Hock & Awe

Welshwoman Jess Roberts took many by surprise when she won the national road race title as a first-year senior this year, and there’s more to come, Owen Rogers discovers.

It's been a big year for 19-year-old Jess Roberts. Not only did she win the national road race title at the first time of asking, but two months earlier she prefaced a handful of Tour Series top 10s by representing Wales at the Commonwealth Games.

Now she has been selected to represent Team GB’s senior track squad for the first time. Next weekend she will take her place in a strong team pursuit squad at the Berlin World Cup. This, before she has even come to terms with her Nationals success back in June.

“I’m still quite shocked,” Roberts tells CW. “I still don’t believe it happened, it was honestly the best day on the bike that I’ve had. It makes me really happy.”

In 10 years of racing Roberts has amassed numerous track and road victories, including top international junior races such as Omloop van Borsele. However, considering she was winning elite level road races while still only 17, perhaps her Nationals victory was not as surprising as some thought.

“It was no fluke,” says Peter Georgi, who knows Roberts well from running her junior road team, Liv-Epic. “It was amazing for a first-year rider to win, but she wasn’t like those people who are so strong they just batter everyone. Jess was strong, but she was clever and that’s why she’s always been hard to beat.