2026 North Yorkshire Grand Prix: reports and results
Morven Yeoman is the 2026 Rapha Super-League and National Road Series champion after the final round of both competitions at Ampleforth, where Anna Morris won the race from a three-up sprint.
Anna Morris (Private Member) sprinted her way to glory at the first North Yorkshire Grand Prix at Ampleforth Abbey, formerly known as the Ryedale Grand Prix, as she prevailed over Melanie Rowe (camsmajaco) and Lily Martin (Loughborough Lightning).
The bigger prizes went to Morven Yeoman. With both the Rapha Super-League and the National Road Series reaching their final round on the abbey roads, sixth place on the day was all the DAS-Hutchinson rider needed to be crowned champion of each. She takes the Super-League by 58 points and the National Road Series by 12 from Martin, adding the under-23 classification, while her team seal the road series team title.
Featured image: Olly Hassell/SWPix.com
Reports
Women
What better way of breaking the fifth heatwave of the summer than by hosting a bike race? After a week of sunny skies and hot temperatures, Ampleforth welcomed the women’s peloton with pretty much unrelenting rain throughout the morning, providing cool conditions and slippery roads around North Yorkshire.
Perhaps it was the conditions, or maybe more the nerves of riders with titles still on the line, but the opening lap proved to be a rather cagey affair. Driven forward by Handsling Alba Development Team, and with Martin and Yeoman marking each other at the front, the peloton was stringing out without ever fully snapping.
Despite Martin putting in repeated digs on the climbs that pepper the course, as soon as the road flattened out, the 57-rider peloton would reform into a bigger mass.
Image: Olly Hassell/SWpix.com
However, it always seemed the Lightning rider’s repeated moves were going to stick at some point. Coming out of the Abbey grounds to start the second long circuit lap her perseverance finally paid off. She attacked clear with Morris and quickly opened a dozen seconds on a 10-rider chasing group.
Joined in short order by Rowe to form a front three, the trio were working well together and quickly built up a 1m28sec lead halfway round the second circuit.
Despite the chasing group including Yeoman and her DAS-Hutchinson teammate Ellie Parry, Smurfit Westrock Cycling Team pairing Elena Day and Leila Gschwentner, Ruby Oakes (FTP-Fulfil The Potential Racing), Arianne Holland (Handsling Alba Development Road Team), Amy Henchoz (Paralloy RT), and Jennifer Powell (Performance Development Team), no one wanted to be the one to put themselves at the front and expend the energy reeling in the three leaders.
Image: Olly Hassell/SWpix.com
It didn’t help the chasers’ cause that Morris, Martin, and Rowe were working well together, described as a team time trial effort on race radio, and as they crossed the line for the second time their lead had grown to more than three minutes as the chase group was caught by a group behind to reform the peloton.
Come the start of the penultimate lap and the advantage ballooned to over five minutes as the peloton looked to see who could claim whatever spoils were left over, and whether Yeoman, who by this point had all three teammates in the group with her, could get herself far enough forward to bank enough points to retain the Series title.
Come the final approach to Ampleforth, the three leaders almost assumed track mode with no one wanting to be the first one to burn their matches by launching an early attack which would be shot down by the other two.
Image: Olly Hassell/SWpix.com
As they got closer to the line it was Morris who finally made the decisive move, launching inside the final 150m to take victory, with Rowe using every ounce of her power to pip Martin to the runner-up spot. A fortnight after taking team pursuit bronze for Wales at the Commonwealth Games, and 12 months after losing the inaugural Rapha Super-League by five points, the unattached rider had the biggest domestic win of her season.
Behind her, Rowe’s second place was arguably the ride of the day. The 17-year-old, third at the junior Liège-Bastogne-Liège earlier this year, spent more than three laps in a two-up and then three-up move against riders several years her senior, and finishes fifth in the final National Road Series standings.
Image: Olly Hassell/SWpix.com
Sixth place was more than enough for Yeoman, who admitted afterwards to “not having the best legs”. The Rapha Super-League had in truth been decided before the flag dropped: with 25 points on offer at the last of eight rounds, her lead was already beyond reach. She finishes on 140 points, 58 clear of DAS-Hutchinson teammate Katie Scott, with Morris’s win lifting her six places to third on 81. Daisy Taylor (The Hera Project) is fourth and Madeline Cooper (Handsling Alba Development Road Team) fifth.
