2026 Florrie Newbery Classic and Andrews Trophy: report and results
Matthew Webber (TAAP Kalas) won the Andrews Trophy in Essex on Sunday 19 April, outsprinting a four-man group that had survived to the line after Elliott Colyer's animating solo move in the closing stages.
Matthew Webber (TAAP Kalas) won the Andrews Trophy in Essex on Sunday, outsprinting a four-man group that had survived to the line after Elliott Colyer’s animating solo move in the closing stages — the defending champion Clay Davies forced out mid-race with puncture.
In the afternoon, the third edition of the Florrie Newbery Classic produced the tightest of finishes — Georgia Lancaster (Loughborough Lightning) taking the win from a bunch sprint after a race that resisted all attempts to break it apart.
A bright, spring day in the Essex lanes set the stage for one of the more absorbing editions of the Andrews Trophy in recent memory. The sun was out and the racing was fast, but for the best part of an hour neither contributed anything to an early move. Ride Revolution Coaching, Foran CT, DAS Richardsons and JAKROO Handsling Racing were all active in the opening exchanges, yet the peloton refused to let anything go. The pace was high enough to discourage co-operation between would-be escapees; every probe was shut down before it could take shape.
The first move to take any hold came from Jack Crook (Moda RT), Tom Heal (JAKROO Handsling Racing) and Oliver Hurdle (Private Member), who managed to open a gap of around ten seconds with approximately 70 kilometres remaining. The three had done the hard work, but they would not be alone for long. A larger group bridged across, swelling the lead group with representatives from DAS Richardsons, Foran CT, Ride Revolution Coaching and Schils–Doltcini. Clay Davies and William Metcalfe (both Ride Revolution Coaching), Jordan Giles and Cai Davies (both DAS Richardsons), Thomas Doig and Nathan Levitt (both Foran CT), Philip Large (Wold Top Pactimo), Colin Ward (Primo RT) and Ethan Storti (Schils–Doltcini) were those who made the junction. With 55 kilometres to go, the enlarged group had around ten seconds on the peloton.
It was not enough. With five laps remaining the bunch was closing, and then came the blow that reframed the afternoon: Clay Davies, the defending champion and the season’s leading points-scorer coming into the race, pulled out of the front group with a puncture, foiling Ride Revolution’s pre-race plan.
Image: Mark James
A new quartet then tried their luck: Joshua Horsfield (Cycling Sheffield), Lyle Simpson (DAS Richardsons), Lance Childs (Ride Revolution Coaching) and Tobias Dahlhaus (Foran CT) got 14 seconds of daylight with 37 kilometres to go. The peloton hauled them back.
The move that mattered came with fewer than 20 kilometres remaining. Elliott Colyer, the founder and rider of the collective Aero CLCTV and winner of the Totnes–Vire stage race a fortnight earlier, went clear on his own and built a handsome advantage. Colyer had been one of the most watchable riders in the domestic scene through the early weeks of 2026, and this was the kind of race he has made his own: aggressive, self-reliant, willing to commit when others hesitate.
But three riders got across with just over a lap remaining. Robin Mould (Foran CT), Crook and Matthew Webber (TAAP Kalas) bridged to Colyer and the four went to the bell together with 25 seconds on the peloton, with Colin Ward (Primo RT) and William Metcalf (Ride Revolution Coaching) occupying the gap between the leaders and the bunch behind.
Image: Mark James
Colyer attacked with approximately three kilometres to go but could not shed his companions. He led the group into the final kilometre, still trying to open something, but the speed was there and the others were not going to let him go alone a second time. It was Webber who read the sprint best, coming through with force to take the win. Crook took second, Colyer third, Mould fourth. The peloton arrived not far behind, with Olly Curd (DAS Richardsons) leading them across the line for fifth.
After the finish, speaking to The British Continental, Webber described the race as “relentless” — “just people kept attacking, attacking, attacking.” He was candid about how hard he had found the middle of the race: with two laps to go and the legs beginning to hurt, Colyer’s solo move gave the chasing group a target to aim for rather than a race to control. “Three of us got away, chipped off the front, chased him down, managed to catch him after probably about a lap,” Webber said. “He was going well. And then four of us to the finish line — and then got them in a sprint.”
Image: Mark James
He arrived in Essex in improving form: fourth overall at Totnes–Vire a fortnight earlier, and a win and a second at Hillingdon in the intervening week. His next target is the Rutland–Melton CiCLE Classic. “I did it once when I was a junior,” he said, “but that was a long time ago — maybe 12 years.” With the mid-April sun finally warming Essex, he allowed himself a moment of optimism: “Summer’s finally arrived.”
Florrie Newbery Classic
The Florrie Newbery Classic, the third edition of the race and the opening round of the 2026 British Women’s Team Cup, unfolded across the same sinuous Essex lanes as the Andrews Trophy — but with a very different dynamic.
Where the open race had been shaped by multi-team aggression, the women’s field was smaller and its balance of power more concentrated: London Academy arrived with seven riders, by some distance the largest team in the field, and their numerical advantage cast a shadow over everything that followed.
