A rainbow from Yorkshire: inside Harrogate Nova’s world-beating year and 2026 team reveal
After a year that produced world titles, national champions and a flood of podiums, Harrogate Nova’s junior team heads into 2026 as one of the most successful — and still most grounded — setups in British cycling.
When asked to sum up Harrogate Nova junior’s 2025 season, team manager Michael Cross doesn’t even pause. “I think the answer to that, it was ridiculous. Couldn’t have been better,” he says. “Harry’s world champs road race win was the icing on the cake. But the entire team performed.”
He’s right. In just two years, Harrogate Nova’s junior race team has gone from regional newcomer to one of the most successful junior outfits in Britain. Their riders have won national titles, international races, and even a world championship – all while staying true to the community club roots that shaped them.
Cross reels off the results with quiet pride. “We had Daniel Thompson getting three medals at the World Junior Track Champs. We had Magnus Denwood winning Junior Tour of South Wales. We had Isaac Oliver winning the National Gravel Champs, Dexter Townsend winning a TT stage at the Junior Tour of South Wales, as well as a number of UCI top 10 finishes. Last but not least, we had Oscar Saxton coming sixth in the National Champs, which was a fantastic result.”
Daniel Thompson (Harrogate Nova Race Team). Image: Olly Hassell/SWpix.com
It was, by any measure, a season of breadth and depth — results spread across disciplines and riders, from time trials to gravel, from Britain to Spain. “If we had to sum up what best captured the team, it has to be Vuelta a Cantabria,” Cross continues. “We might not have won the GC, but all the riders had a really good weekend with three top 10 finishes on different stages. The important thing about the top 10 finishes was it was by three different riders. That’s what made it a really great weekend. In addition, the weather was great, the TV coverage was brilliant, and we were riding through the same town that the Vuelta a España had ridden through that morning.”
It hasn’t changed anything on the bike
When Harry Hudson crossed the line in Rwanda to win the Junior Men’s Road Race at the UCI World Championships, he became the first-ever British men’s junior road world champion – a moment that made history and shone a sudden spotlight on Harrogate Nova.
Yet Cross insists the world title hasn’t changed the way Nova’s riders go about their work.
“I think the answer to that, it hasn’t changed anything on the bike. All the riders are their own riders, and they ride their bikes just as well before the Champs win as they do after it. I think what it has definitely done, it’s given the team a higher profile, and what that’s really important for is helping to secure UCI race invitations well in advance, which is something that’s new to us.
– Harry Hudson (Great Britain) wins the Junior Road Race World Championship. Image: Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com
“We’re a new team. We’ve only been going for two years, and up until now, we’ve been scratching around for last minute entries into UCI races. And I think this will change things such that we’ll get our invites much, much earlier, making planning much, much easier.”
Harrogate Nova is still a club at heart
Harrogate Nova’s identity, however, remains unchanged. The race team operates within — not apart from — one of Yorkshire’s most active cycling clubs. “Harrogate Nova is still a club at heart,” Cross says. “The balance is fairly easy. We have Nova members who are coaching riders on a Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, with Monday and Thursday at the Brownlee circuit, where we combine with a number of different clubs. We also organise a summer road race, a winter cyclocross race and a summer TT league. We’re an active club, and the excitement of what the race team are doing in the background is palpable from week to week.”
That symbiosis between the grassroots and the elite is what gives the project its character – and for Cross, it’s also deeply personal.
“I moved to Harrogate five years ago and said I’d like to run a road race,” he recalls. “Then when talk started about a race team, somebody said did I want to take it on. All the children have left home (two of them ride for Schils Doltcini) and I’d nearly retired, so I said yes. Absolutely no way can you put the effort in if you have a full time job! Now that I have retired, it is my full time job! At most races I’m usually the only helper without a child racing. We take a slightly different approach from Fensham or Tofauti, in that parents have got to get involved.”
Oscar Saxton (Harrogate Nova Race Team). Image: Olly Hassell/SWpix.com
Even with success, the financial and logistical realities of junior racing never fade. “Junior racing in Britain isn’t easy,” Cross says. “And junior racing in the European and UCI races is even more difficult. The cost and logistics are both high, and as a result of that, finding sufficient funding for six or seven races in Europe each year is particularly difficult.”
He’s thankful for long-term support. “We’re hoping that for the next four or five years we’ve got good support from OTE, and that we’ll be able to look after the team for that period of time.”
