Carl Jolly won the Aero CLCTV Royal Navy Cup at RNAS Merryfield on Saturday 7 March, outsprinting 2024 champion Jordan Giles after a late attack from within the lead group settled the race.
Featured image: PelotonPix / Dave Dodge Photography
Report
The drizzle arrived early and settled in for the duration, leaving the wide taxiway tarmac of RNAS Merryfield slick and grey under low Somerset cloud. No wind to speak of — the course that can shatter a field in echelons inside ten laps offered no such drama on Saturday. Instead the 47-strong field churned around the flat circuit in a tight mass, conditions keeping everything together, the pace measured and watchful through the opening laps.
The Royal Navy Cup is only in its third year, but it has already established its character: fast, attritional, and prone to resolving itself late. Jordan Giles (DAS Richardsons) won the inaugural edition here in 2024; the race has suited riders who can hold something back and then move decisively when the elastic finally snaps.
Image: PelotonPix / Dave Dodge Photography
With 17 laps remaining the field was still intact. An early move featuring Oscar Hoult (Aero CLCTV), Bobby Buenfeld (Aero CLCTV), Elijah Kwon (Edinburgh Bike Fitting RT), Ollie Cadin (Draft Racing), Ed Ayres (GMS Cycling Team Glabbeek), and Charlie Lacaille (Schils–Doltcini Racing Team) was reeled back in before a more substantial group of 12 formed and began to work. Ashley Hutchison (TAAP Kalas), Joe Reeves (Nopinz RT), Lacaille, Buenfeld, Carl Jolly (Schils–Doltcini Racing Team), Hamish Johnstone (Team Tor 2000 Kalas), Alex Stanley and Elliott Colyer (both Aero CLCTV), Cadin, Luke Barfoot (Pronto Bikes), Matthew Gilmour (Nopinz RT), Giles, and Hoult. Stanley punctured out of contention, while the remaining 12 riders had carved out 22 seconds by the time 12 laps remained. The gap kept climbing: past 30 seconds, past a minute, out to 1m 35s with nine laps to go. Behind them, Jack Dallyn (ES Torigni) found himself adrift in no-man’s-land, unable to bridge and unwilling to sit up.
The race sharpened decisively in the closing laps when four riders moved clear of the group: Jolly, Colyer, Giles, and Gilmour. They pulled away with startling speed – 1m 40s to the remnants of the 12 behind after 22 laps – and for a time it looked as though the front four would contest the finish between them. But Gilmour, who had finished second at the Portsdown Classic last month, could not hold the pace of the others in the final lap and was dropped, leaving three.
Jolly proved strongest when it mattered, outsprinting Giles on the line to deny him a second Royal Navy Cup title. Colyer, whose team had stepped in to salvage this very event from cancellation weeks earlier, took third – a tidy symmetry between the result and the team’s role in making the race happen at all.
Jolly wins. Image: PelotonPix / Dave Dodge Photography
Gilmour crossed in fourth, 37 seconds back, to add to what is shaping up as a strong early-season run. Further down, Buenfeld finished fifth from the chase group, with Cadin, Barfoot, and Hutchison also in the same contingent.
Jolly described a race that took time to ignite. “It started out quite chilled – nothing was getting away early,” he told The British Continental. “Eventually a break of around ten got away including my team-mate Charlie. I realised I should really be in the move, so I attacked and managed to bring one person with me.” From there, he recalls, it became a matter of survival. Colyer went clear; Jolly bridged across. Giles and Gilmour followed. “We started attacking each other,” Jolly adds, “and then it was just me, Elliott and Jordan. They worked me over, attacking one after the other – but I managed to hold on for the sprint.”
Colyer reflected on a day that combined racing and organising in equal measure. “Organising it was brilliant,” he said. “Everyone was so helpful and supportive on the day and it all worked very well. Can’t overstate how amazing the volunteers, the commissaires, the lead car drivers and the medical providers were.”
