2026 Rutland–Melton CiCLE Classic: report and results
Otto Van Zanden (Azerion Villa Valkenberg) took his first road race victory at the 20th edition of the Rutland–Melton CiCLE Classic, pipping Tom Armstrong (Wheelbase CabTech Castelli) on the line in Oakham at the end of a long-range three-up move.
Otto Van Zanden (Azerion Villa Valkenburg) took his first ever road race victory at the 2026 Rutland–Melton CiCLE Classic – the opening round of the Rapha Super-League – pipping Tom Armstrong (Wheelbase CabTech Castelli) by half a wheel in a three-up sprint in Oakham at the end of a long-range break.
Featured image: Milan Josy/The British Continental
Report
It looked, for a moment, as if Tom Armstrong had it. The Wheelbase CabTech Castelli rider was half a wheel up with 50 metres to go, already — by his own admission — planning the celebration in his head. Then Otto Van Zanden, the Dutchman who had taken him to the line and never won a road race in his life, came round him.
The 2026 Rutland–Melton CiCLE Classic rolled out of Oakham High Street into cool, dry conditions and the prospect of a warm, dusty afternoon. Both bore out. So too did the prevailing assumption about the strongest team in the race: Azerion Villa Valkenburg took hold of the front of the peloton through the early Stuart Shaw laps around Wymondham, and never really let go.
Van Zanden took both of the day’s contested King of the Windmill sprints. The other was neutralised after the race was halted before the second passage of the windmill following a serious crash behind. Around 80 riders were reportedly caught up in the incident. Once racing resumed, the second sprint was not contested.
The race split for the first time over the Mataberg, with Azerion Villa Valkenburg leading the front group. Among those caught on the wrong side were Matthew King (Atom 6 – Cycleur de Luxe – Auto Stroo Continental Team) and Danylo Riwnyj (Foran CT).
The race began to splinter again into Owston for the first time, with Matthew Bostock (RCC Racing) flagging for support after an apparent mechanical. By Sector 9 (Manorberg), four riders had a small gap on the peloton: Van Zanden, his teammate Stef Koning, Morgan, and Magnus Lorents Nielsen (Atom 6). But JAKROO Handsling led the chase home, and by Sector 8 – Manorberg once again – the move had been pegged. Around 70 riders remained at the head of affairs.
With 75 kilometres to go, Martin set the pace as the peloton hit Manor Farm for the third time, this time in reverse. Ten kilometres later, the race had changed for good. Van Zanden and Lorents Nielsen were clear, with Armstrong a few seconds back as they passed through Owston for the fifth time. The peloton was already more than a minute behind.
By the final passage of the Manorberg, around 52 kilometres from home, Armstrong had bridged across. A very fractured bunch, hindered by a crash, was well over a minute in arrears. As the trio hit the Somerberg for the final time, the gap was extending. A trio of pursuers including Harrison Dainty (JAKROO Handsling) and Martin set off after them, but was reeled back in. The leaders crossed the finish line in Oakham for the first time on the 15-kilometre finishing circuit with more than two minutes in hand.
It was clear by then that the winner would come from those three. The only remaining question was which one. Van Zanden led things out into the final kilometre, with neither of his companions willing to come through. Lorents Nielsen jumped first, Armstrong went next, and for a moment it looked as if the Wheelbase CabTech Castelli rider had timed it right. Van Zanden held on, came round his shoulder in the closing metres and pipped him to the line for the first road race victory of his career.
“It’s my first win ever — so the biggest in my career, because it’s the only one,” Van Zanden said. The escape itself, he insisted, had not been planned. “Everyone was catching their breath at that moment. We went, and all of a sudden we had a gap of two minutes. It was not really a plan.” The aggression that produced it was. “We knew everyone would watch us, because we are maybe the strongest team in the race, and last year we got second. So we wanted to make a hard race, and we did.” His confidence in the finish, he added, was rooted in endurance rather than pace. “I’m not a very good sprinter, but I know after almost five hours of racing I have the same numbers as the first hour. So I knew I could win the sprint today.”
