The fact that you can reel off the names of a dozen women who could conceivably win the British national road title is a pointer that the depth of the women’s field is seriously developing.
Ten years ago, the question would have been: ‘How many riders will gang up to stop Nicole Cooke winning this year?’ Or failing that: ‘Who will finish second behind Nicole Cooke, and what will her winning margin be?
In 2017, nothing is remotely as clear-cut, especially as the race takes place on a challenging circuit around one of the UK’s most venerable cycling areas.
Contenders
There are 92 listed starters (as things stand) and the continental/World Tour pros will all be heavily outnumbered by the domestic riders. Obviously, Lizzie Deignan (Boels-Dolmans) is probably the biggest favourite, but she won’t have things her own way.
Riding alongside her will be Nikki Brammier, and who would be surprised if things were worked out tactically for Nikki to cruise away while others are watching to see what Lizzie does? With three national titles already, and having taken out the Tour de Yorkshire in April, just maybe Deignan won’t be too disappointed if her long-standing and loyal team-mate gets away.
Hannah Barnes has had the privilege of wearing the red-white-and-blue bands on her natty Rapha-produced Canyon-SRAM kit over the last 12 months, and the ding-dong battle with her sister Alice (Drops) over the Best British Rider’s jersey at the OVO Energy Women’s Tour earlier this month should mean both are prime contenders for Sunday morning’s event.
Olympic and Paralympic champions are well-represented with WMT’s Katie Archibald coming off a great run of form domestically, backed up with strong top ten stage finishes at the Women’s Tour, while her gold medal-winning pursuit team-mate Elinor Barker goes for Matrix Pro Cycling. Corinne Hall, Paralympic-winning tandem pilot also rides as does 2012 team pursuit champion Dani King (Cylance).
Wiggle-High 5’s Grace Garner, Team Sunweb’s Molly Weaver and Alice Cobb from Lares-Waowdeals shouldn’t be ruled out, and the top local hope is probably Anna Christian from Drops.
Route
The women’s road race starts off on Quarter Bridge Road in Douglas, and follows one clockwise loop of the main circuit across the A1 through Crosby and west-north-west towards Ballig. The route then turns north to Kirk Michael before heading east through Sulby. Things then take a turn for the vertical with a big climb at Ramsey and then southwards to Creg-Ny-Baa and Douglas.
The women then face six laps of a smaller finishing circuit, out of the island’s main town and north up Ballanard Road then east towards Cronk-Ny-Mona. The finish is on Quarter Bridge Road via Signpost Corner and Governor’s Dip. This gives the women a total of 103.7 kilometres, or 64-and-a-half miles. Racing starts at 9am sharp, ahead of the men’s event later in the afternoon.