Round 2 of the Alba Series brings the Hugh Dornan Memorial back to the Rosneath Peninsula on Sunday, a year after the same course staged the Scottish national championships. Round 1 winner Ahron Dick heads a seven-rider Edinburgh Bike Fitting RT contingent.
Edinburgh Bike Fitting RT brought 12 riders to Gifford last month and used every one of them, controlling a crosswind-shaped opener and steering Ahron Dick to the line in the closing kilometres. They bring seven to the Hugh Dornan this Sunday (3 May) on a course built for their leader’s strengths — a climbers’ classic restored to the Alba Series after a year as the Scottish national championships.
Featured image: Andy Smith
What is it?
Held in honour of long-standing Lomond Roads CC member Hugh Dornan, this year’s edition forms Round 2 of the Alba Series — Scotland’s premier National B road racing programme. The race returns to the series after a one-year absence, during which the same course hosted the 2025 Scottish national championships under organisation from Lomond Roads.
The Hugh Dornan has long been one of Scotland’s most respected road races, its reputation built on a course that demands climbing strength and tactical patience in equal measure. Recent winners include John Archibald, Callum Thornley, Zeb Kyffin, James Jobber and Alex Luhrs.
Route
The race takes in four laps of an undulating, exposed 30-kilometre circuit around the Rosneath Peninsula in Argyll and Bute. The 120-kilometre route includes around 1,500 metres of climbing and finishes atop the fifth ascent of Whistlefield Hill — a 1.4-kilometre climb out of Whistlefield Roundabout that features some punishingly steep sections and has decided most editions of this race in recent memory. A hill prime is contested on the same climb at the end of lap two.
Before the final ascent decides matters, each lap takes riders down a fast descent to Coulport, into a sharp left onto Shore Road (B833), and through the small villages of Cove, Kilcreggan, Rosneath, Clynder and Mambeg, before turning inland for the run back to Garelochhead and the climb.
Riders to watch
Ahron Dick (Edinburgh Bike Fitting RT) is the obvious pre-race favourite. He won Round 1 at Gifford with a sharp counter on the Bolton climb — exactly the kind of late, decisive move this circuit tends to reward — and he already has form on Whistlefield: he was fourth at the 2024 Hugh Dornan Memorial as a junior, in the front split that contested the win behind Alex Luhrs. The 2024 Junior CiCLE Classic and fifth overall at La Route d’Éole Juniors the same year sit alongside that result.
He is also surrounded by a team that knows this course better than most. Matti Dobbins, the 2022 Scottish road race champion, won last year’s inaugural Mennock Pass Stage Race with a solo summit attack at Wanlockhead and brings the strongest climbing palmarès in the field. Elliot Bain, Liam Scott Douglas and Craig Paterson all finished inside the top sixteen at the 2025 Scottish Championships on the same parcours; Scott Douglas was also fifth at the 2024 Hugh Dornan, in the front split alongside Dick. Edinburgh Bike Fitting RT arrive with an unusual depth of course-specific form on top of the team strength that decided Gifford — and they do so without their 2025 Scottish champion, Sam Chisholm, on the startlist.
Ahron Dick (Edinburgh Bike Fitting RT) wins the 2026 Gifford Road Race. Image: Andy Smith
Logan Maclean, riding as a Private Member, has the highest finish on this course of anyone on the startlist. He was third at the 2025 Scottish Championships here, after attacking on the second ascent of Whistlefield with such force that only John Archibald and Oliver Pemberton could go with him. He won the 2024 Scottish national road race title and the 2025 Gifford, and last month he was in the six-rider move that decided the 2026 Alba opener, finishing in the lead group behind Dick. Without a team to ride for him on Sunday, he’ll need to ride from the front — but that has rarely been a problem for him.
Ben Millar (Nopinz RT) is the most credentialled climber on the startlist. A road racer who has built a serious sideline as a hill climb specialist, he was sixth at the 2025 RTTC National Hill Climb Championships on Matlock’s Bank Road. The Whistlefield finish is exactly the terrain his engine is built for, and although he has no recent record on this course or in Scottish road racing, the gradient should bring him to the front when it matters.
Robert Smart (Wheelbase CabTech Castelli) brings one of the more interesting trajectories on the startlist. He was 29th here as a junior with Spokes Racing Team in 2024; in 2025, riding as a Private Member, he was ninth at the Scottish Championships on this same course; this Sunday he returns in his first senior season with Wheelbase, one of the Elite Development Team’s (EDT) three new signings for 2026. He has no team support on the road, but the shirt and the rate of progression invite attention.
