Two nights after Otley, the National Circuit Series climbs the Wharfe valley to its most selective circuit. Friday 3 July is the Ilkley Cycle Races—Round 3 of the series—where defending champion Anna Morris returns to the ramp that won her a maiden series victory.
Friday 3 July is the Ilkley Cycle Races, Round 3 of the Lloyds National Circuit Series and the most selective circuit on the calendar: 1.5 kilometres, 32 metres of climbing every two-minute lap, and a finish on The Grove that rarely goes to a full bunch. Both National Circuit Series leads are in play—Megan Barker holds the women’s jersey by two points, Oliver Wood tops the open standings—and defending women’s champion Anna Morris returns to the ramp that delivered her a maiden series win.
A town-centre criterium run over a 1.5-kilometre circuit in Ilkley, West Yorkshire, featuring a stinging ramp up Riddings Road each lap before the riders dive back onto The Grove for the sprint past Bettys. If Otley is Britain’s criterium equivalent of Milan–San Remo—forever balanced between a late escape and a bunch gallop—Ilkley is the domestic crit version of Liège–Bastogne–Liège: 32 metres of climbing every two-minute lap, repeated for 50 minutes, rewarding the punchers who can attack, recover and go again.
The races were created in 2014 to celebrate Yorkshire’s Tour de France Grand Départ, run and organised by Ilkley Cycling Club, and joined the National Circuit Series in 2021. The roll of honour runs from Pete Williams and Scott Thwaites through Tom Moses, Sam Watson and Rob Scott in the open race; the women’s race has been won by Annie Simpson, Emily Meakin, Megan Barker, Eluned King and, twice, Millie Couzens. Last year, Anna Morris soloed clear of a four-rider break in the rain for her maiden National Circuit Series win, while 17-year-old Milo Wills stunned a ten-rider lead group to take the open race.
Every barrier is ringside: the crowds pack the kerbs and entry is free. Grab a perch on the Grove–Riddings corner and feel the slipstream.
Route
Ilkley’s 1.5-kilometre clockwise loop is short, steep and decidedly punchier than Otley’s: 32 metres of climbing per lap routinely splits the field and rewards attackers over pure sprinters.
The lap sets off outside Bettys on The Grove, then snaps through a sharp 90-degree right onto the 200-metre Riddings Road ramp, where the first digs land every year. From the crest, a long false flat drags along Albany Walk and into Parish Ghyll Drive—the stretch where the strongest riders press home an advantage once the gradient eases.
The course then drops sharply down Wilton Road, through a very fast right-hander onto Grove Road, and back to the finish straight on The Grove at over 60 kilometres per hour.
A clean lap takes little more than two minutes. All those micro-efforts mean Ilkley rarely ends in a full-mass gallop: expect a reduced-group sprint, or a late flier who never comes back.
Timings
The evening’s schedule in full:
17.30–17.50 — MAS Design Youth Races (U16) 18.00–18.25 — Andy’s Man Club Masters Race 18.35–19.10 — Bini Brew Co Classic (2/3/4) 19.40–20.30 — Milly Grace Jewellery Women’s Grand Prix 20.40–21.30 — Lister Horsfall Open Grand Prix
How to follow
The British Continental will be on the ground. Head to our Instagram for interviews and coverage, with a full report and results online on Friday night.
Riders to watch
Milly Grace Jewellery Women’s Grand Prix
Twelve months ago Anna Morris (Private Member) attacked at the bell and rode The Grove alone. On Wednesday night at Otley, she was second, the only rider to limit Jess Roberts’s winning margin to 19 seconds, and she arrives at the circuit that suits her better than any other on the calendar. The former individual pursuit world record holder won four National Circuit Series rounds in 2025 and it would be no surprise if she added another Series victory on Friday night.
The rider she chased on Wednesday starts too. Jess Roberts (Private Member) won Otley solo—her first National Circuit Series victory—and jumped to 3rd in the standings. Roberts has looked closer to her brilliant best with every race this season, and a rider willing to go long at Otley will find Ilkley’s terrain even more obliging.
Jess Roberts. Image: Milan Josy/The British Continental
Meg Barker (Rapha Cycling Club) wears the series leader’s jersey, by two points from Madeline Cooper, and the national champion’s jersey she won in Aberystwyth a week ago. Second at Colne and 4th at Otley, the 2021 Ilkley winner has been the most consistent rider of the series so far—though this is a round where her rivals will look to isolate her, with only Amy Perryman for company.
Madeline Cooper (Handsling Alba Development Road Team) is the form pick for the profile. Third here last year in the winning break, 4th at Colne, 3rd at Otley, and 2nd in the series: the puncheur has been at the sharp end of every crit this season, and Riddings Road is her kind of finish-line audition. Teammate Kate Richardson was runner-up here in 2025 and remains the archetypal Ilkley rider, but she did not start Otley; her participation on Friday is worth watching.
