2026 Eastern Road Championship: report and results
Luca Nicholson won the Eastern Road Championship in Barking on Sunday, attacking over the top of a four-man front group on the final ascent of Willisham Hill and holding off a fast-closing Callum Laborde by a few metres.
Luca Nicholson won the Eastern Road Championship in Barking on Sunday (31 May), attacking over the top of a four-man front group on the final ascent of Willisham Hill and holding off a fast-closing Callum Laborde by a few metres. The 18-year-old took the regional open title after an attritional National B race that fractured early and never came back together. It was the latest result in a breakout first half of the season for the Velo Club Baracchi rider.
Featured image: That Shot Media
Report
The Eastern Road Championship covered 12 laps of the AM1 circuit around Barking, near Ipswich, with the drag towards Willisham Hill to be climbed on every one of them. It was never a course built for hiding, and with 30 riders on the start sheet the race was always likely to be decided by legs and timing rather than numbers.
Promoted this year by Stowmarket & District CC, the championship decides the Eastern region’s senior open road title. Last season it was folded into the Derek Lusher Memorial, where Monte Guerrini won ahead of Laborde and Rowan Baker — two names that would shape the finish again here.
It was a cagey start, predictable enough, Laborde reflected, in a field this small, where every attack simply drew the whole bunch with it. The deadlock broke a couple of laps in when Frank Longstaff (DAS–Richardsons) and Joe Skipper rolled off the front and were quickly given room, building a lead of around a minute.
Image: That Shot Media
Behind them, the marked men struggled to get clear, until Baker (JAKROO Handsling Racing) and Laborde (Ornata Factory Racing) finally prised out a gap around the midpoint of the race. Nicholson bridged across with Christian Kirkwood (LCRT), and the four then rode over to Longstaff and Skipper, the main group by now 20–30 seconds adrift. A six-man front group had formed, and hard riding stretched its lead back towards a minute.
It thinned before it settled. With five laps to go, Longstaff and Skipper were distanced over the climb on the finish straight, leaving four — Nicholson, Baker, Laborde and Kirkwood — to share the work into a head-crosswind. The lead, briefly a minute, came back towards 30 seconds.
The race turned on the final lap. Clay Davies (RideRevolution Coaching CT), bridging solo from the bunch, caught the leaders inside the last kilometre and went straight over the top. Kirkwood followed and Nicholson went with him; Laborde hesitated, banking on Baker behind to close it down. Davies cracked, and as Nicholson sat second wheel he glanced back to see Baker and Laborde still waiting on one another — and attacked over the top of Kirkwood instead, around 500 metres out.
By the time the chase organised itself, Nicholson had perhaps 50 metres. Baker could not quite bring it back. Laborde opened his own sprint with around 400 metres remaining and closed hard up the steep gradient, but ran out of road as Nicholson, cramping inside the final 100 metres, held on by a few metres for the title. Laborde took second, with Baker third. Kirkwood held on for fourth and Davies came home fifth, his late solo effort the ride that briefly threatened to undo everyone else’s. Longstaff and Skipper, the afternoon’s first aggressors, finished 13th and 14th.
Image: That Shot Media
The title caps a first half of the season that has marked Nicholson out. He was second at the Wally Gimber in March before a solo win at the PB Performance Espoirs Road Race a week later, beating an 80-rider field in difficult conditions to take the early lead in the U23 Open National Road Series.
“It was very attritional and I felt the effort catch up to me in the last few laps,” Nicholson told The British Continental afterwards. “We worked well as a break and managed to hold off the fast bunch behind.” The winning move came from reading the hesitation around him: “When I looked back, they had hesitated with the initial kick, so instinctively I attacked over the top of the Le Col rider, extending the gap.” Even then it was marginal — “the gap really shrunk down as I cramped up with around 100m to go” — before he held on.
Laborde, frustrated to fall short, was clear about the manner of it. “I hesitated and relied on Rowan to close the gap,” he said, and Baker could not quite manage it. He opened his own sprint with 400 metres to go “but just ran out of room, falling short by a few metres.” There were compensations: “The legs are there, which is nice, and I’m looking forward to seeing what the crit series and the Nocturne can bring.”
