2026 Rapha Lincoln Grand Prix: race preview and startlists
On Sunday 10 May, the Rapha Lincoln Grand Prix returns for its 70th edition with a revised route, two vacant titles, and the weight of the domestic season gathered on the cobbles of Michaelgate. Britain’s longest-running one-day road race is the closest thing the UK calendar has to a monument — and, as the highest-scoring round of the Rapha Super-League, it is the race every contender has to bend their season around.
On Sunday 10 May, British road racing returns to its amphitheatre. The Rapha Lincoln Grand Prix is 70 editions old this year and still there is nothing quite like it: the squeeze onto Michaelgate, the crowd pressed tight to the cobbles, the cathedral above the rooftops, and a finish that can make a rider’s season in 30 seconds.
For 2026, the old race has a new edge. For the first time in 38 years, the route has been materially revised, sending the peloton through the Exchequer Gate Arch and past Lincoln Cathedral on every lap, adding prestige to an already historic race. The headline event of the Rapha Super-League, and the next major test in the National Road Series, will ask the same old question: who has enough left when the cobbles rear up one final time?
Featured image: Conor Courtney
The British Continental’s National Road Series previews are powered by Topp Cycling.
What is it?
The Rapha Lincoln Grand Prix is Britain’s longest-running one-day road race and the closest thing the domestic calendar has to a monument. First run in 1956, it celebrates its 70th open edition and 11th women’s edition on Sunday 10 May. Only one running has been missed in 71 years — 2020, lost to Covid — and the 70th anniversary now arrives in a year of meaningful change.
The headline is the route. After 38 years on an unbroken circuit — first ridden in 1987, the year of Paul Curran’s second of four victories, and unchanged through Wiggins, the Downings, Deignan and the rest — the section immediately after the finish line has been revised. For the first time, riders will pass through the Exchequer Gate Arch and along the cobbles of Minster Yard at the foot of Lincoln Cathedral on every lap, before being returned to the familiar finish architecture of Michaelgate and Castle Square. We covered the change here.
Race director Gary Coltman says the change is a fitting way to mark the milestone. “It feels especially fitting that, for the 70th edition of the country’s oldest, most prestigious day of elite road racing, the route will pass directly by one of Britain’s most treasured and architecturally significant cathedrals,” he told The British Continental. “Dominating the skyline for miles, the riders will get an incredible close-quarters view — although with the extra cobbled stretch and those quick successive turns after Michaelgate, they may not be in a position to take it all in.”
Lauren Dickson (Handsling Alba Development Road Team) wins the 2025 Rapha Lincoln Grand Prix 2025. Image: Mathew Wells/SWpix.com
The anniversary also marks the beginning of a three-year partnership with the University of Lincoln, which joins as presenting partner alongside title sponsor Rapha. Michaelgate — until now simply Michaelgate — will be branded as the Climb of No Regrets for the first time, with points awarded on selected laps in both races. It is a modern commercial layer added to an old race, but the essence remains unchanged: repeated attrition, a city-centre finish, and 200 metres of cobbles that still decide more than they ought to.
This year’s race is also the headline event of the Rapha Super-League, the highest-classified round in both leagues at 36 points for the win. It also carries National Road Series weight — Round 3 for the women, Round 2 for the open race — and does so without either defending champion. Lauren Dickson is now with FDJ United-SUEZ, while James McKay is in Belgium for a racing block.
Organisation remains under Gary Coltman, who oversees his fourth edition this year, having taken over from Dan Ellmore in 2023 in a lineage that runs back through Ian Emmerson’s half-century of stewardship to founder Mike Jones in 1956.
Route
The bones of Lincoln remain familiar. The women will cover eight laps of the city circuit, the open race 13, giving the race its usual repeated rhythm: a drag out of the centre, faster roads north of the city, the return towards Lincoln, and then the squeeze back onto Michaelgate, where the race narrows to cobbles, noise and legs.
This year, though, the circuit has been altered in a way that matters. After crossing the finish line in Castle Square, riders will no longer roll straight back onto the established loop. Instead, they will pass through the Exchequer Gate Arch and along Minster Yard, directly beneath Lincoln Cathedral, before rejoining the familiar circuit. It is a small geographical change, but a significant visual and technical one: more cobbles, more turns, and a longer sequence of city-centre concentration before the race opens out again.
