2026 National Circuit Championships: report and results
Two titles, one household: Megan Barker and Matt Bostock, partners and Rapha Cycling Club teammates, won the women's and men's circuit championships in Aberystwyth — and both defending champions came undone.
Two national circuit titles were settled on Aberystwyth’s seafront on Friday evening (26 June), and both went to the same household. Megan Barker and Matt Bostock — partners and Rapha Cycling Club teammates — won the women’s and men’s championships within two hours of each other, locking out the night’s jerseys.
Featured image: Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com
Report
Women’s race
Megan Barker (Rapha Cycling Club) is the women’s national circuit champion for the second time, and she took the long way round to prove it. On a warm, dry evening on Aberystwyth’s seafront, the 2023 winner sat third coming out of the final bend, watched Carys Lloyd (Movistar Team) open her sprint early and briefly look the winner, then — still seated — clawed back to the Movistar rider’s shoulder and edged past on the line. The margin was 0.029 seconds; it needed a photograph to separate them.
That the title came down to a sprint at all was a small surprise on an evening governed by numbers. Handsling Alba Development Road Team arrived with 10 riders and the defending champion, Kate Richardson, and for the first half-hour they raced like it, swarming the front and forcing the pace. The fight was sharpest on the finishing straight each lap, where the bunch jostled for position before the left-hander onto the narrow drag of Pier Street. WorldTour riders Lloyd and Robyn Clay (Team Picnic PostNL) were prominent throughout, as were Jessica Roberts (Private Member), April Tacey (Hitec Products–Fluid Control) and a lively Nicola Quaye (360 Cycling).
Olly Hassell/SWpix.com
The selections came in waves. Roberts lit the first serious move around 15 minutes in, Richardson and Lloyd following to thin the bunch before Peggy Knox (Airtox–Carl Ras) led the chase back. Efforts from Izzy Sharp (Handsling Alba Development Road Team), Barker, Roberts and Clay stretched the race without breaking it. The first to find real daylight were Tacey and Isabel Mayes (O’Shea Red Chilli Bikes), clear on the finishing straight at around 35 minutes for the first move the bunch did not immediately answer — until Handsling Alba’s numbers reeled them in.
Clay struck the heaviest blow in the closing minutes before the bell-lap phase, riding clear and distancing Richardson, who abandoned with five laps to go. Arabella Blackburn bridged across to give Handsling Alba a rider in front, and the pair held more than 10 seconds as the five-to-go board appeared. Melanie Rowe (camsmajaco) bridged with four laps left; a two-rider Handsling Alba move to follow brought the race back together, and around 20 riders took the bell.
Clay’s strength shaped how the sprinters played it. “When Robyn went off the front, I thought, ‘Wow, she is one very, very strong lady — this is never coming back,'” Lloyd recalls. “So I sat back and took the risk for the sprint. I saw Eilidh back with me, and we both took the risk and recovered a little bit.” Eilidh Shaw (UAE Development Team), sitting alongside her, made the same call.
Barker celebrates the win. Image: Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com
Barker backed herself to be there at the death. “That was one of the hardest we’ve ever done — it backs up about halfway and then never lets off,” she says. “There were so many attacks, teams lining it out. I committed to keeping it together, because I’m confident enough to sprint if I get the positioning right. And I got the positioning right today.”
So she did. Roberts led the bunch through the final bend, Lloyd on her wheel and Barker third. Lloyd opened first and went too soon. “I jumped the gun a little bit, went a bit too early,” she says. “It was just me and Meg fighting right to the end, and she just about got me.” Barker timed her return to perfection; behind the pair, Shaw took third, with Clay fourth and Knox fifth.
A second national circuit jersey, then, after 2023, and one she had not seen coming. “So special — it was really unexpected, just like the last time we won,” she says. “I’ve got my parents here in Wales, so it’s really nice.”
Men’s race
Matt Bostock (Rapha Cycling Club) does not do passive. The Rapha Super-League champion arrived in Aberystwyth as the form rider of the criterium season and rode like it, animating the race from the gun and refusing to let it settle, until a race he had spent the best part of an hour trying to break finally broke his way. It is a second national circuit title to go with his 2022 win.
The aggression started early, though not with Bostock. Defending champion Cameron Mason (Alpecin–Premier Tech Development Team) attacked inside the opening minutes, splitting the bunch and catching several fancied names — Alec Briggs (TEKKERZ CC) among them — on the wrong side. Thomas Armstrong (Wheelbase CabTech Castelli) took it up at the front, policed by Oliver Wood (Rapha Cycling Club), with Jacob Bush (Development Team Picnic PostNL), Jim Brown (L39ION of Los Angeles) and Will Salter active in the early exchanges.
