The Lloyds National Circuit Series moved from Otley to Ilkley on Friday (3 July). Anna Morris (Private Member) won the Milly Grace Jewellery Women’s Grand Prix with a final-lap attack, while Toby Barnes (UV Aube) took the Lister Horsfall Open Grand Prix with a long solo ride.
Ilkley came two nights after Otley, but it asked a different question. Where Otley had stretched between escape and sprint, the Lloyds National Circuit Series’ third round was shaped by attrition: the Riddings Road ramp returning lap after lap until the races broke.
Anna Morris (Private Member) won the Milly Grace Jewellery Women’s Grand Prix with a final-lap attack from a four-rider move, while Toby Barnes (UV Aube) took the Lister Horsfall Open Grand Prix with a longer, more emphatic solo effort, finishing 44 seconds clear.
Featured image:Matthew Wells/SWpix.com
Report
Milly Grace Jewellery Women’s Grand Prix
The Lloyds National Circuit Series moved from Otley to Ilkley with only two nights between them, but the two races asked very different questions. Otley had been about whether a long solo move could survive. Ilkley was about repetition: 1.5 kilometres, 32 metres of climbing per lap, and the Riddings Road ramp returning often enough to turn pressure into selection.
Anna Morris (Private Member) had finished second at Otley behind Jessica Roberts (Private Member). At Ilkley, on the same circuit where she took her first National Circuit Series victory last year, she went one better.
The race was active almost immediately. By the second lap, Morris and Roberts, winner of the Santini Women’s Otley Grand Prix two nights earlier, were already on the front. On the third lap, Lizzy Gunsalus (CCB Kenetik p/b Levine Law Group) attacked, forcing an early response on a course where even small gaps can become awkward quickly.
Image: Olly Hassell/SWpix.com
After around 12 minutes, the front of the race began to take shape. Morris and Barker (Rapha Cycling Club), the series leader after Otley, were among those present as the leading group began to form. Martin (Loughborough Lightning), Madeline Cooper (Handsling Alba Development Road Team), Josie Knight (DAS-Hutchinson), Roberts and Jenny Holl (Loughborough Lightning) were also in the mix.
From there, the race narrowed by degrees. Morris and Yeoman (DAS-Hutchinson) tried to force a move clear, but the group behind kept them close enough to prevent the split from immediately establishing itself. Jennifer Powell (Performance Development Team) then came forward and began forcing the pace herself, helping to stretch the race before the decisive move formed.
That separation came with around 15 minutes remaining. Morris, Powell, Yeoman and Martin began to move clear, while Barker took responsibility behind, trying to power the chasing group back across. On another circuit, the gap might have remained manageable. At Ilkley, with Riddings Road coming back each lap and the false flat afterwards giving the strongest riders room to continue the effort, the quartet had enough strength to stay away.
Image: Matthew Wells/SWpix.com
The four held their advantage to the finish. Martin led the quartet into the final lap, but Morris had not come to wait for a sprint. As they completed the circuit, she attacked alone, distancing her companions and riding clear to take a fine solo win.
Behind her, Martin held her sprint to take second, edging Yeoman into third, with Powell fourth after helping shape the decisive move.
It was another precise Ilkley performance from Morris: not simply one attack, but an accumulation of pressure, followed by the timing to finish it off. Having animated Otley without winning, she did the same at Ilkley and this time took the result.
Afterwards, Morris described the race as “a race of attrition”, the product of a heavy week that had taken the riders from the National Championships to Otley and then Ilkley. “I had tight legs going in today, but I think everyone did,” she told The British Continental. “It’s been a big week, and I wasn’t sure — I didn’t feel amazing on the bike today — but I’m really happy with that.”
Image: Olly Hassell/SWpix.com
The winning move, she said, came when the pace briefly relented after the climb. “As we got over the top onto the draggy part, the pace kind of started to come off, and I just found a moment. I thought, ‘I’ve got to try now.’ No one responded and luckily that was the winning move.”
Barker’s fifth place, 1:23 down on Morris, was still enough to keep her clear at the top of the Lloyds National Circuit Series. She now leads on 134 points, with Roberts second on 124, Yeoman third on 100 and Morris up to fourth on 98 after her Ilkley victory. Handsling Alba Development Road Team continue to lead the overall team standings, while DAS-Hutchinson topped the team classification on the night.