Image: Mark James
Despite it, attacks came repeatedly and from multiple directions. Riders from Paralloy RT, Brother UK–Team OnForm and Loughborough Lightning all tested the field across the early laps, as did London Academy themselves. Each move was read, chased, and absorbed.
One of clearest moments of genuine threat came on the prime lap, when Amelia Staunton (Brother UK–Team OnForm) and Ella Tandy (Simpson Nouvelles) crossed the line first and second and immediately pushed on, hoping the effort of the prime had opened a crack they could lever apart. It had not — the field came back to them within moments, and the bunch reconvened once more.
What followed was a long, attritional middle section in which London Academy repeatedly tested the field’s appetite for work without ever finding the gap that their numbers deserved. With two laps remaining, according to Monument Cycling TV’s commentary team, the pace visibly dropped — the bunch perhaps calculating that the race would be decided by legs and timing rather than by attrition. The field was content, or at least reconciled, to a bunch sprint.
Image: Mark James
London Academy moved to the front as the final kilometre approached, lining out through the race’s decisive final left-hander and setting up what looked like a controlled lead-out. Georgina Oakley (Loughborough Lightning) came to the front with around 500 metres remaining and drove the sprint towards the line. Tandy found space on the left side of the road in the final hundred metres and appeared briefly to have her nose in front. But Loughborough Lightning’s Georgia Lancaster, coming from the right, timed her effort better — surging through in the closing moments to take the win. Tandy held on for second; Staunton, who had been active throughout and first on the prime, claimed third.
Speaking to The British Continental after the finish, Lancaster admitted the win had caught her slightly off-guard. She had only confirmed her entry on Friday afternoon. “I genuinely wasn’t feeling very good in that race,” she said. “I didn’t expect anything from today — just thought, go and try something new and see what happens.”
Her two teammates played a part in the outcome. One handed her a bottle when she was struggling to get one from the convoy; Oakley, she said, gave her a tow up the main road on the final lap, taking wind off her before the sprint. “I know she was gunning for it in the sprint as well — super strong rider,” Lancaster said. The margin, by her own estimation, was a couple of inches. “It wasn’t till those last five metres that I really got to dig in and use my power.”
Image: Mark James
She was aware from early on that the race would be hard to break apart. “After about three or four laps, you realised how fast the course was and how difficult it was to get a group away.” London Academy’s numbers, she noted, made breakaway racing a difficult proposition for everyone else: getting clear with their riders risked doing their work for them. “If you got in a breakaway with them, you’d pretty much be set up.” The sprint, in the end, suited nobody’s plan — including hers.
Next up for Lancaster is the Witham Hall Grand Prix, a home race, before Rapha Lincoln GP the following week.
Matthew Webber (TAAP Kalas) won the Andrews Trophy in Essex on Sunday, outsprinting a four-man group that had survived to the line after Elliott Colyer’s animating solo move in the closing stages — the defending champion Clay Davies forced out mid-race with puncture.
In the afternoon, the third edition of the Florrie Newbery Classic produced the tightest of finishes — Georgia Lancaster (Loughborough Lightning) taking the win from a bunch sprint after a race that resisted all attempts to break it apart.
Featured image: Mark James
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Report
Andrews Trophy
A bright, spring day in the Essex lanes set the stage for one of the more absorbing editions of the Andrews Trophy in recent memory. The sun was out and the racing was fast, but for the best part of an hour neither contributed anything to an early move. Ride Revolution Coaching, Foran CT, DAS Richardsons and JAKROO Handsling Racing were all active in the opening exchanges, yet the peloton refused to let anything go. The pace was high enough to discourage co-operation between would-be escapees; every probe was shut down before it could take shape.
The first move to take any hold came from Jack Crook (Moda RT), Tom Heal (JAKROO Handsling Racing) and Oliver Hurdle (Private Member), who managed to open a gap of around ten seconds with approximately 70 kilometres remaining. The three had done the hard work, but they would not be alone for long. A larger group bridged across, swelling the lead group with representatives from DAS Richardsons, Foran CT, Ride Revolution Coaching and Schils–Doltcini. Clay Davies and William Metcalfe (both Ride Revolution Coaching), Jordan Giles and Cai Davies (both DAS Richardsons), Thomas Doig and Nathan Levitt (both Foran CT), Philip Large (Wold Top Pactimo), Colin Ward (Primo RT) and Ethan Storti (Schils–Doltcini) were those who made the junction. With 55 kilometres to go, the enlarged group had around ten seconds on the peloton.
It was not enough. With five laps remaining the bunch was closing, and then came the blow that reframed the afternoon: Clay Davies, the defending champion and the season’s leading points-scorer coming into the race, pulled out of the front group with a puncture, foiling Ride Revolution’s pre-race plan.
A new quartet then tried their luck: Joshua Horsfield (Cycling Sheffield), Lyle Simpson (DAS Richardsons), Lance Childs (Ride Revolution Coaching) and Tobias Dahlhaus (Foran CT) got 14 seconds of daylight with 37 kilometres to go. The peloton hauled them back.
