2026 Fort Vale Colne Grand Prix: preview and startlists
Three days after the City of London Nocturne, the Lloyds National Circuit Series opens in Colne — with Rapha Super-League leaders Morven Yeoman and Tom Armstrong among a deep field on the town’s fast 830-metre circuit, and Matias Malmberg back to defend the open title.
Three days after the City of London Nocturne lit up the Square Mile, British circuit racing reconvenes on a Tuesday evening in Lancashire — 830 metres of circuit threaded through Colne’s Victorian shopfronts, with nowhere to hide once the bunch strings out. The Fort Vale Colne Grand Prix has played out as a late-season decider before. This year it is the starting gun: the opening round of the Lloyds National Circuit Series.
Featured image: Milan Josy/The British Continental
What is it?
Colne has staged a Grand Prix since 2004, when Russell Downing beat Bradley Wiggins on the inaugural podium and the event was set in motion by Brian Cookson, then at Pendle Council and later president of both British Cycling and the UCI. The roll-call since reads like a domestic hall of fame — Dean Downing, Graham Briggs, Ed Clancy, Brenton Jones — and the race returns this year for its 21st running, interrupted only by two pandemic years.
Fort Vale Engineering, the stainless-steel valve specialists based a few miles down the M65, took on title sponsorship in 2018 having backed the event since 2014, and it was their support that bankrolled parity: a women’s race joined the programme for the first time in 2024, won by Sophie Lewis.
Last year, the honours went to Matias Malmberg in the open race and Anna Morris in the women’s, both winning from late solo moves. Promoted by Colne Town Council and the Cycling Development Pendle Partnership, the race has usually fallen late in the circuit calendar. Moving it to the front of the series gives the 2026 season its first hard read on who has arrived in crit shape — although the City of London Nocturne at the weekend provided some clear pointers — sharpened by a sprint classification that hangs on two intermediate sprints, at roughly 15 and 30 minutes, in each race
Route
The circuit is 830 metres, clockwise, almost pan-flat and very fast, with the elite field turning one-minute laps. The start and finish sit on Market Street, opposite Dockray Street, with the pits tucked into the bus station on Craddock Road; barriers line both sides of the course bar that pit stretch. The surface is mostly smooth, but ironwork remains on the racing line, and on a circuit this short the premium is on handling and position — drift off the wheel and there is no shelter to climb back through. Both National races run to 50 minutes.
As 2025 showed — Anna Morris solo off the bell in the women’s race, Matias Malmberg drilling clear with two laps left in the open — Colne can be settled by a bunch kick or by a late move of specialists who can hold a tempo nobody else wants to chase.
Riders to watch
Women’s race
The form rider is Morven Yeoman (DAS-Hutchinson). Winner of the Rapha Lincoln Grand Prix and the women’s National Road Series leader, she finished third at the Nocturne on Saturday and moved into the outright Rapha Super-League lead. A flat, technical crit is not Lincoln, but Yeoman has been among the defining riders of the domestic season and races aggressively in exactly these finishes.
Yeoman in action at the Nocturne. Image: Milan Josy/The British Continental
She is one card among several for DAS-Hutchinson. Sophie Lewis, the 2024 Colne winner and runner-up here last year, is a proven fast finisher with National Circuit Series pedigree — the obvious play if the race stays together. Josie Knight brings world-class track strength and Olympic-medallist pedigree to a circuit that should suit her power.
The purest crit specialist in the field is Megan Barker (Rapha Cycling Club), the 2023 British national circuit race champion and a track world champion, who was third here in 2025. Rapha CC do not have the numbers of the bigger squads, but on a short, fast course Barker’s leg speed and repeated punch make her dangerous in any reduced sprint; she was fourth at the Nocturne, so is clearly on fine form.
Madeline Cooper (Handsling Alba Development Road Team) was one of the most consistent riders of the 2025 series — second at Guildford, third at Ilkley, fifth at Sheffield — and climbed to fifth in the Super-League after the Nocturne after finishing 11th. Here teammate Kate Richardson, the reigning National Circuit Race Champion, and second at the Nocturne, is a notable absentee after a late withdrawal.
Georgina Lancaster. Image: Milan Josy/The British Continental
Behind them, several riders can shape or steal the race. Lucy Glover (Smurfit Westrock Cycling Team), the Yorkshire sprinter who was ninth here last year, has the kick for a bunch finish; Daisy Taylor (The Hera Project) was the biggest mover at the Nocturne, up 15 places in the Super-League; Jessica Roberts (Private Member), third in last year’s national circuit championships, brings WorldTour-grade road pedigree; and Kirstie Drakeford (Jadan Glasdon p/b Vive le Velo) and Georgina Lancaster (Loughborough Lightning), sixth in Colne in 2025, are regular top-ten finishers in this kind of race.
