What we learned from Otley: private members, absent Contis, and a tightening title race
Jessica Roberts and Josh Giddings lit up Otley's high street on Wednesday night. As the National Circuit Series rolls a few miles up the A660 to Ilkley this evening, Jack Beavis picks out the threads that matter for the Rapha Super-League.
The Otley Cycle Races again delivered on their reputation as the centrepiece of British criterium racing. Crowds packed the high street on a night when Jessica Roberts added her name to an illustrious list of winners with a solo attack of real conviction, while WorldTour rider Josh Giddings produced a late display showing exactly why he plies his trade at the sport’s top level.
With the riders back in action just up the road in Ilkley tonight (Friday 3 July) as the National Circuit Series reaches its third round, here is what Wednesday’s two races told us about the shape of the Rapha Super-League.
The private members assert their dominance
Jess Roberts telegraphed her plans for Otley all the way from the Welsh coast a week ago, trying again and again to break the sprinters’ resolve and ride away to become national champion alone.
Having not succeeded, she arrived in Yorkshire still in the familiar black skinsuit of a private member—a kit quickly becoming recognised as one to watch, its stealth-like plainness belying the force with which it is raced. Roberts and Anna Morris are now near-permanent fixtures at the front of whichever town-centre race they descend on.
It was no surprise, then, that the pair created the race’s winning move—Morris launching the sort of attack we have grown used to, no matter the occasion, with Roberts finally breaking free of the bunch to join her on a course just tough enough for the strongest legs to tell.
Image: Milan Josy/The British Continental
And it was Roberts who kept telling. The former national road race champion marked the start of July by channelling Wout van Aert on Montmartre 12 months ago, setting off alone up the long drag of Barras Lane for her biggest road win since this side of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Crossing the line almost 20 seconds ahead of the bunch, Roberts had achieved what she could not on the Welsh coast. It was not the national champion’s jersey she so wanted, but a win in Otley is a worthy consolation.
In second was Morris—a remarkable ride from a remarkable athlete. Her race ran according to convention as she was swallowed by the bunch after attacking, yet her pack of matches proved everlasting: she outsprinted some of the fastest specialists on the finishing straight at the end of a punishingly hard race. There seems little Morris cannot do. One of the most consistent riders in the bunch, she is at home on the attack or in a sprint finish, and every team must be wondering how to prise her, and Roberts, out of their black skinsuits.
Morris now sits 35 points adrift of the Rapha Super-League lead. Having come close to usurping Robyn Clay last year, she has the experience, and the ability, to go one better.
DAS–Hutchinson blow cold as Cooper salvages Handsling Alba’s night
While Roberts and Morris commanded the race, DAS–Hutchinson were barely visible beyond the early stages—the team that had won the three previous editions reduced to bystanders.
It was a stark contrast to Sunday’s road race in Aberystwyth, where Josie Knight, all but anonymous in Otley, secured a silver medal to remember and Noémie Thomson rounded out the top 10 on her return from injury. Here, Simon Howes’ riders never threatened, Tiffany Keep their best finisher in 21st.
For Rapha Super-League leader Morven Yeoman it was far from the strong finish many predicted could all but settle the title. She was left stranded in a points-less 23rd, her saving grace the absence of her major rivals: only Maddie Cooper made real headway on her lead, leapfrogging Noémie Thomson into second place, now 22 points adrift.
Image: Milan Josy/The British Continental
Cooper was the sole highlight for Handsling Alba Development Road Team, who without Kate Richardson and Izzy Sharp looked a shadow of the squad that took the race to Belgian heavyweights AG Insurance–Soudal at the City of London Nocturne, Bob Lyons’ charges powerless to stop Roberts riding away.
Both squads’ struggles are a further symptom of what has played out across the National Road Series this year: Britain’s top two UCI Continental women’s teams have not consistently sent their best squads, or their riders in the best form, to race at home. The lure of UCI points in road races across Europe takes priority, and hour-long circuit races at the height of the season slip down the list—to the gain of everyone else on the startline. It makes for exciting, open racing. The standard, and the spectacle, suffer for it.