The change should make the opening phase of each lap more nervous. Lincoln has never been a race in which riders can afford to drift, but the revised section gives them even less room to do so. The bunch will be forced through a tighter, more historic part of the city before the course releases them onto wider roads. On early laps, that may simply mean stress and position fights. Later, when fatigue has settled into the legs, it could become another place where gaps open almost by accident.
Once clear of the city, the race becomes broader and faster. The northern section is not spectacular in isolation, but it is where Lincoln does much of its quiet work. The road rises and falls, the pace lifts, and teams trying to control the race have to spend energy before the peloton is fired back towards the climb. It is not a course defined by one long ascent; it is a course defined by repetition. Every lap takes something. Every lap makes the next approach to Michaelgate a little more expensive.
And then comes the climb. Michaelgate is only around 200 metres long, but at Lincoln distance matters less than placement, surface and timing. The cobbles bite immediately, the gradient rears above the city, and the crowd turns the road into something close to a tunnel. It is not always where the winning move begins, but it is almost always where the race tells the truth. A rider can survive it nine times and still lose everything on the 10th.
The finish comes almost immediately after the climb, with the race spilling into Castle Square. That is what gives Lincoln its particular cruelty. There is no long run-in on which to recover, reorganise, or correct a mistake.
That is Lincoln’s particular cruelty. A rider can make the front group, survive Michaelgate, and still lose the race to a mistimed corner, a bad bounce, a slipping wheel, or one hesitation in the final metres between the top of the climb and the line. Stay upright, stay forward, and Castle Square can still change a season.
Weather
The forecast suggests a cool, damp Lincoln rather than a dry spring classic. The women’s race is likely to start at around 9°C, rising only gradually towards 12°C by lunchtime, with a persistent chance of light rain and a moderate south-westerly breeze.
Conditions look no easier for the open race in the afternoon. Temperatures are expected to sit around 12–13°C, with the chance of rain increasing as the race approaches its final hours. Any dampness on the cobbles will sharpen the risk through Michaelgate and Castle Square, while the breeze across the exposed northern roads may give teams another way to stretch the race before the final return into town.
Contenders
Women’s race
Both recent winners are absent, and the women’s race feels unusually open. Lauren Dickson, winner here last year in her debut season with Handsling Alba, is now with FDJ-SUEZ, while 2024 winner Kate Richardson is not on the provisional startlist. The strongest teams are still present, but Lincoln 2026 will have a different centre of gravity: no defending champion, no obvious controlling force, and several riders with a plausible route to the final climb.
Anna Morris (Private Member) wins the 2026 Witham Hall Grand Prix. Image: Sarah Jane Swinscoe
Anna Morris lines up as the form rider and the obvious favourite. The Welsh track star has been close to untouchable on the road this spring: stage and overall victory at the Peaks 2-Day, victory at Capernwray, fifth at East Cleveland, and then a commanding solo win at the Witham Hall Grand Prix last Sunday. Second here last year to Dickson, Morris already knows the course suits her. This time, she arrives in Welsh colours alongside Ella Maclean-Howell and Jessica Roberts, a small but intriguing national selection on a startlist otherwise dominated by trade teams and domestic squads.
The most compelling counterweight may be Noémie Thomson. Twelve months ago, she finished sixth at Lincoln on only her sixth road race start, riding for Southborough & District Wheelers. By the end of the season she was The British Continental’s Breakthrough Rider of the Year, a reflection of one of the sharpest rises in the domestic peloton. Now with DAS–Hutchinson, she has already turned promise into authority: at the CiCLE Classic in March she won the opening round of the National Road Series with the longest solo move and largest winning margin in the race’s history, leaving Melton Mowbray with the first National Series leader’s jersey and Rapha Super-League lead of 2026.
Noémie Thomson and Morven Yeoman at the 2026 ANEXO/CAMS CiCLE Classic. Image: Milan Josy
DAS–Hutchinson look like the strongest collective in the race. Katie Scott won East Cleveland in Paralloy RT colours, left Saltburn as National Road Series leader, then signed for DAS–Hutchinson a week later; her presence gives the team another rider capable of winning from a hard, selective race. Around Thomson and Scott, Morven Yeoman brings a CiCLE Classic podium, Tiffany Keep has previous Lincoln pedigree, and Josie Knight adds Olympic team-pursuit horsepower to a course that rewards repeated force as much as pure climbing. The full eight-rider DAS selection is one of the clearest reasons the race may be shaped before the final time up Michaelgate.
