Britain's longest one-day road race will not run this year after organisers Yomp Bonk Crew concluded the event could no longer pay its way. Organiser Will Foster hopes it can return.
The Wheldrake 200, the longest one-day road race on the British calendar, has been cancelled for 2026. The 200-kilometre National B, promoted by Yomp Bonk Crew and scheduled for 26 July on the pan-flat Wheldrake circuit south of York, has been withdrawn because it was no longer financially viable.
“Last year we subsidised it from our other events, but unfortunately we aren’t in a position to do that this year,” organiser Will Foster told The British Continental.
The economics are stark. Even with a full field, Foster explained, the race could not support itself as a standalone event unless entry fees rose to around £50—more, he said, than it would be fair to charge. The move from the Upton circuit to Wheldrake in 2025 cut the maximum field from 80 riders to 60, and the race’s length means Yomp Bonk Crew cannot run a second event on the same day to spread costs, as they do elsewhere on their calendar. Lower entries this year removed what margin remained.
The cancellation ends, for now at least, one of the more distinctive experiments in domestic racing. First run as the Upton 200 in 2023—an edition halted after 30 kilometres by an unrelated road-traffic accident—the “200-k” concept moved to the Wheldrake–Thorganby loop in 2025, where Stephen Swindley (Royal Navy Cycling) took a breakthrough win ahead of Ben Pease (Moonglu Spatzwear) and Andrew Nichols (Team Lifting Gear Products). At 200 kilometres, it was longer than any National A on the calendar, and longer even than the UCI 1.2 Rutland–Melton CiCLE Classic.
If any promoter could make such a race work, it would be this one. Yomp Bonk Crew—winners of The British Continental‘s 2025 Outstanding Contribution to Domestic Road Racing award—began as a group of Sheffield teenagers organising the races they wished existed, and have grown into one of the most prolific promoting outfits in the country. The Peaks 2 Day and the Ronde van Wymeswold are now calendar fixtures; this month they delivered the junior national road championships in Yorkshire; and their newest creation, the Strade del Vescovo gravel road race, arrives near Selby on 26 September. That a group of this calibre and record cannot make a 200-kilometre one-day race pay perhaps says less about the organisers than about the economics of open-road racing in Britain.
Foster has not given up on the race. “Definitely something I don’t want to just give up on—it was quite a unique race,” he said. “I’m going to look to see if there are things I can do for future years so that it can support itself.” Among the ideas under consideration is a shorter, entry-level women’s race alongside it. “I need to put a bit of thought into it over winter,” he added.
The Wheldrake 200, the longest one-day road race on the British calendar, has been cancelled for 2026. The 200-kilometre National B, promoted by Yomp Bonk Crew and scheduled for 26 July on the pan-flat Wheldrake circuit south of York, has been withdrawn because it was no longer financially viable.
“Last year we subsidised it from our other events, but unfortunately we aren’t in a position to do that this year,” organiser Will Foster told The British Continental.
The economics are stark. Even with a full field, Foster explained, the race could not support itself as a standalone event unless entry fees rose to around £50—more, he said, than it would be fair to charge. The move from the Upton circuit to Wheldrake in 2025 cut the maximum field from 80 riders to 60, and the race’s length means Yomp Bonk Crew cannot run a second event on the same day to spread costs, as they do elsewhere on their calendar. Lower entries this year removed what margin remained.
The cancellation ends, for now at least, one of the more distinctive experiments in domestic racing. First run as the Upton 200 in 2023—an edition halted after 30 kilometres by an unrelated road-traffic accident—the “200-k” concept moved to the Wheldrake–Thorganby loop in 2025, where Stephen Swindley (Royal Navy Cycling) took a breakthrough win ahead of Ben Pease (Moonglu Spatzwear) and Andrew Nichols (Team Lifting Gear Products). At 200 kilometres, it was longer than any National A on the calendar, and longer even than the UCI 1.2 Rutland–Melton CiCLE Classic.
If any promoter could make such a race work, it would be this one. Yomp Bonk Crew—winners of The British Continental‘s 2025 Outstanding Contribution to Domestic Road Racing award—began as a group of Sheffield teenagers organising the races they wished existed, and have grown into one of the most prolific promoting outfits in the country. The Peaks 2 Day and the Ronde van Wymeswold are now calendar fixtures; this month they delivered the junior national road championships in Yorkshire; and their newest creation, the Strade del Vescovo gravel road race, arrives near Selby on 26 September. That a group of this calibre and record cannot make a 200-kilometre one-day race pay perhaps says less about the organisers than about the economics of open-road racing in Britain.
Foster has not given up on the race. “Definitely something I don’t want to just give up on—it was quite a unique race,” he said. “I’m going to look to see if there are things I can do for future years so that it can support itself.” Among the ideas under consideration is a shorter, entry-level women’s race alongside it. “I need to put a bit of thought into it over winter,” he added.
Featured image: Sarah Jane Swinscoe
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