The move that mattered came with fewer than 20 kilometres remaining. Elliott Colyer, the founder and rider of the collective Aero CLCTV and winner of the Totnes–Vire stage race a fortnight earlier, went clear on his own and built a handsome advantage. Colyer had been one of the most watchable riders in the domestic scene through the early weeks of 2026, and this was the kind of race he has made his own: aggressive, self-reliant, willing to commit when others hesitate.
But three riders got across with just over a lap remaining. Robin Mould (Foran CT), Crook and Matthew Webber (TAAP Kalas) bridged to Colyer and the four went to the bell together with 25 seconds on the peloton, with Colin Ward (Primo RT) and William Metcalf (Ride Revolution Coaching) occupying the gap between the leaders and the bunch behind.
Colyer attacked with approximately three kilometres to go but could not shed his companions. He led the group into the final kilometre, still trying to open something, but the speed was there and the others were not going to let him go alone a second time. It was Webber who read the sprint best, coming through with force to take the win. Crook took second, Colyer third, Mould fourth. The peloton arrived not far behind, with Olly Curd (DAS Richardsons) leading them across the line for fifth.
After the finish, speaking to The British Continental, Webber described the race as “relentless” — “just people kept attacking, attacking, attacking.” He was candid about how hard he had found the middle of the race: with two laps to go and the legs beginning to hurt, Colyer’s solo move gave the chasing group a target to aim for rather than a race to control. “Three of us got away, chipped off the front, chased him down, managed to catch him after probably about a lap,” Webber said. “He was going well. And then four of us to the finish line — and then got them in a sprint.”
He arrived in Essex in improving form: fourth overall at Totnes–Vire a fortnight earlier, and a win and a second at Hillingdon in the intervening week. His next target is the Rutland–Melton CiCLE Classic. “I did it once when I was a junior,” he said, “but that was a long time ago — maybe 12 years.” With the mid-April sun finally warming Essex, he allowed himself a moment of optimism: “Summer’s finally arrived.”
Florrie Newbery Classic
The Florrie Newbery Classic, the third edition of the race and the opening round of the 2026 British Women’s Team Cup, unfolded across the same sinuous Essex lanes as the Andrews Trophy — but with a very different dynamic.
Where the open race had been shaped by multi-team aggression, the women’s field was smaller and its balance of power more concentrated: London Academy arrived with seven riders, by some distance the largest team in the field, and their numerical advantage cast a shadow over everything that followed.
Despite it, attacks came repeatedly and from multiple directions. Riders from Paralloy RT, Brother UK–Team OnForm and Loughborough Lightning all tested the field across the early laps, as did London Academy themselves. Each move was read, chased, and absorbed.
One of clearest moments of genuine threat came on the prime lap, when Amelia Staunton (Brother UK–Team OnForm) and Ella Tandy (Simpson Nouvelles) crossed the line first and second and immediately pushed on, hoping the effort of the prime had opened a crack they could lever apart. It had not — the field came back to them within moments, and the bunch reconvened once more.
What followed was a long, attritional middle section in which London Academy repeatedly tested the field’s appetite for work without ever finding the gap that their numbers deserved. With two laps remaining, according to Monument Cycling TV’s commentary team, the pace visibly dropped — the bunch perhaps calculating that the race would be decided by legs and timing rather than by attrition. The field was content, or at least reconciled, to a bunch sprint.
London Academy moved to the front as the final kilometre approached, lining out through the race’s decisive final left-hander and setting up what looked like a controlled lead-out. Georgina Oakley (Loughborough Lightning) came to the front with around 500 metres remaining and drove the sprint towards the line. Tandy found space on the left side of the road in the final hundred metres and appeared briefly to have her nose in front. But Loughborough Lightning’s Georgia Lancaster, coming from the right, timed her effort better — surging through in the closing moments to take the win. Tandy held on for second; Staunton, who had been active throughout and first on the prime, claimed third.
Speaking to The British Continental after the finish, Lancaster admitted the win had caught her slightly off-guard. She had only confirmed her entry on Friday afternoon. “I genuinely wasn’t feeling very good in that race,” she said. “I didn’t expect anything from today — just thought, go and try something new and see what happens.”
Her two teammates played a part in the outcome. One handed her a bottle when she was struggling to get one from the convoy; Oakley, she said, gave her a tow up the main road on the final lap, taking wind off her before the sprint. “I know she was gunning for it in the sprint as well — super strong rider,” Lancaster said. The margin, by her own estimation, was a couple of inches. “It wasn’t till those last five metres that I really got to dig in and use my power.”
She was aware from early on that the race would be hard to break apart. “After about three or four laps, you realised how fast the course was and how difficult it was to get a group away.” London Academy’s numbers, she noted, made breakaway racing a difficult proposition for everyone else: getting clear with their riders risked doing their work for them. “If you got in a breakaway with them, you’d pretty much be set up.” The sprint, in the end, suited nobody’s plan — including hers.
Next up for Lancaster is the Witham Hall Grand Prix, a home race, before Rapha Lincoln GP the following week.
Results
Andrews Trophy
Florrie Newbery Classic
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