Elliott Colyer arrives in Wiltshire on Sunday in the form of his career; Jack Rootkin-Gray arrives as the most decorated rider on the start sheet. The Chitterne Road Race this Sunday (26 April) promises a fascinating collision between trajectory and momentum.
Somewhere on Salisbury Plain on Sunday afternoon, a rider who spent last spring at Paris–Roubaix will line up for a National B road race. Jack Rootkin-Gray — 23, officially unattached after two seasons at EF Education-EasyPost in the WorldTour — is on the start sheet for the eighth Chitterne Road Race, and his presence alone reframes a field that has contracted to 37 riders partly because the Rutland–Melton CiCLE Classic has claimed much of the domestic elite on the same afternoon. It is that kind of race: smaller than last year’s 56-strong field, stranger than it looks on paper, and harder to predict for it.
Featured image: Josh Wheeler/JoWSportsMedia
What is it?
First held in 2018, Chitterne has produced a roll of winners that runs from Michael Mottram and Stephen Bradbury through to Zeb Kyffin — now racing as a professional with Unibet-Tietema Rockets — and Oliver Hucks in 2022. The race took a break before returning last year, when Charlie Genner took the win, and it now sits as a reliable fixture on the south of England’s spring calendar, organised by Emily Young of AViD Sport.
AViD also host a Regional A women’s race earlier in the day, starting at 10:00 over 54 kilometres and 2.75 laps. FTP–Fulfil The Potential Racing send the strongest squad, with Anna Boniface and Claire Nott among their five entries; Grace Upshall (Shibden Apex RT) is another name to note. The women’s race also counts towards the British Cycling South Women’s League.
Route
The circuit starts at the top of the hill outside Chitterne village and finishes 50 metres beyond Juliet Crossing. The military training zones to either side — Imber Range to the north, Chitterne Range to the south — give the venue an atmosphere unlike anywhere else on the domestic calendar, and the access road to the crossing must be kept clear throughout the afternoon.
The elevation profile is cumulative rather than dramatic: repeated short climbs and descents across open downland, with the exposed sections historically vulnerable to crosswind that splits groups laterally rather than through a single decisive gradient. Splits can build silently on this terrain before anyone notices.
The open field covers 6.75 laps and 130 kilometres with roughly 1,200 metres of climbing.
Timing
Start time is 13:00; riders’ briefing is at 12:45.
Riders to watch
The name that dominates the start sheet belongs to Jack Rootkin-Gray, who lines up without a listed team after two seasons he spent at EF Education-EasyPost in the WorldTour. Rootkin-Gray, 23, turned professional with EF in 2024 after a standout 2023 on the domestic circuit with Saint Piran that included a third at the Lincoln Grand Prix and second at the Beaumont Trophy. His only domestic result in 2026 is 58th at Evesham Vale in March, which tells us little about his condition but nothing about his ability. The question on Sunday is not whether Rootkin-Gray is the best rider in the field — he is — but whether racing a National B at this point in his season is what he is here to do, or simply a training ride in race clothing.
The rider who arrives with the most compelling recent form is Elliott Colyer (Aero CLCTV Race Team). Two weeks ago, Colyer won the Totnes–Vire Two-Day outright, attacking solo on the Jacobstowe circuit on stage two and riding the closing lap alone to Hatherleigh. On Sunday 19 April he finished third at the Andrews Trophy in Essex after an animating solo move in the closing stages that only just failed to hold off the chasers. Back-to-back performances of that quality from the same rider in the same fortnight is not a coincidence. Colyer, 22, founded Aero CLCTV after leaving TAAP Kalas and teams up with Bobby Buenfeld and Alexander Stanley in Wiltshire. He DNF’d the 2025 Chitterne; he returns in considerably better shape.
Elliot Colyer wins the Totnes Vire 2 Day. Image: PelotonPix / Dave Dodge Photography
Matthew Gilmour (Nopinz RT) is the clearest form-based pick from earlier in the season. The 20-year-old, who joined Nopinz RT from Primera–TeamJobs over winter, finished second at the Portsdown Classic in February and ninth at the Jock Wadley in March — two of the strongest results in the field from the first half of the season.
Deetray Jarrett (Vigo–Rías Baixas) is the other rider who arrives with a domestic win already on the board this season. The 20-year-old from Blackpool, who races alongside his younger brother Trayden in the Spanish elite and U23 squad, soloed to victory at Capernwray on 4 April — riding clear with 40 seconds in hand on the final ascent of Sunny Bank. His background is almost entirely in Spanish racing: as a junior with Saxun-Extrusax-Primoti he won the mountains classification at the Bizkaiko Itzulia, and he has raced at U23 level on the Iberian peninsula ever since.
Jack Baldie (Pronto Bikes) is worth watching as someone who knows this race. The 18-year-old from Bath finished fourth here last year as a junior with trainSharp, and has since stepped up to first-category level with Pronto Bikes for 2026. His first senior outing of the season produced a third place at the Portsdown Classic in February — behind only Murphy and Gilmour — which suggests the transition has not diminished his speed. He arrives back on a course where he has already shown he can ride to the result.
The tactical shape of the race may ultimately be determined by League-Forté Chiropractic, a Swindon-based team now in their third national racing season, who send six riders: Joseph Bearman, Cian Bryant, Patrick Furze, Ludovic Hirst, Gary Paddon, and Ben Waghorne. Six riders in a 37-man National B field is a majority in any break that forms; their presence makes attritional racing more likely and makes it expensive for any individual to try to control proceedings alone. Foran CT, with Tobias Dahlhaus, Jack Lockwood, and Craig McAuley, offer the most credible collective opposition. Ashley Hutchison (TAAP Kalas) is a first-category rider who raced the 2025 edition and will know the course well.
