Elite crit racing hits the Devon coast this Friday as Dawlish hosts the final round of the Lloyds National Circuit Series, with both individual and team titles still up for grabs. The tight, 1.1km seaside circuit will also count as Round 12 of the Rapha Super-League.
Elite crit racing hits the Devon coast this Friday (25 July) as Dawlish hosts the final round of the Lloyds National Circuit Series, with both individual and team titles still up for grabs. The tight, 1.1km seaside circuit will also count as Round 12 of the Rapha Super-League.
With everything still to play for, Dawlish promises a thrilling finale. Startlists and full preview below.
Featured image: SWpix.com
What is it?
The Dawlish Grand Prix is more than the last hurrah of the Lloyds National Circuit Series. Dreamt up by the South West Road Race Work Group, backed to the hilt by Dawlish Town Council, and steered by race-director Charlie Revellunder the British Cycling South West banner, it is Devon’s own high-summer crit showcase.
Set for Friday evening, 25 July 2025, the seaside one-kilometre whirl doubles as Round 12 of 16 in Rapha’s new Super-League, meaning every finishing place counts twice – once for the National Circuit Series crown, once for the season-long ledger.
And the weekend doesn’t stop there. Forty-eight hours later the caravan moves inland for the Witheridge Grand Prix (Sunday, 27 July) – a hilly National Road Series road race that rolls out from Witheridge Parish Hall on the lanes above Tiverton. Together, the back-to-back races hand the South West a full crit-plus-road feast: Friday night elbows-out on The Strand, Sunday’s big-ring grind over Witheridge Moor – one Devon weekend, two national-level showdowns, and pivotal points in every title chase going.
Route
The 1.1 km Dawlish circuit starts and finishes on The Strand, just outside The Lawn. From the gun, the bunch hurtles along The Strand before snapping left into Alexandra Road. The next corner spits them onto Brunswick Place, a long straight running parallel to The Strand, with Dawlish Water on the riders’ left. The circuit then jinks right before a sweeping left-hander onto Station Road, not far from the shoreline and framed by the Dawlish–Teignmouth railway line. A sharp left onto Piermont Place follows, before riders curve right and take the final turn back onto The Strand.
With barely a metre of climbing, the course promotes pure drag-strip crit racing: positioning battles into every turn and nowhere to hide if the elastic snaps.
Who can still lift the National Circuit Series crown?
With five of the six rounds in the can, Dawlish is the single decisive roll of the dice. One more evening, a maximum 50-point haul on offer for the winner, and points trickling all the way down to 40th place as per the British Cycling matrix (50–1). Below is where the numbers leave us – and what the contenders must do.
Open classification
Rank
Rider
Pts
Deficit (pts)
What must happen at Dawlish?*
1
Thomas Armstrong (Wheelbase-Cabtech-Castelli)
200
—
Finishes 7th or better (≥38 pts) and no-one can overhaul him
2
Matthew Bostock (TEKKERZ)
186
14
Must beat Armstrong by ≥15 pts. Most realistic route: win (50 pts) and Armstrong 9th or worse (≤34 pts). A podium short of victory only works if Armstrong slides deep into the teens.
3
Will Truelove (Muc-Off–SRCT–Storck)
177
23
Has to win and see Armstrong finish 15th or worse (≤26 pts) – while also out-scoring Bostock.
4+
Everyone else
≤135
≥65
Even a Dawlish victory leaves them shy of Armstrong’s current total – they’re out of the reckoning.
*Ties are broken on count-back (most wins, then highest placing), so any scenario that ends level on points almost certainly favours the rider who takes Dawlish.
In short, Armstrong carries the jersey and the odds; Bostock needs a lights-out victory and a little luck; Truelove needs both in spades. Everyone else is playing for podium spots and pride.
The team race, however, is a nail-biter: Muc-Off–SRCT–Storck lead Wheelbase-Cabtech-Castelli by just 3 pts (450 v 447), with TEKKERZ still lurking on 410 – expect blocking, shepherding and every spare domestique thrown into the top-40 fight.
Women’s classification
Rank
Rider
Points
Deficit
What must happen at Dawlish?
1
Robyn Clay (DAS-Hutchinson)
230
—
A finish of 18th or better (≥23 pts) guarantees the title, even if a rival wins.
2=
Madeline Cooper (Spectra)
201
29
Must gain ≥30 pts on Clay. Translation: win and hope Clay is 19th or worse.