Lister Horsfall Open Grand Prix
Barnes (UV Aube) had come to Ilkley looking for a race that suited him better than Otley. Two nights earlier, he said, he had felt the legs were there, but the race had not quite fallen his way. Ilkley, with Riddings Road returning every lap and little chance for the bunch to hide, was different. He wanted to be on the front foot from the start. By the end, he had taken that idea to its fullest conclusion.
The race began at a more measured pace than the women’s contest, though Ilkley rarely stays calm for long. By the second lap, Jack Crook (Moda RT) was ahead of Jim Brown (L39ION of Los Angeles), but a large peloton remained close behind and the early speed had not yet begun to shed riders.
The first sharper acceleration came after six minutes, when Barnes began to test the race. The move was closed the following lap, with Matt Bostock (Rapha Cycling Club) prominent on the front, but Barnes was already making himself visible. He was not content to sit back.
Image: Olly Hassell/SWpix.com
Soon, a four-rider group containing Thomas Mein (Hope Factory Racing), Barnes, Jacob Bush (Development Team Picnic PostNL Raisin) and Bostock broke clear. It looked briefly as though it might develop into something more serious, but as the intermediate sprint unfolded a lap later, the bunch came back together. At that stage, no one was letting anything go.
Almost 20 minutes in, Mason made his move. The Alpecin–Premier Tech Development Team rider opened a useful gap, with Bush and Bostock among those heading the chase. Seth Jackson (Hubo–Scott Cycling Team) was also up there with Mason, while Bostock edged closer behind, but the race still refused to settle around a single selection.
That changed five minutes later. Barnes attacked again, this time with more conviction and more damage. Mason set off in pursuit, but Barnes was already moving quickly. So quickly, in fact, that he overtook the lead motorbike going into the first corner — a small detail, but one that said plenty about the force of the move.
From there, the race began to revolve around him. Where earlier attacks had drawn immediate responses, this one started to gain weight with every lap. Barnes later said he had expected a small group to come across, which would have helped reduce the race to something more manageable than a larger front selection. No one did. Instead, he put his head down and kept going.
Picture by Olly Hassell/SWpix.com –
With almost 40 minutes gone, his lead had reached 30 seconds. On a short town-centre circuit, where the chasers had regular glimpses of the road ahead and repeated chances to measure the gap, that was already beginning to look decisive.
Behind, Bush was the rider who came closest to disturbing the shape of the race. He was in the chase for the final five laps, but could not close the gap. Mason, too, was still coming hard behind him, but Barnes had enough in hand to make the victory comfortable rather than desperate.
The race was not without incident. James McKay (Atom 6–Cycleur de Luxe–Auto Stroo Continental Team) crashed at the top of the hill earlier in the race and did not finish.
Barnes, meanwhile, continued to hold the race at distance. By the finish, his advantage had stretched to 44 seconds, enough to win the Lister Horsfall Open Grand Prix alone and with clear daylight behind him.
Afterwards, Barnes said the race had suited the approach he wanted to take. “I didn’t really know how it was going to be ridden, but I just wanted to be on the front foot from the start,” he told The British Continental. “The first laps, I was in moves from the start, feeling good, and then kicked on maybe 20 minutes in. I just got my head down and kept going.”
He had expected company. Once clear, Barnes thought a small group might bridge across, allowing the race to settle into something more manageable than a larger front selection. Instead, the gap held and then grew. “No one came across,” he said. “I was just begging to see five laps to go, then I knew how long I had to keep going.”
Image: SWpix.com
Barnes had left Otley feeling the legs were there, even if the race itself had not quite played to his strengths. Ilkley gave him something different: a hard circuit, a long move, and enough road to turn confidence into clear daylight. “I was confident coming into tonight that I could hopefully do a good ride,” he said.
Bush took second, just ahead of a hard-charging Mason, with Matthew Lord (DAS Richardsons) fourth, three seconds further back. Wood (Rapha Cycling Club) finished fifth, 54 seconds down, a result that kept him at the top of the Lloyds National Circuit Series after three rounds. Benjamin Tuchner (TEKKERZ CC), Callum Laborde (Ornata Factory Racing), Ben Chilton (Laval Cyclisme 53), Denholm Edwards (Cycling Sheffield) and Daniel Barnes (Wold Top Pactimo) completed the top 10.
Wood now leads the series on 134 points, eight ahead of Mason, with Laborde third on 106 and Aaron King (Wheelbase CabTech Castelli) fourth on 100. Wheelbase CabTech Castelli continue to lead the team standings, ahead of DAS Richardsons and Cycling Sheffield.