Handsling Alba arrive without the kind of overwhelming depth they have brought to some recent editions, but their recent form is better than the absences suggest. Beth Morrow finished third at East Cleveland, giving the team a fresh National Series podium, while Maddie Cooper was sixth at the CiCLE Classic behind Thomson’s race-winning solo move. Holly Ramsey, 11th here last year and another rider with a feel for hard domestic terrain, gives them a further route into the final selection. It is a leaner Handsling Alba, but still a dangerous one.
Lily Martin also deserves more than a passing mention. The Loughborough Lightning rider has been one of the most consistent U23s of the early season: fourth overall at the Peaks 2-Day, finishing on the same time as Katie Scott in third, and eighth at the CiCLE Classic, where she came home in the same chasing group as Maddie Cooper and Scott. She did not start East Cleveland, but on the evidence of March she has the endurance and repeatability to survive deep into this race.
Jo Tindley gives Smurfit Westrock Cycling Team both a serious sporting card and one of the neatest local stories in the race. The Lincoln-based rider was fourth at East Cleveland, is a former National Circuit Race champion – won title won on the cobbles in Lincoln – and knows the final few hundred metres rather better than most: she used to work at the Magna Carta pub, just by the finish line. On a course where familiarity with the approach, the stones and the chaos of Castle Square matters, that is not nothing.
Jo Tindley at the 2026 ANEXO/CAMS CiCLE Classic. Image: Milan Josy
There are several other threats beyond the headline blocs. Amy Henchoz gives Paralloy RT a live option after second at Capernwray and 12th at East Cleveland, while Evie Smith comes in from O’Shea Red Chilli Bikes after finishing second to Morris at Witham Hall. Ruby Oakes is the FTP–Fulfil The Potential name most worth noting after third at Capernwray and 11th at East Cleveland.
There is also a road return worth watching. Danni Shrosbree starts for Rapha Cycling Club after several seasons spent largely in gravel, where she has built a serious international reputation: British gravel champion in 2022, fourth at Unbound Gravel 200 in 2023, and part of the Life Time Grand Prix off-road scene in the US. Before that, she had proper road pedigree, including eighth at the 2021 National Road Championships in Lincoln, a ride she later described as one of her proudest moments. She may not have the recent road results of Morris, Thomson or Scott, but Lincoln is an interesting place for a rider with that much engine and race craft to reappear.
Marjolein van’t Geloof of Laboral Kutxa–Fundación Euskadi is the lone ProTeam name on the startlist, but she is not new to British racing or to Lincoln. She rode this race last year, has raced the British circuit scene before, and her partner Harry Tanfield is also on the open startlist this year. She is unlikely to be as familiar to domestic observers as the leading British-based contenders, but Lincoln is exactly the kind of race where an outsider with endurance, classics-savvy and a fast finish can become relevant very quickly.
Open race
The open race begins without its defending champion. James McKay, who attacked clear on the final ascent of Michaelgate last year to take the biggest win of his career, has stepped up to UCI Continental level with Atom 6 Bikes–Cycleur de Luxe–Auto Stroobant, and will be in Belgium as the race is fought out on the cobbles. In his absence, Lincoln has no single organising force. Instead, the field brings together recent UCI form, proven Michaelgate performers, the early National Road Series leader, and a handful of riders whose condition is harder to read but whose ceiling is obvious.
On current evidence, Tom Armstrong may be the cleanest pick. The Wheelbase CabTech Castelli rider was second at Rutland–Melton CiCLE Classic two weeks ago, beaten by Otto van Zanden after making the decisive selection in the UK’s only one-day UCI race. He was also 10th at East Cleveland, giving him two strong form lines in the space of a fortnight. Lincoln suits the rider Armstrong has become: durable, technically sharp, hard to dislodge, and increasingly comfortable carrying expectation. Around him, Wheelbase have more than one route into the race. Tom Martin was second at East Cleveland, finishing just two seconds behind Lucas Jowett, and Tim Shoreman gives the squad another rider with the punch, handling and experience for a race that often rewards those still near the front when others begin to fade.
