Ian Stannard and Edvald Boasson Hagen capped a superb day for Team Sky by winning their respective national titles on the road.

Stannard was right at home on a strong man’s course in Ampleforth, East Yorkshire, leading home a team 1-2 with Alex Dowsett next across the line.

The decisive move went early as the peloton negotiated the first of three 30.4-kilometre laps on heavy rolling roads.

The five-man move included Raleigh duo Russell Hampton and Graham Briggs along with Oli Beckingsale (Endura MTB), building up a massive advantage over the chasing pack.

The group was eventually whittled down to just three men with Stannard picking his moment to attack on the penultimate 15.3km lap.

Sitting in the bunch were team-mates Ben Swift, Jeremy Hunt and Luke Rowe, completing a five-man line-up on the day to cover off attacks.

Swift followed a late move to net fourth while Hunt and Rowe topped the bunch kick to place five Team Sky riders inside the top seven.

Deserving champion

After the race we caught up with a happy Stannard. He said: “It was a really tough course. I didn’t expect it to be so hard but it suited me better. I’m really happy to win today.

“It’s a weird race the nationals. You have to race it from the front. The plan was always to be at the front of the race and take it on from there. So it worked out well.

“I felt comfy all day. It was quite a demanding course but I just soaked it up well. I’m really happy with the way it went. I just had a little dig on the climb and went away.

“It’s really nice to keep [the jersey] in the team. There’s been so many great riders wear it over the years. It will be really cool to ride the Classics and just race in it. That will be really special.”

Title for Edvald

Team Sky were also celebrating in Norway with a similar 1-2 success as Boasson Hagen claimed victory, followed closely home by Lars-Petter Nordhaug.

The win marked the second success in his home country this season for Boasson Hagen, the Tour of Norway winner now set to debut his new jersey on the first road stage at the Tour de France on July 1.

The duo escaped from the clutches of the bunch in the closing stages, Nordhaug the first to forge ahead of a small escape heading into the final 30km.

Shortly after Boasson Hagen bridged across as the two closed in on the finish, duking it out on the line for an impressive result.

Also in action over the weekend, Michael Barry again demonstrated his form on Saturday with second spot in the Canadian road race.