2=
Morven Yeoman (DAS-Hutchinson)
201
29
Same maths as Cooper – complicated by being Clay’s team-mate.
4
Anna Morris (unattached)
192
38
Only a victory plus Clay finishing 24th or worse (≤17 pts) will do.
5
Sophie Lewis (DAS-Hutchinson)
185
45
Needs to win and Clay to be 27th or worse (≤14 pts).
Beyond Lewis the arithmetic runs out: no-one else can bridge a 50-point gap in a single night.
Realistically, Clay’s consistency – never outside the top ten so far – means she can afford to mark wheels, let the team control breaks and ride the percentages. DAS-Hutchinson have already sewn up the team crown by more than two hundred points, so they can turn the entire race into Clay’s personal lead-out train.
Take-home
Armstrong v Bostock is the headline: if the TEKKERZ man wins, check where the leader’s jersey is – anything worse than eighth and the table flips.
Truelove is the wildcard, needing a perfect storm of his own victory and Armstrong fading to the mid-teens.
Clay just has to stay upright: an 18th-place buffer is a luxury in crit racing, but the seaside gusts, late-evening light and Dawlish’s bottlenecks mean she can’t switch to cruise control too early.
Add the wafer-thin margins in the open team standings and Friday night on The Strand promises mathematics at 50 kph – the sort of finale where every placing is a plot twist and the calculators come out long before the champagne.
How to follow
The British Continental will be on the ground. Head to our Instagram for interviews and coverage.
Timings
Race
Start Time
Duration
TJ Smith Women’s Dawlish GP
19:00
50 minutes
RD Johns Open Dawlish GP
20:05
50 minutes
Podium Ceremony
21:30
—
Riders to watch
TJ Smith Women’s Dawlish Grand Prix
Robyn Clay (DAS-Hutchinson) will roll into Dawlish on Friday evening with the Lloyds National Circuit Series crown at her fingertips and a 29‑point cushion in the standings – a handy margin but not one that guarantees a stress‑free night on the Devon coast. Clay, who has already pocketed the Tour of the Reservoir, the Otley Grand Prix and the Guildford Town Centre Races this summer, is perfectly built for such terrain: a sprinter‑puncheur who can surf the wheels, kick out of corners and still find a second acceleration on the drag to the line. Backed by a slick DAS‑Hutchinson squad, she can afford to mark moves rather than make them – though her instinct, as ever, will be to race from the front.
Robyn Clay (DAS-Hutchinson). Image: Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com
Morven Yeoman, almost as combative as her teammate Clay, sits on the same 29‑point deficit. Yeoman has been quietly relentless in the National Circuit Series: third at Otley, fourth at Ilkley and Guildford. Expect her to test the bunch with a long‑range attack – or at least soften the field before the finale. Should it all come back together, Sophie Lewis gives DAS a third, lethal card. The 23‑year‑old track specialist, the victor last year at the Colne and Beverley Grand Prix, is one of the quickest finishers in the race when the road is flat and the line straight. A mid‑season ankle injury blunted her early form, but second in Colne this week suggests the turbo is warming nicely.
Madeline Cooper (Spectra Racing, left) and Kate Richardson (Handsling Alba Development Road Team, centre). Image: Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com
Handsling Alba Development bring the most obvious counterweight to DAS. Kate Richardson, newly crowned British circuit champion and overall winner of May’s Tour de Feminin in Czechia, prefers to bludgeon a race into submission rather than wait for a bunch kick. She will surge if the pace drops, trusting her time‑trialling power to expose any hesitation. Alongside her, Madelaine Leech offers a turn of speed strong enough for second at Otley and seventh at Ilkley; if Richardson’s aggression merely pares the field, Leech may be the beneficiary.
The joker in the pack is Anna Morris, racing as a privateer yet owner of three National Circuit Series wins this month alone – Ilkley, Sheffield and Colne – each taken with a different mix of guile and raw wattage. Her current form is unmatched. She won’t be content to sit tight – she was an agitator at the Colne Grand Prix – and has the power and speed explode clear with that world‑class pursuiter’s engine. Should she time the jump as she did in Sheffield and Colne, even Clay’s all‑round brilliance may struggle to close the gap.
