2026 North Yorkshire Grand Prix: preview and startlists
The Rapha Super-League and the National Road Series both reach their final round at Ampleforth on Sunday. Morven Yeoman has one title already; 13 points cover Oliver Wood and Tom Armstrong in the open league, and 18 separate the top two in the women's series.
Ampleforth Abbey hosts four championship deciders on Sunday and only one of them is already over. The North Yorkshire Grand Prix closes both the Rapha Super-League and the Lloyds National Road Series on the same afternoon, and Morven Yeoman is the only rider with a guaranteed championship title: her Super-League lead of 42 points is larger than the 25 on offer for the win, so that title is hers whatever happens.
The rest is live. Ollie Wood takes a 13-point advantage over Tom Armstrong into the open Super-League finale. Yeoman leads Lily Martin by 18 in the women’s National Road Series, a margin that a single hill could erase. And Armstrong, 45 clear of his own teammate, needs only to finish the job in the open series. Two competitions, four titles, one 2km drag to the abbey.
Featured image: Craig Zadoroznyj/SWpix.com
The British Continental’s National Road Series previews are powered by Topp Cycling.
What is it?
The 21st edition of British Cycling Yorkshire’s annual Grand Prix, and the 13th to be held at Ampleforth. It is organised by Bob Howden OBE, chair of the Yorkshire region and British Cycling’s president since 2013, now in the third and final term he began in November 2023. Grass Concrete Limited, part of the group Howden owns and runs, sponsors the race, as it does the Sheffield Grand Prix.
Formerly the Ryedale Grand Prix, the event was renamed for 2026 to reflect North Yorkshire’s new county-wide unitary authority. Last year it decamped south to the Wentworth Woodhouse estate near Rotherham, where James McKay and Tamsin Miller won. Both are on Sunday’s startlists.
The Ampleforth course was first used for the 2012 National Road Race Championships, won by Sharon Laws and Ian Stannard. Since then the roll of honour has favoured strong all-rounders and climbers: Illi Gardner, Oliver Wood, Millie Couzens and James Shaw have all won here, and Lucy Lee and Tom Williams took the last editions held on these roads in 2024.
It is the eighth and final round of the Rapha Super-League, which opened at the Women’s CiCLE Classic on 22 March and lost its planned closing round when the Cambridge Criterium was cancelled. The overall winners take £1,000, a winner’s sash and a trophy. It is also the last round of both National Road Series, which is where the sharper arithmetic sits.
Tom Williams wins the 2024 Ryedale Grand Prix. Image: Craig Zadoroznyj/SWpix.com
In the balance
The Rapha Super-League
Wood leads on 148 points to Armstrong’s 135. The Rapha Cycling Club rider has had the better season by some distance — wins at the Rapha Lincoln Grand Prix and the Sheffield Grand Prix, second at Otley and again at the Beaumont Trophy, where Tim Shoreman took him by half a tyre’s width. He also won at Ampleforth in 2017.
Armstrong’s position is stranger. He sits second in the Super-League without having won a single round: second at Rutland–Melton, third at Lincoln, second at Dawlish, seventh at the Nocturne, sixth at Otley. His consistency, however, leaves him just 13 points off the title.
The arithmetic is tight but not closed. A win at Ampleforth is worth 25, second 20, and the scale then falls a point per position to 20th. If Armstrong wins, Wood needs ninth or better to be certain of the title; 10th would leave them level on 160.
The women’s league is already decided. Yeoman finishes the season on 124 points, and with 25 available at Ampleforth nobody can reach her: Katie Scott is second on 82, Daisy Taylor third on 79, Madeline Cooper fourth on 78. Scott and Taylor are not on the provisional startlist and Cooper is among the withdrawals, so the DAS–Hutchinson rider will collect the trophy having already banked it — a second consecutive Super-League title for her team after Robyn Clay’s in 2025.
There is still a fight for the places behind. Megan Barker sits fifth on 76 and is the only rider in that group racing on Sunday; a strong ride would lift the Rapha Cycling Club rider to second overall.
Tom Armstrong (Wheelbase Cabtech Castelli) national road series leader. Image: Olly Hassell/SWpix.com
The National Road Series
Armstrong has the firmer grip here. He leads on 240 points, 45 clear of teammate Tom Martin, after taking his first National Road Series win at the Lancaster Grand Prix in July — attacking from a seven-rider group on the final rise into Williamson Park, four days after a breakthrough National Circuit Series win at Guildford. Thirteenth at the Beaumont Trophy was enough to keep the gap where it was.
