Strade del Vescovo cancelled before inaugural edition
The Yomp Bonk Crew's mixed-surface National B near Selby, the first race of its kind on the British calendar, will not be held on 26 September. Entrants have been refunded.
A new National B road race that would have taken domestic fields onto gravel for the first time has been cancelled before its first edition. The Strade del Vescovo, promoted by the Yomp Bonk Crew and due to be held on the Bishops Wood circuit near Selby on 26 September, has been withdrawn from the calendar.
Organiser Thomas Hutchison told The British Continental the race had been called off because of “issues beyond the control of the organiser”. Riders who had entered have been notified and refunded.
The race was announced in June as a rare attempt to bring mixed-surface racing into British domestic competition. Open and women’s fields were to have started on the long-standing Bishops Wood circuit, which is pan-flat and familiar to riders in the area, before breaking onto forestry tracks normally closed to racing and opened for the day by special permission. The sectors were to arrive only once the race had settled, and then repeat lap after lap. The open race was set at 120 kilometres and the women’s at 86. The name was a play on Strade Bianche, the Tuscan classic run on white gravel roads: strade del vescovo translates as roads of the bishop, for Bishops Wood.
Its withdrawal brings the domestic season forward by a week. Max Sillifant’s Riders Collective GP and the KLM Taxis Women’s GP, run together in south Leicestershire on 19 September, will now be the final national races of the year.
It is the second Yomp Bonk Crew event to be cancelled this season. In July the club withdrew the Wheldrake 200, the longest one-day road race on the domestic calendar, after concluding it was no longer financially viable. Organiser Will Foster said at the time the race could not support itself as a standalone event unless entry fees rose to about £50, which he said was more than it would be fair to charge.
The Yomp Bonk Crew remain one of the most active promoting groups in British racing. Formed by a group of Sheffield teenagers, they run the Peak 2 Day and the Ronde van Wymeswold, staged the junior national road championships in Yorkshire in June, and won The British Continental‘s 2025 Outstanding Contribution to Domestic Road Racing award. The British Cycling listing for the Strade del Vescovo remained live at the time of publication.
Featured image: Milan Josy/The British Continental
A new National B road race that would have taken domestic fields onto gravel for the first time has been cancelled before its first edition. The Strade del Vescovo, promoted by the Yomp Bonk Crew and due to be held on the Bishops Wood circuit near Selby on 26 September, has been withdrawn from the calendar.
Organiser Thomas Hutchison told The British Continental the race had been called off because of “issues beyond the control of the organiser”. Riders who had entered have been notified and refunded.
The race was announced in June as a rare attempt to bring mixed-surface racing into British domestic competition. Open and women’s fields were to have started on the long-standing Bishops Wood circuit, which is pan-flat and familiar to riders in the area, before breaking onto forestry tracks normally closed to racing and opened for the day by special permission. The sectors were to arrive only once the race had settled, and then repeat lap after lap. The open race was set at 120 kilometres and the women’s at 86. The name was a play on Strade Bianche, the Tuscan classic run on white gravel roads: strade del vescovo translates as roads of the bishop, for Bishops Wood.
Its withdrawal brings the domestic season forward by a week. Max Sillifant’s Riders Collective GP and the KLM Taxis Women’s GP, run together in south Leicestershire on 19 September, will now be the final national races of the year.
It is the second Yomp Bonk Crew event to be cancelled this season. In July the club withdrew the Wheldrake 200, the longest one-day road race on the domestic calendar, after concluding it was no longer financially viable. Organiser Will Foster said at the time the race could not support itself as a standalone event unless entry fees rose to about £50, which he said was more than it would be fair to charge.
The Yomp Bonk Crew remain one of the most active promoting groups in British racing. Formed by a group of Sheffield teenagers, they run the Peak 2 Day and the Ronde van Wymeswold, staged the junior national road championships in Yorkshire in June, and won The British Continental‘s 2025 Outstanding Contribution to Domestic Road Racing award. The British Cycling listing for the Strade del Vescovo remained live at the time of publication.
Featured image: Milan Josy/The British Continental
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