For Barnes, it was the perfect end to a short spell back on British roads before returning to France. Guildford comes next on Wednesday, then it is back across the Channel for the rest of his season. Ilkley, though, was a reminder of what happens when a rider with legs, intent and the right circuit refuses to wait.
Ilkley came two nights after Otley, but it asked a different question. Where Otley had stretched between escape and sprint, the Lloyds National Circuit Series’ third round was shaped by attrition: the Riddings Road ramp returning lap after lap until the races broke.
Anna Morris (Private Member) won the Milly Grace Jewellery Women’s Grand Prix with a final-lap attack from a four-rider move, while Toby Barnes (UV Aube) took the Lister Horsfall Open Grand Prix with a longer, more emphatic solo effort, finishing 44 seconds clear.
Featured image: Matthew Wells/SWpix.com
Report
Milly Grace Jewellery Women’s Grand Prix
The Lloyds National Circuit Series moved from Otley to Ilkley with only two nights between them, but the two races asked very different questions. Otley had been about whether a long solo move could survive. Ilkley was about repetition: 1.5 kilometres, 32 metres of climbing per lap, and the Riddings Road ramp returning often enough to turn pressure into selection.
Anna Morris (Private Member) had finished second at Otley behind Jessica Roberts (Private Member). At Ilkley, on the same circuit where she took her first National Circuit Series victory last year, she went one better.
The race was active almost immediately. By the second lap, Morris and Roberts, winner of the Santini Women’s Otley Grand Prix two nights earlier, were already on the front. On the third lap, Lizzy Gunsalus (CCB Kenetik p/b Levine Law Group) attacked, forcing an early response on a course where even small gaps can become awkward quickly.
After around 12 minutes, the front of the race began to take shape. Morris and Barker (Rapha Cycling Club), the series leader after Otley, were among those present as the leading group began to form. Martin (Loughborough Lightning), Madeline Cooper (Handsling Alba Development Road Team), Josie Knight (DAS-Hutchinson), Roberts and Jenny Holl (Loughborough Lightning) were also in the mix.
From there, the race narrowed by degrees. Morris and Yeoman (DAS-Hutchinson) tried to force a move clear, but the group behind kept them close enough to prevent the split from immediately establishing itself. Jennifer Powell (Performance Development Team) then came forward and began forcing the pace herself, helping to stretch the race before the decisive move formed.
That separation came with around 15 minutes remaining. Morris, Powell, Yeoman and Martin began to move clear, while Barker took responsibility behind, trying to power the chasing group back across. On another circuit, the gap might have remained manageable. At Ilkley, with Riddings Road coming back each lap and the false flat afterwards giving the strongest riders room to continue the effort, the quartet had enough strength to stay away.
The four held their advantage to the finish. Martin led the quartet into the final lap, but Morris had not come to wait for a sprint. As they completed the circuit, she attacked alone, distancing her companions and riding clear to take a fine solo win.
Behind her, Martin held her sprint to take second, edging Yeoman into third, with Powell fourth after helping shape the decisive move.
It was another precise Ilkley performance from Morris: not simply one attack, but an accumulation of pressure, followed by the timing to finish it off. Having animated Otley without winning, she did the same at Ilkley and this time took the result.
Afterwards, Morris described the race as “a race of attrition”, the product of a heavy week that had taken the riders from the National Championships to Otley and then Ilkley. “I had tight legs going in today, but I think everyone did,” she told The British Continental. “It’s been a big week, and I wasn’t sure — I didn’t feel amazing on the bike today — but I’m really happy with that.”
The winning move, she said, came when the pace briefly relented after the climb. “As we got over the top onto the draggy part, the pace kind of started to come off, and I just found a moment. I thought, ‘I’ve got to try now.’ No one responded and luckily that was the winning move.”
Barker’s fifth place, 1:23 down on Morris, was still enough to keep her clear at the top of the Lloyds National Circuit Series. She now leads on 134 points, with Roberts second on 124, Yeoman third on 100 and Morris up to fourth on 98 after her Ilkley victory. Handsling Alba Development Road Team continue to lead the overall team standings, while DAS-Hutchinson topped the team classification on the night.
Lister Horsfall Open Grand Prix
Barnes (UV Aube) had come to Ilkley looking for a race that suited him better than Otley. Two nights earlier, he said, he had felt the legs were there, but the race had not quite fallen his way. Ilkley, with Riddings Road returning every lap and little chance for the bunch to hide, was different. He wanted to be on the front foot from the start. By the end, he had taken that idea to its fullest conclusion.
