The Rapha Super-League and National Circuit Series converge on Dawlish seafront on Friday 17 July, with Megan Barker poised to reclaim the women’s series lead, Morven Yeoman able to strengthen her grip on the Super-League and Guildford winner Thomas Armstrong chasing back-to-back victories.
Between the sea wall and Brunel’s railway, Dawlish will offer the National Circuit Series its purest test of speed on Friday 17 July. The 1.1-kilometre lap is flat, exposed and unforgiving: position is difficult to regain, hesitation is punished and the final sprint begins long before the finishing straight.
The second Dawlish Grand Prix is also the second of only two nights this season on which the National Circuit Series and Rapha Super-League share a startline. Madeline Cooper’s absence leaves the women’s circuit series lead exposed, Morven Yeoman has an opportunity to put further distance between herself and her Super-League rivals, and Tom Armstrong arrives eight days after finally turning his consistency into victory at Guildford.
Featured image: Olly Hassell/SWpix.com
What is it?
A Friday-night criterium around a pan-flat, 1.1-kilometre circuit on the Dawlish seafront, back for a second year after a well-received debut and promoted, in a sense, from epilogue to plot: the race that closed the 2025 National Circuit Series now sits as its penultimate round, five days before the Sheffield finale. It remains the series’ only visit to the South West, brought to the town by the British Cycling South West Board and Road Racing Group in partnership with Dawlish Town Council, with an evening programme that opens with the V.O.T 3/4 support race before the two showpiece events—The Shoe Centre & Co Elite Women’s Race and The Crealy Elite Open Race, both run over the familiar 50-minute format.
The debut edition delivered exactly what a flat seafront kilometre promises. Anna Morris out-sprinted Sophie Lewis to seal the 2025 women’s series title on the night, while Matt Bostock edged Frank Longstaff by a wheel in the open race—two finishes decided by speed and speed alone. Neither winner returns this year, but Longstaff does, and the nature of the circuit has not changed: this is the sprinters’ round of the series, the antithesis of Guildford’s cobbled ramp and Ilkley’s hilly hell.
2025 Dawlish Grand Prix. Image: Olly Hassell/SWpix.com
Round five of the Rapha Super-League
Friday is one of only two nights this season when the Super-League and the National Circuit Series land on the same startline—Otley was the first—and both competitions arrive finely poised.
In the League, Dawlish carries 24 points for the win, the lowest-weighted round on the calendar, with second worth 19 and the scale falling a point per place to 20th. Modest, but not meaningless: both 2025 titles were decided by five points, and with only three rounds to come afterwards, this is the crit specialists’ penultimate night before the League tilts towards the road.
Thomas Armstrong leads the open standings on 106 points from Oliver Wood on 84, with defending champion Matt Bostock — absent while preparing with the Isle of Man team for the Commonwealth Games — third on 63. In the women’s League, Morven Yeoman holds a commanding lead on 91 from Madeline Cooper on 69, and with Cooper missing from the startlist, the Scot has a clear night to stretch it: victory would take her 46 points clear, with no remaining round worth more than 27.
The race also doubles as Round 5 of the National Circuit Series, where the picture is just as live. Callum Laborde leads the open standings on 150 after four rounds of relentless consistency, while Cooper’s absence in the women’s competition leaves the lead she took at Guildford undefended—Megan Barker, six points back on 134, needs only a solid night to reclaim it. Isabel Mayes leads the women’s National Sprint Competition on 44 points, with two more intermediate sprints on offer.
Route
Little has changed from the lap that made such an impression on debut: start and finish on The Strand, the wide seafront drag, before the circuit turns inland through Alexandra Road and Brunswick Place, skirts the station on Station Road, and returns via Piermont Place to the front. It is short, flat and quick, with the corners doing the damage that gradients do elsewhere—and the sea breeze an invisible extra difficulty on the exposed sections.
Positioning, as ever on a kilometre lap, is everything: gridding is merit-led, and the series standings decide who starts at the front.
Timings
The V.O.T Open 3/4 Support Race – 18.00
The Shoe Centre & Co Elite Women’s Race – 19.00
The Crealy Elite Open Race – 20.00
The Strand closes to traffic from 15.00, with the full circuit closed from 17.00.
How to follow
The British Continental will have a full report from Dawlish on Friday night, including results from both races. Monument TV are streaming the race.