Tom Armstrong speaks to The British Continental after the 2026 Rutland-Melton CiCLE Classic. Image: Milan Josy
If Armstrong has the cleanest recent domestic form, Adam Lewis(APS Pro Cycling) may have the most compelling blend of form and Lincoln pedigree. The APS Pro Cycling rider took his first UCI road race win only days ago at the Tour of the Gila, going clear from the break with team-mate Conn McDunphy on stage three. He was also second at Lincoln in 2024, four seconds behind Matt Holmes, on a day when the final ascent and Castle Square finish produced exactly the kind of selective race this course so often demands. That combination makes him impossible to treat as a mere overseas wildcard.
Matthew Holmes (One Good Thing–Factor Racing) deserves similar respect. He won here in 2024, completing a remarkable return from retirement, and Lincoln is not a race where course record can be dismissed as historical trivia. Holmes may not arrive with the most obvious 2026 road form, but his engine, experience and feel for the finale make him one of the few riders in the field who already knows what it takes to win on these stones. Matt King Atom 6 Bikes–Cycleur de Luxe–Auto Strooban), third in that same 2024 edition, also has to be treated seriously. A Lincoln podium is not accidental; it says something about a rider’s ability to survive repeated positioning fights and still produce an effort when Michaelgate has stripped the race down.
The current National Road Series form line runs through Lucas Jowett (Mypad Racing p/b ONDO Sports). His East Cleveland victory at Saltburn put him into the series lead and confirmed that he can win from a hard, selective National A. Lincoln asks a different question — more technical, more repetitive, and more compressed around one final cobbled climb — but Jowett has already shown the timing and nerve required to win when a race has been reduced to its essentials.
Jack Rootkin-Gray (Private Member) at the 2026 Timmy James Memorial. Image: Sarah Jane Swinscoe
Jack Rootkin-Gray (Private Member) is the most intriguing name rather than the safest favourite. His class is obvious: a previous Lincoln podium, two seasons in the WorldTour with EF Education–EasyPost, and now a return to British roads. The Timmy James Memorial gave the first proper sign that the sharpness is there, with Rootkin-Gray beating Will Truelove in a two-up sprint after a selective 150-kilometre National B. But Lincoln is longer, heavier and more psychologically loaded. His ceiling may be the highest in the race; the uncertainty is how much of it is available now.
JAKROO Handsling are still one of the teams most likely to shape the day, but their threat looks collective rather than centred on a single favourite. Will Truelove looks their most direct Lincoln card after second to Rootkin-Gray at the Timmy James, while Alex Franks was third at East Cleveland and 35th at Rutland–Melton, giving him two useful hard-race indicators. Rowan Baker, a former winner of the Peaks 2 Day and the East Cleveland Classic, brings a proven record on attritional domestic courses, while Oliver Dawson should be framed as a serious presence too: his case is built on consistency and accumulation more than one statement ride.
Damien Clayton should not be treated as a nostalgic inclusion. The 2019 Grand Prix des Marbriers winner and former WiV SunGod rider looked in excellent condition at Rutland–Melton before a puncture ended his chance in the final phase, and he still finished 37th. He was also ninth at Lincoln in 2024, less than a minute behind Holmes. On a course where experience, positioning and repeatability matter as much as pure freshness, Clayton is a live contender.
Matt Bostock at the Rutland-Melton CiCLE Classic. Image: Milan Josy
There are other threats with less obvious headline billing but credible routes into the race. Danylo Riwnyj rides for Foran CT and arrives with serious stage-race form after winning the Rás Mumhan overall; he also finished 28th at Rutland–Melton, a useful hard-race marker two weeks out from Lincoln. Matthew Bostock, fourth here last year and the reigning Rapha Super-League champion, is dangerous if a reduced group reaches Castle Square together. Harry Tanfield (Ribble Outliers) sits more naturally as an outsider: the engine and pedigree are not in question, but he needs the right race shape and clearer recent road evidence to sit among the top favourites.
The anniversary edition also has a visible line back into Lincoln’s recent past. Russell and Dean Downing return to a race their family helped define: Russell as a four-time winner, alongside Paul Curran as the most successful rider in Lincoln history, and Dean as the 2007 champion. At the ages of 51 and 47 respectively, and with little recent road race form to speak of, they are unlikely to be the riders around whom the race bends in the way it once did, but for the 70th edition their presence gives Lincoln a visible line back into its own recent past.