Armstrong and Bostock. Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com
Just past 15 minutes, Benji Tuchner (TEKKERZ CC) attacked and took Bostock, Armstrong and Jed Smithson (Hagens Berman Jayco) clear. Smithson could not hold the pace — set, for the most part, by Bostock — and Mason led the chase to limit the damage. Tuchner was next to crack, leaving Bostock and Armstrong alone in front, Armstrong at times little more than a passenger as Bostock drove the gap out towards 15 seconds.
Past the half-hour, Mason and Callum Laborde (Ornata Factory Racing) counter-attacked, Wood on their wheels, and bridged to the leaders at around 35 minutes, Henry Hobbs (Team Visma–Lease a Bike Development) completing the junction as the tempo eased. With the front group hesitating, the peloton closed it down — and Bostock, unwilling to leave it to a sprint, went again, taking Bush with him. Thomas Portsmouth (Guidon Chalettois) and Ben Bright (ASPTT Nancy) bridged across to make four. Jake Edwards (Zappi Racing Team) set off in pursuit but never made contact, a lone chasse patate that left him stranded between the move and the bunch.
The gap ballooned as the impetus drained from the peloton. Portsmouth led the four through the bell and briefly gained a length before Bostock pulled him back. When Bright attacked with half a lap to go, Bostock shut it down and then sat up just enough to oblige Bright to lead into the finishing straight. Portsmouth opened his sprint early; Bostock came past for a convincing win, with Bush second and Portsmouth third. Mason, who started the fireworks, came home 34th.
Bostock wins. Image: Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com
For Portsmouth, back on home roads after racing in France, third was a first national medal. “When the four went and we had 30 seconds, we were a bit worried coming into the last five laps — but then Matt did one big shift and we were away,” he says. He and Bright, who race against each other in France, tried to soften Bostock up in the finale: “We tried popping off one and one over the last two laps, because we know Matt finishes really fast. You’ve got to take it to him — you can’t just hand it to him in the sprint.” It nearly held; he was pipped by Bush for second on the line.
“It feels great to be national champion again,” Bostock says. “I came in with a plan to be offensive and have no regrets — and I did just that. I worked hard for this and in the end it’s paid off, so I’m really happy.”
It sealed a Rapha Cycling Club lock-out of the circuit titles — both jerseys to one team, and one household.
Two national circuit titles were settled on Aberystwyth’s seafront on Friday evening (26 June), and both went to the same household. Megan Barker and Matt Bostock — partners and Rapha Cycling Club teammates — won the women’s and men’s championships within two hours of each other, locking out the night’s jerseys.
Featured image: Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com
Report
Women’s race
Megan Barker (Rapha Cycling Club) is the women’s national circuit champion for the second time, and she took the long way round to prove it. On a warm, dry evening on Aberystwyth’s seafront, the 2023 winner sat third coming out of the final bend, watched Carys Lloyd (Movistar Team) open her sprint early and briefly look the winner, then — still seated — clawed back to the Movistar rider’s shoulder and edged past on the line. The margin was 0.029 seconds; it needed a photograph to separate them.
That the title came down to a sprint at all was a small surprise on an evening governed by numbers. Handsling Alba Development Road Team arrived with 10 riders and the defending champion, Kate Richardson, and for the first half-hour they raced like it, swarming the front and forcing the pace. The fight was sharpest on the finishing straight each lap, where the bunch jostled for position before the left-hander onto the narrow drag of Pier Street. WorldTour riders Lloyd and Robyn Clay (Team Picnic PostNL) were prominent throughout, as were Jessica Roberts (Private Member), April Tacey (Hitec Products–Fluid Control) and a lively Nicola Quaye (360 Cycling).
The selections came in waves. Roberts lit the first serious move around 15 minutes in, Richardson and Lloyd following to thin the bunch before Peggy Knox (Airtox–Carl Ras) led the chase back. Efforts from Izzy Sharp (Handsling Alba Development Road Team), Barker, Roberts and Clay stretched the race without breaking it. The first to find real daylight were Tacey and Isabel Mayes (O’Shea Red Chilli Bikes), clear on the finishing straight at around 35 minutes for the first move the bunch did not immediately answer — until Handsling Alba’s numbers reeled them in.
