CANTERBURY'S Kristian House was left delighted by taking a thrilling National Road Race Cycling Championships in Wales today.

The 29-year-old has secured some good victories in the past nine years but never anything as big as this.

House surged through on the finishing line to send Dorset's Daniel Lloyd into second place again after Lloyd had lost out to Tour de France star David Millar two years ago on over the same Abergavenny course.

Rising Isle of Man star Peter Kennaugh, a great friend of cycling's current man of the moment Mark Cavendish, was third and, in doing so, denied Barloworld team ace Chris Froome, who was riding his first National Championships, a podium place.

It was particularly tough on Froome because he rode the race of the day. He was out at the front for most of the afternoon and, after a long crawl up the main climb of the day, the Tumble Mountain, which was lined full of spectators, had built up an advantage of nearly three minutes over the chasers with double Beijing Olympic gold medalist Bradley Wiggins.

But, with Cavendish leading the fightback, that gap was closed down to nothing by the third of the final ten finishing laps around Abergavenny.

While Wiggins wilted to drop out before the final lap, Froome went for glory and took a 33 second lead into the last four-and-a-half mile circuits and looked certain to win.

However, the final three riders left in the chase hit back and the Kenya-born ace was caught and past with yards to go to the line.

It left House delighted and he said: "It's phenomenal - a dream come true. I raced well and it was all down to me at the end. I'm speechless.

"We knew that the race was going to come down to the five of us and, when Ian Stannard got dropped, it was down to us with two laps to go.

"We organised together and got back at Chris. At the end of it, I bided my time and went for it. Froome was on fire but he went a bit early at the end, I think."

Lloyd could not hide the hurt at finishing as bridesmaid afterwards and said: "I'm disappointed because you always want to come to the National Championships and win it. But I was not riding that fantastic today."

Kennaugh, 20, is, though, another rider who looks to be heading for cycling stardom alongside Cavendish, who finished sixth behind 2003 and 2004 national champion Roger Hammond.

He was awarded the Under-23 national jersey and also was allowed to claim the senior bronze medal just hours after Lizzie Armitstead was denied her senior silver in the women's road race because British Cycling said she could not win two prizes in the same race.

However, a British Cycling meeting on Saturday night in Abergavenny overturned that decision, one which women's winner Nicole Cooke described as 'crazy', in time for Kennaugh to have the senior silver placed over his neck.

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NICOLE COOKE proved she is a rider for all seasons after leaving Wales bubbling with pride and winning her tenth National Road Race Championships title on Saturday.

The 26-year-old reigning world champion memorably won her Olympic Games title in the shadow of the Great Wall of China during a downpour.

But yesterday, with tempreatures in the high 70s, she sprinted down the middle of Abergavenny town centre after 80 hot miles to beat youngster Lizzie Armitstead and Olympic Time Trial silver medalist Emma Pooley by ten metres.

Cooke's stunning talent was seen when, as a 16-year-old, she took the senior National Championships and said: "It feels very special, just like the first time.

"It was an incredible with the home crowd and a very special one for number ten."

It obviously meant a great deal for Cooke who wore her World Championships jersey all day and covered it with that tenth National Championships.

She added: "It was a very special day all around with the home crowd and a really good. I have a training camp in Italy until the end of July which will be nice in the build-up to the World Championships."

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WALES stages the biggest cycling weekend in National Championships history - and Risca's Sam Harrison could start the ball rolling for a winning Welsh Saturday by lunchtime.

Harrison is in line to be a future Olympian and was a nominee for the BBC's Young Sports Personality of the Year in 2008 and will be out to beat Newport's Jon Mould, the defending champion, to the Junior National Championships title.

That victory would be sweet as it would come aftere a disaster when he had half-a-dozen of his bikes, worth thousands of pounds, stolen this month.

So, from a solid build-up towards the race, Harrison is having to re-adjust and said: "It was a big shock and it's really affected my training.

"I've borrowed a bike from my mate but it's not the same as having my own bike."

The multi-British National Track Championships gold medalist, of Cwmcarn Paragon but now with the Planet-X team, faces some stiff competition when the teenagers hit the road at 9am tomorrow.

Mould will be hoping to upstage his local rival, though, after taking the juniors crown in North Yorkshire 12 months ago.