Martin is not mathematically out. A National Road Series win pays 50 points and the scale runs all the way down to a single point for 40th, so the swing exists on paper. In practice Armstrong needs only to finish inside the top 35 to be certain of the title whatever his teammate does — and the two have shown no appetite for racing each other. Armstrong said after Lancaster that Martin is “one of my best mates” and that he would have been happy to see him win.
The women’s series is the one still genuinely open. Yeoman leads on 258, Lily Martin on 240, and 18 points is not much over a course like this. Martin took fifth at the Curlew Cup after driving the chase behind the winning move; Yeoman came home 10th in the bunch. Martin also tops The British Continental National Road Race Rankings on 507 points.
With 50 points for a win, 18 is a gap one climb can close. If Martin wins on Sunday, Yeoman needs ninth or better to keep the jersey.
Their meeting at the Lancaster Grand Prix is the reason to take her seriously. Martin rode away from Yeoman and Lucy Lee on the final climb into Williamson Park and won alone by over a minute — her first National Road Series victory, and one of the biggest results yet by an Elite Development Team. An uphill finish after 101km is close to the ideal scenario for her.
Route
The race is built on a “long” 26.7km circuit and a “short” 16.9km circuit, the latter cutting out the most westerly part of the former through the village of Oulston and the hardest climb of the day.
The women’s race takes in two laps of the long circuit before finishing with three of the short, for 101.4km. The open race covers three long circuits and five short, for 161.9km. In each case the opening lap is a little shorter than a full circuit, because the start line sits partway up the climb to the abbey rather than at the foot of it. Both are punctuated by testing climbs and narrow country roads, which makes this one of the most selective races on the calendar, and both finish at the top of the drag up to the abbey.
The long circuit
Running anti-clockwise, the riders head north up East Lane, with the start and finish line outside the abbey halfway up it, before turning left and descending into Ampleforth village.
Heading south, they climb North Moor Lane as they reach Thorpe Beck. Averaging almost 7% for 1.5km and topping out at 10.9%, and featuring on both circuits, it is likely to be one of the decisive places in the race. At the summit the circuit turns sharply right towards Oulston over a short, sharp rise, then descends, running left through the village and south before heading east towards the River Foss.
At the river comes the hardest climb on the course, and the only one confined to the long circuit: 1.1km at an average of 7.9%, topping out at a gruelling 15% halfway up with a further sting near the top. It will wear riders down and offers a launchpad for attacks, but its early placement makes it unlikely to be decisive on its own.
After a short dip the course rises again into Yearsley, then descends almost all the way to Gilling, where the riders turn east and then north back towards the abbey and the 2km East Lane climb. At an average of 4% it reads as a power climb for rouleurs, with the steepest section immediately before the line — Tom Williams judged it perfectly in 2024.
The short circuit
The short circuit cuts out the Oulston loop and the River Foss climb, running straight on to Yearsley and rejoining the long circuit there for the return to the abbey.
Timings and how to follow
The women’s race starts at 9.15am with a scheduled finish of 12.27pm. The open race starts at 2pm and is scheduled to finish at 6.25pm.
Joe Hudson will be on the ground for The British Continental throughout the day with updates and reaction, and full reports will follow. Monument Cycling will stream the final hour of each race.
Weather
The heatwave that has sat over the country this week breaks before Sunday. The forecast for Ampleforth is a high of around 18°C, down from the low 20s earlier in the weekend, with roughly a one-in-four chance of rain across the day and cooler conditions than the domestic peloton has raced in for most of the summer. On a course where grip matters, a wet road would change the calculation on the descents into Ampleforth and Gilling.
Riders to watch
Open
Ollie Wood (Rapha Cycling Club) needs a ninth place to be sure of the Super-League even in the worst case, and rather less than that in most others. He arrives on the form that won him the Sheffield Grand Prix in July and took him to within a tyre’s width of the Beaumont Trophy, and his second place at the South Molton Grand Prix suggests a parcours of this difficulty holds no fears. He won here in 2017.
Oliver Wood Rapha Cycling Club. Image: Olly Hassell/SWpix.com
Tom Armstrong (Wheelbase CabTech Castelli) has to do something he has not managed all year and win a Super-League round — and hope Wood has a bad day at the same time. The compensation is that the National Road Series is all but his, and that he knows this kind of finish: his Lancaster win came on the drag into Williamson Park, which is not a bad rehearsal for East Lane. He is shadowed by Tom Martin, second in the series, whose aggression tends to break races up; a solo move here two years ago came close to landing him a first National A win.
