2026 GIANT Tugby Ronde van Wymeswold day two: report and results
Aalia Clay became the first junior winner of the GIANT Tugby Ronde van Wymeswold women’s race, while Adam Lewis defended his overnight lead to take the open title. Hannah Clough, Alex Pickering and Ollie Hucks took Sunday’s stage wins on a day of shifting leads and late decisions.
Aalia Clay became the GIANT Tugby Ronde van Wymeswold’s first junior women’s winner on Sunday (21 June) after finishing second to Hannah Clough on the final stage, as overnight leader Nicola Quaye slipped from contention. In the open race, Adam Lewis finished the job, defending his lead through the time trial and closing road stage to take the title, on a Sunday that also brought stage wins for Alex Pickering and Ollie Hucks.
Sunday opened against the clock at Long Clawson, a 9.7-kilometre test that climbed away from the start, ran across the top and dropped to the line — short, but with enough climbing to sort the field.
The fastest rider was not one of the names threatening the top of general classification. Alex Pickering (Ride Revolution Coaching) stopped the clock at 12:52 to win the stage by 10 seconds. Lewis conceded those 10 seconds and little else, taking second to protect his lead; Elliott Colyer (AeroCLCTV) was third at 11 seconds, with Ed Morgan (CC Villeneuve Saint-Germain) and Danylo Riwnyj (Foran CT) a second further back.
It left Lewis where he wanted to be, still in the leader’s jersey with one road race to come.
Stage 3 | Road race
The overall would be decided on the Long Clawson circuit, a lap that climbed for a couple of minutes, ran flat across the top and dropped back down, repeated through the afternoon.
The racing began almost at once. A seven-rider group, with Ollie Hucks (Foran CT) among them, went clear on the first climb but, with too much strength left in the bunch, never gained more than 30 seconds. It was reeled in with three or four laps to run.
Morgan. Image: Gary Main
Hucks bided his time. “I sat in the bunch to recover, then attacked with just under two laps to go with two others,” he told The British Continental. Those two were Henry Hunter (360cycling) and Oscar Hutchings (Schils–Doltcini Racing Team), and the trio quickly established a useful gap. “We got a pretty big gap quite quickly and worked well as a three.”
On the last flat before the final climb, he began to race the move rather than simply ride it. “I started playing games a little bit — skipping a few turns and sitting on — because I knew one or two of the others wanted to move up overall, so I profited from that.”
It nearly undid him. The three were caught at the foot of the last climb by a chasing group that included Morgan — the defending champion, and exactly the wheel Hucks wanted. “I was glad I’d sat on, because I know how quick he is in a finish,” Hucks said. “Ed was riding for the last few hundred metres, and I picked round him in the last fifty metres or so.”
Hucks took the stage, Morgan second and Hunter third, the three credited with the same time. Dean Watson (Doncaster Whls CC), Hutchings and Clay Davies (Ride Revolution Coaching) led the next group home 20 seconds down; the bunch, with Lewis and Riwnyj in it, finished at 32 seconds.
Hucks wins. Image: Gary Main
Morgan’s ride lifted him from outside the podium to third overall, but no higher. Lewis came home safely in the bunch to seal the title by 31 seconds from Riwnyj, with Morgan third at 39 seconds. It also capped a strong weekend for Foran CT: Riwnyj second on general classification, Hucks a stage winner on the final afternoon.
Pickering’s time trial carried him to fifth overall. Hucks, whose afternoon was the day’s best ride, finished fifteenth; the time lost earlier in the weekend left the stage itself as the reward. For Lewis, the reward was broader: Saturday’s attack had given him the race, and Sunday confirmed it.
Women’s race
Stage 3 | Road race
Hannah Clough crossed the line first on the final stage of the GIANT Tugby Ronde van Wymeswold and kept her arms down. Aalia Clay was on her wheel, spectators were calling Clay’s name, and Clough could not be sure the win was hers. It was — by a bike-length, and a first National B victory, on the Long Clawson roads her own University of Nottingham Cycling Club helps to run.
The overall went to the rider she had just held off. Clay (camsmajaco) began the day second on general classification and ended it first: with overnight leader Nicola Quaye (360cycling) distanced in the bunch, the junior’s second place on the stage was enough to take a lead she would not give back.
The stage was decided by one move, and the race leader was not in it. Lydia Louw (Solas Cycling) went first, opening around 30 seconds alone before being joined off the front; over the main climb, with three laps to run, a chasing group bridged across and the race settled into a lead group of nine. Clough, Clay, Phoebe Taylor (Shibden Apex RT) and Mabli Phillips (Great Britain) were in it, along with Rose Lewis (Great Britain), Florence Wiggins (London Academy), Jennifer Powell (Performance Development Team), Rosie Simmons (Loughborough Lightning) and Louw. Quaye was not — and by Clay’s account that absence was the spur the group needed.
