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2011 British Madison Championships

15 January, 2011 | by Larry Hickmott | Preview

VIDEO - Race highlights, plus Rowe and Kennaugh reflecting on their win.

IMAGES

Above: First Photos

Tom Moses, Jon Mould (2nd), Luke Rowe, Peter Kennaugh (1st), Alex Dowsett and Tom Murray (3rd).

Report
Luke Rowe and Peter Kennaugh have won the British Madison Championships. After spending the first half of the race biding their time, Rowe and Kennaugh put the pedal to the metal in the second half, putting the early leaders, Andy Tennant and Ed Clancy a lap down. Rowe and Kennaugh then kept their wheels at the front for the rest of the race, winning from Jon Mould and Tom Moses with Tom Murray and Alex Dowsett in third.

See the slideshow above for pictures from the race.

Post Race Reactions

Luke Rowe & Peter Kennaugh: "Going into it, we were both pretty unsure where we were at" said Luke Rowe. "We went into it to see how it goes, play it by ear, chat and go from there." Peter Kennaugh added that "we both have a lot of experience and know each other really well and knew the second half of the race was going to be the most important."

"There was a bit of a ding dong after 50 or 60 laps" says Luke. "That part of the race gave us confidence because we did quite a lot of damage even though it wasn't the race winning move." Both riders have come from a road camp which they say set them up well for the Madison Championship.

The race win was special for Peter who has won the title a few times before with Isle of Man riders Mark Christian and Mark Cavendish but admits riding with Luke too was special. "Even if we hadn't won, just riding with Luke who is a good mate made it special. I've stayed at his and he's stayed at mine and we've ridden together since we were nine years old. We've grown up together."

In the latter stages of the race when Rowe and Kennaugh had the race firmly in their grasp, they still attacked and kept the pressure on. "I just wanted to take it on and put on a bit of a show and make a point that I was feeling stronger as the race went on as others were starting to tire" says Kennaugh.

"By that time, we were starting to enjoy it" he added.
 
Kennaugh then explained that he won't be aiming to ride the Manchester World Cup with the Team Pursuit but will be looking to force his way into the team for the World Track Championships a month later. Luke Rowe too will continue training with Team GB hoping to get a ride. Kennaugh then said that even if you don't get selected, just training with Team GB brings with it so many benefits on the road.

Early leader Ed Clancy said of his race “when I ride bunch races, I have to ride conservatively. We went out through with quite an aggressive strategy to pile the points on early on and hang on to the laps. Tennant and I would have the sprinting on Luke and Peter eight times out of ten but what we didn’t account for was that it was a 200 lap race! Tennant was okay but you know what I’m like, all speed and no endurance and I hit the wall with 120 laps to go.”

“It took me until 70 laps to go before I went from being cross eye’d to straight again. We went hard early and it worked great for half the race and it could have been the thing to do but there were three of four other teams who were willing to commit and take laps and they kicked me when I was down.”

“We learnt something today in that an aggressive strategy doesn’t work even at national level... It was alright but I can’t say I enjoyed it!” Ed is next off to Majorca for a GB training camp to prepare for the Manchester World Cup in February. Ed is concentrating on the Team Pursuit for the World Cup saying “We’ll be all on road bikes out there in Majorca but doing track specific efforts.”

“I can’t do the Omnium in Manchester.  Two days of Omnium and then straight into the Team Pursuit, I tried it in Melbourne and I can’t do it. I’m too tired after two days of Omnium to do a good Team Pursuit.  It was okay in Melbourne when we’re just out there picking up points but the idea of Manchester is we have a big hit and for our confidence we want to stick a good time on the board and give ourselves a boost on a big step towards London 2012.”

 Result (Time: 58.39.799)

1. Peter Kennaugh (Team Sky)/Luke Rowe (Team GB) 35 points
2. Jon Mould/Tom Moses  Team 100% ME 19
3. Tom Murray (Sigmasport-Specialized)/Alex Dowsett (Team Sky) 16

@1 lap
4. Ed Clancy/Andy Tennant Rapha Condor Sharp 23
5. Owain Doull (Hargroves Cycles)/Dan McLay (Omega Pharma-Lotto-Davo) 5

@ 3 laps
6. Alistair Rutherford/Adam Duggleby Science In Sport.com 10
7. Adam Yates (Maxgear RT)/Chris Latham (Planet X) 0

@ 5 laps
8. Sam Lowe (Raleigh Avanti)/Joshua Papworth (Cult Racing)  2