Also worth tracking: Alastair McNicol (dooleys cycles), eighth at the 2024 Hugh Dornan; and Sam Barbour (Cycling Sheffield), the only other EDT-affiliated rider in the field alongside Smart and thirteenth on this course in 2025.
Edinburgh Bike Fitting RT brought 12 riders to Gifford last month and used every one of them, controlling a crosswind-shaped opener and steering Ahron Dick to the line in the closing kilometres. They bring seven to the Hugh Dornan this Sunday (3 May) on a course built for their leader’s strengths — a climbers’ classic restored to the Alba Series after a year as the Scottish national championships.
Featured image: Andy Smith
What is it?
Held in honour of long-standing Lomond Roads CC member Hugh Dornan, this year’s edition forms Round 2 of the Alba Series — Scotland’s premier National B road racing programme. The race returns to the series after a one-year absence, during which the same course hosted the 2025 Scottish national championships under organisation from Lomond Roads.
The Hugh Dornan has long been one of Scotland’s most respected road races, its reputation built on a course that demands climbing strength and tactical patience in equal measure. Recent winners include John Archibald, Callum Thornley, Zeb Kyffin, James Jobber and Alex Luhrs.
Route
The race takes in four laps of an undulating, exposed 30-kilometre circuit around the Rosneath Peninsula in Argyll and Bute. The 120-kilometre route includes around 1,500 metres of climbing and finishes atop the fifth ascent of Whistlefield Hill — a 1.4-kilometre climb out of Whistlefield Roundabout that features some punishingly steep sections and has decided most editions of this race in recent memory. A hill prime is contested on the same climb at the end of lap two.
Before the final ascent decides matters, each lap takes riders down a fast descent to Coulport, into a sharp left onto Shore Road (B833), and through the small villages of Cove, Kilcreggan, Rosneath, Clynder and Mambeg, before turning inland for the run back to Garelochhead and the climb.
Riders to watch
Ahron Dick (Edinburgh Bike Fitting RT) is the obvious pre-race favourite. He won Round 1 at Gifford with a sharp counter on the Bolton climb — exactly the kind of late, decisive move this circuit tends to reward — and he already has form on Whistlefield: he was fourth at the 2024 Hugh Dornan Memorial as a junior, in the front split that contested the win behind Alex Luhrs. The 2024 Junior CiCLE Classic and fifth overall at La Route d’Éole Juniors the same year sit alongside that result.
He is also surrounded by a team that knows this course better than most. Matti Dobbins, the 2022 Scottish road race champion, won last year’s inaugural Mennock Pass Stage Race with a solo summit attack at Wanlockhead and brings the strongest climbing palmarès in the field. Elliot Bain, Liam Scott Douglas and Craig Paterson all finished inside the top sixteen at the 2025 Scottish Championships on the same parcours; Scott Douglas was also fifth at the 2024 Hugh Dornan, in the front split alongside Dick. Edinburgh Bike Fitting RT arrive with an unusual depth of course-specific form on top of the team strength that decided Gifford — and they do so without their 2025 Scottish champion, Sam Chisholm, on the startlist.
Logan Maclean, riding as a Private Member, has the highest finish on this course of anyone on the startlist. He was third at the 2025 Scottish Championships here, after attacking on the second ascent of Whistlefield with such force that only John Archibald and Oliver Pemberton could go with him. He won the 2024 Scottish national road race title and the 2025 Gifford, and last month he was in the six-rider move that decided the 2026 Alba opener, finishing in the lead group behind Dick. Without a team to ride for him on Sunday, he’ll need to ride from the front — but that has rarely been a problem for him.
Ben Millar (Nopinz RT) is the most credentialled climber on the startlist. A road racer who has built a serious sideline as a hill climb specialist, he was sixth at the 2025 RTTC National Hill Climb Championships on Matlock’s Bank Road. The Whistlefield finish is exactly the terrain his engine is built for, and although he has no recent record on this course or in Scottish road racing, the gradient should bring him to the front when it matters.
Robert Smart (Wheelbase CabTech Castelli) brings one of the more interesting trajectories on the startlist. He was 29th here as a junior with Spokes Racing Team in 2024; in 2025, riding as a Private Member, he was ninth at the Scottish Championships on this same course; this Sunday he returns in his first senior season with Wheelbase, one of the Elite Development Team’s (EDT) three new signings for 2026. He has no team support on the road, but the shirt and the rate of progression invite attention.
Also worth tracking: Alastair McNicol (dooleys cycles), eighth at the 2024 Hugh Dornan; and Sam Barbour (Cycling Sheffield), the only other EDT-affiliated rider in the field alongside Smart and thirteenth on this course in 2025.
Provisional startlist
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