News: British Road Championship Routes

The routes for the 2019 British Road Championship have been revealed at the launch of the event in Norfolk.

News: British Road Championship Routes

The routes for the 2019 British Road Championship have been revealed at the launch of the event in Norfolk.

Norfolk will play host to the championships as part of the wider Great British Cycling Festival – a weekend-long celebration of cycling at all levels which will see families and amateur cyclists able to get involved in a series of rides and activities.

The pinnacle of the British domestic road calendar, the championships will see the men’s and women’s time trial champions crowned on Thursday June 27 and the road races contested on Sunday June 30.

The Races
June 27 (Thursday) will see the time trials last year won by Hannah Barnes and Geraint Thomas, just three weeks before his Tour de France victory. The elite men compete over 25.9 miles, and elite women and under-23s race over 17 miles. Both races will start and finish on the royal Sandringham estate, with the under-23 and elite races taking place across the afternoon.

Sunday’s road races will both start and finish in Norwich city centre, with the men racing over 125.2 miles and the women 83.5. Both routes will head north from the city centre, via Wroxham, Cromer and Wells next the Sea, then through Holkham Hall for the men, taking in some of Norfolk’s most spectacular coastline before riders make their way back towards Norwich through Foulsham.

The Courses

Tom Caldwell, Director of event organiser Golazo, said “The announcement of the route for the road races and associated British Cycling Challenge 100 sportive is a great milestone for the Great British Cycling Festival, and really whets the appetite for what promises to be a fantastic weekend of cycling. We share with British Cycling – as well as all partner organisations and the festival’s official sponsor, the University of East Anglia – a real determination to ensure that the top-level competition and great athletes we have in this country serve to inspire everyone to get more active through cycling, and the festival will be a great representation of that.”

When speaking about the courses for the time trial, Tom says that for the women, it’s one lap of the course and for the men one lap plus a section of that route which is done twice (see the map below). Tom says of the parcour “they are undulating and there is a little kick at the end of it which I think will test riders whilst the surface is immaculate. It’s not pan flat and will require a push at the end.”

For the road races, the routes take on a point to point type course with the start and finish in Norwich. The men’s race, over 125 miles (200km) will do a few extra little loops like going through ‘Wells-Next-The-Sea’ twice and Holkham Hall private estate twice which is to help make up the distance whilst the women, on the road at the same time as the men, will simply do the one big loop.

The women’s road race will set off a few hours after the men’s and talking about the course, Tom explained “it is not pan flat but a draggy parcour which gets technical towards to the end with twists and turns”. The finish is a drag up adds Tom although not climbs like Northern standards but still enough to make sure it won’t be a flat out speedy finish with a power climb on a slight gradient at the end.

On whether there are GPX files available, Tom says there will be but not at the moment whilst a few parts of the route are completely nailed down. The race is also expected to be on TV but when, how much of it with two races on the road at the same time and where is still to be decided.

For further details, or to enter the British Cycling Challenge 100 sportive, visit https://gbcyclingfestival.co.uk/. Details of the other events which will make up the festival will be released in due course.

The Maps

Men’s Road Race 125.2 miles