Clay struck the heaviest blow in the closing minutes before the bell-lap phase, riding clear and distancing Richardson, who abandoned with five laps to go. Arabella Blackburn bridged across to give Handsling Alba a rider in front, and the pair held more than 10 seconds as the five-to-go board appeared. Melanie Rowe (camsmajaco) bridged with four laps left; a two-rider Handsling Alba move to follow brought the race back together, and around 20 riders took the bell.
Clay’s strength shaped how the sprinters played it. “When Robyn went off the front, I thought, ‘Wow, she is one very, very strong lady — this is never coming back,'” Lloyd recalls. “So I sat back and took the risk for the sprint. I saw Eilidh back with me, and we both took the risk and recovered a little bit.” Eilidh Shaw (UAE Development Team), sitting alongside her, made the same call.
Barker backed herself to be there at the death. “That was one of the hardest we’ve ever done — it backs up about halfway and then never lets off,” she says. “There were so many attacks, teams lining it out. I committed to keeping it together, because I’m confident enough to sprint if I get the positioning right. And I got the positioning right today.”
So she did. Roberts led the bunch through the final bend, Lloyd on her wheel and Barker third. Lloyd opened first and went too soon. “I jumped the gun a little bit, went a bit too early,” she says. “It was just me and Meg fighting right to the end, and she just about got me.” Barker timed her return to perfection; behind the pair, Shaw took third, with Clay fourth and Knox fifth.
A second national circuit jersey, then, after 2023, and one she had not seen coming. “So special — it was really unexpected, just like the last time we won,” she says. “I’ve got my parents here in Wales, so it’s really nice.”
Men’s race
Matt Bostock (Rapha Cycling Club) does not do passive. The Rapha Super-League champion arrived in Aberystwyth as the form rider of the criterium season and rode like it, animating the race from the gun and refusing to let it settle, until a race he had spent the best part of an hour trying to break finally broke his way. It is a second national circuit title to go with his 2022 win.
The aggression started early, though not with Bostock. Defending champion Cameron Mason (Alpecin–Premier Tech Development Team) attacked inside the opening minutes, splitting the bunch and catching several fancied names — Alec Briggs (TEKKERZ CC) among them — on the wrong side. Thomas Armstrong (Wheelbase CabTech Castelli) took it up at the front, policed by Oliver Wood (Rapha Cycling Club), with Jacob Bush (Development Team Picnic PostNL), Jim Brown (L39ION of Los Angeles) and Will Salter active in the early exchanges.
Just past 15 minutes, Benji Tuchner (TEKKERZ CC) attacked and took Bostock, Armstrong and Jed Smithson (Hagens Berman Jayco) clear. Smithson could not hold the pace — set, for the most part, by Bostock — and Mason led the chase to limit the damage. Tuchner was next to crack, leaving Bostock and Armstrong alone in front, Armstrong at times little more than a passenger as Bostock drove the gap out towards 15 seconds.
Past the half-hour, Mason and Callum Laborde (Ornata Factory Racing) counter-attacked, Wood on their wheels, and bridged to the leaders at around 35 minutes, Henry Hobbs (Team Visma–Lease a Bike Development) completing the junction as the tempo eased. With the front group hesitating, the peloton closed it down — and Bostock, unwilling to leave it to a sprint, went again, taking Bush with him. Thomas Portsmouth (Guidon Chalettois) and Ben Bright (ASPTT Nancy) bridged across to make four. Jake Edwards (Zappi Racing Team) set off in pursuit but never made contact, a lone chasse patate that left him stranded between the move and the bunch.
The gap ballooned as the impetus drained from the peloton. Portsmouth led the four through the bell and briefly gained a length before Bostock pulled him back. When Bright attacked with half a lap to go, Bostock shut it down and then sat up just enough to oblige Bright to lead into the finishing straight. Portsmouth opened his sprint early; Bostock came past for a convincing win, with Bush second and Portsmouth third. Mason, who started the fireworks, came home 34th.
For Portsmouth, back on home roads after racing in France, third was a first national medal. “When the four went and we had 30 seconds, we were a bit worried coming into the last five laps — but then Matt did one big shift and we were away,” he says. He and Bright, who race against each other in France, tried to soften Bostock up in the finale: “We tried popping off one and one over the last two laps, because we know Matt finishes really fast. You’ve got to take it to him — you can’t just hand it to him in the sprint.” It nearly held; he was pipped by Bush for second on the line.
“It feels great to be national champion again,” Bostock says. “I came in with a plan to be offensive and have no regrets — and I did just that. I worked hard for this and in the end it’s paid off, so I’m really happy.”
It sealed a Rapha Cycling Club lock-out of the circuit titles — both jerseys to one team, and one household.
Results
Women’s race
Men’s race
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