Thre break. Image: Gary Main
They worked. The nine chain-ganged the circuit and the advantage climbed steadily, the bunch coming home more than five minutes down. The race for the stage and the overall had gone up the road and stayed there.
Within the lead group, Clay rode a careful race. She knew the overall would come down to the riders nearest her on general classification — Taylor and Phillips, third and fourth overnight — and when Phillips attacked with a lap to go, she closed it down herself.
Clough, no sprinter, had backed herself to go from the foot of the final climb. Encouraged by Simmons — “You’ve got this, Hannah, go early, this can be yours” — she went after the bend, out of the saddle, the moment the whole rise opened in front of her. She got a gap. Whether it would hold was another matter: Clay chased back onto her wheel, and with voices at the finish calling Clay’s name, Clough crossed the line unsure.
“I could hear the cheers for Aalia over the line, so I wasn’t quite sure if I’d done it — hence the lack of celebration,” Clough told The British Continental. “But I managed to stay away.”
Clay took second and Taylor third, the front three credited with the same time; Phillips led the rest in five seconds later.
Clough wins. Image: Gary Main
Second on the stage settled the overall. Clay took it by 18 seconds from Taylor, with Phillips third at 26 seconds — and the nine who had gone clear filled the top nine places overall, the move deciding far more than the stage. Quaye, the overnight leader, slid to tenth at 5:14; Ruby Oakes (FTP–Fulfil The Potential Racing), Saturday’s road-stage winner, abandoned. Clough’s reward for the stage was fifth overall, the 42 seconds she had conceded in Saturday’s time trial too much to overturn from the front of the race. A junior had won the Ronde outright, with two more alongside her on the podium.
For Clay, the result was not simply a case of inheriting the race lead. She had wanted the stage to open up, and once she saw Quaye was absent from the decisive move, the calculation became clear.
“I saw that the rider who was first on GC wasn’t in the group, so we all pushed on and started working together quite well,” Clay told The British Continental. “I knew I basically had to stay with Mabli and Phoebe, who were the closest people to me on GC, so that I could win.”
For Clough, the win had been a long time coming. “I’m so pleased to have finally got a Nat B win,” she said. “I’ve had quite a lot of Nat B top tens but never quite gone and done it — I don’t think I’d ever had a Nat B podium either.”
The course had finally given her something to work with. “This course with the big hill suits me well,” she said. “I’m good at hill climbs.”
Aalia Clay became the GIANT Tugby Ronde van Wymeswold’s first junior women’s winner on Sunday (21 June) after finishing second to Hannah Clough on the final stage, as overnight leader Nicola Quaye slipped from contention. In the open race, Adam Lewis finished the job, defending his lead through the time trial and closing road stage to take the title, on a Sunday that also brought stage wins for Alex Pickering and Ollie Hucks.
Featured image: Gary Main
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Report
Open race
Stage 2 | Time trial
Sunday opened against the clock at Long Clawson, a 9.7-kilometre test that climbed away from the start, ran across the top and dropped to the line — short, but with enough climbing to sort the field.
The fastest rider was not one of the names threatening the top of general classification. Alex Pickering (Ride Revolution Coaching) stopped the clock at 12:52 to win the stage by 10 seconds. Lewis conceded those 10 seconds and little else, taking second to protect his lead; Elliott Colyer (AeroCLCTV) was third at 11 seconds, with Ed Morgan (CC Villeneuve Saint-Germain) and Danylo Riwnyj (Foran CT) a second further back.
It left Lewis where he wanted to be, still in the leader’s jersey with one road race to come.
Stage 3 | Road race
The overall would be decided on the Long Clawson circuit, a lap that climbed for a couple of minutes, ran flat across the top and dropped back down, repeated through the afternoon.
The racing began almost at once. A seven-rider group, with Ollie Hucks (Foran CT) among them, went clear on the first climb but, with too much strength left in the bunch, never gained more than 30 seconds. It was reeled in with three or four laps to run.
Hucks bided his time. “I sat in the bunch to recover, then attacked with just under two laps to go with two others,” he told The British Continental. Those two were Henry Hunter (360cycling) and Oscar Hutchings (Schils–Doltcini Racing Team), and the trio quickly established a useful gap. “We got a pretty big gap quite quickly and worked well as a three.”
On the last flat before the final climb, he began to race the move rather than simply ride it. “I started playing games a little bit — skipping a few turns and sitting on — because I knew one or two of the others wanted to move up overall, so I profited from that.”