Expansion remains a long-term aspiration, but one grounded in realism. “Expanding the model is probably ambitious,” he concedes. “We’d love to run a women’s team, but we need a completely different DS structure with the same number of volunteers and an additional amount of funding coming in. We’ve got Shibden Apex just over the way – we’re supportive of what they do, and we think they put on a great job of providing top-class women’s racing in Yorkshire.”
I’ve read lots about how race teams complain about the lack of racing without actually organising a race themselves… you have to be able to put back as well as take out
For Cross, running a team isn’t just about racing; it’s about contributing. “I’ve read lots about how race teams complain about the lack of racing without actually organising a race themselves, and I agree you have to be able to put back as well as take out.”
That philosophy shapes Nova’s race calendar as much as its rider programme. “Harrogate Nova will be hosting a cyclocross event on the first of January at Pateley Bridge so please come and race in that,” he says. “The other thing that we’re doing is we’re organising a round of the Junior National Road Series. That’s going to be our summer road race this year, and we hope to combine that with a round of the British Women’s Team Cup to make it a full day of racing.”
The team’s 2025 open and women’s races were scuppered by weather and calendar clashes. “We wanted to run a National B women’s race and an open Regional A race — the date was set for May 25 — but with a storm and predicted wind speeds in excess of 80 kilometres an hour, we had to cancel with less than 24 hours’ notice. Date clashes with the women’s calendar meant that it was impossible to find a suitable alternative date at such late notice. We did find an alternative date for the open race, but the cost of putting on a race without a women’s race to share some of the costs means that we lost money.”
We want to support the riders to be the best that they can be
Even as the race calendar fills, the mission remains simple. “Most importantly, I think, we want to support the riders to be the best that they can be,” Cross says. “But in particular, we have Daniel Thompson, who has a great chance of further World Track medals. We’ve got Dexter Townsend, who’s a phenomenal athlete and stands a great chance of being selected for Team GB road events. We also want to do as well as we can in the National Road Series, having got second, third and seventh overall in the series standings this year.”
For 2026, Nova’s roster combines continuity and renewal. Four riders move on — Harry Hudson (to Lidl–Trek Future Racing), Magnus Denwood (Prologue Racing Team), Oscar Saxton, and Isaac Oliver (Prologue Racing Team) — while five re-sign: Dexter Townsend, Daniel Thompson, Arthur Limb, Matthew Fletcher, and Finley Hudson.
Joining them are four new signings: Alex Box (Grit Cartel), Freddie Winkley (Shibden Apex RT), Alfie Nott (Clancy Briggs Cycling Academy), and Archie Whittemore (Clifton CC).
When asked to sum up Harrogate Nova junior’s 2025 season, team manager Michael Cross doesn’t even pause. “I think the answer to that, it was ridiculous. Couldn’t have been better,” he says. “Harry’s world champs road race win was the icing on the cake. But the entire team performed.”
He’s right. In just two years, Harrogate Nova’s junior race team has gone from regional newcomer to one of the most successful junior outfits in Britain. Their riders have won national titles, international races, and even a world championship – all while staying true to the community club roots that shaped them.
Cross reels off the results with quiet pride. “We had Daniel Thompson getting three medals at the World Junior Track Champs. We had Magnus Denwood winning Junior Tour of South Wales. We had Isaac Oliver winning the National Gravel Champs, Dexter Townsend winning a TT stage at the Junior Tour of South Wales, as well as a number of UCI top 10 finishes. Last but not least, we had Oscar Saxton coming sixth in the National Champs, which was a fantastic result.”
It was, by any measure, a season of breadth and depth — results spread across disciplines and riders, from time trials to gravel, from Britain to Spain. “If we had to sum up what best captured the team, it has to be Vuelta a Cantabria,” Cross continues. “We might not have won the GC, but all the riders had a really good weekend with three top 10 finishes on different stages. The important thing about the top 10 finishes was it was by three different riders. That’s what made it a really great weekend. In addition, the weather was great, the TV coverage was brilliant, and we were riding through the same town that the Vuelta a España had ridden through that morning.”
When Harry Hudson crossed the line in Rwanda to win the Junior Men’s Road Race at the UCI World Championships, he became the first-ever British men’s junior road world champion – a moment that made history and shone a sudden spotlight on Harrogate Nova.
Yet Cross insists the world title hasn’t changed the way Nova’s riders go about their work.