Megan Barker (TEKKERZ CC). Image: Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com
Outside the headline riders, a trio of disruptors could tip the balance. Floren Villanueva Scrafton, the British‑Bolivian who has collected both road and time‑trial titles in her adopted homeland, thrives on attrition. She has neither teammates nor a pure sprint, but her diesel engine and total disregard for reputations make her a danger. Madeline Cooper, the former cyclo‑cross rider snapped up mid‑season by Spectra, sits level with Yeoman as Clay’s nearest challenger in the National Circuit Series. Cooper cornered like a motocrosser to finish third in Ilkley and second on Guildford’s cobbles; she knows only victory – or Clay finishing well down the order – will hand her the title, so expect fireworks early. And then there is Megan Barker, TEKKERZ’s lone gun. A former national crit champion and double world team‑pursuit winner, Barker bagged third in Colne on Tuesday and will relish a flat‑out sprint.
RD Johns Open Dawlish Grand Prix
National Circuit Series leader Tom Armstrong (Wheelbase CabTech Castelli), has made a habit of wringing every point from every race. Ninth in Colne preserved that slender cushion over Bostock; a fourth in Guildford first put him there. The Lancastrian is no pure sprinter, so his best defence is offence: turn the screw, rip the bunch apart and hope the finish is contested by a select few.
TEKKERZ CC arrive with the heavyweight punch. Matt Bostock, 2022 national crit champion and Sheffield GP winner, sits 14 points adrift of the series lead after finishing second in Colne. Few riders in Britain change gear quite as violently, and his jump makes him favourite if the race ends in a drag race on The Strand. The Manxman knows, though, that Tom Armstrong cannot simply be left to his own devices, so expect Bostock to mix defence with his usual show‑of‑force sprint.
Matthew Bostock (TEKKERZ CC) wins the Sheffield Grand Prix. Image: Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com
He has the perfect foil. Alec Briggs – bike‑handling exhibitionist, crowd‑pleaser and last year’s Newark victor – will happily lob the hand grenade. The tighter the corner, the wider his grin. A long, solo foray would both feed his ego and soften the field for Bostock; at worst, it forces everyone else to chase while TEKKERZ sit cool in the pack.
William Truelove has been the metronome of Muc‑Off–SRCT–Storck all summer, forever in the first ten, always threatening a breakout win. Fourth at Otley, third at Ilkley, rarely a wheel out of place – the 22‑year‑old’s neat cornering and measured aggression should keep him in the picture when the bunch thins down the back straight. Despite sitting third in the National Circuit Series, he is effectively out of the overall conversation now, which may free him to gamble late and, for once, turn consistency into confetti.
William Truelove (MUC-OFF-SRCT-STORCK). Image: Olly Hassell/SWpix.com
DAS–Richardsons can smell an upset. Frank Longstaff bridged solo to the Colne break and pinched third, proof that his engine – and bravery – are in rude health. He can either light the fuse or mark the decisive counter, and his sprint from a group of five or six is not to be sniffed at. If the headliners stare at one another, Longstaff may nick the bouquet and, in doing so, steal points from the title protagonists.
Then come the wildcards. George Kimber seldom ventures onto the crit scene – he has a National Road Series crown to show for his bigger days out – but whenever he does, he brings a road‑racer’s depth and a killer sense of timing. A Devon local, he will be buoyed by the roadside support. To succeed, he will need to freeload, follow the right wheels and hope the pure sprinters have dulled legs when it matters.
Picture by Olly Hassell/SWpix.com – 27/06/2025 – Cycling – 2025 Lloyds National Circuit Championships – Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, Wales – Open – George Kimber (Spirit Racing Team)
Finally, Jake Hales, 33 and wily as they come, still has the turn of pace that once carried him into the UCI Continental ranks. Seventh in Colne proved he can survive the surges; his tactical compass, honed over two decades and now put to use as rider‑coach at Ride Revolution, could land him on the podium if chaos reigns late on.
Elite crit racing hits the Devon coast this Friday (25 July) as Dawlish hosts the final round of the Lloyds National Circuit Series, with both individual and team titles still up for grabs. The tight, 1.1km seaside circuit will also count as Round 12 of the Rapha Super-League.
With everything still to play for, Dawlish promises a thrilling finale. Startlists and full preview below.
Featured image: SWpix.com
What is it?
The Dawlish Grand Prix is more than the last hurrah of the Lloyds National Circuit Series. Dreamt up by the South West Road Race Work Group, backed to the hilt by Dawlish Town Council, and steered by race-director Charlie Revellunder the British Cycling South West banner, it is Devon’s own high-summer crit showcase.