It nearly undid him. The three were caught at the foot of the last climb by a chasing group that included Morgan — the defending champion, and exactly the wheel Hucks wanted. “I was glad I’d sat on, because I know how quick he is in a finish,” Hucks said. “Ed was riding for the last few hundred metres, and I picked round him in the last fifty metres or so.”
Hucks took the stage, Morgan second and Hunter third, the three credited with the same time. Dean Watson (Doncaster Whls CC), Hutchings and Clay Davies (Ride Revolution Coaching) led the next group home 20 seconds down; the bunch, with Lewis and Riwnyj in it, finished at 32 seconds.
Morgan’s ride lifted him from outside the podium to third overall, but no higher. Lewis came home safely in the bunch to seal the title by 31 seconds from Riwnyj, with Morgan third at 39 seconds. It also capped a strong weekend for Foran CT: Riwnyj second on general classification, Hucks a stage winner on the final afternoon.
Pickering’s time trial carried him to fifth overall. Hucks, whose afternoon was the day’s best ride, finished fifteenth; the time lost earlier in the weekend left the stage itself as the reward. For Lewis, the reward was broader: Saturday’s attack had given him the race, and Sunday confirmed it.
Women’s race
Stage 3 | Road race
Hannah Clough crossed the line first on the final stage of the GIANT Tugby Ronde van Wymeswold and kept her arms down. Aalia Clay was on her wheel, spectators were calling Clay’s name, and Clough could not be sure the win was hers. It was — by a bike-length, and a first National B victory, on the Long Clawson roads her own University of Nottingham Cycling Club helps to run.
The overall went to the rider she had just held off. Clay (camsmajaco) began the day second on general classification and ended it first: with overnight leader Nicola Quaye (360cycling) distanced in the bunch, the junior’s second place on the stage was enough to take a lead she would not give back.
The stage was decided by one move, and the race leader was not in it. Lydia Louw (Solas Cycling) went first, opening around 30 seconds alone before being joined off the front; over the main climb, with three laps to run, a chasing group bridged across and the race settled into a lead group of nine. Clough, Clay, Phoebe Taylor (Shibden Apex RT) and Mabli Phillips (Great Britain) were in it, along with Rose Lewis (Great Britain), Florence Wiggins (London Academy), Jennifer Powell (Performance Development Team), Rosie Simmons (Loughborough Lightning) and Louw. Quaye was not — and by Clay’s account that absence was the spur the group needed.
They worked. The nine chain-ganged the circuit and the advantage climbed steadily, the bunch coming home more than five minutes down. The race for the stage and the overall had gone up the road and stayed there.
Within the lead group, Clay rode a careful race. She knew the overall would come down to the riders nearest her on general classification — Taylor and Phillips, third and fourth overnight — and when Phillips attacked with a lap to go, she closed it down herself.
Clough, no sprinter, had backed herself to go from the foot of the final climb. Encouraged by Simmons — “You’ve got this, Hannah, go early, this can be yours” — she went after the bend, out of the saddle, the moment the whole rise opened in front of her. She got a gap. Whether it would hold was another matter: Clay chased back onto her wheel, and with voices at the finish calling Clay’s name, Clough crossed the line unsure.
“I could hear the cheers for Aalia over the line, so I wasn’t quite sure if I’d done it — hence the lack of celebration,” Clough told The British Continental. “But I managed to stay away.”
Clay took second and Taylor third, the front three credited with the same time; Phillips led the rest in five seconds later.
Second on the stage settled the overall. Clay took it by 18 seconds from Taylor, with Phillips third at 26 seconds — and the nine who had gone clear filled the top nine places overall, the move deciding far more than the stage. Quaye, the overnight leader, slid to tenth at 5:14; Ruby Oakes (FTP–Fulfil The Potential Racing), Saturday’s road-stage winner, abandoned. Clough’s reward for the stage was fifth overall, the 42 seconds she had conceded in Saturday’s time trial too much to overturn from the front of the race. A junior had won the Ronde outright, with two more alongside her on the podium.
For Clay, the result was not simply a case of inheriting the race lead. She had wanted the stage to open up, and once she saw Quaye was absent from the decisive move, the calculation became clear.
“I saw that the rider who was first on GC wasn’t in the group, so we all pushed on and started working together quite well,” Clay told The British Continental. “I knew I basically had to stay with Mabli and Phoebe, who were the closest people to me on GC, so that I could win.”
For Clough, the win had been a long time coming. “I’m so pleased to have finally got a Nat B win,” she said. “I’ve had quite a lot of Nat B top tens but never quite gone and done it — I don’t think I’d ever had a Nat B podium either.”
The course had finally given her something to work with. “This course with the big hill suits me well,” she said. “I’m good at hill climbs.”
Results
Open race
Women’s race
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