DAS–Hutchinson need a response. The UCI Continental team fired blanks at Otley—their best finisher 21st. Morven Yeoman, this year’s Rapha Lincoln Grand Prix winner and women’s National Road Series leader, thrives on repeated short climbs and will not want two quiet nights in a row; Sophie Lewis, 3rd at Colne, is the play if a reduced bunch comes back together, while Josie Knight, 2nd in the national road race behind Zoë Bäckstedt on Sunday, brings arguable the biggest engine in the field.
Sophie Lewis (centre). Image: Milan Josy/The British Continental
The climbers who have shaped this spring’s hilly domestic road season all start too. Lily Martin (Loughborough Lightning) won the Banbury Star in May with a decisive attack on the final ascent of The Knowle, distancing Amy Henchoz (Paralloy RT), the former cross-country mountain biker who has been runner-up on climbing finales at both Banbury and Capernwray this season and was on the attack early at Otley on Wednesday. She will not find a circuit on the calendar that suits her better. Ruby Oakes (FTP–Fulfil The Potential–Racing), one of the team’s headline under-23 signings, completed the Capernwray podium in that three-way uphill sprint with Morris and Henchoz—another rider the Riddings ramp should flatter.
Elsewhere: Eilidh Shaw (UAE Development Team), 7th on Wednesday, brings WorldTour development pedigree to a circuit that will suit her, and Daisy Taylor (The Hera Project), 10th at Otley, has been the revelation of the new women-led team’s first season. A final name for the historians: Henrietta Colborne (XDS CHINA Women Team) won this race in 2015 and returns to Ilkley eleven years on.
Lister Horsfall Open Grand Prix
The series has a new leader and he is on the startlist. Ollie Wood (Rapha Cycling Club) was 2nd at Otley in a two-up finish, 4th at Colne, and won this year’s Rapha Lincoln Grand Prix with a late attack. The 2023 national circuit champion tops the standings on 92 points, and Ilkley’s blend of power climb and drag-race finish is close to a personal specification.
His teammate has a point to prove. Matt Bostock (Rapha Cycling Club) won the Nocturne, won Colne solo, and won the national circuit title in Aberystwyth—three victories in eleven days—before abandoning at Otley with a puncture. The Manxman has finished on the podium here before and no rider in the field owns a faster finish after a hard hour. Between them, Wood and Bostock make Rapha CC the reference team, and Wheelbase CabTech Castelli the ones with most to organise against them.
Matt Bostock. Image: Milan Josy/The British Continental
Wheelbase bring the numbers to do it: eight riders, headed by Tom Armstrong, the defending series champion, who led the chase home for 6th at Otley and was 5th here last year, alongside Aaron King, 2nd at Colne, and Tim Shoreman, last year’s Otley winner, whose punch suits the extra climbing. Tom Martin’s big-ring surges over the top of Riddings Road are the natural plan B if Armstrong is marked. The team lead the series standings on 204 points, 50 clear of DAS Richardsons—though DAS arrive without Frank Longstaff, 2nd in the individual standings, leaving Oliver Curd, 11th at Otley and one of the breakout riders of 2026, to carry them.
JAKROO Handsling Racing field eight and the depth to blow the race apart: William Truelove, 3rd here last year and 10th at Otley, leads a squad including Harrison Dainty, Oliver Dawson, Dylan Belton Owen and 2025 Peak 2 Day winner Rowan Baker, a non-starter at Otley whose form on Friday is an open question after struggling with knees issues.
Two Britons return from French club racing with something to prove on home roads. Ben Chilton (Laval Cyclisme 53), the 22-year-old from Derby, has built a reputation as one of the fastest finishers in the Breton élite peloton, with podium finishes in France already this season and a Tour of Britain start on his record. And Toby Barnes (UV Aube) has done this before: winner of the 2024 Sheffield Grand Prix during a season spent at the sharp end of the National Circuit Series, he arrives fresh from silver at January’s national cyclocross championships.
Cam Mason. Image: Milan Josy/The British Continental
Of the rest: Thomas Mein (Hope Factory Racing), the cyclocross rider who launched the move that decided the Nocturne, gets a circuit built for his engine; Harper Johnson (360 Junior Race Team) was a remarkable 4th at Otley and sits 7th in the series; Jim Brown (L39ION of Los Angeles) brings American crit speed and a 5th from the Nocturne; and Callum Laborde (Ornata Factory Racing), 8th on Wednesday, is quietly 5th in the standings. James McKay (Atom 6–Cycleur de Luxe–Auto Stroo Continental Team), the 2025 Rapha Lincoln Grand Prix winner, returns to Yorkshire roads he knows well from his domestic team years.
