Lap 15: The winning group go over the KOM.

If you weren’t at the Road Nationals on Sunday you missed an exciting race. There was probably more going on over the course of the race than last year, with greater uncertainty as to whether the big world tour guys would feature in the finish. When the finish came, uncertainty was stretched out to the last moment. Few would have doubted Gerro would win the sprint last year but this time round it went right to the line. Now we wait to see how IAM will work the Australian colours into their Swiss kit …

This year we brought a rug and perched on a verge beside the KOM point, having learned from last year where we did an inordinate amount of walking. I thought crowd numbers were down somewhat – though to be fair we didn’t see as much of the course and this might be shaping my impression.

After the main peloton passed us the last time, we moved over to the big screen to watch the final moves play out. Disconcertingly, the screen was about five seconds out of sync with the PA. We’d heard Haussler called as the winner, but I didn’t quite believe it until I saw it a moment later.

I resolved to take fewer photos this year and most of the ones I did take turned out blurry – I really need a better camera. But here are a few, and a video:

Lap 11: Howson goes off the front.

Lap 11: The rest of the break, chasing Howson down.

Will Clarke vs telly-tubby.

And lastly, two minutes of footage from lap 15, with Pat Lane riding a solo break away:

So no fairy-tale finish for Cadel, as far as national championships go.  There is, however, a certain GC race just around the corner …

Hope to see you all at the 2016 Road Nationals! :)