Timings
Race
Start
Estimated finish
Women’s race
09.00
11.45 approx.
Open race
13.00
16.45 approx.
How to follow
The British Continental will be reporting from Lincoln throughout the day, with Joe Hudson on the ground bringing live updates, roadside observations and rider reaction from both races via our Instagram account.
Follow our Instagram Stories for race updates, key moves, time gaps where available, finish-line footage and post-race interviews. Full reports and results from both the women’s and open races will follow on The British Continental.
For those watching in person, the Rapha van will be in Castle Square across the weekend, serving coffee and selling cowbells. It will be there on Saturday for the sportive and criteriums, and on Sunday from the start of the women’s race through to the open race podiums.
On Sunday 10 May, British road racing returns to its amphitheatre. The Rapha Lincoln Grand Prix is 70 editions old this year and still there is nothing quite like it: the squeeze onto Michaelgate, the crowd pressed tight to the cobbles, the cathedral above the rooftops, and a finish that can make a rider’s season in 30 seconds.
For 2026, the old race has a new edge. For the first time in 38 years, the route has been materially revised, sending the peloton through the Exchequer Gate Arch and past Lincoln Cathedral on every lap, adding prestige to an already historic race. The headline event of the Rapha Super-League, and the next major test in the National Road Series, will ask the same old question: who has enough left when the cobbles rear up one final time?
Featured image: Conor Courtney
The British Continental’s National Road Series previews are powered by Topp Cycling.
What is it?
The Rapha Lincoln Grand Prix is Britain’s longest-running one-day road race and the closest thing the domestic calendar has to a monument. First run in 1956, it celebrates its 70th open edition and 11th women’s edition on Sunday 10 May. Only one running has been missed in 71 years — 2020, lost to Covid — and the 70th anniversary now arrives in a year of meaningful change.
The headline is the route. After 38 years on an unbroken circuit — first ridden in 1987, the year of Paul Curran’s second of four victories, and unchanged through Wiggins, the Downings, Deignan and the rest — the section immediately after the finish line has been revised. For the first time, riders will pass through the Exchequer Gate Arch and along the cobbles of Minster Yard at the foot of Lincoln Cathedral on every lap, before being returned to the familiar finish architecture of Michaelgate and Castle Square. We covered the change here.
Race director Gary Coltman says the change is a fitting way to mark the milestone. “It feels especially fitting that, for the 70th edition of the country’s oldest, most prestigious day of elite road racing, the route will pass directly by one of Britain’s most treasured and architecturally significant cathedrals,” he told The British Continental. “Dominating the skyline for miles, the riders will get an incredible close-quarters view — although with the extra cobbled stretch and those quick successive turns after Michaelgate, they may not be in a position to take it all in.”
The anniversary also marks the beginning of a three-year partnership with the University of Lincoln, which joins as presenting partner alongside title sponsor Rapha. Michaelgate — until now simply Michaelgate — will be branded as the Climb of No Regrets for the first time, with points awarded on selected laps in both races. It is a modern commercial layer added to an old race, but the essence remains unchanged: repeated attrition, a city-centre finish, and 200 metres of cobbles that still decide more than they ought to.
This year’s race is also the headline event of the Rapha Super-League, the highest-classified round in both leagues at 36 points for the win. It also carries National Road Series weight — Round 3 for the women, Round 2 for the open race — and does so without either defending champion. Lauren Dickson is now with FDJ United-SUEZ, while James McKay is in Belgium for a racing block.
Organisation remains under Gary Coltman, who oversees his fourth edition this year, having taken over from Dan Ellmore in 2023 in a lineage that runs back through Ian Emmerson’s half-century of stewardship to founder Mike Jones in 1956.
Route
The bones of Lincoln remain familiar. The women will cover eight laps of the city circuit, the open race 13, giving the race its usual repeated rhythm: a drag out of the centre, faster roads north of the city, the return towards Lincoln, and then the squeeze back onto Michaelgate, where the race narrows to cobbles, noise and legs.
This year, though, the circuit has been altered in a way that matters. After crossing the finish line in Castle Square, riders will no longer roll straight back onto the established loop. Instead, they will pass through the Exchequer Gate Arch and along Minster Yard, directly beneath Lincoln Cathedral, before rejoining the familiar circuit. It is a small geographical change, but a significant visual and technical one: more cobbles, more turns, and a longer sequence of city-centre concentration before the race opens out again.
