January 15 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.
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.
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.â€
“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.â€
“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!â€
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)Â 2
