National Championships Summary

With only six days to go till the start of the Tour de France, Sunday saw the crowning of national road race champions across the world.

The British title was won by Peter Kennaugh (Team Sky), with the Manxman upsetting the odds by outsprinting teammate Ben Swift in Abergavenny. Simon Yates (Orica-Greenedge) completed the podium after a valiant fight against the superior numbers of Team Sky, while Laura Trott (Wiggle-Honda) triumphed in the women’s race.

Controversy has surrounded FDJ’s sprinters in recent weeks, but Arnaud Démare justified his Tour de France selection by taking his first French national championship ahead of teammate Nacer Bouhanni. With no fewer than 24 riders in the race, FDJ were always going to dominate proceedings and worked hard to bring the race to a mass finish where the two fastest men in France were always likely to dominate.

The Spanish national championships provided a preview of this year’s World Championship as Ion Izagirre (Movistar) triumphed on the same course as will be used in Ponferrada in September. Izagirre attacked with 8km to go and was later joined by Alejandro Valverde who worked to deliver the national title for his young teammate as Caja Rural and Euskadi led an ultimately unsuccessful chase.

Successful defences of national championships were achieved by Andre Greipel (Lotto-Belisol) in Germany and Peter Sagan (Cannondale) in Slovakia. Greipel once again took the national title in a bunch sprint, while Sagan won his fourth successive Slovakian title. The Slovakian and Czech titles are actually decided in the same race, and the latter country’s championship was won by Zdenek Stybar (Omega Pharma-Quickstep).

In the low countries there were wins for Jens Debusschere (Lotto-Belisol) who won the bunch sprint in Wielsbeke ahead of Roy Jans (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) and Tom Boonen (Omega Pharma-Quickstep) to take the Belgian title, while the Dutch title was won by Sebastien Langeveld (Garmin-Sharp) who defied the home teams with a superb solo victory.

Titles elsewhere were won by Nelson Oliveira (Lampre-Merida) who followed up on his victory in Friday’s time trial with victory in the road race in Portugal, Svein Tuft (Orica-Greenedge) who delivered the same results as Oliveira but in more spectacular fashion as he took the Canadian title with a 120km solo break, Martin Elmiger (IAM Cycling) in Switzerland, Frank Schleck (Trek Factory Racing) in Luxembourg, Riccardo Zoidl (Trek Factory Racing) in Austria, and Alexander Porsev (Katusha) in Russia

Bouhanni set for Cofidis move

Back to France, and Nacer Bouhanni’s second place in the national championships looks set to be one of his last in FDJ.fr colours as the Giro d’Italia red jersey winner looks set to depart Marc Madiot’s outfit for the 2015 season. The sprinter has been overlooked for the Tour de France, with Arnaud Démare being the team’s solitary fast man.

Speaking to French media Bouhanni confirmed that he is “95% certain” to leave FDJ.fr over the winter and said that he is already in negotiations with a foreign team. However L’Equipe reckon that Bouhanni is likely to remain closer to home, reporting that Cofidis are close to signing the former national champion.

Majka called in as Kreuziger replacement

After being forced to withdraw Roman Kreuziger from their Tour de France squad after being informed of abnormalities in his biological passport data, Tinkoff-Saxo have called in Rafal Majka as a replacement in support of Alberto Contador.

The Polish rider was not initially best-pleased by this decision, posting on his Facebook page that “the Tinkoff-Saxo management does not care about my health. I'm 24 years old and I believe that riding two Grand Tours in a row at my age is too much.” However this post has since been deleted, being replaced with a promise “to help Alberto with all my strength to achieve the most important goal - to win!"

Majka has been in excellent form so far this year, taking sixth in the Giro d’Italia, and will be lining up for his first Tour de France as part of a strong Tinkoff-Saxo team aiming to deliver Alberto Contador to his third Tour victory.

Orica-Greenedge continue search for GC man

Despite excellent performances at recent grand tours, Orica-Greenedge have made no secret of the fact that they are looking to recruit a GC rider for 2015.

Bradley Wiggins and Cadel Evans have both been named as possible targets, but Cyclingnews reports that the Australian team has been unsuccessful in its pursuit of the two riders. Team owner Gerry Ryan has instead stated his interest in bringing in Belkin rider Wilco Kelderman, but is likely to face stiff competition from Tinkoff-Saxo.

However sports director Matt White says that the team remains committed to developing their existing riders.

“We’ve got some young GC talents in our roster already. The Yates brothers have developed at an incredible rate and Esteban has also moved on more than we could have asked and I’m expecting more from him in the second part of the season as well.

“We have some very special riders and it's a priority that we want to see them develop at a speed that works for them”