Riders to watch
Women’s
Let’s start with who is missing. Madeline Cooper, who won Guildford last week to take the circuit series lead, is not on the startlist—and her absence redraws both competitions at a stroke. In the National Circuit Series, Meg Barker (Rapha Cycling Club) sits six points back and arrives in the national champion’s jersey she won in Aberystwyth; a flat, fast seafront sprint is close to a laboratory setting for a rider of her track pedigree, and anything in the top handful of places likely returns her to the top of the standings she led after Otley—with fifth place in the Super-League besides, no rider on the startlist has more to gain from a big night in both currencies.
In the Super-League, Cooper’s absence is Morven Yeoman‘s opportunity. The DAS–Hutchinson rider leads that competition on 91 points but stumbled to a points-less 23rd at Otley and skipped Guildford; with her nearest challenger away and the calendar tilting towards road races she should relish, Friday is the night to make the title hers to lose. She lines up alongside Lucy Lee, runner-up in that unforgettable two-up at Guildford and a winner of the Curlew Cup, and Sophie Lewis, beaten by half a wheel in last year’s sprint here, and Ellie Parry. It gives DAS–Hutchinson a four-rider line-up well equipped for a fast, tactical criterium.
Handsling Alba arrive without series leader Madeline Cooper, but Izzy Sharp gives them a proven criterium threat. She was second in the 2025 National Circuit Championships after making the decisive three-rider break, and raced aggressively again at this year’s championships despite finishing 21st. A flat, fast Dawlish circuit should suit her well. She is joined by Arianne Holland, Grace Lister and Mari Porton, seventh at Guildford.
Isabel Mayes (OShea Red Chilli Bikes) and Xan Crees (OGT pb USE) at the Guildford Town Centre Races. Image: Mathew Wells/SWpix.com
Isabel Mayes (O’Shea Red Chilli Bikes) leads the National Sprint Competition on 44 points and led the chase home for third at Guildford; two more intermediate sprints on a flat lap are an open invitation, and she heads an O’Shea trio with Matilda McKibben and Sannah Zaman. Loughborough Lightning bring five, headed by Lily Martin, straight from her breakthrough win at Lancaster on Sunday, and the ever-consistent Georgia Lancaster, tailor-made for fast, flat circuits like this.
Of the rest: Jennifer Powell (Performance Development Team) has been the most aggressive rider of the series’ middle weeks and will not want a sprint; Amy Henchoz (Paralloy RT) returns after missing Guildford; Xan Crees (OGT p/b USE) and Isabel Darvill (Private Member) both made the front group at Guildford and are racing with real rhythm; and Monica Greenwood (Macclesfield Wheelers), fifth at Otley, remains the proof that the series’ best value rides often come from outside the trade teams.
Open
TomArmstrong (Wheelbase CabTech Castelli) arrives as the man of the moment: winner at Guildford eight days ago, winner again in Lancaster on Sunday, leader of the Rapha Super-League, and suddenly in possession of the winning habit that eluded him throughout last year’s title-winning campaign. A late Wheelbase entry means he and his teammates—Aaron King among them—start from the reserve list, though with three withdrawals already on the provisional sheet, their places should follow as a formality. On a fast, flat finish, the defending series champion will fancy two in a row.
The Super-League arithmetic gives the night its edge. Armstrong leads that competition from Ollie Wood (Rapha Cycling Club) on 84. Wood, third in the circuit series and runner-up at Otley, rides as Rapha’s lone entrant, with Bostock away on Commonwealth Games duty with the Isle of Man team. The sums are worth spelling out: 24 points for the win means that if Wood takes it and Armstrong finishes out of the points, the League lead changes hands by two. Improbable, given Armstrong’s form—but no longer hypothetical.
Callum Laborde (Ornata Factory Racing) starts a National Circuit Series round as its leader for the first time, on 150 points after a fourth top-ten in four rounds at Guildford—and he sits fourth in the Super-League too, one of only a handful of riders with skin in both of Friday’s games. On a flat, fast lap circuit, front-row gridding is its own advantage, and consistency has served him better than anyone’s wins so far.
Frank Longstaff (DAS Richardsons). Image: Olly Hassell/SWpix.com
Then there is Frank Longstaff (DAS Richardsons), back for the first time since Otley, and back at the scene of the nearest of near-misses: beaten by a wheel by Bostock here last July. He was second in the circuit series when he stepped away after two rounds, and his long-range sprint—the weapon that won the 2024 Cambridge Criterium—is made for a finish like this one; the seafront owes him. He leads a five-strong DAS squad including Oliver Curd, one of the season’s breakout riders, and Cai Davies.
