2026 Guildford Town Centre Races: report and results
Madeline Cooper's long-promised first National Circuit Series victory arrived on the Guildford cobbles on Wednesday, 8 July. Just over an hour later, Thomas Armstrong ended a wait of his own, the defending series champion out-sprinting a four-rider break for his first career win in the series.
Madeline Cooper’s long-promised first National Circuit Series victory arrived on the Guildford cobbles—and, just over an hour later, Thomas Armstrong ended a wait of his own, the defending series champion out-sprinting a four-rider break for his first career win in the series.
Featured image:Mathew Wells/SWpix.com
Report
The Greyfriars Vineyard Guildford Women’s Grand Prix
Madeline Cooper had been close often enough for this to feel less like a surprise than a correction. Twelve months after finishing second at the Guildford Town Centre Races, the Handsling Alba Development Road Team rider returned to Surrey and went one better, beating Lucy Lee (DAS–Hutchinson) in a two-rider finish to take the biggest win of her career.
It was also a victory with consequences beyond the night itself. Round 4 of the Lloyds National Circuit Series arrived with several of the main contenders missing. Megan Barker, Jessica Roberts and Anna Morris were absent; Morven Yeoman, named on the startlist, did not start. Cooper had spent the first half of the Series making the front group without winning. On Wednesday night, on the short, awkward, cobbled circuit where she had been the only rider to interrupt DAS–Hutchinson’s near-sweep a year earlier, she finally turned consistency into a result.
Image: Mathew Wells/SWpix.com
Guildford is not a sprinters’ circuit in the usual sense. The finish straight is barely 200 metres and rises over the setts, but the race is usually decided long before the last kick. The lap is narrow, technical and stop-start, with corners arriving quickly and little room to recover once the field is stretched. Riders who lose position early can spend the rest of the evening chasing the race rather than riding it.
Cooper and Lee were where they needed to be when the decisive move went. Once clear, they were not brought back. Behind them, the chase never gathered enough force or organisation to threaten the pair, and by five laps to go the gap had reached 20 seconds. On a circuit like Guildford, that was more than a time gap. It was control.
Lee had finished third here last year and was chasing a first win of her own at the race. Cooper had arrived with the stronger Series case but still without the one thing her season was missing. When they reached the final rise, Cooper settled it cleanly. The official margin was one second, but the finish looked more emphatic than that, Cooper opening enough daylight on the cobbles to make the result plain before the line.
Isabel Mayes (O’Shea Red Chilli Bikes) finished third, 50 seconds down, leading home a group that also contained Xan Crees (OGT pb USE), Isabel Darvill, Evie Smith (O’Shea Red Chilli Bikes), Mari Porton (Handsling Alba Development Road Team), Phoebe Roche (FTP-Fulfil The Potential-Racing), Freya Whiteside (Simpson Nouvelles) and Honor Elliott.
Image: Mathew Wells/SWpix.com
The sprint competition added another layer to the evening. Cooper was the leading scorer on the night, taking 18 points across the two intermediate sprints, ahead of Mayes on 16 and Lee on 14. But Mayes’ haul was enough to keep her at the head of the overall National Sprint Competition, where she now leads on 44 points.
For Cooper, the bigger prize was the Series lead. Her 50 points lifted her to 140 overall, six clear of Barker and nine ahead of Evie Smith. Handsling Alba also won the team prize on the night and extended their position at the top of the team standings, with DAS–Hutchinson second overall and O’Shea Red Chilli Bikes third.
DAS–Hutchinson still left with Lee on the podium, maintaining their strong recent record at Guildford. But this was Cooper’s night. A year after being the rider who stopped DAS from filling the podium, she became the rider who beat them to the win.
The Cycle Exchange Guildford Open Grand Prix
Thomas Armstrong won the National Circuit Series last year without winning a race in it. That statistical oddity did not survive Guildford.
The Wheelbase CabTech Castelli rider, fourth here in 2025, returned to the town centre circuit and took his first Series round victory, attacking from a four-rider break on the final climb of the cobbles to win alone. It was a measured, forceful ride from a defending champion whose campaign had been building without quite catching fire.
The race was missing one of its obvious reference points. Milo Wills, last year’s winner and the headline name on the startlist, did not start. In his absence, the race settled early around four riders willing to take responsibility: Armstrong, Toby Barnes (UV Aube), Mak Larkin (GMS Cycling Team Glabbeek) and Callum Laborde (Ornata Factory Racing).
They were away inside the opening quarter of the race. By 12 minutes, they had a clear gap. Alec Briggs tried to bridge alone and got to within 14 seconds before being brought back, but the front four held their advantage at roughly half a minute for much of the hour.