Finally, Emma Jeffers‘ (Liv AlUla Jayco) record on courses like this is among the strongest in the field. The Lancashire rider won two rounds of the 2022 Tour Series as a 17-year-old, beating elite fields on closed town-centre circuits, and took the British national circuit title in 2024 before stepping up to the Liv AlUla Jayco Continental team. A BMX racer before she came to the road, she has the standing-start speed and bike-handling that a flat, technical 830 metres rewards. She now races under an Irish licence.
Open race
The reference point is Matt Bostock (Rapha Cycling Club), who won the Nocturne on Saturday and is a former Colne winner himself. British national circuit race champion in 2022 and reigning Rapha Super-League champion, Bostock is the most complete crit finisher in the field, and he sits second in the open Super-League after his London win. Alongside him, Oliver Wood gives Rapha CC a second genuine leader rather than a lead-out: the 2023 national circuit champion and an Olympic team-pursuit medallist, Wood won this year’s Rapha Lincoln Grand Prix with a late attack and has the track speed for a finish like this.
Bostock wins the Nocturne. Image: Milan Josy/The British Continental
The national champion is here too. Cameron Mason (Alpecin–Premier Tech Development Team), winner of the 2025 circuit title and a four-time British cyclocross champion, was second on the road at the Nocturne and broke into the Super-League top ten for the first time. His cyclocross handling and explosiveness out of corners sit naturally on a tight, fast course. And in bib 1 is Matias Malmberg (Swatt Club), back to defend the open title he won in 2025 with a late solo; a former European team-pursuit champion, he timed that move to perfection on Market Street’s rise.
Wheelbase CabTech Castelli bring both consistency and a past Colne champion. Tom Armstrong leads the open Super-League — 84 points and 21 clear after the Nocturne — on the back of the steadiness that won him the 2025 series, while Tim Shoreman, winner here in 2023 and at Otley last year, has the finishing speed to win outright. Frank Longstaff (DAS Richardsons) was third in Colne last year and is hard to beat when a race collapses to a kick.
Mein leads the way, with Bostock and Mason in tow. Image: Milan Josy/The British Continental
There is local interest in Thomas Mein (Hope Factory Racing), the cyclocross rider whose Barnoldswick-based team carries the home colours; he launched the four-rider move that decided the Nocturne. Of the rest, William Truelove (JAKROO Handsling Racing) was last year’s Super-League runner-up, Jim Brown (L39ION of Los Angeles) brings current American crit form and a 5th place from the Nocturne, and Callum Laborde (Ornata Factory Racing) climbed to seventh in the Super-League on the strength of his performance at the Nocturne (11th).
Timings
The women’s race starts at 19.20, the open race at 20.25.
How to follow
Free to attend, in Colne town centre, with road closures from 13.30.
Three days after the City of London Nocturne lit up the Square Mile, British circuit racing reconvenes on a Tuesday evening in Lancashire — 830 metres of circuit threaded through Colne’s Victorian shopfronts, with nowhere to hide once the bunch strings out. The Fort Vale Colne Grand Prix has played out as a late-season decider before. This year it is the starting gun: the opening round of the Lloyds National Circuit Series.
Featured image: Milan Josy/The British Continental
What is it?
Colne has staged a Grand Prix since 2004, when Russell Downing beat Bradley Wiggins on the inaugural podium and the event was set in motion by Brian Cookson, then at Pendle Council and later president of both British Cycling and the UCI. The roll-call since reads like a domestic hall of fame — Dean Downing, Graham Briggs, Ed Clancy, Brenton Jones — and the race returns this year for its 21st running, interrupted only by two pandemic years.
Fort Vale Engineering, the stainless-steel valve specialists based a few miles down the M65, took on title sponsorship in 2018 having backed the event since 2014, and it was their support that bankrolled parity: a women’s race joined the programme for the first time in 2024, won by Sophie Lewis.
Last year, the honours went to Matias Malmberg in the open race and Anna Morris in the women’s, both winning from late solo moves. Promoted by Colne Town Council and the Cycling Development Pendle Partnership, the race has usually fallen late in the circuit calendar. Moving it to the front of the series gives the 2026 season its first hard read on who has arrived in crit shape — although the City of London Nocturne at the weekend provided some clear pointers — sharpened by a sprint classification that hangs on two intermediate sprints, at roughly 15 and 30 minutes, in each race
Route
The circuit is 830 metres, clockwise, almost pan-flat and very fast, with the elite field turning one-minute laps. The start and finish sit on Market Street, opposite Dockray Street, with the pits tucked into the bus station on Craddock Road; barriers line both sides of the course bar that pit stretch. The surface is mostly smooth, but ironwork remains on the racing line, and on a circuit this short the premium is on handling and position — drift off the wheel and there is no shelter to climb back through. Both National races run to 50 minutes.