The race began at a more measured pace than the women’s contest, though Ilkley rarely stays calm for long. By the second lap, Jack Crook (Moda RT) was ahead of Jim Brown (L39ION of Los Angeles), but a large peloton remained close behind and the early speed had not yet begun to shed riders.
The first sharper acceleration came after six minutes, when Barnes began to test the race. The move was closed the following lap, with Matt Bostock (Rapha Cycling Club) prominent on the front, but Barnes was already making himself visible. He was not content to sit back.
Soon, a four-rider group containing Thomas Mein (Hope Factory Racing), Barnes, Jacob Bush (Development Team Picnic PostNL Raisin) and Bostock broke clear. It looked briefly as though it might develop into something more serious, but as the intermediate sprint unfolded a lap later, the bunch came back together. At that stage, no one was letting anything go.
Almost 20 minutes in, Mason made his move. The Alpecin–Premier Tech Development Team rider opened a useful gap, with Bush and Bostock among those heading the chase. Seth Jackson (Hubo–Scott Cycling Team) was also up there with Mason, while Bostock edged closer behind, but the race still refused to settle around a single selection.
That changed five minutes later. Barnes attacked again, this time with more conviction and more damage. Mason set off in pursuit, but Barnes was already moving quickly. So quickly, in fact, that he overtook the lead motorbike going into the first corner — a small detail, but one that said plenty about the force of the move.
From there, the race began to revolve around him. Where earlier attacks had drawn immediate responses, this one started to gain weight with every lap. Barnes later said he had expected a small group to come across, which would have helped reduce the race to something more manageable than a larger front selection. No one did. Instead, he put his head down and kept going.
With almost 40 minutes gone, his lead had reached 30 seconds. On a short town-centre circuit, where the chasers had regular glimpses of the road ahead and repeated chances to measure the gap, that was already beginning to look decisive.
Behind, Bush was the rider who came closest to disturbing the shape of the race. He was in the chase for the final five laps, but could not close the gap. Mason, too, was still coming hard behind him, but Barnes had enough in hand to make the victory comfortable rather than desperate.
The race was not without incident. James McKay (Atom 6–Cycleur de Luxe–Auto Stroo Continental Team) crashed at the top of the hill earlier in the race and did not finish.
Barnes, meanwhile, continued to hold the race at distance. By the finish, his advantage had stretched to 44 seconds, enough to win the Lister Horsfall Open Grand Prix alone and with clear daylight behind him.
Afterwards, Barnes said the race had suited the approach he wanted to take. “I didn’t really know how it was going to be ridden, but I just wanted to be on the front foot from the start,” he told The British Continental. “The first laps, I was in moves from the start, feeling good, and then kicked on maybe 20 minutes in. I just got my head down and kept going.”
He had expected company. Once clear, Barnes thought a small group might bridge across, allowing the race to settle into something more manageable than a larger front selection. Instead, the gap held and then grew. “No one came across,” he said. “I was just begging to see five laps to go, then I knew how long I had to keep going.”
Barnes had left Otley feeling the legs were there, even if the race itself had not quite played to his strengths. Ilkley gave him something different: a hard circuit, a long move, and enough road to turn confidence into clear daylight. “I was confident coming into tonight that I could hopefully do a good ride,” he said.
Bush took second, just ahead of a hard-charging Mason, with Matthew Lord (DAS Richardsons) fourth, three seconds further back. Wood (Rapha Cycling Club) finished fifth, 54 seconds down, a result that kept him at the top of the Lloyds National Circuit Series after three rounds. Benjamin Tuchner (TEKKERZ CC), Callum Laborde (Ornata Factory Racing), Ben Chilton (Laval Cyclisme 53), Denholm Edwards (Cycling Sheffield) and Daniel Barnes (Wold Top Pactimo) completed the top 10.
Wood now leads the series on 134 points, eight ahead of Mason, with Laborde third on 106 and Aaron King (Wheelbase CabTech Castelli) fourth on 100. Wheelbase CabTech Castelli continue to lead the team standings, ahead of DAS Richardsons and Cycling Sheffield.
For Barnes, it was the perfect end to a short spell back on British roads before returning to France. Guildford comes next on Wednesday, then it is back across the Channel for the rest of his season. Ilkley, though, was a reminder of what happens when a rider with legs, intent and the right circuit refuses to wait.
Results
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