Image: Mathew Wells/SWpix.com
That made the race look more stable than it was. Guildford rarely allows a break to relax. The course is too short, too technical and too exposed to sudden changes in momentum. The leaders had the right composition and enough strength, but never quite the safety margin to treat the final laps as a formality.
The threat came from Danylo Riwnyj (Foran CT). A year after animating the same race, he went again, this time alone, and produced the ride that almost altered the result. With 11 laps remaining he was 27 seconds behind. With six laps to go the gap was 24 seconds. Then it began to fall quickly: seven seconds with five laps left, and with three to go he had made the catch.
His moment at the front did not last, however. He had spent a huge amount getting there, and when the four in front lifted the pace on the final lap, Riwnyj’s engine blew, leaving him to finish fifth, nine seconds down, alone between the break and the remains of the bunch.
His chase hardened the finale. Armstrong, Barnes, Larkin and Laborde had been made to race all the way to the line, and when they reached the final climb there was no waiting game left. Armstrong attacked on the cobbles and made the race his own, crossing the line clear of the rest.
Barnes, in his final British race before returning to France, beat Larkin for second. Third was still a notable result for Larkin, who had been prominent throughout the evening and repeatedly put himself into the race rather than merely following it. He also topped the sprint competition on the night, level on points with Laborde but ahead on countback after winning the first intermediate sprint.
Image: Mathew Wells/SWpix.com
Laborde finished fourth, completing the break and extending his run of top-10 finishes to every round of the Series. Riwnyj was fifth after his long chase. Oliver Curd (DAS Richardsons) led in the remnants of the bunch at 48 seconds, while Gabriel Dellar and Caleb Pain made it three Ride Revolution Coaching riders in the top eight. Evander Wishart, newly crowned junior national road race champion, was ninth on his elite Series debut, three days after winning the title at Beckwithshaw.
For Armstrong, whose Series so far had brought 15th at Colne and sixth at Otley after leading the chase, this was the missing result. The defending champion now has the round win that eluded him throughout last year’s title campaign.
But the Series lead changed hands elsewhere in the break. Laborde’s fourth place, his fourth top-10 finish in four rounds, lifted him to 150 points and ahead of Armstrong, Ollie Wood, Aaron King and Cameron Mason. He has not yet won a round, nor finished on the podium. He has simply kept scoring. With two rounds left, that has been enough to put him in the lead.
Wheelbase CabTech Castelli also tightened their grip on the team standings. Armstrong’s win, backed up by Aaron King in 11th and Joe Griffiths in 27th, gave them the team prize on the night and moved them to 371 points overall, ahead of DAS Richardsons and Ride Revolution Coaching.
Madeline Cooper’s long-promised first National Circuit Series victory arrived on the Guildford cobbles—and, just over an hour later, Thomas Armstrong ended a wait of his own, the defending series champion out-sprinting a four-rider break for his first career win in the series.
Featured image: Mathew Wells/SWpix.com
Report
The Greyfriars Vineyard Guildford Women’s Grand Prix
Madeline Cooper had been close often enough for this to feel less like a surprise than a correction. Twelve months after finishing second at the Guildford Town Centre Races, the Handsling Alba Development Road Team rider returned to Surrey and went one better, beating Lucy Lee (DAS–Hutchinson) in a two-rider finish to take the biggest win of her career.
It was also a victory with consequences beyond the night itself. Round 4 of the Lloyds National Circuit Series arrived with several of the main contenders missing. Megan Barker, Jessica Roberts and Anna Morris were absent; Morven Yeoman, named on the startlist, did not start. Cooper had spent the first half of the Series making the front group without winning. On Wednesday night, on the short, awkward, cobbled circuit where she had been the only rider to interrupt DAS–Hutchinson’s near-sweep a year earlier, she finally turned consistency into a result.
Guildford is not a sprinters’ circuit in the usual sense. The finish straight is barely 200 metres and rises over the setts, but the race is usually decided long before the last kick. The lap is narrow, technical and stop-start, with corners arriving quickly and little room to recover once the field is stretched. Riders who lose position early can spend the rest of the evening chasing the race rather than riding it.
Cooper and Lee were where they needed to be when the decisive move went. Once clear, they were not brought back. Behind them, the chase never gathered enough force or organisation to threaten the pair, and by five laps to go the gap had reached 20 seconds. On a circuit like Guildford, that was more than a time gap. It was control.
Lee had finished third here last year and was chasing a first win of her own at the race. Cooper had arrived with the stronger Series case but still without the one thing her season was missing. When they reached the final rise, Cooper settled it cleanly. The official margin was one second, but the finish looked more emphatic than that, Cooper opening enough daylight on the cobbles to make the result plain before the line.