JAKROO Handsling Racing enter eight, headed by Will Truelove—runner-up in last year’s Super-League by those five agonising points—with Sam Chaplin, tenth at Guildford, among the support. TEKKERZ CC bring Alec Briggs and Benjamin Tuchner, both quick finishers well suited to the circtui, and Cycling Sheffield return with Denholm Edwards, ninth at Ilkley, at the head of a trio.
Between the sea wall and Brunel’s railway, Dawlish will offer the National Circuit Series its purest test of speed on Friday 17 July. The 1.1-kilometre lap is flat, exposed and unforgiving: position is difficult to regain, hesitation is punished and the final sprint begins long before the finishing straight.
The second Dawlish Grand Prix is also the second of only two nights this season on which the National Circuit Series and Rapha Super-League share a startline. Madeline Cooper’s absence leaves the women’s circuit series lead exposed, Morven Yeoman has an opportunity to put further distance between herself and her Super-League rivals, and Tom Armstrong arrives eight days after finally turning his consistency into victory at Guildford.
Featured image: Olly Hassell/SWpix.com
What is it?
A Friday-night criterium around a pan-flat, 1.1-kilometre circuit on the Dawlish seafront, back for a second year after a well-received debut and promoted, in a sense, from epilogue to plot: the race that closed the 2025 National Circuit Series now sits as its penultimate round, five days before the Sheffield finale. It remains the series’ only visit to the South West, brought to the town by the British Cycling South West Board and Road Racing Group in partnership with Dawlish Town Council, with an evening programme that opens with the V.O.T 3/4 support race before the two showpiece events—The Shoe Centre & Co Elite Women’s Race and The Crealy Elite Open Race, both run over the familiar 50-minute format.
The debut edition delivered exactly what a flat seafront kilometre promises. Anna Morris out-sprinted Sophie Lewis to seal the 2025 women’s series title on the night, while Matt Bostock edged Frank Longstaff by a wheel in the open race—two finishes decided by speed and speed alone. Neither winner returns this year, but Longstaff does, and the nature of the circuit has not changed: this is the sprinters’ round of the series, the antithesis of Guildford’s cobbled ramp and Ilkley’s hilly hell.
Round five of the Rapha Super-League
Friday is one of only two nights this season when the Super-League and the National Circuit Series land on the same startline—Otley was the first—and both competitions arrive finely poised.
In the League, Dawlish carries 24 points for the win, the lowest-weighted round on the calendar, with second worth 19 and the scale falling a point per place to 20th. Modest, but not meaningless: both 2025 titles were decided by five points, and with only three rounds to come afterwards, this is the crit specialists’ penultimate night before the League tilts towards the road.
Thomas Armstrong leads the open standings on 106 points from Oliver Wood on 84, with defending champion Matt Bostock — absent while preparing with the Isle of Man team for the Commonwealth Games — third on 63. In the women’s League, Morven Yeoman holds a commanding lead on 91 from Madeline Cooper on 69, and with Cooper missing from the startlist, the Scot has a clear night to stretch it: victory would take her 46 points clear, with no remaining round worth more than 27.
The race also doubles as Round 5 of the National Circuit Series, where the picture is just as live. Callum Laborde leads the open standings on 150 after four rounds of relentless consistency, while Cooper’s absence in the women’s competition leaves the lead she took at Guildford undefended—Megan Barker, six points back on 134, needs only a solid night to reclaim it. Isabel Mayes leads the women’s National Sprint Competition on 44 points, with two more intermediate sprints on offer.
Route
Little has changed from the lap that made such an impression on debut: start and finish on The Strand, the wide seafront drag, before the circuit turns inland through Alexandra Road and Brunswick Place, skirts the station on Station Road, and returns via Piermont Place to the front. It is short, flat and quick, with the corners doing the damage that gradients do elsewhere—and the sea breeze an invisible extra difficulty on the exposed sections.
Positioning, as ever on a kilometre lap, is everything: gridding is merit-led, and the series standings decide who starts at the front.
Timings
The Strand closes to traffic from 15.00, with the full circuit closed from 17.00.
How to follow
The British Continental will have a full report from Dawlish on Friday night, including results from both races. Monument TV are streaming the race.