Matt Bostock is the wild card in the Rapha Cycling Club line-up. The reigning Rapha Super-League champion has ridden only two rounds this year, but he won one of them — the City of London Nocturne — and he comes to Ampleforth a fortnight after taking points race gold for the Isle of Man at the Commonwealth Games, the island’s first cycling gold since Mark Cavendish in 2006. But his focus here is likely to be supporting Wood.
Callum Laborde (Ornata Factory Racing) is third in the Super-League on 94 points and leads the National Circuit Series on 238, which makes him the most under-discussed rider on the startlist. Aaron King (Wheelbase CabTech Castelli) is fourth on 83, and William Truelove (JAKROO Handsling) fifth on 68 after finishing fifth at the Beaumont Trophy.
James McKay (Atom 6 – Cycleur de Luxe – Auto Stroo Continental Team). Image: Josh Wheeler/SWpix.com
Atom 6–Cycleur de Luxe–Auto Stroo bring three riders who could all feature. James McKay won this race on a different parcours 12 months ago and finished the Beaumont Trophy with the leaders on his comeback from injury; George Radcliffe was second at Lancaster; and Matthew King has impressed on hilly parcours this season.
Ride Revolution Coaching, who made public their intention to reach UCI Continental level by 2028, will want to close the season well. Caleb Pain may be their best chance: a DNF at the Beaumont Trophy, but fourth at Dawlish and fourth at Sheffield have the 22-year-old 22nd in the Super-League and he should enjoy the hills. Josh Housley took the King of the Ryals prize last weekend from an early break, while Gabriel Dellar came close to a National A win at the Tour of the Reservoir in June.
JAKROO Handsling raced aggressively at Stamfordham and have the numbers to do it again. Alongside Truelove, Rowan Baker made much of the running at the Sherpa Performance Stage Race a fortnight ago and was ninth at the Beaumont Trophy, while Oliver Dawson, a former national junior road race champion, was fourth at the Rutland–Melton CiCLE Classic in April. Harrison Dainty sits 12th in the Super-League.
Oliver Dawson (JAKROO Handsling Racing). Image: Olly Hassell/SWpix.com
Damien Clayton spent much of the closing 10km of the Beaumont Trophy off the front, was reeled in inside the final few kilometres and immediately counter-attacked. Officially retired, he remains one of the most tactically astute riders in the bunch, and one the teams will be reluctant to let up the road again.
Jack Rootkin-Gray continues his push back towards the WorldTour in the races he helped dominate with Saint Piran on the way to a contract with EF Education–EasyPost. Back from a broken leg sustained early in the season, he has quietly impressed: second to Wood at the Rapha Lincoln Grand Prix, and 10th at the Beaumont Trophy after a summer break.
Isaac Oliver leads a young Prologue Racing Team squad after the biggest win of his career at the Yorkshire U23 Classic a fortnight ago, dropping his breakaway companions on the final lap of a similarly hilly course. Magnus Denwood, the reigning Junior Tour of South Wales champion, could make a similar impact after a bout of illness.
Lucas Jowett of Mypad Racing p/b ONDO Sports wins the East Cleveland Classic. Image: Simon Wilkinson/SWpix.com
Mark Lightfoot (AVC Aix en Provence) continues a UK stint that began at the Yorkshire U23 Classic on a course that suits him; ninth overall at the Vuelta a Asturias earlier in the year, his diet of UCI racing should tell in the closing laps. The same goes for Lucas Jowett (Mypad Racing p/b ONDO Sports), who won the East Cleveland Classic alone in April. Racing last week in Belgium for the first time since May, his form is a mystery, but he races from the front.
Benjamin Hinchliffe (Jamison Racing Team USA) makes his National Road Series debut having won the Sherpa Performance Stage Race a fortnight ago, taking the overall on the technical Colchester Sports Park circuit, a strong time trial and a tactically astute road race at Abberton Reservoir. The US collegiate road race champion is untested in a field of this depth on a parcours of this difficulty, which makes him a wildcard the favourites will watch.
The under-23 title is also in play on Sunday. Lewis Tinsley (BCC Race Team) leads the under-23 classification within the National Road Series, which goes to the highest-placed under-23 rider in the final overall standings and carries a jersey at this event. He favours harder, hillier races: second at the Peak 2 Day early in the season, then top-six finishes at the Tour of the Reservoir and the Lincoln and South Molton Grands Prix.