The National Road Series was the tighter of the two, and it went the same way. Yeoman ends on 298 to Martin’s 286, with Oakes third, Henchoz fourth and Rowe fifth. Yeoman also takes the under-23 classification, and DAS-Hutchinson the team title by 21 points from Handsling Alba Development Road Team.
Anna Morris (Private Member) sprinted her way to glory at the first North Yorkshire Grand Prix at Ampleforth Abbey, formerly known as the Ryedale Grand Prix, as she prevailed over Melanie Rowe (camsmajaco) and Lily Martin (Loughborough Lightning).
The bigger prizes went to Morven Yeoman. With both the Rapha Super-League and the National Road Series reaching their final round on the abbey roads, sixth place on the day was all the DAS-Hutchinson rider needed to be crowned champion of each. She takes the Super-League by 58 points and the National Road Series by 12 from Martin, adding the under-23 classification, while her team seal the road series team title.
Featured image: Olly Hassell/SWPix.com
Reports
Women
What better way of breaking the fifth heatwave of the summer than by hosting a bike race? After a week of sunny skies and hot temperatures, Ampleforth welcomed the women’s peloton with pretty much unrelenting rain throughout the morning, providing cool conditions and slippery roads around North Yorkshire.
Perhaps it was the conditions, or maybe more the nerves of riders with titles still on the line, but the opening lap proved to be a rather cagey affair. Driven forward by Handsling Alba Development Team, and with Martin and Yeoman marking each other at the front, the peloton was stringing out without ever fully snapping.
Despite Martin putting in repeated digs on the climbs that pepper the course, as soon as the road flattened out, the 57-rider peloton would reform into a bigger mass.
However, it always seemed the Lightning rider’s repeated moves were going to stick at some point. Coming out of the Abbey grounds to start the second long circuit lap her perseverance finally paid off. She attacked clear with Morris and quickly opened a dozen seconds on a 10-rider chasing group.
Joined in short order by Rowe to form a front three, the trio were working well together and quickly built up a 1m28sec lead halfway round the second circuit.
Despite the chasing group including Yeoman and her DAS-Hutchinson teammate Ellie Parry, Smurfit Westrock Cycling Team pairing Elena Day and Leila Gschwentner, Ruby Oakes (FTP-Fulfil The Potential Racing), Arianne Holland (Handsling Alba Development Road Team), Amy Henchoz (Paralloy RT), and Jennifer Powell (Performance Development Team), no one wanted to be the one to put themselves at the front and expend the energy reeling in the three leaders.
It didn’t help the chasers’ cause that Morris, Martin, and Rowe were working well together, described as a team time trial effort on race radio, and as they crossed the line for the second time their lead had grown to more than three minutes as the chase group was caught by a group behind to reform the peloton.
Come the start of the penultimate lap and the advantage ballooned to over five minutes as the peloton looked to see who could claim whatever spoils were left over, and whether Yeoman, who by this point had all three teammates in the group with her, could get herself far enough forward to bank enough points to retain the Series title.
Come the final approach to Ampleforth, the three leaders almost assumed track mode with no one wanting to be the first one to burn their matches by launching an early attack which would be shot down by the other two.
As they got closer to the line it was Morris who finally made the decisive move, launching inside the final 150m to take victory, with Rowe using every ounce of her power to pip Martin to the runner-up spot. A fortnight after taking team pursuit bronze for Wales at the Commonwealth Games, and 12 months after losing the inaugural Rapha Super-League by five points, the unattached rider had the biggest domestic win of her season.
Behind her, Rowe’s second place was arguably the ride of the day. The 17-year-old, third at the junior Liège-Bastogne-Liège earlier this year, spent more than three laps in a two-up and then three-up move against riders several years her senior, and finishes fifth in the final National Road Series standings.
Sixth place was more than enough for Yeoman, who admitted afterwards to “not having the best legs”. The Rapha Super-League had in truth been decided before the flag dropped: with 25 points on offer at the last of eight rounds, her lead was already beyond reach. She finishes on 140 points, 58 clear of DAS-Hutchinson teammate Katie Scott, with Morris’s win lifting her six places to third on 81. Daisy Taylor (The Hera Project) is fourth and Madeline Cooper (Handsling Alba Development Road Team) fifth.
The National Road Series was the tighter of the two, and it went the same way. Yeoman ends on 298 to Martin’s 286, with Oakes third, Henchoz fourth and Rowe fifth. Yeoman also takes the under-23 classification, and DAS-Hutchinson the team title by 21 points from Handsling Alba Development Road Team.
Open
To Follow
Results
Women
Open
To Follow
Share this:
Discover more from The British Continental
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.