Wood makes his move as Armstrong banks another quiet return
Given the speed with which Ollie Wood pursued Josh Giddings down the final kilometre of descent on Wednesday, he may feel disappointed not to have pulled off something remarkable, having pressured the WorldTour rider all the way to the line from a near-impossible position.
It was further proof that Wood is riding as well as he ever has, backing up 6th place in Sunday’s National Road Race Championships with 2nd in Otley and a haul of Rapha Super-League points to go with it. The Rapha Lincoln Grand Prix winner now sits second in the standings, 22 points behind Thomas Armstrong—and with the North Yorkshire Grand Prix still to come, a race he won back in 2017 in its Ryedale Grand Prix days, he has reason to believe the gap can close.
Image: Milan Josy/The British Continental
With his best road results coming the better part of a decade ago, one wonders how good the 30-year-old might have been had he weighted the road over the track, where he has been a team pursuit world champion, in those years.
Armstrong, meanwhile, enjoyed a low-key yet productive evening, sprinting to 6th and banking 22 points. One of the most consistent riders in the country, his ability to sprint well from a group of that size—and to make the winning moves in Britain’s toughest road races—makes him a difficult man to beat.
Bostock’s bad luck denies a WorldTour showdown
Armstrong’s title hopes were done no harm by the sight of newly crowned national champion Matt Bostock pulling over halfway through the race with a suspected rear puncture—the case for reinstating the lap-out rule never stronger than the moment he told the commissaire he would take no further part, exiting stage right.
Image: Milan Josy/The British Continental
Beyond the Manxman’s personal disappointment, the crowds were denied Bostock at his brilliant best. Giddings put together a tactically astute, brutally powerful final few laps alone; it would have been fascinating to watch Bostock measure himself against opposition from the sport’s top tier.
There will be further chances for the 28-year-old to win in the jersey he wanted so badly. His hopes of defending the Rapha Super-League crown, though, are dwindling. With only two criterium rounds left, a non-scoring night in Otley—his second of the season lost to mechanical trouble—leaves him 41 points behind Armstrong, a long way from the points haul he started the evening favourite to claim.
Featured image: Milan Josy/The British Continental
Two brilliant races, two worthy winners.
The Otley Cycle Races again delivered on their reputation as the centrepiece of British criterium racing. Crowds packed the high street on a night when Jessica Roberts added her name to an illustrious list of winners with a solo attack of real conviction, while WorldTour rider Josh Giddings produced a late display showing exactly why he plies his trade at the sport’s top level.
With the riders back in action just up the road in Ilkley tonight (Friday 3 July) as the National Circuit Series reaches its third round, here is what Wednesday’s two races told us about the shape of the Rapha Super-League.
The private members assert their dominance
Jess Roberts telegraphed her plans for Otley all the way from the Welsh coast a week ago, trying again and again to break the sprinters’ resolve and ride away to become national champion alone.
Having not succeeded, she arrived in Yorkshire still in the familiar black skinsuit of a private member—a kit quickly becoming recognised as one to watch, its stealth-like plainness belying the force with which it is raced. Roberts and Anna Morris are now near-permanent fixtures at the front of whichever town-centre race they descend on.
It was no surprise, then, that the pair created the race’s winning move—Morris launching the sort of attack we have grown used to, no matter the occasion, with Roberts finally breaking free of the bunch to join her on a course just tough enough for the strongest legs to tell.
And it was Roberts who kept telling. The former national road race champion marked the start of July by channelling Wout van Aert on Montmartre 12 months ago, setting off alone up the long drag of Barras Lane for her biggest road win since this side of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Crossing the line almost 20 seconds ahead of the bunch, Roberts had achieved what she could not on the Welsh coast. It was not the national champion’s jersey she so wanted, but a win in Otley is a worthy consolation.
