January 30, 2013 at 5:54 p.m.
Scott claims road title
Thompson just misses out on sweep
And Scott revealed he had called on his poker face to try and show Thompson he wasn't feeling the heat in a grueling 15-mile race to the finish that saw them side-by-side until the last ten metres.
I was definitely riding in the red zone," admitted a delighted Scott, who said the race made up for his May 24 nightmare, when his chain came off as he led down the final straight.
" I'm paying for it now. My legs are still trashed but it's all good."
Thompson, who feared getting drawn into a sprint-finish with Scott, made an early break in a bid to lose him 15 miles before the finish.
But Scott gave everything he had to cling on before powering past the reigning time-trial and mountain-bike champ in the final few metres.
"He put in a really big attack around the 15 mile mark and from there both of us were pretty much spent.
"It was all I could do to come back to him and then to make it look like I was still okay because at that point I was coming unglued."
He said he didn't want to give Thompson the impression that he was tired, because it might encourage him to make another break.
"It's a psychological sport and you don't want to give anything away to the other guy. I always had to be careful of where Garth was and what he was doing.
"He's proven he's a better time-trialler than myself and if I'd let him get away it would have been very difficult to continue to chase him back.
"Once it was just the two of us out in front there was no way I was going to let him out of my sight."
He said he had drawn on his extra energy reserves to stay with Thompson and wasn't looking to sprint away from him at the finish.
"At that point my main concern was just making sure my wheel crossed the line first. The distance didn't matter. I just wanted to make sure my front wheel was in front of his front wheel.
"Ten metres from the end we were still side-by-side. It was a very hard race I was certainly knackered at the end"
When the official stats came in Scott had beaten Thompson by half-a-second, ending his bid for a triple crown of national cycling titles.
Mark Hatherley was three minutes further back in third and last year's winner Kris Hedges and Jamie Brown were one lap down in fourth and fifth respectively.
Former pro cyclist Hedges, who has been out of road racing for a while, said the attacks of Thompson and Scott had put him out of the race with more than 20 miles to go.
But he said he was looking to get back into serious racing with a view to competing in the Caribbean Championships in October and then the Pan Am Games, so had been pleased with the workout.
" It was a bit of a stretch for me. There was a lot of activity early on and I started to feel cramp in the legs after only an hour.
"You obviously hope to win but it was good to get back into it. Now that the competition is so good, it is not easy for me to win."[[In-content Ad]]
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