George Atkins Wins British Cycling Junior Men's National Road Race Championship

The winner of the British Cycling National Junior Men's Road Race championship for 2009 was George Atkins who triumphed in Abergavenny after 68 miles of hard and fast racing in the countryside around the Welsh town.

Report

With three National Road Cycling titles to be decided over the weekend, first up were the Junior men. In an exciting finish, George Atkins was crowned the British Junior Road Race Champion after he defeated Tim Kennaugh in a two up sprint.

Kennaugh had led the bicycle race alone for 20 or so miles but Atkins and Joe Perret got within touching distance of him with five miles to go. As Atkins descended like a demon, Perret was unable to spin the junior gears fast enough and lost contact. Meanwhile Kennaugh was doing his best to resist being caught for as long as he could but for the second week in a row, he was narrowly defeated in a sprint.

Post race reactions:

George Atkins: "Relief! I really needed a big result and today everything fell into place. This is for sure my biggest win to-date. Early on I rode really conservative which I don't do that often. I saved myself and used what I had when I needed to. I knew I was quicker in the sprint."
On how he felt trapped in the bunch with the break up the road: "I had itchy feet. Tim is a great rider and when he gets up the road, you have to be worried. I didn't know how much damage we could do on the final climb but I got away with Joe and we really got shifting. It was great."
"It was quite surprising that when I was away with Joe, some of his team were chasing, which felt frustrating for me as well. We really committed though and I got across." (Joe then added that he had blown, unable to keep up with George).

Tim Kennaugh: "I saw them coming up and got a time check at 25 seconds so I eased off the gas halfway up the climb and pressed on over the top and down the descent where George was only 25 yards behind me. I just sat on him when he got to me and then tried to sprint but by then, my legs had gone."
"I always create the moves! The other lads were doing as much as they could (in the chase group) but as it showed when we caught the leaders, as soon as we hit the climbs, they went. I then attacked Jon Mould (who was one of the original leaders with Dan Mclay) because I thought, if I am on my own, I can concentrate on getting the effort out rather than worrying about him jumping me. The course was good although I could have done without that big descent!"

Joe Perrett: "On the descent, George was really really hammering it and my legs just weren't good enough and it sapped all the energy out of me so when it came to the final climb he just rode off. I'm pretty pleased with the result though. I was 5th last year so a third is an improvement."
"The team sponsors have been really helpful to me this year and I'd like to thank them all. At one stage, when the break was away, we got all the riders in the team to the front and told them to hammer it and they all tried as hard as they could but no one else wanted to help so we thought what is the point in us pushing ourselves when the rest are taking the armchair ride. So I thought I'm going to wait for the climb and attack."

story and photos from British Cycling

Result (thanks to John Pearson)
1. George Atkins, Websters Cycles
2. Tim Kennaugh, Isle of Man
3. Joe Perrett, Glendene Biketrax
4. Simon Yates, Max Geart RT
5. Adam Yates, max Gear RT
6. Peter Dibben, Hargroves Cycles
7. Sam Harrison, Planet X
8. Conor Dunne, Hemel Hempstead
9. Alex Murison, Glendene CC/Biketrax
10. Dominic Schils, Lotto
11. Jon Mould, Agiskoviner
12. Jamie Rogers, Scunthorpe Poly
13. Felix English, Team Corridor
14. Tom Gosbee, Team Welwyn
15. Ewen McDonald, Epic Cycles
16. Jake Hales, Lotto
17. Joshua Edmondson, Glendene CC/Biketrax
18. Tom Moses, Team Wallis
19. Daniel Arblaster, Guernsey Velo
20. David Nichols, Glendene CC/Biketrax