Women
DAS–Hutchinson arrive with a series lead to defend and three riders capable of doing it. Morven Yeoman has had the breakthrough season, the 21-year-old Scot riding away from the field at the Rapha Lincoln Grand Prix alongside teammate Noémie Thomson before second place at Lancaster proved she could handle harder terrain. She fought through illness to finish inside the top ten at South Molton and came through the Curlew Cup in the bunch, and she is quick after a long day, which on a finish like this one makes her difficult to beat.
Lucy Lee may be the better card on this parcours. She won here in 2024, took the Curlew Cup last year by dropping her breakaway companions on the final ascent of the Ryals, and her second place at the Tour of the Reservoir in June showed she can still go deep on the hardest days. A podium at Lancaster followed. Tamsin Miller wears number one as defending champion, having soloed to victory at Wentworth Woodhouse last August. A strong time trialist, she carries the unwanted distinction of not having finished a race all season, but she remains a rider the other squads will be reluctant to let up the road. The team is without Katie Scott, winner of the East Cleveland Classic, and Thomson, who took the CiCLE Classic in March.
Lily Martin is the reason the series is still alive. The Loughborough Lightning rider has signed with Handsling Alba as a stagiaire for UCI races but starts here in her trade team’s colours, and her season has been one of steady escalation: prolific at National B level, then a first National Road Series win at Lancaster, where she rode away from Yeoman and Lee on the final climb and won by over a minute. Fifth in the under-23 National Time Trial Championship showed her power against WorldTour opposition, and an uphill finish after 101km is close to the ideal scenario. She has seven teammates to work with, which on a parcours like this may matter more than it sounds.
Ruby Oakes heads a seven-strong FTP–Fulfil The Potential Racing entry and has been the most consistent under-23 in the series behind Martin, fourth at Lincoln her standout ride. Selected for the Great Britain team at the Tour of Britain Women, she will want to arrive there sharp.
Paralloy RT have quietly had a strong season through Amy Henchoz. The 28-year-old Yorkshire circuit race champion has yet to win on the road this year, but a run of consistent placings has carried her into the top six of the National Road Series, and she has repeatedly shown she can hold the wheels of the favourites at this level. This course should suit her.
Junior Melanie Rowe (camsmajaco) has spent the year proving she belongs in this company. Third at the junior Liège–Bastogne–Liège and sixth at the junior Tour of Flanders, she was second at the CiCLE Classic in March and has taken top-15 finishes at the Tour of the Reservoir and the Curlew Cup since, as well as dismantling a strong Handsling Alba squad at the Gifford Road Race in her native Scotland. She knows what to do with punchy hills.
Handsling Alba arrive depleted. Four riders are struck from the provisional startlist, among them Curlew Cup runner-up Arabella Blackburn and Madeline Cooper, while Grace Lister and Tour of the Reservoir winner Kate Richardson are not entered at all. That leaves Arianne Holland, fifth at the Reservoir and ninth at Lancaster, to lead a much-reduced Bob Lyons squad alongside Amelia Tyler, Mari Porton and Holly Ramsey, who was 12th at Stamfordham.
Jennifer Powell (Performance Development Team) is arguably the most overlooked rider in the field. The 38-year-old took third at the South Molton Grand Prix in July, the best National A result of her career, and was eighth at the Tour of the Reservoir before that. She also finished ninth on this course at the 2024 Ryedale, which is more relevant experience than most of this startlist can claim.
Anna Morris and Jessica Roberts both ride unattached, and both took team pursuit bronze for Wales at Glasgow 2026 a fortnight ago. Morris is the more likely to trouble the front here, with third at Lincoln and fifth at the East Cleveland Classic behind her, and she was beaten by only five points in last year’s Super-League. Roberts won the Otley Grand Prix outright in July. Megan Barker (Rapha Cycling Club) completes the trio from that Welsh podium: the national circuit race champion is a criterium rider on a climber’s course, but she has a Super-League placing to protect.
Elena Day (Smurfit Westrock Cycling Team), Image: Olly Hassell/SWpix.com
Smurfit Westrock Cycling Team are without Amelia Cebak, the highest-placed rider in the series missing from the startlist. Elena Day leads them instead, having been 10th at the CiCLE Classic and 12th at the Tour of the Reservoir, alongside Annabel Ramsay, Alice Colling and the Austrian rider Leila Gschwentner.