As 2025 showed — Anna Morris solo off the bell in the women’s race, Matias Malmberg drilling clear with two laps left in the open — Colne can be settled by a bunch kick or by a late move of specialists who can hold a tempo nobody else wants to chase.
Riders to watch
Women’s race
The form rider is Morven Yeoman (DAS-Hutchinson). Winner of the Rapha Lincoln Grand Prix and the women’s National Road Series leader, she finished third at the Nocturne on Saturday and moved into the outright Rapha Super-League lead. A flat, technical crit is not Lincoln, but Yeoman has been among the defining riders of the domestic season and races aggressively in exactly these finishes.
She is one card among several for DAS-Hutchinson. Sophie Lewis, the 2024 Colne winner and runner-up here last year, is a proven fast finisher with National Circuit Series pedigree — the obvious play if the race stays together. Josie Knight brings world-class track strength and Olympic-medallist pedigree to a circuit that should suit her power.
The purest crit specialist in the field is Megan Barker (Rapha Cycling Club), the 2023 British national circuit race champion and a track world champion, who was third here in 2025. Rapha CC do not have the numbers of the bigger squads, but on a short, fast course Barker’s leg speed and repeated punch make her dangerous in any reduced sprint; she was fourth at the Nocturne, so is clearly on fine form.
Madeline Cooper (Handsling Alba Development Road Team) was one of the most consistent riders of the 2025 series — second at Guildford, third at Ilkley, fifth at Sheffield — and climbed to fifth in the Super-League after the Nocturne after finishing 11th. Here teammate Kate Richardson, the reigning National Circuit Race Champion, and second at the Nocturne, is a notable absentee after a late withdrawal.
Behind them, several riders can shape or steal the race. Lucy Glover (Smurfit Westrock Cycling Team), the Yorkshire sprinter who was ninth here last year, has the kick for a bunch finish; Daisy Taylor (The Hera Project) was the biggest mover at the Nocturne, up 15 places in the Super-League; Jessica Roberts (Private Member), third in last year’s national circuit championships, brings WorldTour-grade road pedigree; and Kirstie Drakeford (Jadan Glasdon p/b Vive le Velo) and Georgina Lancaster (Loughborough Lightning), sixth in Colne in 2025, are regular top-ten finishers in this kind of race.
Finally, Emma Jeffers‘ (Liv AlUla Jayco) record on courses like this is among the strongest in the field. The Lancashire rider won two rounds of the 2022 Tour Series as a 17-year-old, beating elite fields on closed town-centre circuits, and took the British national circuit title in 2024 before stepping up to the Liv AlUla Jayco Continental team. A BMX racer before she came to the road, she has the standing-start speed and bike-handling that a flat, technical 830 metres rewards. She now races under an Irish licence.
Open race
The reference point is Matt Bostock (Rapha Cycling Club), who won the Nocturne on Saturday and is a former Colne winner himself. British national circuit race champion in 2022 and reigning Rapha Super-League champion, Bostock is the most complete crit finisher in the field, and he sits second in the open Super-League after his London win. Alongside him, Oliver Wood gives Rapha CC a second genuine leader rather than a lead-out: the 2023 national circuit champion and an Olympic team-pursuit medallist, Wood won this year’s Rapha Lincoln Grand Prix with a late attack and has the track speed for a finish like this.
The national champion is here too. Cameron Mason (Alpecin–Premier Tech Development Team), winner of the 2025 circuit title and a four-time British cyclocross champion, was second on the road at the Nocturne and broke into the Super-League top ten for the first time. His cyclocross handling and explosiveness out of corners sit naturally on a tight, fast course. And in bib 1 is Matias Malmberg (Swatt Club), back to defend the open title he won in 2025 with a late solo; a former European team-pursuit champion, he timed that move to perfection on Market Street’s rise.
Wheelbase CabTech Castelli bring both consistency and a past Colne champion. Tom Armstrong leads the open Super-League — 84 points and 21 clear after the Nocturne — on the back of the steadiness that won him the 2025 series, while Tim Shoreman, winner here in 2023 and at Otley last year, has the finishing speed to win outright. Frank Longstaff (DAS Richardsons) was third in Colne last year and is hard to beat when a race collapses to a kick.
There is local interest in Thomas Mein (Hope Factory Racing), the cyclocross rider whose Barnoldswick-based team carries the home colours; he launched the four-rider move that decided the Nocturne. Of the rest, William Truelove (JAKROO Handsling Racing) was last year’s Super-League runner-up, Jim Brown (L39ION of Los Angeles) brings current American crit form and a 5th place from the Nocturne, and Callum Laborde (Ornata Factory Racing) climbed to seventh in the Super-League on the strength of his performance at the Nocturne (11th).
Timings
The women’s race starts at 19.20, the open race at 20.25.
How to follow
Free to attend, in Colne town centre, with road closures from 13.30.
Provisional startlists
Women’s race
Open race
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