The change should make the opening phase of each lap more nervous. Lincoln has never been a race in which riders can afford to drift, but the revised section gives them even less room to do so. The bunch will be forced through a tighter, more historic part of the city before the course releases them onto wider roads. On early laps, that may simply mean stress and position fights. Later, when fatigue has settled into the legs, it could become another place where gaps open almost by accident.
Once clear of the city, the race becomes broader and faster. The northern section is not spectacular in isolation, but it is where Lincoln does much of its quiet work. The road rises and falls, the pace lifts, and teams trying to control the race have to spend energy before the peloton is fired back towards the climb. It is not a course defined by one long ascent; it is a course defined by repetition. Every lap takes something. Every lap makes the next approach to Michaelgate a little more expensive.
And then comes the climb. Michaelgate is only around 200 metres long, but at Lincoln distance matters less than placement, surface and timing. The cobbles bite immediately, the gradient rears above the city, and the crowd turns the road into something close to a tunnel. It is not always where the winning move begins, but it is almost always where the race tells the truth. A rider can survive it nine times and still lose everything on the 10th.
The finish comes almost immediately after the climb, with the race spilling into Castle Square. That is what gives Lincoln its particular cruelty. There is no long run-in on which to recover, reorganise, or correct a mistake.
That is Lincoln’s particular cruelty. A rider can make the front group, survive Michaelgate, and still lose the race to a mistimed corner, a bad bounce, a slipping wheel, or one hesitation in the final metres between the top of the climb and the line. Stay upright, stay forward, and Castle Square can still change a season.
Weather
The forecast suggests a cool, damp Lincoln rather than a dry spring classic. The women’s race is likely to start at around 9°C, rising only gradually towards 12°C by lunchtime, with a persistent chance of light rain and a moderate south-westerly breeze.
Conditions look no easier for the open race in the afternoon. Temperatures are expected to sit around 12–13°C, with the chance of rain increasing as the race approaches its final hours. Any dampness on the cobbles will sharpen the risk through Michaelgate and Castle Square, while the breeze across the exposed northern roads may give teams another way to stretch the race before the final return into town.
Contenders
Women’s race
Both recent winners are absent, and the women’s race feels unusually open. Lauren Dickson, winner here last year in her debut season with Handsling Alba, is now with FDJ-SUEZ, while 2024 winner Kate Richardson is not on the provisional startlist. The strongest teams are still present, but Lincoln 2026 will have a different centre of gravity: no defending champion, no obvious controlling force, and several riders with a plausible route to the final climb.
Anna Morris lines up as the form rider and the obvious favourite. The Welsh track star has been close to untouchable on the road this spring: stage and overall victory at the Peaks 2-Day, victory at Capernwray, fifth at East Cleveland, and then a commanding solo win at the Witham Hall Grand Prix last Sunday. Second here last year to Dickson, Morris already knows the course suits her. This time, she arrives in Welsh colours alongside Ella Maclean-Howell and Jessica Roberts, a small but intriguing national selection on a startlist otherwise dominated by trade teams and domestic squads.
The most compelling counterweight may be Noémie Thomson. Twelve months ago, she finished sixth at Lincoln on only her sixth road race start, riding for Southborough & District Wheelers. By the end of the season she was The British Continental’s Breakthrough Rider of the Year, a reflection of one of the sharpest rises in the domestic peloton. Now with DAS–Hutchinson, she has already turned promise into authority: at the CiCLE Classic in March she won the opening round of the National Road Series with the longest solo move and largest winning margin in the race’s history, leaving Melton Mowbray with the first National Series leader’s jersey and Rapha Super-League lead of 2026.
DAS–Hutchinson look like the strongest collective in the race. Katie Scott won East Cleveland in Paralloy RT colours, left Saltburn as National Road Series leader, then signed for DAS–Hutchinson a week later; her presence gives the team another rider capable of winning from a hard, selective race. Around Thomson and Scott, Morven Yeoman brings a CiCLE Classic podium, Tiffany Keep has previous Lincoln pedigree, and Josie Knight adds Olympic team-pursuit horsepower to a course that rewards repeated force as much as pure climbing. The full eight-rider DAS selection is one of the clearest reasons the race may be shaped before the final time up Michaelgate.