Grace Reynolds arrives as something of an unknown quantity. Second at the Curlew Cup last year, the Irish rider suffered a grade two brain injury in a freak training accident in April and has raced sparingly since, though a spirited 12th at South Molton last month suggested the legs are returning. She now rides for the French-based Megamo Vosges Team.
Florence Wiggins (London Academy) soloed to her first National B victory at the Duncan Murray Wines Road Race a fortnight ago and steps up to this level with nothing to lose.
Curlew Cup winner Nicola Quaye (360cycling), for whom Stamfordham was a final race of the season, does not start.
Ampleforth Abbey hosts four championship deciders on Sunday and only one of them is already over. The North Yorkshire Grand Prix closes both the Rapha Super-League and the Lloyds National Road Series on the same afternoon, and Morven Yeoman is the only rider with a guaranteed championship title: her Super-League lead of 42 points is larger than the 25 on offer for the win, so that title is hers whatever happens.
The rest is live. Ollie Wood takes a 13-point advantage over Tom Armstrong into the open Super-League finale. Yeoman leads Lily Martin by 18 in the women’s National Road Series, a margin that a single hill could erase. And Armstrong, 45 clear of his own teammate, needs only to finish the job in the open series. Two competitions, four titles, one 2km drag to the abbey.
Featured image: Craig Zadoroznyj/SWpix.com
The British Continental’s National Road Series previews are powered by Topp Cycling.
What is it?
The 21st edition of British Cycling Yorkshire’s annual Grand Prix, and the 13th to be held at Ampleforth. It is organised by Bob Howden OBE, chair of the Yorkshire region and British Cycling’s president since 2013, now in the third and final term he began in November 2023. Grass Concrete Limited, part of the group Howden owns and runs, sponsors the race, as it does the Sheffield Grand Prix.
Formerly the Ryedale Grand Prix, the event was renamed for 2026 to reflect North Yorkshire’s new county-wide unitary authority. Last year it decamped south to the Wentworth Woodhouse estate near Rotherham, where James McKay and Tamsin Miller won. Both are on Sunday’s startlists.
The Ampleforth course was first used for the 2012 National Road Race Championships, won by Sharon Laws and Ian Stannard. Since then the roll of honour has favoured strong all-rounders and climbers: Illi Gardner, Oliver Wood, Millie Couzens and James Shaw have all won here, and Lucy Lee and Tom Williams took the last editions held on these roads in 2024.
It is the eighth and final round of the Rapha Super-League, which opened at the Women’s CiCLE Classic on 22 March and lost its planned closing round when the Cambridge Criterium was cancelled. The overall winners take £1,000, a winner’s sash and a trophy. It is also the last round of both National Road Series, which is where the sharper arithmetic sits.
In the balance
The Rapha Super-League
Wood leads on 148 points to Armstrong’s 135. The Rapha Cycling Club rider has had the better season by some distance — wins at the Rapha Lincoln Grand Prix and the Sheffield Grand Prix, second at Otley and again at the Beaumont Trophy, where Tim Shoreman took him by half a tyre’s width. He also won at Ampleforth in 2017.
Armstrong’s position is stranger. He sits second in the Super-League without having won a single round: second at Rutland–Melton, third at Lincoln, second at Dawlish, seventh at the Nocturne, sixth at Otley. His consistency, however, leaves him just 13 points off the title.
The arithmetic is tight but not closed. A win at Ampleforth is worth 25, second 20, and the scale then falls a point per position to 20th. If Armstrong wins, Wood needs ninth or better to be certain of the title; 10th would leave them level on 160.
The women’s league is already decided. Yeoman finishes the season on 124 points, and with 25 available at Ampleforth nobody can reach her: Katie Scott is second on 82, Daisy Taylor third on 79, Madeline Cooper fourth on 78. Scott and Taylor are not on the provisional startlist and Cooper is among the withdrawals, so the DAS–Hutchinson rider will collect the trophy having already banked it — a second consecutive Super-League title for her team after Robyn Clay’s in 2025.
There is still a fight for the places behind. Megan Barker sits fifth on 76 and is the only rider in that group racing on Sunday; a strong ride would lift the Rapha Cycling Club rider to second overall.
The National Road Series
Armstrong has the firmer grip here. He leads on 240 points, 45 clear of teammate Tom Martin, after taking his first National Road Series win at the Lancaster Grand Prix in July — attacking from a seven-rider group on the final rise into Williamson Park, four days after a breakthrough National Circuit Series win at Guildford. Thirteenth at the Beaumont Trophy was enough to keep the gap where it was.
