2026 North West, Yorkshire & North East Regional Road Race Championships: report and results
Jack Hartley out-sprinted a regrouped front bunch at Scorton on Sunday (31 May) to win the Northern Championships outright and take the Yorkshire title he last held in 2024. Adam Quixall and Denholm Edwards completed the podium. Alexander Foster and Mark Hansom took the North West and North East crowns.
Jack Hartley out-sprinted a regrouped front bunch at Scorton on Sunday (31 May) to win the Northern Championships outright and take the Yorkshire title he last held in 2024. Adam Quixall and Denholm Edwards completed the podium. Alexander Foster and Mark Hansom took the North West and North East crowns.
Featured image: Joe Hudson
Report
The 2026 Northern Road Race Championships once again folded three regional titles into one National B race over six laps of the 20.5 km Scorton circuit, 123 km in all.
There is no climb at Scorton to break a field outright – barely 100 metres of climbing a lap on a parcours that only rolls – so the way the race strung out almost from the neutralised roll-out owed less to the pace than to the lanes, narrow enough that moving up cost more than it was worth.
Action from the North Regional Championships. Image: Joe Hudson
An early prod from four riders on the opening lap came to nothing, a second’s advantage and no more. The first move with intent arrived towards the end of the lap, Denholm Edwards (Cycling Sheffield), Joe Wilson (Moonglu SpatzWear) and Jack Crook (Moda RT) opening around 20 seconds on the bunch. By Great Langton on the second lap it had grown to seven, Liam Hewitt and Ben Etherington (both 360cycling) bridging across with Michael Chadwick (Doncaster Wheelers CC) and Joseph Turnbull (Moonglu SpatzWear). The leaders held a useful gap through Scorton on lap three as the peloton began to come apart behind.
The race turned over the next two laps. The margin shrank, and a fresh group – Mark Hansom (TS Racing), Jody Mills (Zappi Junior RT) and Reuben Trotter (54/11 Coaching), then Adam Quixall (54/11 Coaching) and Rowan Baxter (Schils–Doltcini) pulled across to make a front group of around 12, the bunch behind splintering into fragments with no order left to it.
On the last lap that group split again, any sense of resolve in the lead group to try and fend off the chasers disappearing into the North Yorkshire air. With the peloton also fragmenting as riders looked to bridge across, starting to realise that they needed to get up to the front if they wanted to walk away with a regional title.
The start of the final lap. Image: Joe Hudson
That chaos benefitted Jack Hartley mightily, who had not been in any of the front moves. With his team blocking to protect two riders up the road, the 2024 champion bridged solo onto a chasing group of Prologue Racing riders, was towed up to the leaders inside the closing kilometres, and arrived with around a quarter of a lap left. Third into the final corner, he produced the fastest sprint of the day to take the title from a bunch that crossed the line together, Quixall holding on for second and Edwards third.
The divisional crowns came out of the same bunch. Hartley’s overall win doubled as the Yorkshire title; the North West went to Alexander Foster (Cycling Sheffield), the pre-race form pick, who placed sixth, and Hansom was the first North East rider home in tenth.
Jack Hartley crosses the line. Image: Joe Hudson
Speaking to The British Continental afterwards, Hartley made no secret of how close it had run. “A big move went, we had two guys in there, so we blocked it to begin with—and a few people got quite annoyed at us, to be honest,” he said.
Once the moves merged and disappeared up the road, he was left to chase. “A group of Prologue boys chipped off and had no one up front, so I got across to them solo and they all but towed me up to the group,” he explained. He reached the leaders “with literally a quarter of a lap to go,” and finished it off: “Very happy.”
Jack Hartley out-sprinted a regrouped front bunch at Scorton on Sunday (31 May) to win the Northern Championships outright and take the Yorkshire title he last held in 2024. Adam Quixall and Denholm Edwards completed the podium. Alexander Foster and Mark Hansom took the North West and North East crowns.
Featured image: Joe Hudson
Report
The 2026 Northern Road Race Championships once again folded three regional titles into one National B race over six laps of the 20.5 km Scorton circuit, 123 km in all.
There is no climb at Scorton to break a field outright – barely 100 metres of climbing a lap on a parcours that only rolls – so the way the race strung out almost from the neutralised roll-out owed less to the pace than to the lanes, narrow enough that moving up cost more than it was worth.
An early prod from four riders on the opening lap came to nothing, a second’s advantage and no more. The first move with intent arrived towards the end of the lap, Denholm Edwards (Cycling Sheffield), Joe Wilson (Moonglu SpatzWear) and Jack Crook (Moda RT) opening around 20 seconds on the bunch. By Great Langton on the second lap it had grown to seven, Liam Hewitt and Ben Etherington (both 360cycling) bridging across with Michael Chadwick (Doncaster Wheelers CC) and Joseph Turnbull (Moonglu SpatzWear). The leaders held a useful gap through Scorton on lap three as the peloton began to come apart behind.
The race turned over the next two laps. The margin shrank, and a fresh group – Mark Hansom (TS Racing), Jody Mills (Zappi Junior RT) and Reuben Trotter (54/11 Coaching), then Adam Quixall (54/11 Coaching) and Rowan Baxter (Schils–Doltcini) pulled across to make a front group of around 12, the bunch behind splintering into fragments with no order left to it.
On the last lap that group split again, any sense of resolve in the lead group to try and fend off the chasers disappearing into the North Yorkshire air. With the peloton also fragmenting as riders looked to bridge across, starting to realise that they needed to get up to the front if they wanted to walk away with a regional title.
That chaos benefitted Jack Hartley mightily, who had not been in any of the front moves. With his team blocking to protect two riders up the road, the 2024 champion bridged solo onto a chasing group of Prologue Racing riders, was towed up to the leaders inside the closing kilometres, and arrived with around a quarter of a lap left. Third into the final corner, he produced the fastest sprint of the day to take the title from a bunch that crossed the line together, Quixall holding on for second and Edwards third.
The divisional crowns came out of the same bunch. Hartley’s overall win doubled as the Yorkshire title; the North West went to Alexander Foster (Cycling Sheffield), the pre-race form pick, who placed sixth, and Hansom was the first North East rider home in tenth.
Speaking to The British Continental afterwards, Hartley made no secret of how close it had run. “A big move went, we had two guys in there, so we blocked it to begin with—and a few people got quite annoyed at us, to be honest,” he said.
Once the moves merged and disappeared up the road, he was left to chase. “A group of Prologue boys chipped off and had no one up front, so I got across to them solo and they all but towed me up to the group,” he explained. He reached the leaders “with literally a quarter of a lap to go,” and finished it off: “Very happy.”
Regional podiums
Yorkshire
North West
North East
Provisional results
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