The National Circuit Series returns for 2026 with six midweek rounds, parallel open and women’s competitions, and a new sprints classification to chase. Here’s how it all works.
Over six midweek rounds, from Colne on 16 June to Sheffield on 22 July, Britain’s fastest road riders swap the open road for tight, barriered town-centre circuits and the particular demands of racing flat out in a confined space — lap after lap, corner after corner, with the bunch rarely more than a few seconds from front to back. It is the most concentrated, spectator-friendly racing of the domestic summer, and often the most chaotic.
Whether you follow the National Circuit Series every year or you’re watching circuit racing for the first time, here’s what you need: the full 2026 calendar, how the points decide the individual and team titles, the new sprints competition, and why grid position can shape a rider’s evening before the flag has even dropped.
Featured image:Milan Josy/The British Continental
What is it?
The National Circuit Serie is the premier circuit race series in British road racing, organised by British Cycling and held across June and July. For 2026 it runs as two parallel competitions, open and women’s, contested at the same six venues and under the same regulations, with Lloyds as title sponsor. The racing is short and fast by design: British Cycling sets a target duration of around 50 minutes, on circuits of between 1 and 2.5 kilometres.
What are the races?
The 2026 series keeps faith with the six venues that made up last year’s calendar, but reshuffles the order and stretches the window either side of July.
The most striking change is at the front. The Fort Vale Colne Grand Prix, round five in 2025, opens proceedings this year on 16 June — a full three weeks before anything else, and a Tuesday evening in Lancashire to set the series in motion. The LOGCO Otley Cycle Races, last year’s opener, slot in as round two on 1 July, followed by the Ilkley Cycle Races on 3 July and the CANYON Guildford Town Centre Races on 8 July.
Image: Milan Josy/The British Continental
The Dawlish Grand Prix, which made its debut as the 2025 finale, moves up to round five on 17 July, with the South West keeping its place on the calendar after a well-received first running. The Sheffield Grand Prix — a longstanding fixture and one of the series’ best-supported rounds — takes over as the closer on 22 July.
Two of the six rounds carry extra significance this year: the Otley and Dawlish dates both count towards the Rapha Super-League, the season-long competition run by Rapha across the domestic calendar. Riders chasing that title have two reasons to mark them down.
After a turbulent 2025, when Dudley and Beverley both fell away to local-authority funding pressures and Dawlish stepped in, the stability of a settled six-venue calendar is worth noting in its own right. Staging street racing in town centres remains expensive and precarious; that all six rounds return is not something to take for granted.
Calendar
Date
Round
Race
16 June
1
Fort Vale Colne Grand Prix
1 July
2
LOGCO Otley Cycle Races
3 July
3
Ilkley Cycle Races
8 July
4
CANYON Guildford Town Centre Races
17 July
5
Dawlish Grand Prix
22 July
6
Sheffield Grand Prix
Rider gridding
Gridding remains merit-led, as it has since the priority once given to UCI Continental riders was removed: where a rider lines up is determined by their standing in the series, not their team’s status. It matters more here than almost anywhere. On a circuit barely a kilometre or two long, with the bunch strung out and a corner arriving every few seconds, a poor grid slot can leave a rider chasing the front all evening and never seeing it.
Riders are positioned on the grid at the start of each round in the following order:
Current National Circuit Race Champion
The previous winner of the event
National Series Leader (from round two onwards)
Sprints Competition Leader (from round two onwards)
Riders ranked in the top 20 of the series standings, in order from second to twentieth place (from round two onwards)
All other riders
The addition of the Sprints Competition Leader is new for 2026, and a direct consequence of the new sprints classification (see below) — another reason to contest the intermediate sprints rather than sit in.
Scoring
The scoring system is unchanged. The top 40 finishers in every round score, on a sliding scale from 50 points for the win down to a single point for the final scoring place.
Pos
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
Pts
50
48
46
44
42
40
38
36
34
32
30
29
28
27
26
25
24
23
22
21
Pos
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
Pts
20
19
18
17
16
15
14
13
12
11
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
For the individual classification, the overall winner is the rider with the highest points total across all six rounds.
For the team classification, only teams starting a round with three or more riders are eligible. The result is calculated from the combined points of each team’s three best-placed finishers in that round, scored on the same scale, with only top-40 finishers counting. Where a team places more than three riders in the top 40, the surplus riders’ points are neither counted nor reassigned. The team with the most points at the end of the series takes the overall classification.