And Isle of Man ace Tim Kennaugh, who is good friends with current men's sensation Mark Cavendish and whose brother Peter is another hot-shot, is possibly podium-bound.

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DEFENDING champion Rob Hayles is adamant that he will not give up his elite men's National Road Race Championships jersey without a considerable fight at cycling's greatest ever Battle of Britain.

But Hayles admits he, and the other top domestic circuit riders in the 191-strong field, will have their work cut out to fend off the best men from the leading European ProTour teams on Super Sunday.

The most outstanding field ever assembled in one National Championships day will battle it out around the roads of Monmouthshire to be crowned the best rider of the year and make the coverted jersey their own into 2010.

That field includes Olympic medalists from all the Games this decade, multiple Tour de France stage winners, numerous former national champions and the cream of Great Britain's best men on the domestic scene.

Hayles achieved his longed-for ambition of winning the National Championships jersey when beating Ed Clancy into second place 12 months ago in North Yorkshire.

It was 'a dream come true' for Portsmouth-born and Derbyshire-based 36-year-old Hayles, a 2000 Sydney Olympics track bronze medalist who also took silver four years later in Athens and added gold and silver in the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games.

Hayles said: "When I look back over the years, I've missed out on a few opportunities to wear the jersey. When it was down in Cardiff in 2001, I was second behind Jeremy Hunt and it was down to half-a-bike length at the end.

"There have been a few occasions where I have had good form but I have not won so, last year, was the year I said from the word go that I will win the race. To come up the finishing straight and win it, I could not believe it.

"When we got away with the group with 80K (kilometres) to go, I was going through what I would do in the victory straight because nobody was going to touch me. I was that confident but I have not got that confidence at the moment."

Hayles has succeeded in securing that jersey where the recent greats like new superstar Mark Cavendish, four times a Tour de France stage winner last year and who has won stages in the Giro d'Italia and Tour of Switzerland in the past month, plus triple Olympic gold medalist Bradley Wiggins, have not.

In fact, in the rain that came thumping down on Duncombe Park, Yorkshire, 12 months ago, the big ProTour riders, who are tipped to lead the way on Sunday, were left limping behind mighty Hayles.

Cavendish, before his Tour de France brilliance, could only finish 59th, while the then-defending champion David Millar, who won the title around the same Abergavenny course as the race tackles this year and is also a Tour de France stage winner, was down in 90th while Wiggins was a place below him.

This year, with sunshine forecast to beat down on the big day, the heat is likely to be really on in more ways that one given the UK-based riders have had a big programme of events leading into the weekend.

Hayles added: "It's been a fantastic year (being national champion) and really good to wear the jersey but this is going to be an interesting race.

"For the domestic guys, it's always tough to come up against the Continental guys. Dave (Millar) has won it in Abergavenny but it will be tough because of the programme the domestic guys have had in the last few weeks. It's not an ideal scenario for most of us.

"With the last two lead-in races that I've had in the last few weeks, it's been a struggle, to be honest. With respect, I'm not looking to give out any excuses but it will be a lot harder.

"Last year, the Abergavenny Grand Prix (the Robert Price Grand Prix of Wales) was just a week before the Nationals and I struggled to get over The Tumble that day.

"If I can get across to the front of the race this year in readiness for The Tumble, then I think I will be looking to do a decent performance and, of course, it would be fantastic to win again."

But, as he said, it will not be easy this year - and Cavendish will have the bit between his teeth to take a National jersey he has never won before to next month's Tour de France where he caused such a sensation 12 months ago.

"Everyone will know if Cav is there at the finish," added the defending champion. "He is the one to beat and there will not be many people thinking that he will mess up the sprint if he gets in position at the end because that won't happen.

"Of the domestic guys, though, Russell (Downing) and Wilko (Ian Wilkinson) have got good form - and, of course, there is myself!"

The last man to defend his National Championships title successfully was Roger Hammond who, ironically, did so on the same Welsh course around Newport in 2003 and 2004.

Hammond is also one of the top European names that are in this weekend's mouthwatering field and Hayles would like nothing more than to add his name to that particular role of honour.

The race starts at 11am on Sunday from Abergavenny town centre.

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