Handsling Alba arrive without the kind of overwhelming depth they have brought to some recent editions, but their recent form is better than the absences suggest. Beth Morrow finished third at East Cleveland, giving the team a fresh National Series podium, while Maddie Cooper was sixth at the CiCLE Classic behind Thomson’s race-winning solo move. Holly Ramsey, 11th here last year and another rider with a feel for hard domestic terrain, gives them a further route into the final selection. It is a leaner Handsling Alba, but still a dangerous one.
Lily Martin also deserves more than a passing mention. The Loughborough Lightning rider has been one of the most consistent U23s of the early season: fourth overall at the Peaks 2-Day, finishing on the same time as Katie Scott in third, and eighth at the CiCLE Classic, where she came home in the same chasing group as Maddie Cooper and Scott. She did not start East Cleveland, but on the evidence of March she has the endurance and repeatability to survive deep into this race.
Jo Tindley gives Smurfit Westrock Cycling Team both a serious sporting card and one of the neatest local stories in the race. The Lincoln-based rider was fourth at East Cleveland, is a former National Circuit Race champion – won title won on the cobbles in Lincoln – and knows the final few hundred metres rather better than most: she used to work at the Magna Carta pub, just by the finish line. On a course where familiarity with the approach, the stones and the chaos of Castle Square matters, that is not nothing.
There are several other threats beyond the headline blocs. Amy Henchoz gives Paralloy RT a live option after second at Capernwray and 12th at East Cleveland, while Evie Smith comes in from O’Shea Red Chilli Bikes after finishing second to Morris at Witham Hall. Ruby Oakes is the FTP–Fulfil The Potential name most worth noting after third at Capernwray and 11th at East Cleveland.
There is also a road return worth watching. Danni Shrosbree starts for Rapha Cycling Club after several seasons spent largely in gravel, where she has built a serious international reputation: British gravel champion in 2022, fourth at Unbound Gravel 200 in 2023, and part of the Life Time Grand Prix off-road scene in the US. Before that, she had proper road pedigree, including eighth at the 2021 National Road Championships in Lincoln, a ride she later described as one of her proudest moments. She may not have the recent road results of Morris, Thomson or Scott, but Lincoln is an interesting place for a rider with that much engine and race craft to reappear.
Marjolein van’t Geloof of Laboral Kutxa–Fundación Euskadi is the lone ProTeam name on the startlist, but she is not new to British racing or to Lincoln. She rode this race last year, has raced the British circuit scene before, and her partner Harry Tanfield is also on the open startlist this year. She is unlikely to be as familiar to domestic observers as the leading British-based contenders, but Lincoln is exactly the kind of race where an outsider with endurance, classics-savvy and a fast finish can become relevant very quickly.
Open race
The open race begins without its defending champion. James McKay, who attacked clear on the final ascent of Michaelgate last year to take the biggest win of his career, has stepped up to UCI Continental level with Atom 6 Bikes–Cycleur de Luxe–Auto Stroobant, and will be in Belgium as the race is fought out on the cobbles. In his absence, Lincoln has no single organising force. Instead, the field brings together recent UCI form, proven Michaelgate performers, the early National Road Series leader, and a handful of riders whose condition is harder to read but whose ceiling is obvious.
On current evidence, Tom Armstrong may be the cleanest pick. The Wheelbase CabTech Castelli rider was second at Rutland–Melton CiCLE Classic two weeks ago, beaten by Otto van Zanden after making the decisive selection in the UK’s only one-day UCI race. He was also 10th at East Cleveland, giving him two strong form lines in the space of a fortnight. Lincoln suits the rider Armstrong has become: durable, technically sharp, hard to dislodge, and increasingly comfortable carrying expectation. Around him, Wheelbase have more than one route into the race. Tom Martin was second at East Cleveland, finishing just two seconds behind Lucas Jowett, and Tim Shoreman gives the squad another rider with the punch, handling and experience for a race that often rewards those still near the front when others begin to fade.
If Armstrong has the cleanest recent domestic form, Adam Lewis (APS Pro Cycling) may have the most compelling blend of form and Lincoln pedigree. The APS Pro Cycling rider took his first UCI road race win only days ago at the Tour of the Gila, going clear from the break with team-mate Conn McDunphy on stage three. He was also second at Lincoln in 2024, four seconds behind Matt Holmes, on a day when the final ascent and Castle Square finish produced exactly the kind of selective race this course so often demands. That combination makes him impossible to treat as a mere overseas wildcard.