Sprints classification
New for 2026 is a sprints classification, run alongside the individual and team competitions. Two intermediate sprints are contested in every round, at roughly 15 and 30 minutes, each flagged a lap out. The first five riders across the line at each sprint score:
Pos
1
2
3
4
5
Pts
10
8
6
4
2
A rider has to finish and be placed in the race to keep their sprint points — there’s no reward for going clear early, scooping the sprints, and then climbing off. The rider with the most sprint points at the end of the series wins the classification, and, as above, the sprints leader earns a grid slot from round two. It’s a neat incentive to animate races that might otherwise sit cagey until the closing laps.
Read more
The British Cycling pages on the National Circuit Series can be found here. The 2026 open series regulations are here, and the women’s series regulations are here.
Over six midweek rounds, from Colne on 16 June to Sheffield on 22 July, Britain’s fastest road riders swap the open road for tight, barriered town-centre circuits and the particular demands of racing flat out in a confined space — lap after lap, corner after corner, with the bunch rarely more than a few seconds from front to back. It is the most concentrated, spectator-friendly racing of the domestic summer, and often the most chaotic.
Whether you follow the National Circuit Series every year or you’re watching circuit racing for the first time, here’s what you need: the full 2026 calendar, how the points decide the individual and team titles, the new sprints competition, and why grid position can shape a rider’s evening before the flag has even dropped.
Featured image: Milan Josy/The British Continental
What is it?
The National Circuit Serie is the premier circuit race series in British road racing, organised by British Cycling and held across June and July. For 2026 it runs as two parallel competitions, open and women’s, contested at the same six venues and under the same regulations, with Lloyds as title sponsor. The racing is short and fast by design: British Cycling sets a target duration of around 50 minutes, on circuits of between 1 and 2.5 kilometres.
What are the races?
The 2026 series keeps faith with the six venues that made up last year’s calendar, but reshuffles the order and stretches the window either side of July.
The most striking change is at the front. The Fort Vale Colne Grand Prix, round five in 2025, opens proceedings this year on 16 June — a full three weeks before anything else, and a Tuesday evening in Lancashire to set the series in motion. The LOGCO Otley Cycle Races, last year’s opener, slot in as round two on 1 July, followed by the Ilkley Cycle Races on 3 July and the CANYON Guildford Town Centre Races on 8 July.
The Dawlish Grand Prix, which made its debut as the 2025 finale, moves up to round five on 17 July, with the South West keeping its place on the calendar after a well-received first running. The Sheffield Grand Prix — a longstanding fixture and one of the series’ best-supported rounds — takes over as the closer on 22 July.
Two of the six rounds carry extra significance this year: the Otley and Dawlish dates both count towards the Rapha Super-League, the season-long competition run by Rapha across the domestic calendar. Riders chasing that title have two reasons to mark them down.
After a turbulent 2025, when Dudley and Beverley both fell away to local-authority funding pressures and Dawlish stepped in, the stability of a settled six-venue calendar is worth noting in its own right. Staging street racing in town centres remains expensive and precarious; that all six rounds return is not something to take for granted.
Calendar
Rider gridding
Gridding remains merit-led, as it has since the priority once given to UCI Continental riders was removed: where a rider lines up is determined by their standing in the series, not their team’s status. It matters more here than almost anywhere. On a circuit barely a kilometre or two long, with the bunch strung out and a corner arriving every few seconds, a poor grid slot can leave a rider chasing the front all evening and never seeing it.
Riders are positioned on the grid at the start of each round in the following order:
The addition of the Sprints Competition Leader is new for 2026, and a direct consequence of the new sprints classification (see below) — another reason to contest the intermediate sprints rather than sit in.
Scoring
The scoring system is unchanged. The top 40 finishers in every round score, on a sliding scale from 50 points for the win down to a single point for the final scoring place.
For the individual classification, the overall winner is the rider with the highest points total across all six rounds.
For the team classification, only teams starting a round with three or more riders are eligible. The result is calculated from the combined points of each team’s three best-placed finishers in that round, scored on the same scale, with only top-40 finishers counting. Where a team places more than three riders in the top 40, the surplus riders’ points are neither counted nor reassigned. The team with the most points at the end of the series takes the overall classification.
Sprints classification
New for 2026 is a sprints classification, run alongside the individual and team competitions. Two intermediate sprints are contested in every round, at roughly 15 and 30 minutes, each flagged a lap out. The first five riders across the line at each sprint score:
A rider has to finish and be placed in the race to keep their sprint points — there’s no reward for going clear early, scooping the sprints, and then climbing off. The rider with the most sprint points at the end of the series wins the classification, and, as above, the sprints leader earns a grid slot from round two. It’s a neat incentive to animate races that might otherwise sit cagey until the closing laps.
Read more
The British Cycling pages on the National Circuit Series can be found here. The 2026 open series regulations are here, and the women’s series regulations are here.
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