Joanna Patterson led a one-two-three for The Independent Pedaler – Nopinz as she stormed to victory in the RTTC Women’s National 50 Mile Championship.

Patterson, aged 33, from Renfrewshire in Scotland, clinched her first National 50 title clocking a personal best time of one hour, 51 minutes and 35 seconds.

The Independent Pedaler – Nopinz dominated the women’s podium with Patterson followed home by team-mates Alex Clay and Jennifer George to take the team prize in 5-40-46.

The championship, which was well organised by Congleton CC, saw riders competing for national honours on the technical J4/9 over three and a half laps of a course near Middlewich in Cheshire.

Riders start on Byley Lane near Cranage before joining the A50 north and then turn north westerly onto the B5082 through Lach Dennis to Northwich.

Riders then head straight down the A530 and then B5309 back south to the finish at Middlewich with competitors completing three and a half laps of the course to make up the 50-mile distance.

Patterson won her first ever national crown in the National 100 earlier this season before taking third in National 25.

On this occasion she led from early in the event clocking 52-01 at the intermediate split at 23.3 miles which was a minute and 23 seconds quicker than second placed Clay.

By the finish Patterson had extended her winning advantage out to two minutes and 54 seconds to clinch her first National 50 title.

Last season Patterson placed fourth in the National 50 but improved on her then previous best of 1-53-10 by a minute and 35 seconds.

Behind scratch rider and silver medallist in the National 25, Clay was locked in a battle with team-mate Jennifer George.

At a 23.3-mile checkpoint Clay clocked 53-24 which was just eight seconds faster than George.

The pair continued to battle to the finish with Clay’s time of 1-54-29 just 13 seconds faster than her team-mate.

George smashed her previous personal best in an open 50 by over two minutes and took her first national medal over the distance.

“It was good but tough out there,” said Patterson.

“It was quite a hard course with lots of junctions and a lot of traffic to navigate. I found it quite hard to hit my target powers out there, so I had to focus on getting around safely.

“It ended up being quite a good ride out there and a big personal best so I’m happy with that. I’ve only ever done one 50 before and that was last year and I know I’m in a lot better shape this year and a lot faster so I was hoping to get a PB at least.

“I set myself quite a hard power goal and I was struggling to hit that a bit from training in the past couple of weeks and a lot of racing.

“All in all, it was a good race and I executed it quite well. I didn’t have a clue about the split time, so I just had to ride it and find out at the end.”

Quickest veteran Sally Turner (trainSharp) was the only other rider to break the two-hour mark finishing fourth overall in 1-58-52.

Lucy Rogers (Congleton CC) won the Warrington Road Club 50 on the same course the previous weekend and went over two minutes quicker this time out to finish second veteran in 2-03-47.

Meanwhile, Deborah Moss (Team Merlin) finished third in the veteran age category posting a time of 2-04-34.

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