Somewhere on Salisbury Plain on Sunday afternoon, a rider who spent last spring at Paris–Roubaix will line up for a National B road race. Jack Rootkin-Gray — 23, officially unattached after two seasons at EF Education-EasyPost in the WorldTour — is on the start sheet for the eighth Chitterne Road Race, and his presence alone reframes a field that has contracted to 37 riders partly because the Rutland–Melton CiCLE Classic has claimed much of the domestic elite on the same afternoon. It is that kind of race: smaller than last year’s 56-strong field, stranger than it looks on paper, and harder to predict for it.
Featured image: Josh Wheeler/JoWSportsMedia
What is it?
First held in 2018, Chitterne has produced a roll of winners that runs from Michael Mottram and Stephen Bradbury through to Zeb Kyffin — now racing as a professional with Unibet-Tietema Rockets — and Oliver Hucks in 2022. The race took a break before returning last year, when Charlie Genner took the win, and it now sits as a reliable fixture on the south of England’s spring calendar, organised by Emily Young of AViD Sport.
AViD also host a Regional A women’s race earlier in the day, starting at 10:00 over 54 kilometres and 2.75 laps. FTP–Fulfil The Potential Racing send the strongest squad, with Anna Boniface and Claire Nott among their five entries; Grace Upshall (Shibden Apex RT) is another name to note. The women’s race also counts towards the British Cycling South Women’s League.
Route
The circuit starts at the top of the hill outside Chitterne village and finishes 50 metres beyond Juliet Crossing. The military training zones to either side — Imber Range to the north, Chitterne Range to the south — give the venue an atmosphere unlike anywhere else on the domestic calendar, and the access road to the crossing must be kept clear throughout the afternoon.
The elevation profile is cumulative rather than dramatic: repeated short climbs and descents across open downland, with the exposed sections historically vulnerable to crosswind that splits groups laterally rather than through a single decisive gradient. Splits can build silently on this terrain before anyone notices.
The open field covers 6.75 laps and 130 kilometres with roughly 1,200 metres of climbing.
Timing
Start time is 13:00; riders’ briefing is at 12:45.
Riders to watch
The name that dominates the start sheet belongs to Jack Rootkin-Gray, who lines up without a listed team after two seasons he spent at EF Education-EasyPost in the WorldTour. Rootkin-Gray, 23, turned professional with EF in 2024 after a standout 2023 on the domestic circuit with Saint Piran that included a third at the Lincoln Grand Prix and second at the Beaumont Trophy. His only domestic result in 2026 is 58th at Evesham Vale in March, which tells us little about his condition but nothing about his ability. The question on Sunday is not whether Rootkin-Gray is the best rider in the field — he is — but whether racing a National B at this point in his season is what he is here to do, or simply a training ride in race clothing.
The rider who arrives with the most compelling recent form is Elliott Colyer (Aero CLCTV Race Team). Two weeks ago, Colyer won the Totnes–Vire Two-Day outright, attacking solo on the Jacobstowe circuit on stage two and riding the closing lap alone to Hatherleigh. On Sunday 19 April he finished third at the Andrews Trophy in Essex after an animating solo move in the closing stages that only just failed to hold off the chasers. Back-to-back performances of that quality from the same rider in the same fortnight is not a coincidence. Colyer, 22, founded Aero CLCTV after leaving TAAP Kalas and teams up with Bobby Buenfeld and Alexander Stanley in Wiltshire. He DNF’d the 2025 Chitterne; he returns in considerably better shape.
Matthew Gilmour (Nopinz RT) is the clearest form-based pick from earlier in the season. The 20-year-old, who joined Nopinz RT from Primera–TeamJobs over winter, finished second at the Portsdown Classic in February and ninth at the Jock Wadley in March — two of the strongest results in the field from the first half of the season.
Deetray Jarrett (Vigo–Rías Baixas) is the other rider who arrives with a domestic win already on the board this season. The 20-year-old from Blackpool, who races alongside his younger brother Trayden in the Spanish elite and U23 squad, soloed to victory at Capernwray on 4 April — riding clear with 40 seconds in hand on the final ascent of Sunny Bank. His background is almost entirely in Spanish racing: as a junior with Saxun-Extrusax-Primoti he won the mountains classification at the Bizkaiko Itzulia, and he has raced at U23 level on the Iberian peninsula ever since.
Jack Baldie (Pronto Bikes) is worth watching as someone who knows this race. The 18-year-old from Bath finished fourth here last year as a junior with trainSharp, and has since stepped up to first-category level with Pronto Bikes for 2026. His first senior outing of the season produced a third place at the Portsdown Classic in February — behind only Murphy and Gilmour — which suggests the transition has not diminished his speed. He arrives back on a course where he has already shown he can ride to the result.
The tactical shape of the race may ultimately be determined by League-Forté Chiropractic, a Swindon-based team now in their third national racing season, who send six riders: Joseph Bearman, Cian Bryant, Patrick Furze, Ludovic Hirst, Gary Paddon, and Ben Waghorne. Six riders in a 37-man National B field is a majority in any break that forms; their presence makes attritional racing more likely and makes it expensive for any individual to try to control proceedings alone. Foran CT, with Tobias Dahlhaus, Jack Lockwood, and Craig McAuley, offer the most credible collective opposition. Ashley Hutchison (TAAP Kalas) is a first-category rider who raced the 2025 edition and will know the course well.
Startlist
As of 19 April 2026.
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