“I think the answer to that, it hasn’t changed anything on the bike. All the riders are their own riders, and they ride their bikes just as well before the Champs win as they do after it. I think what it has definitely done, it’s given the team a higher profile, and what that’s really important for is helping to secure UCI race invitations well in advance, which is something that’s new to us.
“We’re a new team. We’ve only been going for two years, and up until now, we’ve been scratching around for last minute entries into UCI races. And I think this will change things such that we’ll get our invites much, much earlier, making planning much, much easier.”
Harrogate Nova’s identity, however, remains unchanged. The race team operates within — not apart from — one of Yorkshire’s most active cycling clubs. “Harrogate Nova is still a club at heart,” Cross says. “The balance is fairly easy. We have Nova members who are coaching riders on a Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, with Monday and Thursday at the Brownlee circuit, where we combine with a number of different clubs. We also organise a summer road race, a winter cyclocross race and a summer TT league. We’re an active club, and the excitement of what the race team are doing in the background is palpable from week to week.”
That symbiosis between the grassroots and the elite is what gives the project its character – and for Cross, it’s also deeply personal.
“I moved to Harrogate five years ago and said I’d like to run a road race,” he recalls. “Then when talk started about a race team, somebody said did I want to take it on. All the children have left home (two of them ride for Schils Doltcini) and I’d nearly retired, so I said yes. Absolutely no way can you put the effort in if you have a full time job! Now that I have retired, it is my full time job! At most races I’m usually the only helper without a child racing. We take a slightly different approach from Fensham or Tofauti, in that parents have got to get involved.”
Even with success, the financial and logistical realities of junior racing never fade. “Junior racing in Britain isn’t easy,” Cross says. “And junior racing in the European and UCI races is even more difficult. The cost and logistics are both high, and as a result of that, finding sufficient funding for six or seven races in Europe each year is particularly difficult.”
He’s thankful for long-term support. “We’re hoping that for the next four or five years we’ve got good support from OTE, and that we’ll be able to look after the team for that period of time.”
Expansion remains a long-term aspiration, but one grounded in realism. “Expanding the model is probably ambitious,” he concedes. “We’d love to run a women’s team, but we need a completely different DS structure with the same number of volunteers and an additional amount of funding coming in. We’ve got Shibden Apex just over the way – we’re supportive of what they do, and we think they put on a great job of providing top-class women’s racing in Yorkshire.”
For Cross, running a team isn’t just about racing; it’s about contributing. “I’ve read lots about how race teams complain about the lack of racing without actually organising a race themselves, and I agree you have to be able to put back as well as take out.”
That philosophy shapes Nova’s race calendar as much as its rider programme. “Harrogate Nova will be hosting a cyclocross event on the first of January at Pateley Bridge so please come and race in that,” he says. “The other thing that we’re doing is we’re organising a round of the Junior National Road Series. That’s going to be our summer road race this year, and we hope to combine that with a round of the British Women’s Team Cup to make it a full day of racing.”
The team’s 2025 open and women’s races were scuppered by weather and calendar clashes. “We wanted to run a National B women’s race and an open Regional A race — the date was set for May 25 — but with a storm and predicted wind speeds in excess of 80 kilometres an hour, we had to cancel with less than 24 hours’ notice. Date clashes with the women’s calendar meant that it was impossible to find a suitable alternative date at such late notice. We did find an alternative date for the open race, but the cost of putting on a race without a women’s race to share some of the costs means that we lost money.”
Even as the race calendar fills, the mission remains simple. “Most importantly, I think, we want to support the riders to be the best that they can be,” Cross says. “But in particular, we have Daniel Thompson, who has a great chance of further World Track medals. We’ve got Dexter Townsend, who’s a phenomenal athlete and stands a great chance of being selected for Team GB road events. We also want to do as well as we can in the National Road Series, having got second, third and seventh overall in the series standings this year.”
For 2026, Nova’s roster combines continuity and renewal. Four riders move on — Harry Hudson (to Lidl–Trek Future Racing), Magnus Denwood (Prologue Racing Team), Oscar Saxton, and Isaac Oliver (Prologue Racing Team) — while five re-sign: Dexter Townsend, Daniel Thompson, Arthur Limb, Matthew Fletcher, and Finley Hudson.
Joining them are four new signings: Alex Box (Grit Cartel), Freddie Winkley (Shibden Apex RT), Alfie Nott (Clancy Briggs Cycling Academy), and Archie Whittemore (Clifton CC).
Read our domestic team guide here.
Featured image: SWpix.com
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