Two names to note on the reserve list: Cameron Mason (Alpecin–Premier Tech Development Team), the deposed national circuit champion, 5th at Otley and 3rd in the series, and Henry Hobbs (Team Visma | Lease a Bike Development). If either gets a start, the race changes.
Friday 3 July is the Ilkley Cycle Races, Round 3 of the Lloyds National Circuit Series and the most selective circuit on the calendar: 1.5 kilometres, 32 metres of climbing every two-minute lap, and a finish on The Grove that rarely goes to a full bunch. Both National Circuit Series leads are in play—Megan Barker holds the women’s jersey by two points, Oliver Wood tops the open standings—and defending women’s champion Anna Morris returns to the ramp that delivered her a maiden series win.
Here is our preview.
Featured image: Olly Hassell/SWpix.com
Use code TBC10 at 4Endurance.co.uk for 10% off your order.
What is it?
A town-centre criterium run over a 1.5-kilometre circuit in Ilkley, West Yorkshire, featuring a stinging ramp up Riddings Road each lap before the riders dive back onto The Grove for the sprint past Bettys. If Otley is Britain’s criterium equivalent of Milan–San Remo—forever balanced between a late escape and a bunch gallop—Ilkley is the domestic crit version of Liège–Bastogne–Liège: 32 metres of climbing every two-minute lap, repeated for 50 minutes, rewarding the punchers who can attack, recover and go again.
The races were created in 2014 to celebrate Yorkshire’s Tour de France Grand Départ, run and organised by Ilkley Cycling Club, and joined the National Circuit Series in 2021. The roll of honour runs from Pete Williams and Scott Thwaites through Tom Moses, Sam Watson and Rob Scott in the open race; the women’s race has been won by Annie Simpson, Emily Meakin, Megan Barker, Eluned King and, twice, Millie Couzens. Last year, Anna Morris soloed clear of a four-rider break in the rain for her maiden National Circuit Series win, while 17-year-old Milo Wills stunned a ten-rider lead group to take the open race.
Every barrier is ringside: the crowds pack the kerbs and entry is free. Grab a perch on the Grove–Riddings corner and feel the slipstream.
Route
Ilkley’s 1.5-kilometre clockwise loop is short, steep and decidedly punchier than Otley’s: 32 metres of climbing per lap routinely splits the field and rewards attackers over pure sprinters.
The lap sets off outside Bettys on The Grove, then snaps through a sharp 90-degree right onto the 200-metre Riddings Road ramp, where the first digs land every year. From the crest, a long false flat drags along Albany Walk and into Parish Ghyll Drive—the stretch where the strongest riders press home an advantage once the gradient eases.
The course then drops sharply down Wilton Road, through a very fast right-hander onto Grove Road, and back to the finish straight on The Grove at over 60 kilometres per hour.
A clean lap takes little more than two minutes. All those micro-efforts mean Ilkley rarely ends in a full-mass gallop: expect a reduced-group sprint, or a late flier who never comes back.
Timings
The evening’s schedule in full:
17.30–17.50 — MAS Design Youth Races (U16)
18.00–18.25 — Andy’s Man Club Masters Race
18.35–19.10 — Bini Brew Co Classic (2/3/4)
19.40–20.30 — Milly Grace Jewellery Women’s Grand Prix
20.40–21.30 — Lister Horsfall Open Grand Prix
How to follow
The British Continental will be on the ground. Head to our Instagram for interviews and coverage, with a full report and results online on Friday night.
Riders to watch
Milly Grace Jewellery Women’s Grand Prix
Twelve months ago Anna Morris (Private Member) attacked at the bell and rode The Grove alone. On Wednesday night at Otley, she was second, the only rider to limit Jess Roberts’s winning margin to 19 seconds, and she arrives at the circuit that suits her better than any other on the calendar. The former individual pursuit world record holder won four National Circuit Series rounds in 2025 and it would be no surprise if she added another Series victory on Friday night.
The rider she chased on Wednesday starts too. Jess Roberts (Private Member) won Otley solo—her first National Circuit Series victory—and jumped to 3rd in the standings. Roberts has looked closer to her brilliant best with every race this season, and a rider willing to go long at Otley will find Ilkley’s terrain even more obliging.
Meg Barker (Rapha Cycling Club) wears the series leader’s jersey, by two points from Madeline Cooper, and the national champion’s jersey she won in Aberystwyth a week ago. Second at Colne and 4th at Otley, the 2021 Ilkley winner has been the most consistent rider of the series so far—though this is a round where her rivals will look to isolate her, with only Amy Perryman for company.
Madeline Cooper (Handsling Alba Development Road Team) is the form pick for the profile. Third here last year in the winning break, 4th at Colne, 3rd at Otley, and 2nd in the series: the puncheur has been at the sharp end of every crit this season, and Riddings Road is her kind of finish-line audition. Teammate Kate Richardson was runner-up here in 2025 and remains the archetypal Ilkley rider, but she did not start Otley; her participation on Friday is worth watching.