Armstrong, who had bridged across solo to the lead pair, was direct on what had happened in the final 50 metres. “I fully backed myself against them. I was wrong. Half a wheel in it. Fifty metres to go, I thought I had it. I was planning the celebration in my head and the big party afterwards, and just tied up. Tied up when he popped out around me.”
He referenced an earlier failed bridge attempt at the British National Circuit Race Championships last year as the moment that steeled him to commit this time. “I dug in and got across, and then spent quite a while suffering from that.”
How he had come to be off the front in the first place was, by his own telling, almost casual. “As you get dizzy going around all them farm tracks, I couldn’t even tell you where I was. I looked round, and no one was really going for it. There’s two guys up the road. They were letting them go. So I chanced it and rolled off the front. And I mean, it’s rare that people let me go off the front — normally I’ve got about 20 guys glued to my wheel. I kind of played it a bit smart. Soft, rolled off, came into a little kick here, took the corner fast and booted out of it, and then made the decision to try and bridge over a little bit slower and not burn all my matches at once.”
The wider context Armstrong reached for afterwards was about a team rather than a season. “We had a team meeting last night, and Stu said back when he was a rider for Wheelbase, the aim was just getting around. If they got a top 20, then they struck gold. It’s a credit to the team for sticking around for so long. I wouldn’t rather ride for anyone else.”
Behind the lead trio, the bunch sprint for fourth went the way of Oliver Dawson (JAKROO Handsling) — the second-year U23 and former national junior road race champion taking the best senior result of his career to date. Sam Walsham (BC East Midlands Carter-Legrand) was fifth, another breakthrough domestic result.
Van Zanden’s victory is also worth 34 points in the open Rapha Super-League, of which the Rutland–Melton CiCLE Classic was the opening round. With Azerion Villa Valkenburg not back for the remaining rounds, the Dutchman is unlikely to be defending that lead. The competitive standings are better read from second: Armstrong’s 29 points put him in the hot seat going into the Rapha Lincoln Grand Prix on 10 May, first among the riders expected to contest the full series. Magnus Lorents Nielsen takes 28; Dawson 27; Walsham 26.
Otto Van Zanden (Azerion Villa Valkenburg) took his first ever road race victory at the 2026 Rutland–Melton CiCLE Classic – the opening round of the Rapha Super-League – pipping Tom Armstrong (Wheelbase CabTech Castelli) by half a wheel in a three-up sprint in Oakham at the end of a long-range break.
Featured image: Milan Josy/The British Continental
Report
It looked, for a moment, as if Tom Armstrong had it. The Wheelbase CabTech Castelli rider was half a wheel up with 50 metres to go, already — by his own admission — planning the celebration in his head. Then Otto Van Zanden, the Dutchman who had taken him to the line and never won a road race in his life, came round him.
The 2026 Rutland–Melton CiCLE Classic rolled out of Oakham High Street into cool, dry conditions and the prospect of a warm, dusty afternoon. Both bore out. So too did the prevailing assumption about the strongest team in the race: Azerion Villa Valkenburg took hold of the front of the peloton through the early Stuart Shaw laps around Wymondham, and never really let go.
Van Zanden took both of the day’s contested King of the Windmill sprints. The other was neutralised after the race was halted before the second passage of the windmill following a serious crash behind. Around 80 riders were reportedly caught up in the incident. Once racing resumed, the second sprint was not contested.
The race split for the first time over the Mataberg, with Azerion Villa Valkenburg leading the front group. Among those caught on the wrong side were Matthew King (Atom 6 – Cycleur de Luxe – Auto Stroo Continental Team) and Danylo Riwnyj (Foran CT).
The race began to splinter again into Owston for the first time, with Matthew Bostock (RCC Racing) flagging for support after an apparent mechanical. By Sector 9 (Manorberg), four riders had a small gap on the peloton: Van Zanden, his teammate Stef Koning, Morgan, and Magnus Lorents Nielsen (Atom 6). But JAKROO Handsling led the chase home, and by Sector 8 – Manorberg once again – the move had been pegged. Around 70 riders remained at the head of affairs.