Isabel Mayes (O’Shea Red Chilli Bikes) finished third, 50 seconds down, leading home a group that also contained Xan Crees (OGT pb USE), Isabel Darvill, Evie Smith (O’Shea Red Chilli Bikes), Mari Porton (Handsling Alba Development Road Team), Phoebe Roche (FTP-Fulfil The Potential-Racing), Freya Whiteside (Simpson Nouvelles) and Honor Elliott.
The sprint competition added another layer to the evening. Cooper was the leading scorer on the night, taking 18 points across the two intermediate sprints, ahead of Mayes on 16 and Lee on 14. But Mayes’ haul was enough to keep her at the head of the overall National Sprint Competition, where she now leads on 44 points.
For Cooper, the bigger prize was the Series lead. Her 50 points lifted her to 140 overall, six clear of Barker and nine ahead of Evie Smith. Handsling Alba also won the team prize on the night and extended their position at the top of the team standings, with DAS–Hutchinson second overall and O’Shea Red Chilli Bikes third.
DAS–Hutchinson still left with Lee on the podium, maintaining their strong recent record at Guildford. But this was Cooper’s night. A year after being the rider who stopped DAS from filling the podium, she became the rider who beat them to the win.
The Cycle Exchange Guildford Open Grand Prix
Thomas Armstrong won the National Circuit Series last year without winning a race in it. That statistical oddity did not survive Guildford.
The Wheelbase CabTech Castelli rider, fourth here in 2025, returned to the town centre circuit and took his first Series round victory, attacking from a four-rider break on the final climb of the cobbles to win alone. It was a measured, forceful ride from a defending champion whose campaign had been building without quite catching fire.
The race was missing one of its obvious reference points. Milo Wills, last year’s winner and the headline name on the startlist, did not start. In his absence, the race settled early around four riders willing to take responsibility: Armstrong, Toby Barnes (UV Aube), Mak Larkin (GMS Cycling Team Glabbeek) and Callum Laborde (Ornata Factory Racing).
They were away inside the opening quarter of the race. By 12 minutes, they had a clear gap. Alec Briggs tried to bridge alone and got to within 14 seconds before being brought back, but the front four held their advantage at roughly half a minute for much of the hour.
That made the race look more stable than it was. Guildford rarely allows a break to relax. The course is too short, too technical and too exposed to sudden changes in momentum. The leaders had the right composition and enough strength, but never quite the safety margin to treat the final laps as a formality.
The threat came from Danylo Riwnyj (Foran CT). A year after animating the same race, he went again, this time alone, and produced the ride that almost altered the result. With 11 laps remaining he was 27 seconds behind. With six laps to go the gap was 24 seconds. Then it began to fall quickly: seven seconds with five laps left, and with three to go he had made the catch.
His moment at the front did not last, however. He had spent a huge amount getting there, and when the four in front lifted the pace on the final lap, Riwnyj’s engine blew, leaving him to finish fifth, nine seconds down, alone between the break and the remains of the bunch.
His chase hardened the finale. Armstrong, Barnes, Larkin and Laborde had been made to race all the way to the line, and when they reached the final climb there was no waiting game left. Armstrong attacked on the cobbles and made the race his own, crossing the line clear of the rest.
Barnes, in his final British race before returning to France, beat Larkin for second. Third was still a notable result for Larkin, who had been prominent throughout the evening and repeatedly put himself into the race rather than merely following it. He also topped the sprint competition on the night, level on points with Laborde but ahead on countback after winning the first intermediate sprint.
Laborde finished fourth, completing the break and extending his run of top-10 finishes to every round of the Series. Riwnyj was fifth after his long chase. Oliver Curd (DAS Richardsons) led in the remnants of the bunch at 48 seconds, while Gabriel Dellar and Caleb Pain made it three Ride Revolution Coaching riders in the top eight. Evander Wishart, newly crowned junior national road race champion, was ninth on his elite Series debut, three days after winning the title at Beckwithshaw.
For Armstrong, whose Series so far had brought 15th at Colne and sixth at Otley after leading the chase, this was the missing result. The defending champion now has the round win that eluded him throughout last year’s title campaign.
But the Series lead changed hands elsewhere in the break. Laborde’s fourth place, his fourth top-10 finish in four rounds, lifted him to 150 points and ahead of Armstrong, Ollie Wood, Aaron King and Cameron Mason. He has not yet won a round, nor finished on the podium. He has simply kept scoring. With two rounds left, that has been enough to put him in the lead.
Wheelbase CabTech Castelli also tightened their grip on the team standings. Armstrong’s win, backed up by Aaron King in 11th and Joe Griffiths in 27th, gave them the team prize on the night and moved them to 371 points overall, ahead of DAS Richardsons and Ride Revolution Coaching.
Results
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