DAS–Hutchinson need a response. The UCI Continental team fired blanks at Otley—their best finisher 21st. Morven Yeoman, this year’s Rapha Lincoln Grand Prix winner and women’s National Road Series leader, thrives on repeated short climbs and will not want two quiet nights in a row; Sophie Lewis, 3rd at Colne, is the play if a reduced bunch comes back together, while Josie Knight, 2nd in the national road race behind Zoë Bäckstedt on Sunday, brings arguable the biggest engine in the field.
The climbers who have shaped this spring’s hilly domestic road season all start too. Lily Martin (Loughborough Lightning) won the Banbury Star in May with a decisive attack on the final ascent of The Knowle, distancing Amy Henchoz (Paralloy RT), the former cross-country mountain biker who has been runner-up on climbing finales at both Banbury and Capernwray this season and was on the attack early at Otley on Wednesday. She will not find a circuit on the calendar that suits her better. Ruby Oakes (FTP–Fulfil The Potential–Racing), one of the team’s headline under-23 signings, completed the Capernwray podium in that three-way uphill sprint with Morris and Henchoz—another rider the Riddings ramp should flatter.
Elsewhere: Eilidh Shaw (UAE Development Team), 7th on Wednesday, brings WorldTour development pedigree to a circuit that will suit her, and Daisy Taylor (The Hera Project), 10th at Otley, has been the revelation of the new women-led team’s first season. A final name for the historians: Henrietta Colborne (XDS CHINA Women Team) won this race in 2015 and returns to Ilkley eleven years on.
Lister Horsfall Open Grand Prix
The series has a new leader and he is on the startlist. Ollie Wood (Rapha Cycling Club) was 2nd at Otley in a two-up finish, 4th at Colne, and won this year’s Rapha Lincoln Grand Prix with a late attack. The 2023 national circuit champion tops the standings on 92 points, and Ilkley’s blend of power climb and drag-race finish is close to a personal specification.
His teammate has a point to prove. Matt Bostock (Rapha Cycling Club) won the Nocturne, won Colne solo, and won the national circuit title in Aberystwyth—three victories in eleven days—before abandoning at Otley with a puncture. The Manxman has finished on the podium here before and no rider in the field owns a faster finish after a hard hour. Between them, Wood and Bostock make Rapha CC the reference team, and Wheelbase CabTech Castelli the ones with most to organise against them.
Wheelbase bring the numbers to do it: eight riders, headed by Tom Armstrong, the defending series champion, who led the chase home for 6th at Otley and was 5th here last year, alongside Aaron King, 2nd at Colne, and Tim Shoreman, last year’s Otley winner, whose punch suits the extra climbing. Tom Martin’s big-ring surges over the top of Riddings Road are the natural plan B if Armstrong is marked. The team lead the series standings on 204 points, 50 clear of DAS Richardsons—though DAS arrive without Frank Longstaff, 2nd in the individual standings, leaving Oliver Curd, 11th at Otley and one of the breakout riders of 2026, to carry them.
JAKROO Handsling Racing field eight and the depth to blow the race apart: William Truelove, 3rd here last year and 10th at Otley, leads a squad including Harrison Dainty, Oliver Dawson, Dylan Belton Owen and 2025 Peak 2 Day winner Rowan Baker, a non-starter at Otley whose form on Friday is an open question after struggling with knees issues.
Two Britons return from French club racing with something to prove on home roads. Ben Chilton (Laval Cyclisme 53), the 22-year-old from Derby, has built a reputation as one of the fastest finishers in the Breton élite peloton, with podium finishes in France already this season and a Tour of Britain start on his record. And Toby Barnes (UV Aube) has done this before: winner of the 2024 Sheffield Grand Prix during a season spent at the sharp end of the National Circuit Series, he arrives fresh from silver at January’s national cyclocross championships.
Of the rest: Thomas Mein (Hope Factory Racing), the cyclocross rider who launched the move that decided the Nocturne, gets a circuit built for his engine; Harper Johnson (360 Junior Race Team) was a remarkable 4th at Otley and sits 7th in the series; Jim Brown (L39ION of Los Angeles) brings American crit speed and a 5th from the Nocturne; and Callum Laborde (Ornata Factory Racing), 8th on Wednesday, is quietly 5th in the standings. James McKay (Atom 6–Cycleur de Luxe–Auto Stroo Continental Team), the 2025 Rapha Lincoln Grand Prix winner, returns to Yorkshire roads he knows well from his domestic team years.
Two names to note on the reserve list: Cameron Mason (Alpecin–Premier Tech Development Team), the deposed national circuit champion, 5th at Otley and 3rd in the series, and Henry Hobbs (Team Visma | Lease a Bike Development). If either gets a start, the race changes.
Provisional startlists
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