With 75 kilometres to go, Martin set the pace as the peloton hit Manor Farm for the third time, this time in reverse. Ten kilometres later, the race had changed for good. Van Zanden and Lorents Nielsen were clear, with Armstrong a few seconds back as they passed through Owston for the fifth time. The peloton was already more than a minute behind.
By the final passage of the Manorberg, around 52 kilometres from home, Armstrong had bridged across. A very fractured bunch, hindered by a crash, was well over a minute in arrears. As the trio hit the Somerberg for the final time, the gap was extending. A trio of pursuers including Harrison Dainty (JAKROO Handsling) and Martin set off after them, but was reeled back in. The leaders crossed the finish line in Oakham for the first time on the 15-kilometre finishing circuit with more than two minutes in hand.
It was clear by then that the winner would come from those three. The only remaining question was which one. Van Zanden led things out into the final kilometre, with neither of his companions willing to come through. Lorents Nielsen jumped first, Armstrong went next, and for a moment it looked as if the Wheelbase CabTech Castelli rider had timed it right. Van Zanden held on, came round his shoulder in the closing metres and pipped him to the line for the first road race victory of his career.
“It’s my first win ever — so the biggest in my career, because it’s the only one,” Van Zanden said. The escape itself, he insisted, had not been planned. “Everyone was catching their breath at that moment. We went, and all of a sudden we had a gap of two minutes. It was not really a plan.” The aggression that produced it was. “We knew everyone would watch us, because we are maybe the strongest team in the race, and last year we got second. So we wanted to make a hard race, and we did.” His confidence in the finish, he added, was rooted in endurance rather than pace. “I’m not a very good sprinter, but I know after almost five hours of racing I have the same numbers as the first hour. So I knew I could win the sprint today.”
Armstrong, who had bridged across solo to the lead pair, was direct on what had happened in the final 50 metres. “I fully backed myself against them. I was wrong. Half a wheel in it. Fifty metres to go, I thought I had it. I was planning the celebration in my head and the big party afterwards, and just tied up. Tied up when he popped out around me.”
He referenced an earlier failed bridge attempt at the British National Circuit Race Championships last year as the moment that steeled him to commit this time. “I dug in and got across, and then spent quite a while suffering from that.”
How he had come to be off the front in the first place was, by his own telling, almost casual. “As you get dizzy going around all them farm tracks, I couldn’t even tell you where I was. I looked round, and no one was really going for it. There’s two guys up the road. They were letting them go. So I chanced it and rolled off the front. And I mean, it’s rare that people let me go off the front — normally I’ve got about 20 guys glued to my wheel. I kind of played it a bit smart. Soft, rolled off, came into a little kick here, took the corner fast and booted out of it, and then made the decision to try and bridge over a little bit slower and not burn all my matches at once.”
The wider context Armstrong reached for afterwards was about a team rather than a season. “We had a team meeting last night, and Stu said back when he was a rider for Wheelbase, the aim was just getting around. If they got a top 20, then they struck gold. It’s a credit to the team for sticking around for so long. I wouldn’t rather ride for anyone else.”
Behind the lead trio, the bunch sprint for fourth went the way of Oliver Dawson (JAKROO Handsling) — the second-year U23 and former national junior road race champion taking the best senior result of his career to date. Sam Walsham (BC East Midlands Carter-Legrand) was fifth, another breakthrough domestic result.
Van Zanden’s victory is also worth 34 points in the open Rapha Super-League, of which the Rutland–Melton CiCLE Classic was the opening round. With Azerion Villa Valkenburg not back for the remaining rounds, the Dutchman is unlikely to be defending that lead. The competitive standings are better read from second: Armstrong’s 29 points put him in the hot seat going into the Rapha Lincoln Grand Prix on 10 May, first among the riders expected to contest the full series. Magnus Lorents Nielsen takes 28; Dawson 27; Walsham 26.
Results
Share this:
Discover more from The British Continental
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.