Martin is not mathematically out. A National Road Series win pays 50 points and the scale runs all the way down to a single point for 40th, so the swing exists on paper. In practice Armstrong needs only to finish inside the top 35 to be certain of the title whatever his teammate does — and the two have shown no appetite for racing each other. Armstrong said after Lancaster that Martin is “one of my best mates” and that he would have been happy to see him win.
The women’s series is the one still genuinely open. Yeoman leads on 258, Lily Martin on 240, and 18 points is not much over a course like this. Martin took fifth at the Curlew Cup after driving the chase behind the winning move; Yeoman came home 10th in the bunch. Martin also tops The British Continental National Road Race Rankings on 507 points.
With 50 points for a win, 18 is a gap one climb can close. If Martin wins on Sunday, Yeoman needs ninth or better to keep the jersey.
Their meeting at the Lancaster Grand Prix is the reason to take her seriously. Martin rode away from Yeoman and Lucy Lee on the final climb into Williamson Park and won alone by over a minute — her first National Road Series victory, and one of the biggest results yet by an Elite Development Team. An uphill finish after 101km is close to the ideal scenario for her.
Route
The race is built on a “long” 26.7km circuit and a “short” 16.9km circuit, the latter cutting out the most westerly part of the former through the village of Oulston and the hardest climb of the day.
The women’s race takes in two laps of the long circuit before finishing with three of the short, for 101.4km. The open race covers three long circuits and five short, for 161.9km. In each case the opening lap is a little shorter than a full circuit, because the start line sits partway up the climb to the abbey rather than at the foot of it. Both are punctuated by testing climbs and narrow country roads, which makes this one of the most selective races on the calendar, and both finish at the top of the drag up to the abbey.
The long circuit
Running anti-clockwise, the riders head north up East Lane, with the start and finish line outside the abbey halfway up it, before turning left and descending into Ampleforth village.
Heading south, they climb North Moor Lane as they reach Thorpe Beck. Averaging almost 7% for 1.5km and topping out at 10.9%, and featuring on both circuits, it is likely to be one of the decisive places in the race. At the summit the circuit turns sharply right towards Oulston over a short, sharp rise, then descends, running left through the village and south before heading east towards the River Foss.
At the river comes the hardest climb on the course, and the only one confined to the long circuit: 1.1km at an average of 7.9%, topping out at a gruelling 15% halfway up with a further sting near the top. It will wear riders down and offers a launchpad for attacks, but its early placement makes it unlikely to be decisive on its own.
After a short dip the course rises again into Yearsley, then descends almost all the way to Gilling, where the riders turn east and then north back towards the abbey and the 2km East Lane climb. At an average of 4% it reads as a power climb for rouleurs, with the steepest section immediately before the line — Tom Williams judged it perfectly in 2024.
The short circuit
The short circuit cuts out the Oulston loop and the River Foss climb, running straight on to Yearsley and rejoining the long circuit there for the return to the abbey.
Timings and how to follow
The women’s race starts at 9.15am with a scheduled finish of 12.27pm. The open race starts at 2pm and is scheduled to finish at 6.25pm.
Joe Hudson will be on the ground for The British Continental throughout the day with updates and reaction, and full reports will follow. Monument Cycling will stream the final hour of each race.
Weather
The heatwave that has sat over the country this week breaks before Sunday. The forecast for Ampleforth is a high of around 18°C, down from the low 20s earlier in the weekend, with roughly a one-in-four chance of rain across the day and cooler conditions than the domestic peloton has raced in for most of the summer. On a course where grip matters, a wet road would change the calculation on the descents into Ampleforth and Gilling.
Riders to watch
Open
Ollie Wood (Rapha Cycling Club) needs a ninth place to be sure of the Super-League even in the worst case, and rather less than that in most others. He arrives on the form that won him the Sheffield Grand Prix in July and took him to within a tyre’s width of the Beaumont Trophy, and his second place at the South Molton Grand Prix suggests a parcours of this difficulty holds no fears. He won here in 2017.
Tom Armstrong (Wheelbase CabTech Castelli) has to do something he has not managed all year and win a Super-League round — and hope Wood has a bad day at the same time. The compensation is that the National Road Series is all but his, and that he knows this kind of finish: his Lancaster win came on the drag into Williamson Park, which is not a bad rehearsal for East Lane. He is shadowed by Tom Martin, second in the series, whose aggression tends to break races up; a solo move here two years ago came close to landing him a first National A win.