Luca Nicholson won the Eastern Road Championship in Barking on Sunday (31 May), attacking over the top of a four-man front group on the final ascent of Willisham Hill and holding off a fast-closing Callum Laborde by a few metres. The 18-year-old took the regional open title after an attritional National B race that fractured early and never came back together. It was the latest result in a breakout first half of the season for the Velo Club Baracchi rider.
Featured image: That Shot Media
Report
The Eastern Road Championship covered 12 laps of the AM1 circuit around Barking, near Ipswich, with the drag towards Willisham Hill to be climbed on every one of them. It was never a course built for hiding, and with 30 riders on the start sheet the race was always likely to be decided by legs and timing rather than numbers.
Promoted this year by Stowmarket & District CC, the championship decides the Eastern region’s senior open road title. Last season it was folded into the Derek Lusher Memorial, where Monte Guerrini won ahead of Laborde and Rowan Baker — two names that would shape the finish again here.
It was a cagey start, predictable enough, Laborde reflected, in a field this small, where every attack simply drew the whole bunch with it. The deadlock broke a couple of laps in when Frank Longstaff (DAS–Richardsons) and Joe Skipper rolled off the front and were quickly given room, building a lead of around a minute.
Behind them, the marked men struggled to get clear, until Baker (JAKROO Handsling Racing) and Laborde (Ornata Factory Racing) finally prised out a gap around the midpoint of the race. Nicholson bridged across with Christian Kirkwood (LCRT), and the four then rode over to Longstaff and Skipper, the main group by now 20–30 seconds adrift. A six-man front group had formed, and hard riding stretched its lead back towards a minute.
It thinned before it settled. With five laps to go, Longstaff and Skipper were distanced over the climb on the finish straight, leaving four — Nicholson, Baker, Laborde and Kirkwood — to share the work into a head-crosswind. The lead, briefly a minute, came back towards 30 seconds.
The race turned on the final lap. Clay Davies (RideRevolution Coaching CT), bridging solo from the bunch, caught the leaders inside the last kilometre and went straight over the top. Kirkwood followed and Nicholson went with him; Laborde hesitated, banking on Baker behind to close it down. Davies cracked, and as Nicholson sat second wheel he glanced back to see Baker and Laborde still waiting on one another — and attacked over the top of Kirkwood instead, around 500 metres out.
By the time the chase organised itself, Nicholson had perhaps 50 metres. Baker could not quite bring it back. Laborde opened his own sprint with around 400 metres remaining and closed hard up the steep gradient, but ran out of road as Nicholson, cramping inside the final 100 metres, held on by a few metres for the title. Laborde took second, with Baker third. Kirkwood held on for fourth and Davies came home fifth, his late solo effort the ride that briefly threatened to undo everyone else’s. Longstaff and Skipper, the afternoon’s first aggressors, finished 13th and 14th.
The title caps a first half of the season that has marked Nicholson out. He was second at the Wally Gimber in March before a solo win at the PB Performance Espoirs Road Race a week later, beating an 80-rider field in difficult conditions to take the early lead in the U23 Open National Road Series.
“It was very attritional and I felt the effort catch up to me in the last few laps,” Nicholson told The British Continental afterwards. “We worked well as a break and managed to hold off the fast bunch behind.” The winning move came from reading the hesitation around him: “When I looked back, they had hesitated with the initial kick, so instinctively I attacked over the top of the Le Col rider, extending the gap.” Even then it was marginal — “the gap really shrunk down as I cramped up with around 100m to go” — before he held on.
Laborde, frustrated to fall short, was clear about the manner of it. “I hesitated and relied on Rowan to close the gap,” he said, and Baker could not quite manage it. He opened his own sprint with 400 metres to go “but just ran out of room, falling short by a few metres.” There were compensations: “The legs are there, which is nice, and I’m looking forward to seeing what the crit series and the Nocturne can bring.”
Results
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