Set for Friday evening, 25 July 2025, the seaside one-kilometre whirl doubles as Round 12 of 16 in Rapha’s new Super-League, meaning every finishing place counts twice – once for the National Circuit Series crown, once for the season-long ledger.
And the weekend doesn’t stop there. Forty-eight hours later the caravan moves inland for the Witheridge Grand Prix (Sunday, 27 July) – a hilly National Road Series road race that rolls out from Witheridge Parish Hall on the lanes above Tiverton. Together, the back-to-back races hand the South West a full crit-plus-road feast: Friday night elbows-out on The Strand, Sunday’s big-ring grind over Witheridge Moor – one Devon weekend, two national-level showdowns, and pivotal points in every title chase going.
Route
The 1.1 km Dawlish circuit starts and finishes on The Strand, just outside The Lawn. From the gun, the bunch hurtles along The Strand before snapping left into Alexandra Road. The next corner spits them onto Brunswick Place, a long straight running parallel to The Strand, with Dawlish Water on the riders’ left. The circuit then jinks right before a sweeping left-hander onto Station Road, not far from the shoreline and framed by the Dawlish–Teignmouth railway line. A sharp left onto Piermont Place follows, before riders curve right and take the final turn back onto The Strand.
With barely a metre of climbing, the course promotes pure drag-strip crit racing: positioning battles into every turn and nowhere to hide if the elastic snaps.
Who can still lift the National Circuit Series crown?
With five of the six rounds in the can, Dawlish is the single decisive roll of the dice. One more evening, a maximum 50-point haul on offer for the winner, and points trickling all the way down to 40th place as per the British Cycling matrix (50–1). Below is where the numbers leave us – and what the contenders must do.
Open classification
Most realistic route: win (50 pts) and Armstrong 9th or worse (≤34 pts). A podium short of victory only works if Armstrong slides deep into the teens.
In short, Armstrong carries the jersey and the odds; Bostock needs a lights-out victory and a little luck; Truelove needs both in spades. Everyone else is playing for podium spots and pride.
The team race, however, is a nail-biter: Muc-Off–SRCT–Storck lead Wheelbase-Cabtech-Castelli by just 3 pts (450 v 447), with TEKKERZ still lurking on 410 – expect blocking, shepherding and every spare domestique thrown into the top-40 fight.
Women’s classification
Beyond Lewis the arithmetic runs out: no-one else can bridge a 50-point gap in a single night.
Realistically, Clay’s consistency – never outside the top ten so far – means she can afford to mark wheels, let the team control breaks and ride the percentages. DAS-Hutchinson have already sewn up the team crown by more than two hundred points, so they can turn the entire race into Clay’s personal lead-out train.
Take-home
Add the wafer-thin margins in the open team standings and Friday night on The Strand promises mathematics at 50 kph – the sort of finale where every placing is a plot twist and the calculators come out long before the champagne.
How to follow
The British Continental will be on the ground. Head to our Instagram for interviews and coverage.
Timings
Riders to watch
TJ Smith Women’s Dawlish Grand Prix
Robyn Clay (DAS-Hutchinson) will roll into Dawlish on Friday evening with the Lloyds National Circuit Series crown at her fingertips and a 29‑point cushion in the standings – a handy margin but not one that guarantees a stress‑free night on the Devon coast. Clay, who has already pocketed the Tour of the Reservoir, the Otley Grand Prix and the Guildford Town Centre Races this summer, is perfectly built for such terrain: a sprinter‑puncheur who can surf the wheels, kick out of corners and still find a second acceleration on the drag to the line. Backed by a slick DAS‑Hutchinson squad, she can afford to mark moves rather than make them – though her instinct, as ever, will be to race from the front.
Morven Yeoman, almost as combative as her teammate Clay, sits on the same 29‑point deficit. Yeoman has been quietly relentless in the National Circuit Series: third at Otley, fourth at Ilkley and Guildford. Expect her to test the bunch with a long‑range attack – or at least soften the field before the finale. Should it all come back together, Sophie Lewis gives DAS a third, lethal card. The 23‑year‑old track specialist, the victor last year at the Colne and Beverley Grand Prix, is one of the quickest finishers in the race when the road is flat and the line straight. A mid‑season ankle injury blunted her early form, but second in Colne this week suggests the turbo is warming nicely.
