A heroic solo ride by Katie Archibald gave the Scot victory in the second round of the 2015 Matrix Fitness Grand Prix Series in Motherwell.
The 21-year-old from Milngavie launched an attack off the front of the leading group early in the race chased down by Eileen Roe (Wiggle-Honda) and Nikki Juniper (Team Giordana Triton). The duo failed to close the gap and Archibald (Pearl Izumi Sports Tours International) continued to show the rest of the field a clean set of wheels.
By halfway the reigning double European track champion had built a lead of more than 30 seconds, eventually crossing the finish line a minute and 29 seconds ahead of her pursuers.
Had the race continued only a few laps longer, she would have undoubtedly caught the chasing bunch and lapped the entire field.
Juniper took second with Fife-born Roe, riding in the distinctive stripes of British National Circuit Race champion, finishing third.
Afterwards an exuberant Archibald, who also won in the Scottish round in Edinburgh last year, described her strategy as "a massive gamble".
"That was tough," she said. "With this course we knew it wasn't going to be won by attrition so it had to be man-made hard, rather than course-made hard.
"There was attack after attack early on. Once I got away and realised the gap would stick, I had our sports director Barney Storey giving me time checks because when you are breathing that heavy you can barely remember to pedal never mind think."
Defending series champion Roe paid tribute to Archibald's stellar ride: "Katie's a bloody beast, isn't she?" she said of her compatriot. "As she went Juniper and I tried to cover it but she was too strong. If you can't get on Katie's wheel within that couple of bike lengths you are never going to see her again. It was a great ride."
Roe, who admitted to feeling under the weather, said she was delighted with third. "It is always special riding in your British champion stripes in Scotland and not everyone gets to do that."
In the fourth round of the 2015 Pearl Izumi Tour Series, later in the evening, Kristian House (JLT Condor presented by Mavic) claimed the win after a blistering attack in the final laps with Chris Opie (ONE Pro Cycling) second and Mike Northey (Madison-Genesis) third.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article