After being cancelled in 2024, the Owen Blower Memorial returns to Leicestershire’s Six Hill circuit this Sunday (8 June 2025). Seven laps of the 15.2 km loop - Walton Climb’s 8 % pinch followed by a 600 m drag to Paudy Road - serve up just over 100 km of pace and pain.
After being cancelled in 2024, the Owen Blower Memorial returns to Leicestershire’s Six Hill circuit this Sunday (8 June 2025). Seven laps of the 15.2 km loop – Walton Climb’s 8 % pinch followed by a 600 m drag to Paudy Road – serve up just over 100 km of pace and pain.
Here is our preview.
Featured image: Joe Hudson
What is it?
The Owen Blower Memorial Road Race is Leicestershire Road Club’s annual homage to its most decorated son, the late Owen Blower – BBAR champion, 12-hour record-breaker, Peace Race pioneer and life-long club stalwart. After last season’s hiatus, the race returns on Sunday 8 June 2025, bringing National-B women’s racing back to the rolling Six Hill Circuit east of Loughborough.
The programme pairs a morning Regional-A men’s 2/3/4 support event (six laps, 56 mi) with the afternoon showpiece: a seven-lap, 66-mile women’s battle for Blower’s jersey and silverware. All told, it’s just over 100 km of fast, wide tarmac with a sting in the tail – a profile that rewarded Lucy Lee in 2023 and promises another open, aggressive edition this year. The race begins at 13.30.
Route
The 15.2 km Six Hill Circuit, lying just east of Loughborough, is a fixture on the East Midlands Road Race League calendar, prized for its silky-smooth, generous carriageways and gentle undulations.
Each lap gains only 126 m, so it’s largely flat, but the sting sits close to the stripe. Roughly 2 km from home riders crest the Walton Climb – a 400 m nip that briefly nudges beyond 8 per cent – then plunge for 700 m before tackling a final 600 m rise to the line.
Seven tours of the loop add up to a shade over 100 km of racing.
Riders to watch
21-year-old Madeline Cooper (Montezuma’s Eventrex) has hit June flying. Two weeks ago she took the BUCS road title out on Dartmoor. She then backed it up with a statement ride at the East & West Midlands Championships, winning from a three-up sprint. Cooper seems happiest when the road tilts skywards and the pace gets ragged – exactly the kind of finale the Six Hill Circuit delivers.
Coo
Local rider Elena Day (Loughborough Lightning) followed Cooper home for fifth in the Midlands championship and pocketed the East Midlands regional jersey in the process. Earlier in May she took silver behind Cooper at BUCS, proving once again that she relishes an uphill finish. Expect the Lightning rider to know every ripple of the Walton Climb and to launch late if the bunch is still together.
Mari Porton (Handsling Alba Development Road Team), another first-year U23, has already shown she can mix it with Britain’s best: seventh in North Lincolnshire and 26th at the Lincoln Grand Prix underline both climbing grit and staying power. Her fast finish earned her first place at the Solihull CC Road Race last season when she was still a junior.
One of Wales’ latest prodigies, Grace Ward (Watersley R&D Cycling Team), keeps levelling up. The junior was sixth at the Banbury Star Team Cup round on the savage Edge Hill ramps, announcing her to the senior bunch, and she followed that with fifth at last weekend’s Welsh Championships. Only 17, but already racing with the patience of a senior, Ward’s punchy acceleration could earn her a surprise result.
Georgia Lancaster. Image: Joe Hudson
A podium at March’s North Lincolnshire Classic showed Georgia Lancaster’s (Loughborough Lightning) sprint is as sharp as ever, and the local roads offer extra motivation for the 20-year-old. She has had an interrupted season, but if she can refind her form, she could be a podium contender here.
After being cancelled in 2024, the Owen Blower Memorial returns to Leicestershire’s Six Hill circuit this Sunday (8 June 2025). Seven laps of the 15.2 km loop – Walton Climb’s 8 % pinch followed by a 600 m drag to Paudy Road – serve up just over 100 km of pace and pain.
Here is our preview.
Featured image: Joe Hudson
What is it?
The Owen Blower Memorial Road Race is Leicestershire Road Club’s annual homage to its most decorated son, the late Owen Blower – BBAR champion, 12-hour record-breaker, Peace Race pioneer and life-long club stalwart. After last season’s hiatus, the race returns on Sunday 8 June 2025, bringing National-B women’s racing back to the rolling Six Hill Circuit east of Loughborough.
The programme pairs a morning Regional-A men’s 2/3/4 support event (six laps, 56 mi) with the afternoon showpiece: a seven-lap, 66-mile women’s battle for Blower’s jersey and silverware. All told, it’s just over 100 km of fast, wide tarmac with a sting in the tail – a profile that rewarded Lucy Lee in 2023 and promises another open, aggressive edition this year. The race begins at 13.30.
Route
The 15.2 km Six Hill Circuit, lying just east of Loughborough, is a fixture on the East Midlands Road Race League calendar, prized for its silky-smooth, generous carriageways and gentle undulations.
Each lap gains only 126 m, so it’s largely flat, but the sting sits close to the stripe. Roughly 2 km from home riders crest the Walton Climb – a 400 m nip that briefly nudges beyond 8 per cent – then plunge for 700 m before tackling a final 600 m rise to the line.
Seven tours of the loop add up to a shade over 100 km of racing.
Riders to watch
21-year-old Madeline Cooper (Montezuma’s Eventrex) has hit June flying. Two weeks ago she took the BUCS road title out on Dartmoor. She then backed it up with a statement ride at the East & West Midlands Championships, winning from a three-up sprint. Cooper seems happiest when the road tilts skywards and the pace gets ragged – exactly the kind of finale the Six Hill Circuit delivers.
Local rider Elena Day (Loughborough Lightning) followed Cooper home for fifth in the Midlands championship and pocketed the East Midlands regional jersey in the process. Earlier in May she took silver behind Cooper at BUCS, proving once again that she relishes an uphill finish. Expect the Lightning rider to know every ripple of the Walton Climb and to launch late if the bunch is still together.
Mari Porton (Handsling Alba Development Road Team), another first-year U23, has already shown she can mix it with Britain’s best: seventh in North Lincolnshire and 26th at the Lincoln Grand Prix underline both climbing grit and staying power. Her fast finish earned her first place at the Solihull CC Road Race last season when she was still a junior.
One of Wales’ latest prodigies, Grace Ward (Watersley R&D Cycling Team), keeps levelling up. The junior was sixth at the Banbury Star Team Cup round on the savage Edge Hill ramps, announcing her to the senior bunch, and she followed that with fifth at last weekend’s Welsh Championships. Only 17, but already racing with the patience of a senior, Ward’s punchy acceleration could earn her a surprise result.
A podium at March’s North Lincolnshire Classic showed Georgia Lancaster’s (Loughborough Lightning) sprint is as sharp as ever, and the local roads offer extra motivation for the 20-year-old. She has had an interrupted season, but if she can refind her form, she could be a podium contender here.
Provisional startlist
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