cycling team. She finished sixth at the Chrono Gatineau last month and third overall at the Joe Martin Stage Race in April. Being away from the European scene meant that it was hard to compare how she was going against some of her competitors.

"I've been away at the US racing among a separate group of girls, so it's quite difficult to know how you're going to do. The time trial scene in the US is really strong, and I was doing well," she said. "It's been really tough racing. I had a really tough block of racing and then this last month has been coming back and preparing for this."

After almost a week of beautiful sunshine, the clouds descended on the Isle of Man for a blustery day of time trialling. Fortunately for the riders, the overnight rain had abated, but conditions were far from perfect on what would be a challenging course.

The event started a bit late after some problems with the start ramp, but the riders were up and running soon enough. Vicky Smith (AeroCoach) was the first rider to start and finish. However, it was local rider Anna Christian (Drops) who set the first major benchmark. Christian stopped the clock at 34:13.77, which would stand for quite some time.

It was only fell when Storey Racing's Neah Evans came through in the final eight riders. Almost every subsequent rider cut just a little bit more off the fastest time until Rose came in as the penultimate rider. From there, it was a tense wait to see Simmonds coming along the final stretch.

When the clock ticked past the 31-minute mark and Simmonds was nowhere in sight, it was clear that Rose had taken the title, and it was a case of seeing how far down the standings Simmonds would be. In the end, she was edged out of the podium places by her own teammate, thus ending her run of national time trial titles. Christian held on to take the under 23 title. 

Full Results