Matthew Holmes (One Good Thing–Factor Racing) deserves similar respect. He won here in 2024, completing a remarkable return from retirement, and Lincoln is not a race where course record can be dismissed as historical trivia. Holmes may not arrive with the most obvious 2026 road form, but his engine, experience and feel for the finale make him one of the few riders in the field who already knows what it takes to win on these stones. Matt King Atom 6 Bikes–Cycleur de Luxe–Auto Strooban), third in that same 2024 edition, also has to be treated seriously. A Lincoln podium is not accidental; it says something about a rider’s ability to survive repeated positioning fights and still produce an effort when Michaelgate has stripped the race down.
The current National Road Series form line runs through Lucas Jowett (Mypad Racing p/b ONDO Sports). His East Cleveland victory at Saltburn put him into the series lead and confirmed that he can win from a hard, selective National A. Lincoln asks a different question — more technical, more repetitive, and more compressed around one final cobbled climb — but Jowett has already shown the timing and nerve required to win when a race has been reduced to its essentials.
Jack Rootkin-Gray (Private Member) is the most intriguing name rather than the safest favourite. His class is obvious: a previous Lincoln podium, two seasons in the WorldTour with EF Education–EasyPost, and now a return to British roads. The Timmy James Memorial gave the first proper sign that the sharpness is there, with Rootkin-Gray beating Will Truelove in a two-up sprint after a selective 150-kilometre National B. But Lincoln is longer, heavier and more psychologically loaded. His ceiling may be the highest in the race; the uncertainty is how much of it is available now.
JAKROO Handsling are still one of the teams most likely to shape the day, but their threat looks collective rather than centred on a single favourite. Will Truelove looks their most direct Lincoln card after second to Rootkin-Gray at the Timmy James, while Alex Franks was third at East Cleveland and 35th at Rutland–Melton, giving him two useful hard-race indicators. Rowan Baker, a former winner of the Peaks 2 Day and the East Cleveland Classic, brings a proven record on attritional domestic courses, while Oliver Dawson should be framed as a serious presence too: his case is built on consistency and accumulation more than one statement ride.
Damien Clayton should not be treated as a nostalgic inclusion. The 2019 Grand Prix des Marbriers winner and former WiV SunGod rider looked in excellent condition at Rutland–Melton before a puncture ended his chance in the final phase, and he still finished 37th. He was also ninth at Lincoln in 2024, less than a minute behind Holmes. On a course where experience, positioning and repeatability matter as much as pure freshness, Clayton is a live contender.
There are other threats with less obvious headline billing but credible routes into the race. Danylo Riwnyj rides for Foran CT and arrives with serious stage-race form after winning the Rás Mumhan overall; he also finished 28th at Rutland–Melton, a useful hard-race marker two weeks out from Lincoln. Matthew Bostock, fourth here last year and the reigning Rapha Super-League champion, is dangerous if a reduced group reaches Castle Square together. Harry Tanfield (Ribble Outliers) sits more naturally as an outsider: the engine and pedigree are not in question, but he needs the right race shape and clearer recent road evidence to sit among the top favourites.
The anniversary edition also has a visible line back into Lincoln’s recent past. Russell and Dean Downing return to a race their family helped define: Russell as a four-time winner, alongside Paul Curran as the most successful rider in Lincoln history, and Dean as the 2007 champion. At the ages of 51 and 47 respectively, and with little recent road race form to speak of, they are unlikely to be the riders around whom the race bends in the way it once did, but for the 70th edition their presence gives Lincoln a visible line back into its own recent past.
Timings
How to follow
The British Continental will be reporting from Lincoln throughout the day, with Joe Hudson on the ground bringing live updates, roadside observations and rider reaction from both races via our Instagram account.
Follow our Instagram Stories for race updates, key moves, time gaps where available, finish-line footage and post-race interviews. Full reports and results from both the women’s and open races will follow on The British Continental.
For those watching in person, the Rapha van will be in Castle Square across the weekend, serving coffee and selling cowbells. It will be there on Saturday for the sportive and criteriums, and on Sunday from the start of the women’s race through to the open race podiums.
Provisional startlists
Women’s race
Open race
*Riders 151-160 are reserves.
Share this:
Discover more from The British Continental
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.