Dominique Mayho will miss the National Criterium Championships on Sunday as he recovers from a crash in the CG Insurance National Road Race Championships last weekend.

Mayho crashed into a car early in the race after sliding out on the wet road in St David’s and expects to be out of competition for a few weeks while he recovers from road rash.

The defending champion in the road race championship was attempting to keep up with the lead riders when the crash happened, forcing him to pull out of the race.

“Conor White and myself had just caught up to the lead group again, a little gap had opened and we closed it,” Mayho explained. “But I was going too fast on one of the corners in St David’s and it was wet.

“I couldn’t slow down enough and as I started taking the corner, my wheels slid out and I slid across the road. A car was coming the other way; luckily, the woman was able to pretty much come to a stop by the time I hit her. That helped a lot.

“I hit my knee on her bumper and then the front wheel and went underneath the car. Now I have road rash and my knee is hurting. Her mechanic checked out the car and pushed the bumper back down, so no real damage to it.“

Mayho was able to ride back to the start/finish spot of the race to get his injuries treated. There was little damage to his bike.

“I’ve been in a lot of crashes in cycling, normally a pile of bikes or by myself, but this is the first time I’ve been involved with another road vehicle.

“My knee, my elbows and both my palms, I should have worn gloves,” he said of the injuries. “My knee is really sore; I can’t walk properly on it.

“Normally when I used to race overseas, I always wore gloves because when you crash you just put your hands down.”

Mayho expects it will be a few weeks before he is able to return to cycling. “The swelling is going down now, but I’m not able to ride for at least a few weeks,” he said.

“I got lucky. I was able to ride my bike back to the start/finish and get bandaged up.”

The 60-mile men’s open race was won by White in an exciting five-man sprint to the finish with less than a second separating the top three of White, Kaden Hopkins and Alex Pilgrim.

Caitlin Conyers won the women’s open race and she, like White, could make it three titles in a row at the National Criterium Championships.