Matt Bostock is the wild card in the Rapha Cycling Club line-up. The reigning Rapha Super-League champion has ridden only two rounds this year, but he won one of them — the City of London Nocturne — and he comes to Ampleforth a fortnight after taking points race gold for the Isle of Man at the Commonwealth Games, the island’s first cycling gold since Mark Cavendish in 2006. But his focus here is likely to be supporting Wood.
Callum Laborde (Ornata Factory Racing) is third in the Super-League on 94 points and leads the National Circuit Series on 238, which makes him the most under-discussed rider on the startlist. Aaron King (Wheelbase CabTech Castelli) is fourth on 83, and William Truelove (JAKROO Handsling) fifth on 68 after finishing fifth at the Beaumont Trophy.
Atom 6–Cycleur de Luxe–Auto Stroo bring three riders who could all feature. James McKay won this race on a different parcours 12 months ago and finished the Beaumont Trophy with the leaders on his comeback from injury; George Radcliffe was second at Lancaster; and Matthew King has impressed on hilly parcours this season.
Ride Revolution Coaching, who made public their intention to reach UCI Continental level by 2028, will want to close the season well. Caleb Pain may be their best chance: a DNF at the Beaumont Trophy, but fourth at Dawlish and fourth at Sheffield have the 22-year-old 22nd in the Super-League and he should enjoy the hills. Josh Housley took the King of the Ryals prize last weekend from an early break, while Gabriel Dellar came close to a National A win at the Tour of the Reservoir in June.
JAKROO Handsling raced aggressively at Stamfordham and have the numbers to do it again. Alongside Truelove, Rowan Baker made much of the running at the Sherpa Performance Stage Race a fortnight ago and was ninth at the Beaumont Trophy, while Oliver Dawson, a former national junior road race champion, was fourth at the Rutland–Melton CiCLE Classic in April. Harrison Dainty sits 12th in the Super-League.
Damien Clayton spent much of the closing 10km of the Beaumont Trophy off the front, was reeled in inside the final few kilometres and immediately counter-attacked. Officially retired, he remains one of the most tactically astute riders in the bunch, and one the teams will be reluctant to let up the road again.
Jack Rootkin-Gray continues his push back towards the WorldTour in the races he helped dominate with Saint Piran on the way to a contract with EF Education–EasyPost. Back from a broken leg sustained early in the season, he has quietly impressed: second to Wood at the Rapha Lincoln Grand Prix, and 10th at the Beaumont Trophy after a summer break.
Isaac Oliver leads a young Prologue Racing Team squad after the biggest win of his career at the Yorkshire U23 Classic a fortnight ago, dropping his breakaway companions on the final lap of a similarly hilly course. Magnus Denwood, the reigning Junior Tour of South Wales champion, could make a similar impact after a bout of illness.
Mark Lightfoot (AVC Aix en Provence) continues a UK stint that began at the Yorkshire U23 Classic on a course that suits him; ninth overall at the Vuelta a Asturias earlier in the year, his diet of UCI racing should tell in the closing laps. The same goes for Lucas Jowett (Mypad Racing p/b ONDO Sports), who won the East Cleveland Classic alone in April. Racing last week in Belgium for the first time since May, his form is a mystery, but he races from the front.
Benjamin Hinchliffe (Jamison Racing Team USA) makes his National Road Series debut having won the Sherpa Performance Stage Race a fortnight ago, taking the overall on the technical Colchester Sports Park circuit, a strong time trial and a tactically astute road race at Abberton Reservoir. The US collegiate road race champion is untested in a field of this depth on a parcours of this difficulty, which makes him a wildcard the favourites will watch.
The under-23 title is also in play on Sunday. Lewis Tinsley (BCC Race Team) leads the under-23 classification within the National Road Series, which goes to the highest-placed under-23 rider in the final overall standings and carries a jersey at this event. He favours harder, hillier races: second at the Peak 2 Day early in the season, then top-six finishes at the Tour of the Reservoir and the Lincoln and South Molton Grands Prix.
Women
DAS–Hutchinson arrive with a series lead to defend and three riders capable of doing it. Morven Yeoman has had the breakthrough season, the 21-year-old Scot riding away from the field at the Rapha Lincoln Grand Prix alongside teammate Noémie Thomson before second place at Lancaster proved she could handle harder terrain. She fought through illness to finish inside the top ten at South Molton and came through the Curlew Cup in the bunch, and she is quick after a long day, which on a finish like this one makes her difficult to beat.
