Matt Bostock (Rapha CC) and Nina Lavenu (AG Insurance-Soudal Devo) sprinted to narrow victories last weekend at the City of London Nocturne, a rebooted night-time criterium event held in the heart of the capital.
More than a thousand people lined the barriers to welcome the return of the races, which disappeared from the British calendar eight years ago, and are now one of three UCI-registered events in the UK, alongside the Tours of Britain and the CiCLE Classic.
Bostock’s victory in Saturday night’s hour-long men’s elite crit came from a four-rider move that formed around the halfway mark. The bunch was initially strung out by British circuit race champion Cameron Mason (Alpecin-Premier Tech), who went on to be one of the key attackers in the front group alongside Bostock, Thomas Mein (Hope Factory Racing) and Alec Briggs (Tekkerz CC) into the race’s finale.
On the closing lap, the landmarks on the 1.3km circuit – the Bank of England, Royal Exchange and St Paul’s Cathedral – vanished behind the darkness of nightfall. Bostock wound up his winning sprint with 300m to go, and led through the final chicane to win ahead of Mason and Briggs.
“It means everything,” the 28-year-old Manxman told TNT Sports afterwards. “I was underskilled in the corners there against those boys, I think. To be honest, they’re probably some of the best cornerers in the world, really. I had my work cut out for me, but I’m glad I got one up on them.”
Lavenu (right) held off the British circuit race champion Kate Richardson.
(Image credit: Mathew Wells/SWpix)
The women’s elite event, which took place just before the men’s, was decided by less than a bike length to the backdrop of the City of London sunset.
Lavenu’s AG Insurance team-mate Leonie Bentveld marshalled the front of the pack from the outset, and led a nine-rider group that splintered away after a crash. Also up the road were two stars of this year’s British domestic season: Morven Yeoman (DAS-Hutchinson), who won May’s Lincoln GP, and Kate Richardson, the recent Tour of the Reservoir champion.
As Bostock would do an hour later, Lavenu got a jump on the group into the final straight. Richardson sprung to close the gap, and had the finish line been drawn 100m further, may have pipped the 20-year-old Frenchwoman, who held on to take the victory.
Third place went to Yeoman, the new leader of the UK’s Rapha Super-League.
Heralding the success of the event on LinkedIn, organiser James Pope toasted the Nocturne as signalling “a new era of city criterium racing in the UK”.
The events were registered with the UCI under the ‘CRTP – Pro Criterium’ classification – the same as the Tour de France‘s end-of-season Saitama and Singapore exhibition criteriums – which does not award UCI ranking points.
