Cycling Sheffield’s Alexander Foster won the Danum Trophy in High Melton on Sunday to take Round 2 of the U23 Open National Road Series. The 100th-anniversary edition of Doncaster Wheelers CC’s South Yorkshire classic was decided only on the final lap, after a late attack by BCC Race Team’s George Stephen and JAKROO’s Oliver Dawson was hauled back on the run-in.
Featured image: Joe Hudson
Report
Beneath bright spring sunshine on a circuit dressed for Doncaster Wheelers CC’s centenary year, the 2026 Danum Trophy delivered the kind of attritional racing the High Melton and Sprotbrough loop tends to produce – and a result that took every one of the 11¼ laps to settle. With pre-race favourite Deetray Jarrett (Vigo–Rías Baixas) absent on stage-race duty in Spain, the door was open, and the field wasted no time in walking through it.
The breakaway group. Credit: Joe Hudson
A move went almost from the gun: five riders clear inside the opening kilometres, joined within a lap by two more — George Stephen (BCC RT), John Bardsley (Atom 6 – ADWD) and Cycling Sheffield’s James Sawyers among them. Further attacks followed; by halfway, some 18 riders had coalesced at the front, the gap to a depleted peloton stretching past three minutes. Cycling Sheffield put three riders into the move (Sawyers, Alex Foster and Denholm Edwards); JAKROO Handsling had Oliver Dawson, Harrison Dainty and Dylan Belton Owen.
With five laps to go, Stephen began lifting the pace at the head of the lead group, stringing the move out on the climb out of Cadeby. Two laps later he and Dawson punched clear, their advantage stretching to 28 seconds across the line with three laps remaining. But the move would not stick. Foster attacked across to the leaders, Stephen drifted back, tried to bridge again, and by the bell the front group had reassembled.
George Stephen and Oliver Dawson power clear. Credit: Joe Hudson
On the final lap, Dawson went again inside the last 600 metres, triggering a succession of sprints up the drag to the line. Foster came off Dainty’s wheel, went past him, and held on. Lewis Tinsley (BCC RT) rounded out the podium.
“It was a full-gas race start to finish,” Foster told The British Continental after the race. “There were splits really early on, and it caught me out how early it cracked on. I had to spend a lot of matches getting across to the front of the race.”
On the lead group’s inability to splinter before the final lap: “There were a lot of fresh legs still, and that sort of glued the bunch together. It got to a point within the last 15 minutes where you’re looking around — people are looking like they’re hurting, gaps are opening up — but even then, nothing really went. When people started opening sprints up, it was clear to see who still had some legs.”
Image: Joe Hudson
On the finish itself, Foster admits he wasn’t sure he had it: “I saw [Dainty] come past the first time and I thought, right, we’ve got to follow that one. I got past him and was looking between my legs and could still see his rear wheel. We could see the finish line — just keep it going, keep it going. Harrison had a second kick, definitely.”
Foster’s win — added to eighth place at Round 1’s PB Performance Espoirs three weeks earlier — takes him to the top of the U23 Open National Road Series standings on 46 points, seven places up from his pre-race position. Hunter and Tinsley are tied on 38 points in second and third, with Stephen and Dawson completing the top five. Nicholson, who led the series going into Sunday, drops to sixth despite not racing; with three rounds still to run, the picture remains open.
Cycling Sheffield’s Alexander Foster won the Danum Trophy in High Melton on Sunday to take Round 2 of the U23 Open National Road Series. The 100th-anniversary edition of Doncaster Wheelers CC’s South Yorkshire classic was decided only on the final lap, after a late attack by BCC Race Team’s George Stephen and JAKROO’s Oliver Dawson was hauled back on the run-in.
Featured image: Joe Hudson
Report
Beneath bright spring sunshine on a circuit dressed for Doncaster Wheelers CC’s centenary year, the 2026 Danum Trophy delivered the kind of attritional racing the High Melton and Sprotbrough loop tends to produce – and a result that took every one of the 11¼ laps to settle. With pre-race favourite Deetray Jarrett (Vigo–Rías Baixas) absent on stage-race duty in Spain, the door was open, and the field wasted no time in walking through it.
A move went almost from the gun: five riders clear inside the opening kilometres, joined within a lap by two more — George Stephen (BCC RT), John Bardsley (Atom 6 – ADWD) and Cycling Sheffield’s James Sawyers among them. Further attacks followed; by halfway, some 18 riders had coalesced at the front, the gap to a depleted peloton stretching past three minutes. Cycling Sheffield put three riders into the move (Sawyers, Alex Foster and Denholm Edwards); JAKROO Handsling had Oliver Dawson, Harrison Dainty and Dylan Belton Owen.
With five laps to go, Stephen began lifting the pace at the head of the lead group, stringing the move out on the climb out of Cadeby. Two laps later he and Dawson punched clear, their advantage stretching to 28 seconds across the line with three laps remaining. But the move would not stick. Foster attacked across to the leaders, Stephen drifted back, tried to bridge again, and by the bell the front group had reassembled.
On the final lap, Dawson went again inside the last 600 metres, triggering a succession of sprints up the drag to the line. Foster came off Dainty’s wheel, went past him, and held on. Lewis Tinsley (BCC RT) rounded out the podium.
“It was a full-gas race start to finish,” Foster told The British Continental after the race. “There were splits really early on, and it caught me out how early it cracked on. I had to spend a lot of matches getting across to the front of the race.”
On the lead group’s inability to splinter before the final lap: “There were a lot of fresh legs still, and that sort of glued the bunch together. It got to a point within the last 15 minutes where you’re looking around — people are looking like they’re hurting, gaps are opening up — but even then, nothing really went. When people started opening sprints up, it was clear to see who still had some legs.”
On the finish itself, Foster admits he wasn’t sure he had it: “I saw [Dainty] come past the first time and I thought, right, we’ve got to follow that one. I got past him and was looking between my legs and could still see his rear wheel. We could see the finish line — just keep it going, keep it going. Harrison had a second kick, definitely.”
Foster’s win — added to eighth place at Round 1’s PB Performance Espoirs three weeks earlier — takes him to the top of the U23 Open National Road Series standings on 46 points, seven places up from his pre-race position. Hunter and Tinsley are tied on 38 points in second and third, with Stephen and Dawson completing the top five. Nicholson, who led the series going into Sunday, drops to sixth despite not racing; with three rounds still to run, the picture remains open.
Results
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