Handsling Alba Development bring the most obvious counterweight to DAS. Kate Richardson, newly crowned British circuit champion and overall winner of May’s Tour de Feminin in Czechia, prefers to bludgeon a race into submission rather than wait for a bunch kick. She will surge if the pace drops, trusting her time‑trialling power to expose any hesitation. Alongside her, Madelaine Leech offers a turn of speed strong enough for second at Otley and seventh at Ilkley; if Richardson’s aggression merely pares the field, Leech may be the beneficiary.
The joker in the pack is Anna Morris, racing as a privateer yet owner of three National Circuit Series wins this month alone – Ilkley, Sheffield and Colne – each taken with a different mix of guile and raw wattage. Her current form is unmatched. She won’t be content to sit tight – she was an agitator at the Colne Grand Prix – and has the power and speed explode clear with that world‑class pursuiter’s engine. Should she time the jump as she did in Sheffield and Colne, even Clay’s all‑round brilliance may struggle to close the gap.
Outside the headline riders, a trio of disruptors could tip the balance. Floren Villanueva Scrafton, the British‑Bolivian who has collected both road and time‑trial titles in her adopted homeland, thrives on attrition. She has neither teammates nor a pure sprint, but her diesel engine and total disregard for reputations make her a danger. Madeline Cooper, the former cyclo‑cross rider snapped up mid‑season by Spectra, sits level with Yeoman as Clay’s nearest challenger in the National Circuit Series. Cooper cornered like a motocrosser to finish third in Ilkley and second on Guildford’s cobbles; she knows only victory – or Clay finishing well down the order – will hand her the title, so expect fireworks early. And then there is Megan Barker, TEKKERZ’s lone gun. A former national crit champion and double world team‑pursuit winner, Barker bagged third in Colne on Tuesday and will relish a flat‑out sprint.
RD Johns Open Dawlish Grand Prix
National Circuit Series leader Tom Armstrong (Wheelbase CabTech Castelli), has made a habit of wringing every point from every race. Ninth in Colne preserved that slender cushion over Bostock; a fourth in Guildford first put him there. The Lancastrian is no pure sprinter, so his best defence is offence: turn the screw, rip the bunch apart and hope the finish is contested by a select few.
TEKKERZ CC arrive with the heavyweight punch. Matt Bostock, 2022 national crit champion and Sheffield GP winner, sits 14 points adrift of the series lead after finishing second in Colne. Few riders in Britain change gear quite as violently, and his jump makes him favourite if the race ends in a drag race on The Strand. The Manxman knows, though, that Tom Armstrong cannot simply be left to his own devices, so expect Bostock to mix defence with his usual show‑of‑force sprint.
He has the perfect foil. Alec Briggs – bike‑handling exhibitionist, crowd‑pleaser and last year’s Newark victor – will happily lob the hand grenade. The tighter the corner, the wider his grin. A long, solo foray would both feed his ego and soften the field for Bostock; at worst, it forces everyone else to chase while TEKKERZ sit cool in the pack.
William Truelove has been the metronome of Muc‑Off–SRCT–Storck all summer, forever in the first ten, always threatening a breakout win. Fourth at Otley, third at Ilkley, rarely a wheel out of place – the 22‑year‑old’s neat cornering and measured aggression should keep him in the picture when the bunch thins down the back straight. Despite sitting third in the National Circuit Series, he is effectively out of the overall conversation now, which may free him to gamble late and, for once, turn consistency into confetti.
DAS–Richardsons can smell an upset. Frank Longstaff bridged solo to the Colne break and pinched third, proof that his engine – and bravery – are in rude health. He can either light the fuse or mark the decisive counter, and his sprint from a group of five or six is not to be sniffed at. If the headliners stare at one another, Longstaff may nick the bouquet and, in doing so, steal points from the title protagonists.
Then come the wildcards. George Kimber seldom ventures onto the crit scene – he has a National Road Series crown to show for his bigger days out – but whenever he does, he brings a road‑racer’s depth and a killer sense of timing. A Devon local, he will be buoyed by the roadside support. To succeed, he will need to freeload, follow the right wheels and hope the pure sprinters have dulled legs when it matters.
Finally, Jake Hales, 33 and wily as they come, still has the turn of pace that once carried him into the UCI Continental ranks. Seventh in Colne proved he can survive the surges; his tactical compass, honed over two decades and now put to use as rider‑coach at Ride Revolution, could land him on the podium if chaos reigns late on.
Provisional startlists
TJ Smith Women’s Dawlish Grand Prix
RD Johns Open Dawlish Grand Prix
Share this:
Discover more from The British Continental
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.