Patient Vaughan takes King’s Cup win and British Gravel title

Jacob Vaughan became the 2022 British Gravel champion after an outstanding race at the King’s Cup on Saturday. The Saint Piran rider was perfectly positioned when he came to the final corner, emerging from a wheel to open his sprint and win by a clear margin.

James Phillips (No Pinz-Motip) finished second, with Ben Thomas (Ben Thomas Coaching) third.

“I’ve had a bit of a tough season, so I couldn’t believe it to be honest, coming across the line, it was nice to get the hands up,” Vaughan said, his face caked in Suffolk grime.

“There were couple of real strong guys out there, like Mikey Mottram, I don’t know how he stayed out so long on his own. And then we had some strong guys in our group, to be fair I didn’t do loads of work, but chapeau to them because they were super strong.

“I got quite lucky on the finish, I managed to come from a sandy section in second wheel, so perfect position, but there was a bit of shoulder barging, everyone getting into position.”

With the final 100m of the lap slightly uphill the finish could have been an easy one for Vaughan to get wrong.

“It’s such a hard one to get right, you can come in all the way out, like 500m to go, but I think for me it was perfect because I got dropped off into that left-hander, I think possibly coming from the track I had a slightly better sprint than some of the other guys and a perfect lead out, I was lucky.”

The race was defined by a long-range move from Mottram. The Spectra-Wiggle rider attacked on the opening of five laps and stayed away until the fourth circuit, before hanging on to finish in the top 10.

“He’s a guy that you definitely don’t let out of your sight, and I think we all knew that luckily. So we managed to keep him at bay between 20 and 10 seconds and we had to ride hard to bring him back, but then he just kept attacking, but we were straight on him because you don’t want to give that man a gap.

How it happened

Held on exactly the same route and number of laps as the earlier women’s race, the 2022 edition of the British Gravel Championship was also part of the King’s Cup. Held in King’s Forest, just outside Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, the race took in five laps of 15.3 almost flat kilometres.

On the opening of those circuits a group of 10 men gained a small advantage before Mottram attacked. The Oxford-based rider soon had a lead of around 20 seconds, increasing that to 30 as he crossed the line for the first time, then before taking it out to almost one minute.

However, the chasing group managed to peg him back, though his advantage did fluctuate depending on where on the lap the race was. On the third circuit it was once again approaching one minute, but when they began the fourth lap a group of eight was closing in.

On that lap Mottram was caught, though he managed to cling on and persisted, attacking repeatedly on the final circuit before the race concluded in a nine-man sprint.

Result

British Gravel Championship - Senior Men, King’s Cup (76.6km)

1. Jacob Vaughan (GBR) Saint Piran

2. James Philllips (GBR) Nopinz-Motip

3. Ben Thomas (GBR) Ben Thomas Coaching

4. Joe Griffiths (GBR) Scott UK

5. Jason Bouttell (GBR) Espresso Library

6. Mikey Mottram (GBR) Spectra-Wiggle

7. Yanto Barker (GBR) Lc-CC

8. Alec Briggs (GBR) Tekkerz

9. Ryan Christensen (NZ) Bolton Equities Black Spoke

10. Chris Opie (GBR) Le Col