With thanks to Seb Ottley and Charlie Revell for their reporting from the race.
Carl Jolly won the Aero CLCTV Royal Navy Cup at RNAS Merryfield on Saturday 7 March, outsprinting 2024 champion Jordan Giles after a late attack from within the lead group settled the race.
Featured image: PelotonPix / Dave Dodge Photography
Report
The drizzle arrived early and settled in for the duration, leaving the wide taxiway tarmac of RNAS Merryfield slick and grey under low Somerset cloud. No wind to speak of — the course that can shatter a field in echelons inside ten laps offered no such drama on Saturday. Instead the 47-strong field churned around the flat circuit in a tight mass, conditions keeping everything together, the pace measured and watchful through the opening laps.
The Royal Navy Cup is only in its third year, but it has already established its character: fast, attritional, and prone to resolving itself late. Jordan Giles (DAS Richardsons) won the inaugural edition here in 2024; the race has suited riders who can hold something back and then move decisively when the elastic finally snaps.
With 17 laps remaining the field was still intact. An early move featuring Oscar Hoult (Aero CLCTV), Bobby Buenfeld (Aero CLCTV), Elijah Kwon (Edinburgh Bike Fitting RT), Ollie Cadin (Draft Racing), Ed Ayres (GMS Cycling Team Glabbeek), and Charlie Lacaille (Schils–Doltcini Racing Team) was reeled back in before a more substantial group of 12 formed and began to work. Ashley Hutchison (TAAP Kalas), Joe Reeves (Nopinz RT), Lacaille, Buenfeld, Carl Jolly (Schils–Doltcini Racing Team), Hamish Johnstone (Team Tor 2000 Kalas), Alex Stanley and Elliott Colyer (both Aero CLCTV), Cadin, Luke Barfoot (Pronto Bikes), Matthew Gilmour (Nopinz RT), Giles, and Hoult. Stanley punctured out of contention, while the remaining 12 riders had carved out 22 seconds by the time 12 laps remained. The gap kept climbing: past 30 seconds, past a minute, out to 1m 35s with nine laps to go. Behind them, Jack Dallyn (ES Torigni) found himself adrift in no-man’s-land, unable to bridge and unwilling to sit up.
The race sharpened decisively in the closing laps when four riders moved clear of the group: Jolly, Colyer, Giles, and Gilmour. They pulled away with startling speed – 1m 40s to the remnants of the 12 behind after 22 laps – and for a time it looked as though the front four would contest the finish between them. But Gilmour, who had finished second at the Portsdown Classic last month, could not hold the pace of the others in the final lap and was dropped, leaving three.
Jolly proved strongest when it mattered, outsprinting Giles on the line to deny him a second Royal Navy Cup title. Colyer, whose team had stepped in to salvage this very event from cancellation weeks earlier, took third – a tidy symmetry between the result and the team’s role in making the race happen at all.
Gilmour crossed in fourth, 37 seconds back, to add to what is shaping up as a strong early-season run. Further down, Buenfeld finished fifth from the chase group, with Cadin, Barfoot, and Hutchison also in the same contingent.
Jolly described a race that took time to ignite. “It started out quite chilled – nothing was getting away early,” he told The British Continental. “Eventually a break of around ten got away including my team-mate Charlie. I realised I should really be in the move, so I attacked and managed to bring one person with me.” From there, he recalls, it became a matter of survival. Colyer went clear; Jolly bridged across. Giles and Gilmour followed. “We started attacking each other,” Jolly adds, “and then it was just me, Elliott and Jordan. They worked me over, attacking one after the other – but I managed to hold on for the sprint.”
Colyer reflected on a day that combined racing and organising in equal measure. “Organising it was brilliant,” he said. “Everyone was so helpful and supportive on the day and it all worked very well. Can’t overstate how amazing the volunteers, the commissaires, the lead car drivers and the medical providers were.”
With thanks to Seb Ottley and Charlie Revell for their reporting from the race.
Results
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