Riders to watch
Women’s
Let’s start with who is missing. Madeline Cooper, who won Guildford last week to take the circuit series lead, is not on the startlist—and her absence redraws both competitions at a stroke. In the National Circuit Series, Meg Barker (Rapha Cycling Club) sits six points back and arrives in the national champion’s jersey she won in Aberystwyth; a flat, fast seafront sprint is close to a laboratory setting for a rider of her track pedigree, and anything in the top handful of places likely returns her to the top of the standings she led after Otley—with fifth place in the Super-League besides, no rider on the startlist has more to gain from a big night in both currencies.
In the Super-League, Cooper’s absence is Morven Yeoman‘s opportunity. The DAS–Hutchinson rider leads that competition on 91 points but stumbled to a points-less 23rd at Otley and skipped Guildford; with her nearest challenger away and the calendar tilting towards road races she should relish, Friday is the night to make the title hers to lose. She lines up alongside Lucy Lee, runner-up in that unforgettable two-up at Guildford and a winner of the Curlew Cup, and Sophie Lewis, beaten by half a wheel in last year’s sprint here, and Ellie Parry. It gives DAS–Hutchinson a four-rider line-up well equipped for a fast, tactical criterium.
Handsling Alba arrive without series leader Madeline Cooper, but Izzy Sharp gives them a proven criterium threat. She was second in the 2025 National Circuit Championships after making the decisive three-rider break, and raced aggressively again at this year’s championships despite finishing 21st. A flat, fast Dawlish circuit should suit her well. She is joined by Arianne Holland, Grace Lister and Mari Porton, seventh at Guildford.
Isabel Mayes (O’Shea Red Chilli Bikes) leads the National Sprint Competition on 44 points and led the chase home for third at Guildford; two more intermediate sprints on a flat lap are an open invitation, and she heads an O’Shea trio with Matilda McKibben and Sannah Zaman. Loughborough Lightning bring five, headed by Lily Martin, straight from her breakthrough win at Lancaster on Sunday, and the ever-consistent Georgia Lancaster, tailor-made for fast, flat circuits like this.
Of the rest: Jennifer Powell (Performance Development Team) has been the most aggressive rider of the series’ middle weeks and will not want a sprint; Amy Henchoz (Paralloy RT) returns after missing Guildford; Xan Crees (OGT p/b USE) and Isabel Darvill (Private Member) both made the front group at Guildford and are racing with real rhythm; and Monica Greenwood (Macclesfield Wheelers), fifth at Otley, remains the proof that the series’ best value rides often come from outside the trade teams.
Open
Tom Armstrong (Wheelbase CabTech Castelli) arrives as the man of the moment: winner at Guildford eight days ago, winner again in Lancaster on Sunday, leader of the Rapha Super-League, and suddenly in possession of the winning habit that eluded him throughout last year’s title-winning campaign. A late Wheelbase entry means he and his teammates—Aaron King among them—start from the reserve list, though with three withdrawals already on the provisional sheet, their places should follow as a formality. On a fast, flat finish, the defending series champion will fancy two in a row.
The Super-League arithmetic gives the night its edge. Armstrong leads that competition from Ollie Wood (Rapha Cycling Club) on 84. Wood, third in the circuit series and runner-up at Otley, rides as Rapha’s lone entrant, with Bostock away on Commonwealth Games duty with the Isle of Man team. The sums are worth spelling out: 24 points for the win means that if Wood takes it and Armstrong finishes out of the points, the League lead changes hands by two. Improbable, given Armstrong’s form—but no longer hypothetical.
Callum Laborde (Ornata Factory Racing) starts a National Circuit Series round as its leader for the first time, on 150 points after a fourth top-ten in four rounds at Guildford—and he sits fourth in the Super-League too, one of only a handful of riders with skin in both of Friday’s games. On a flat, fast lap circuit, front-row gridding is its own advantage, and consistency has served him better than anyone’s wins so far.
Then there is Frank Longstaff (DAS Richardsons), back for the first time since Otley, and back at the scene of the nearest of near-misses: beaten by a wheel by Bostock here last July. He was second in the circuit series when he stepped away after two rounds, and his long-range sprint—the weapon that won the 2024 Cambridge Criterium—is made for a finish like this one; the seafront owes him. He leads a five-strong DAS squad including Oliver Curd, one of the season’s breakout riders, and Cai Davies.
JAKROO Handsling Racing enter eight, headed by Will Truelove—runner-up in last year’s Super-League by those five agonising points—with Sam Chaplin, tenth at Guildford, among the support. TEKKERZ CC bring Alec Briggs and Benjamin Tuchner, both quick finishers well suited to the circtui, and Cycling Sheffield return with Denholm Edwards, ninth at Ilkley, at the head of a trio.
Provisional startlists
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