Lucy Lee may be the better card on this parcours. She won here in 2024, took the Curlew Cup last year by dropping her breakaway companions on the final ascent of the Ryals, and her second place at the Tour of the Reservoir in June showed she can still go deep on the hardest days. A podium at Lancaster followed. Tamsin Miller wears number one as defending champion, having soloed to victory at Wentworth Woodhouse last August. A strong time trialist, she carries the unwanted distinction of not having finished a race all season, but she remains a rider the other squads will be reluctant to let up the road. The team is without Katie Scott, winner of the East Cleveland Classic, and Thomson, who took the CiCLE Classic in March.
Lily Martin is the reason the series is still alive. The Loughborough Lightning rider has signed with Handsling Alba as a stagiaire for UCI races but starts here in her trade team’s colours, and her season has been one of steady escalation: prolific at National B level, then a first National Road Series win at Lancaster, where she rode away from Yeoman and Lee on the final climb and won by over a minute. Fifth in the under-23 National Time Trial Championship showed her power against WorldTour opposition, and an uphill finish after 101km is close to the ideal scenario. She has seven teammates to work with, which on a parcours like this may matter more than it sounds.
Ruby Oakes heads a seven-strong FTP–Fulfil The Potential Racing entry and has been the most consistent under-23 in the series behind Martin, fourth at Lincoln her standout ride. Selected for the Great Britain team at the Tour of Britain Women, she will want to arrive there sharp.
Paralloy RT have quietly had a strong season through Amy Henchoz. The 28-year-old Yorkshire circuit race champion has yet to win on the road this year, but a run of consistent placings has carried her into the top six of the National Road Series, and she has repeatedly shown she can hold the wheels of the favourites at this level. This course should suit her.
Junior Melanie Rowe (camsmajaco) has spent the year proving she belongs in this company. Third at the junior Liège–Bastogne–Liège and sixth at the junior Tour of Flanders, she was second at the CiCLE Classic in March and has taken top-15 finishes at the Tour of the Reservoir and the Curlew Cup since, as well as dismantling a strong Handsling Alba squad at the Gifford Road Race in her native Scotland. She knows what to do with punchy hills.
Handsling Alba arrive depleted. Four riders are struck from the provisional startlist, among them Curlew Cup runner-up Arabella Blackburn and Madeline Cooper, while Grace Lister and Tour of the Reservoir winner Kate Richardson are not entered at all. That leaves Arianne Holland, fifth at the Reservoir and ninth at Lancaster, to lead a much-reduced Bob Lyons squad alongside Amelia Tyler, Mari Porton and Holly Ramsey, who was 12th at Stamfordham.
Jennifer Powell (Performance Development Team) is arguably the most overlooked rider in the field. The 38-year-old took third at the South Molton Grand Prix in July, the best National A result of her career, and was eighth at the Tour of the Reservoir before that. She also finished ninth on this course at the 2024 Ryedale, which is more relevant experience than most of this startlist can claim.
Anna Morris and Jessica Roberts both ride unattached, and both took team pursuit bronze for Wales at Glasgow 2026 a fortnight ago. Morris is the more likely to trouble the front here, with third at Lincoln and fifth at the East Cleveland Classic behind her, and she was beaten by only five points in last year’s Super-League. Roberts won the Otley Grand Prix outright in July. Megan Barker (Rapha Cycling Club) completes the trio from that Welsh podium: the national circuit race champion is a criterium rider on a climber’s course, but she has a Super-League placing to protect.
Smurfit Westrock Cycling Team are without Amelia Cebak, the highest-placed rider in the series missing from the startlist. Elena Day leads them instead, having been 10th at the CiCLE Classic and 12th at the Tour of the Reservoir, alongside Annabel Ramsay, Alice Colling and the Austrian rider Leila Gschwentner.
Grace Reynolds arrives as something of an unknown quantity. Second at the Curlew Cup last year, the Irish rider suffered a grade two brain injury in a freak training accident in April and has raced sparingly since, though a spirited 12th at South Molton last month suggested the legs are returning. She now rides for the French-based Megamo Vosges Team.
Florence Wiggins (London Academy) soloed to her first National B victory at the Duncan Murray Wines Road Race a fortnight ago and steps up to this level with nothing to lose.
Curlew Cup winner Nicola Quaye (360cycling), for whom Stamfordham was a final race of the season, does not start.
Provisional startlists
Women’s race
Open race
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