2026 Mennock Pass Stage Race, day two: report and results
Adam Hartley won the Mennock Pass Stage Race overall on Sunday (14 June), overturning a seven-second overnight deficit on the queen stage to take the general classification by 2 seconds. Noah Bleteau (Team All Cycles Meaux) won the stage with a solo attack on the final climb to Wanlockhead, but it was Hartley's chase behind him that settled the race. For a rider who walked away from the sport in 2019, it was quite a return.
Adam Hartley won the Mennock Pass Stage Race overall on Sunday (14 June), overturning a seven-second overnight deficit on the queen stage to take the general classification by two seconds. Noah Bleteau (Team All Cycles Meaux) won the stage with a solo attack on the final climb to Wanlockhead, but it was Hartley’s chase behind him that settled the race. For a rider who walked away from the sport in 2019, it was quite a return.
Adam Hartley left bike racing in 2019, then a SEG Racing Academy rider and one of the more promising British prospects of his age. He has come back to it by degrees — the Fred Whitton Challenge in May, a win at Castle Carrock the weekend before last. On Sunday, on the long climb to Wanlockhead, the return took on a different weight: he won the Mennock Pass Stage Race overall, by two seconds, having started the final day third and seven seconds down.
The queen stage was built to settle it — 134.2 kilometres and more than 1,500 metres of climbing, with five ascents of the grinding climb through Leadhills before the summit finish at Scotland’s highest village on the final lap. A tailwind on the main climb and a course that suited the climbers made for the kind of day Hartley had expected. “With a hilly course and a strong tailwind on the main climb, the stage was always going to be raced aggressively,” he said. “On paper it suited the climbers, and everyone knew it would be an attritional day where the race would gradually wear people down.”
Image: Chris Anderson
It took a while to settle. With overnight Logan Maclean (Private Member) and Hartley marked from the gun, the early racing was cagey before a group of four — defending champion Matti Dobbins (Edinburgh Bike Fitting RT), Alan Dean (Chain Tight 930 Units), Hamish MacLaren (Torvelo Composite) and Nico Anelli (Ride Revolution Coaching) — went clear after the first descent. A larger group of around ten bridged across on the Leadhills road, and by the time the move had organised itself the front of the race numbered eight, riding with three-quarters of a minute on the bunch. With Dobbins up the road, Edinburgh Bike Fitting could shut down everything behind.
That suited nobody chasing the overall, and Bleteau took matters into his own hands. “There was an early break who got up the road with one Edinburgh Bike Fitting rider, so every move back in the peloton was shut down by one of their riders,” he recalled. “I realised then it was going to be hard to get away, being high up on GC already.” He attacked to bridge with around 100 kilometres to go alongside Liam Scott Douglas (Edinburgh Bike Fitting RT), caught the group ahead, and the two efforts merged. When Hartley and Samuel Nisbet (Team Tactic U23) bridged across as well, the front of the race swelled to 13.
Adam Hartley (centre). Image: Corin Halliday
It was too many. “When we made contact the group, in my opinion, was slightly too big, so there were a lot of riders skipping turns,” Bleteau said. “But I knew I had to keep riding, as in that moment I was leading GC, so I was obliged to ride.” He drove it anyway, and the move held for a time before the arithmetic told. “We eventually got caught by the main bunch, and I kept trying my luck to get away and gain some time. I then realised that with Logan and Edinburgh Bike Fitting there, it wouldn’t be possible.” He stopped chasing and started conserving.
So did Hartley, watching the same problem from the other side. “From that point, with around two laps to go, it became a case of saving as much energy as possible while still covering any dangerous moves,” he said. “With the Edinburgh Bike Fitting boys having significant numbers in the race, the situation wasn’t exactly in my favour tactically.”
The race came down to the last time up the climb, as the preview had warned it might — a year earlier the closing lap had rewritten the entire classification. Bleteau attacked through Leadhills with around three kilometres to go and opened a gap. “I saved as much energy as I could going into the last lap and attacked the finishing climb with about three kilometres to go,” he said. “I got a gap on the bunch and managed to stay solo to the line — but unfortunately not enough time to gain the GC lead.”
