Joanna Rowsell swooped to take her maiden British Time Trial title in Stewarton, East Ayrshire this afternoon, beating her best friend Lizzie Armitstead (Boels-Dolmans) by 32 seconds.
Rowsell was fastest throughout the 35.2-kilometre event, and pulled away from Armitstead on the second of two laps of rolling terrain on a circuit a few miles south of Glasgow.
She was only a handful of seconds clear at half-distance, but a strong end to her ride was more than enough to win the white, blue and red jersey which, despite having three World titles and one Olympic medal, was her first ever senior time trial crown.
The 24-year-old said: "I was targeting this for most of the season. I
enjoy time trialling and I always have done, so it seemed like a good
idea to target this race.
'I'm over the moon. If I had got silver, I would have been really disappointed. It's great to have Lizzie on the podium in second as well."
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Katie Colclough (Specialized-Lululemon) took an impressive third, 1-37 off of Rowsell's time, while Emma Trott beat younger sister Laura by five seconds to finish third.
Behind Rowsell, arguably the performance of the day was Lucy Coldwell, an unattached rider who finished sixth.
Results
National Time Trial Championships 2013: Women's race
1. Joanna Rowsell (Wiggle-Honda) 35.2km in 49-25
2. Lizzie Armitstead (Boels-Dolmans) at 0-32
3. Katie Colclough (Specialized-Lululemon) at 1-37
4. Emma Trott (Boels-Dolmans) at 1-56
5. Laura Trott (Wiggle-Honda) at 2-01
6. Lucy Coldwell (Unattached) at 2-15
7. Elinor Barker (Wiggle-Honda) at 2-17
8. Anna Turvey (Tyneside Vagabonds CC) at 2-38
9. Hannah Barnes (MG-Maxifuel) at 2-57
10. Julia Shaw (www.drag2zero.com) at 3-19
Katie Colclough
Lizzie Armitstead
Joanna Rowsell
Joanna Rowsell tops the women's podium
Related links
National Time Trial Championships 2013: The Big Preview
2012 report: Dowsett and Houvenaghel sweep to time trial titles
2011 report: Dowsett and Houvenaghel take National titles
2010 report: Wiggins defends his title as Sky take 1-2-3
2009 report: Wiggins and Pooley take National titles
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