Skip to content

Britain probably won't win the world road race but this year they must show they want to

In the first post of her new blog, Sky Sports News HQ's Orla Chennaoui looks ahead to the UCI Road World Championships

Chris Froome, 2013 UCI Road World Championships, road race, Florence
Image: Chris Froome and the rest of the Great Britain team all abandoned last year's men's world road race

When British Cycling confirmed their squad for next week’s UCI Road World Championships a few days ago, the men’s road race line-up in particular had the Twitterati aflutter.

The main question asked was, who was favourite to be the favoured rider? Who would be given the green light to go for gold?

That there are options should be no surprise by now. Talent has hardly been in short supply over the past few years and more. This year will see Ben Swift with a decent chance over the rolling roads of Ponferrada; British road race champion Pete Kennaugh, who’s had a bolshie season despite the lack of Tour de France selection, will be in with a decent crack; the Yates brothers might be young but could make a mark; and that’s before we factor in the 2013 Tour de France winner and recent Vuelta a Espana runner-up, Chris Froome.

So while few are expecting a podium-topper come next Sunday, there are realistic expectations of one of the lower steps on a good day. Talent is certainly not something lacking in this squad.

Image: Ben Swift is most likely to be Britain's protected rider

But then, it wasn’t last year, when the team had not one, but two Tour de France winners in their number. What was lacking then, however, and what I for one will be looking out for this year, is hunger, desire, the absolute desperate need to win. Because, for me, these world championships come at a bit of a crossroads. Allow me to bring you back to last year’s worlds to explain.

GB men's road race team

  • Steve Cummings
  • Chris Froome
  • Peter Kennaugh
  • David Millar
  • Luke Rowe
  • Ben Swift
  • Geraint Thomas
  • Adam Yates
  • Simon Yates

A few days before the men’s road race, Sir Dave Brailsford gathered the nine riders together in the hotel car park outside Florence for their first (and last, as I recall) training session together, and asked us to stop filming.

The off-camera speech that followed was part rousing to action, part banging of heads. He reminded them of the spirit, dedication and teamwork it had taken to deliver one of their number, Mark Cavendish, to the rainbow jersey just two years before.

Latest Cycling Stories

At the time I remember thinking such a call to arms was an attempt to heal the much-publicised rift between Sir Bradley Wiggins and Froome, who had barely spoken since the former’s Tour victory, and not at all since the latter’s. As well it may have been.

But a few days later I realised that it wasn’t only the rift between two of Britain’s best-ever riders that was the problem - it was the rift that the entire generation of Britain’s best-ever riders felt between effort and success. Pain and hunger. The desire to succeed and the desire to call time on a long, exhausting season and finally have the right to go home.

Dave Brailsford during the London 2012 Olympics.
Image: Sir Dave Brailsford has been asked to lead Great Britain at the world championships

Because come “home” to the GB bus they did, in quick succession, and long before team management had expected or were willing to accept. 

This was a group who’d not only been there and done that, but who had won every limited-edition T-shirt going: green, yellow and rainbow-striped.
Orla Chennaoui

Team coach Rod Ellingworth was remarkably filter-free when he told us how angry and upset he was with the team for not sticking it out on the road, for not trying harder, for not wanting the win as badly as he thought they should have. 

It should be noted that some left more on the road than others. Indeed, Geraint Thomas was still battling the elements and competition on the road even when team leader Froome realised it was a lost cause.

From the race-retired riders there was at best a sense of disappointment and dejection; at the other end of the scale a weary and worrisome lack of concern.

This was a group who’d not only been there and done that, but who had won every limited-edition T-shirt going: green, yellow and rainbow-striped.

David Millar on stage twenty of the 2014 Vuelta a Espana
Image: David Millar will race for the final time in Great Britain colours

And that’s why I will be looking for signs pointing in the right direction at this year’s crossroads. It is too soon for the younger riders to get used to being part of success without tasting it individually. 

I, for one, am not expecting a British winner come next Sunday.
Orla Chennaoui

What I hope will happen, and fully expect, is that the relative elders will pass on their wisdom. I may be entirely wrong, but I can’t see that Froome, with the season he’s had, the past few weeks in particular, will be going for the win. His steadying presence and complete unflappability can only be a good skill to pass on to his slightly younger team mates, should he choose to do so.

Then, of course, there’s David Millar, team captain and conductor of his own swansong. As an outside observer, I can only surmise as to his leadership skills by listening to the praise of others. His love of racing is worn on his red, white and blue/saltire sleeve (let’s not go there). In an ideal world, what may have been lacking in soul and spirit last year, will be filled by the presence and race nous of the enigmatic Scot.

I, for one, am not expecting a British winner come next Sunday, but I think we’d all like to see the makings of someone who has the desperate, aching, gnawing hunger - as well as the talent - to become one in the future.

Around Sky