Behind him, Hartley waited until the village fell away before committing. “On the final ascent, I made sure I was well positioned,” he said. “Once we exited the town, I committed fully and tried to bridge across. With around one kilometre remaining it was really an all-or-nothing effort, as I was focused on the overall.” He crossed the line two seconds down, just short of the stage — and two seconds, with the time bonuses, was exactly enough.
Image: Chris Anderson
Bleteau took the stage, solo, the reward for the most committed riding of the day. Hartley took the race. His second place and its bonus lifted him past Maclean, who had led since Saturday’s prologue and lost the overall by two seconds, with Bleteau third at four and Ahron Dick (Edinburgh Bike Fitting RT) fourth at five — the top four covered by five seconds across a prologue and two road stages. For all of Edinburgh Bike Fitting’s nine riders, the race went to two men with no such numbers behind them. It is the second year running the Mennock has been settled inside its time bonuses; last year’s margin was three seconds, this year’s two.
For Bleteau, racing in France all year and back on home roads, the stage win carried its own meaning. “Winning this stage means quite a lot,” he said. “I’ve been thinking about the race since I saw it was on again this year, as last year I didn’t manage to do it. After second in the time trial I knew I was feeling good this weekend, and I’m happy to pull it off with a win.” It was, he noted, his first race back in Scotland after a season spent racing in France — and the GC, by his own reckoning, the one that got away.
Image: Corin Halliday
Hartley managed exactly what Bleteau could not. He had come to the Southern Uplands with no settled ambition. “I came into the weekend with no real expectations or pressure,” he said. “After riding the Fred Whitton Challenge in May and then winning at Castle Carrock last weekend, I just thought this would be another opportunity to race hard and enjoy myself.”
That it became more than that is not lost on a rider who, seven years ago, had stepped away from the sport altogether. “To come away with the overall is something I’m really proud of,” he said. “The GC was incredibly tight right until the end, so it could easily have gone another way. Huge congratulations to all the riders involved for making it such a competitive race.” He was as quick to credit the people who built the weekend as the rivals who shaped it. “I’d also like to give a big shout-out to the race organisers and volunteers for putting together a fantastic weekend of racing. Events like this take a huge amount of work behind the scenes, and they delivered a brilliant race from start to finish.”
A comeback measured in sportives and club wins had, by Sunday evening on the Mennock Pass, produced something rather harder to come by: an overall title, won by two seconds, at the race the whole field had circled.
Adam Hartley won the Mennock Pass Stage Race overall on Sunday (14 June), overturning a seven-second overnight deficit on the queen stage to take the general classification by two seconds. Noah Bleteau (Team All Cycles Meaux) won the stage with a solo attack on the final climb to Wanlockhead, but it was Hartley’s chase behind him that settled the race. For a rider who walked away from the sport in 2019, it was quite a return.
Featured image: Chris Anderson
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Report
Adam Hartley left bike racing in 2019, then a SEG Racing Academy rider and one of the more promising British prospects of his age. He has come back to it by degrees — the Fred Whitton Challenge in May, a win at Castle Carrock the weekend before last. On Sunday, on the long climb to Wanlockhead, the return took on a different weight: he won the Mennock Pass Stage Race overall, by two seconds, having started the final day third and seven seconds down.
The queen stage was built to settle it — 134.2 kilometres and more than 1,500 metres of climbing, with five ascents of the grinding climb through Leadhills before the summit finish at Scotland’s highest village on the final lap. A tailwind on the main climb and a course that suited the climbers made for the kind of day Hartley had expected. “With a hilly course and a strong tailwind on the main climb, the stage was always going to be raced aggressively,” he said. “On paper it suited the climbers, and everyone knew it would be an attritional day where the race would gradually wear people down.”
It took a while to settle. With overnight Logan Maclean (Private Member) and Hartley marked from the gun, the early racing was cagey before a group of four — defending champion Matti Dobbins (Edinburgh Bike Fitting RT), Alan Dean (Chain Tight 930 Units), Hamish MacLaren (Torvelo Composite) and Nico Anelli (Ride Revolution Coaching) — went clear after the first descent. A larger group of around ten bridged across on the Leadhills road, and by the time the move had organised itself the front of the race numbered eight, riding with three-quarters of a minute on the bunch. With Dobbins up the road, Edinburgh Bike Fitting could shut down everything behind.