In second was Morris—a remarkable ride from a remarkable athlete. Her race ran according to convention as she was swallowed by the bunch after attacking, yet her pack of matches proved everlasting: she outsprinted some of the fastest specialists on the finishing straight at the end of a punishingly hard race. There seems little Morris cannot do. One of the most consistent riders in the bunch, she is at home on the attack or in a sprint finish, and every team must be wondering how to prise her, and Roberts, out of their black skinsuits.
Morris now sits 35 points adrift of the Rapha Super-League lead. Having come close to usurping Robyn Clay last year, she has the experience, and the ability, to go one better.
DAS–Hutchinson blow cold as Cooper salvages Handsling Alba’s night
While Roberts and Morris commanded the race, DAS–Hutchinson were barely visible beyond the early stages—the team that had won the three previous editions reduced to bystanders.
It was a stark contrast to Sunday’s road race in Aberystwyth, where Josie Knight, all but anonymous in Otley, secured a silver medal to remember and Noémie Thomson rounded out the top 10 on her return from injury. Here, Simon Howes’ riders never threatened, Tiffany Keep their best finisher in 21st.
For Rapha Super-League leader Morven Yeoman it was far from the strong finish many predicted could all but settle the title. She was left stranded in a points-less 23rd, her saving grace the absence of her major rivals: only Maddie Cooper made real headway on her lead, leapfrogging Noémie Thomson into second place, now 22 points adrift.
Cooper was the sole highlight for Handsling Alba Development Road Team, who without Kate Richardson and Izzy Sharp looked a shadow of the squad that took the race to Belgian heavyweights AG Insurance–Soudal at the City of London Nocturne, Bob Lyons’ charges powerless to stop Roberts riding away.
Both squads’ struggles are a further symptom of what has played out across the National Road Series this year: Britain’s top two UCI Continental women’s teams have not consistently sent their best squads, or their riders in the best form, to race at home. The lure of UCI points in road races across Europe takes priority, and hour-long circuit races at the height of the season slip down the list—to the gain of everyone else on the startline. It makes for exciting, open racing. The standard, and the spectacle, suffer for it.
Wood makes his move as Armstrong banks another quiet return
Given the speed with which Ollie Wood pursued Josh Giddings down the final kilometre of descent on Wednesday, he may feel disappointed not to have pulled off something remarkable, having pressured the WorldTour rider all the way to the line from a near-impossible position.
It was further proof that Wood is riding as well as he ever has, backing up 6th place in Sunday’s National Road Race Championships with 2nd in Otley and a haul of Rapha Super-League points to go with it. The Rapha Lincoln Grand Prix winner now sits second in the standings, 22 points behind Thomas Armstrong—and with the North Yorkshire Grand Prix still to come, a race he won back in 2017 in its Ryedale Grand Prix days, he has reason to believe the gap can close.
With his best road results coming the better part of a decade ago, one wonders how good the 30-year-old might have been had he weighted the road over the track, where he has been a team pursuit world champion, in those years.
Armstrong, meanwhile, enjoyed a low-key yet productive evening, sprinting to 6th and banking 22 points. One of the most consistent riders in the country, his ability to sprint well from a group of that size—and to make the winning moves in Britain’s toughest road races—makes him a difficult man to beat.
Bostock’s bad luck denies a WorldTour showdown
Armstrong’s title hopes were done no harm by the sight of newly crowned national champion Matt Bostock pulling over halfway through the race with a suspected rear puncture—the case for reinstating the lap-out rule never stronger than the moment he told the commissaire he would take no further part, exiting stage right.
Beyond the Manxman’s personal disappointment, the crowds were denied Bostock at his brilliant best. Giddings put together a tactically astute, brutally powerful final few laps alone; it would have been fascinating to watch Bostock measure himself against opposition from the sport’s top tier.
There will be further chances for the 28-year-old to win in the jersey he wanted so badly. His hopes of defending the Rapha Super-League crown, though, are dwindling. With only two criterium rounds left, a non-scoring night in Otley—his second of the season lost to mechanical trouble—leaves him 41 points behind Armstrong, a long way from the points haul he started the evening favourite to claim.
Featured image: Milan Josy/The British Continental
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