That suited nobody chasing the overall, and Bleteau took matters into his own hands. “There was an early break who got up the road with one Edinburgh Bike Fitting rider, so every move back in the peloton was shut down by one of their riders,” he recalled. “I realised then it was going to be hard to get away, being high up on GC already.” He attacked to bridge with around 100 kilometres to go alongside Liam Scott Douglas (Edinburgh Bike Fitting RT), caught the group ahead, and the two efforts merged. When Hartley and Samuel Nisbet (Team Tactic U23) bridged across as well, the front of the race swelled to 13.
It was too many. “When we made contact the group, in my opinion, was slightly too big, so there were a lot of riders skipping turns,” Bleteau said. “But I knew I had to keep riding, as in that moment I was leading GC, so I was obliged to ride.” He drove it anyway, and the move held for a time before the arithmetic told. “We eventually got caught by the main bunch, and I kept trying my luck to get away and gain some time. I then realised that with Logan and Edinburgh Bike Fitting there, it wouldn’t be possible.” He stopped chasing and started conserving.
So did Hartley, watching the same problem from the other side. “From that point, with around two laps to go, it became a case of saving as much energy as possible while still covering any dangerous moves,” he said. “With the Edinburgh Bike Fitting boys having significant numbers in the race, the situation wasn’t exactly in my favour tactically.”
The race came down to the last time up the climb, as the preview had warned it might — a year earlier the closing lap had rewritten the entire classification. Bleteau attacked through Leadhills with around three kilometres to go and opened a gap. “I saved as much energy as I could going into the last lap and attacked the finishing climb with about three kilometres to go,” he said. “I got a gap on the bunch and managed to stay solo to the line — but unfortunately not enough time to gain the GC lead.”
Behind him, Hartley waited until the village fell away before committing. “On the final ascent, I made sure I was well positioned,” he said. “Once we exited the town, I committed fully and tried to bridge across. With around one kilometre remaining it was really an all-or-nothing effort, as I was focused on the overall.” He crossed the line two seconds down, just short of the stage — and two seconds, with the time bonuses, was exactly enough.
Bleteau took the stage, solo, the reward for the most committed riding of the day. Hartley took the race. His second place and its bonus lifted him past Maclean, who had led since Saturday’s prologue and lost the overall by two seconds, with Bleteau third at four and Ahron Dick (Edinburgh Bike Fitting RT) fourth at five — the top four covered by five seconds across a prologue and two road stages. For all of Edinburgh Bike Fitting’s nine riders, the race went to two men with no such numbers behind them. It is the second year running the Mennock has been settled inside its time bonuses; last year’s margin was three seconds, this year’s two.
For Bleteau, racing in France all year and back on home roads, the stage win carried its own meaning. “Winning this stage means quite a lot,” he said. “I’ve been thinking about the race since I saw it was on again this year, as last year I didn’t manage to do it. After second in the time trial I knew I was feeling good this weekend, and I’m happy to pull it off with a win.” It was, he noted, his first race back in Scotland after a season spent racing in France — and the GC, by his own reckoning, the one that got away.
Hartley managed exactly what Bleteau could not. He had come to the Southern Uplands with no settled ambition. “I came into the weekend with no real expectations or pressure,” he said. “After riding the Fred Whitton Challenge in May and then winning at Castle Carrock last weekend, I just thought this would be another opportunity to race hard and enjoy myself.”
That it became more than that is not lost on a rider who, seven years ago, had stepped away from the sport altogether. “To come away with the overall is something I’m really proud of,” he said. “The GC was incredibly tight right until the end, so it could easily have gone another way. Huge congratulations to all the riders involved for making it such a competitive race.” He was as quick to credit the people who built the weekend as the rivals who shaped it. “I’d also like to give a big shout-out to the race organisers and volunteers for putting together a fantastic weekend of racing. Events like this take a huge amount of work behind the scenes, and they delivered a brilliant race from start to finish.”
A comeback measured in sportives and club wins had, by Sunday evening on the Mennock Pass, produced something rather harder to come by: an overall title, won by two seconds, at the race the whole field had circled.
Results
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