2026 Riders Collective GP and KLM Taxis Women’s GP: reports and results
Olivia Bates, a former GB lightweight rower in only her second road race, rode away from the field to win the inaugural KLM Taxis Women’s GP at Walton, and Adam Lewis defended his Riders Collective GP title, alone again, after a race that came back together with five laps to go.
Olivia Bates, a former GB Rowing Team lightweight sculler riding unattached in only her second road race, won the inaugural KLM Taxis Women’s GP at Walton in Leicestershire on Saturday, alone. Millie Salmon (Grouwels-Watersley R&D), a junior, won the bunch sprint for second, with Charlotte Deykin (FTP–Fulfil The Potential Racing) third.
In the Riders Collective GP, Adam Lewis (APS Pro Cycling) won for the second year running, and alone for the second year running, following Michael Gill’s attack with just under four laps to go after the day’s long break had been caught, then riding the last three laps on his own to close the national road season around 30 seconds ahead of Oscar Nisbett (JAKROO Handsling Racing), who won the five-rider sprint for second, and Mohammad Ganjkhanlou (Stolen Goat 4Endurance).
Eighteen laps of the new 4.6-kilometre circuit at Walton, 83 kilometres on a flat, technical lap with three left-hand corners, around 25 metres of climbing each time round and a finish that drags slightly uphill into a cross-headwind, under overcast skies that turned to rain in the last third. There were primes through the race and two Milly Grace Jewellery intermediate sprints. Twenty-three riders started the first women’s race the Riders Collective has run, added to the programme this year with KLM Taxis’ backing and carrying the same prize money as the open race, and the last round of The British Continental’s women’s road rankings.
Potholes on the first straight cost a couple of riders punctures in the opening laps, and when the rain came, at around 60 kilometres, there was a crash on the run-in to one of the sprints. The field was still together at halfway, and stayed that way until the last two laps, when a rider attacked off the front. Bates went after her.
“I just thought that this was the chance to go if there was going to be one, so I caught up to her and was going to try and ride with her to stay away,” Bates told The British Continental. “But after I had gone past her she couldn’t get on my wheel, so then I was on my own and just thought I needed to carry on, as I know sprinting is not my strongest point, so this would be my best chance at winning. And I just about managed to stay away until the end.”
Behind, nobody expected it to work. “I didn’t expect a solo rider to manage to stay out in these conditions, so it really shows how strong she is,” Salmon said. “Everyone was a bit reluctant to chase, so I attempted to bridge at one point, but got caught back in the headwind just before the line with one to go. I thought at this point it’s best to go all in for the bunch sprint for second rather than attempting to bridge again with only 3km to go.” By the finish Bates was alone and clear of the bunch.
She admits she was not taking much in. “I can’t really remember much, as I was just focusing so hard on trying not to crash, as I’ve not been racing long at all,” she said. Bates is not a cyclist by trade, or was not until this year. A lightweight sculler with the GB Rowing Team, she joined the senior squad in 2023 and won two World Cup bronze medals in the single scull in her first season, then gold at the opening World Cup of 2024 in Varese and bronze in Lucerne, and was fourth in the lightweight double at the 2024 European Championships, all while studying veterinary science at the University of Nottingham. Then the Olympic programme changed under her. “I was an elite rower until after Paris 2024, then the lightweight event that I used to race in got taken out of the Olympic programme, so I train for triathlon now, but have been doing some cycling too, as I really love the bike and it has been helping me improve my bike skills,” she said. Her first road race was the Seacroft Wheelers Road Race in Yorkshire in August, where she was second, beaten by a bike length in a sprint from a five-rider break. Her second she won alone.
Salmon had spent the first half of the race using the primes and both intermediate sprints as reconnaissance. “It was a difficult finish, with a cross-headwind and slightly uphill, so I used the primes as an opportunity to figure out the best way to approach the finish if it ended up as a bunch sprint,” she said. “I rode on the right each time, because it was so sheltered from the wind that it was difficult for others to pass on the left even if I opened up the sprint early, so I used this tactic for the bunch sprint for second at the end.” It worked. The junior, who moved from Shibden Apex RT to the Dutch Grouwels-Watersley development programme for 2026 and rode the Watersley Ladies Challenge against elite fields in July, had reasons of her own for wanting the result. “I felt a lot of pressure to try and win this race, because I’m currently without a team for next season as a first-year under-23, as the team I was supposed to move on to folded,” she said. “So I really wanted to prepare well for today to get a good result.”
Deykin was third for FTP. Hannah Slater (Charlotteville CC) was fourth, Georgia Lancaster (Loughborough Lightning) fifth, Hannah Clough (University of Nottingham CC) sixth and Lucy Havard (Jadan Vive le Velo p/b Glasdon) seventh, with Eloise Ward (CAMS majaco), another junior, eighth, Erin Avill (Simpson Nouvelles) ninth and Annabel Ramsay (Smurfit Westrock Cycling Team) 10th. Rosie Simmons (Loughborough Lightning) was 13th, Eleanor Dixon (The Hera Project) 14th and Sian Botteley (Brother UK–Team OnForm) 16th. Twenty-one riders finished; Teri Bayliss (FTP) and Isabella Boyles (O’Shea Development Team) did not.
In the women’s rankings, Lancaster’s fifth place lifts her five spots to 12th on 208 points and Simmons climbs four to 16th; Havard and Clough each rise 14 places, to 22nd and 25th, and Deykin’s 45 points carry her up 78 places to 75th. Bates enters the table on 60 points and Salmon on 52. The individual title was already Lily Martin’s: on 582 points, with Morven Yeoman second on 435 and neither racing, nobody in the field could reach her. The team title was the open question. DAS–Hutchinson came to Walton leading Loughborough Lightning by 38 points with no rider entered; Lightning scored 46 through Lancaster and Simmons, and FTP–Fulfil The Potential Racing, third going in, scored 48 through Deykin and Gemma Mitchell. The final team standings are on the Stats Hub.
Riders Collective Open GP
Twenty-six laps of the same circuit, 120 kilometres, with £10 primes on 23 of them and two intermediate sprints. Eighty-one riders started the second Riders Collective GP, a race Max Sillifant took on with five weeks’ notice last year to keep the Leicester Forest CC Road Race alive and which has moved one village along to Walton for 2026, with a new circuit, a women’s race and a sportive beside it. With the Strade del Vescovo cancelled, it was the final national road race of the season and the last round of The British Continental’s road rankings. Forty riders finished.
“Very fast start to the race, nothing was sticking,” Lewis told The British Continental. “About 40 minutes in a group of around 10 of us went clear. We rode pretty well together but never got a huge gap on the bunch behind; max was about 20 seconds.” Forty-five minutes in, by our count, a group of nine had around 15 seconds: Lewis, the defending champion, with James McKay (Atom 6–Cycleur de Luxe–Auto Stroo Continental Team), Josh Housley (Ride Revolution Coaching), Jack Hartley (Moonglu SpatzWear), Iestyn Jones (Team PB Performance), Joshua Horsfield (Cycling Sheffield), Harvey Stroh (TAAP Kalas), Ben Waghorne (League-Fortè Chiropractic) and a BCC Race Team rider. Ride Revolution had a rider there in Housley; JAKROO Handsling Racing, 17 points behind them in the team rankings with two riders in the race, had nobody.
The break sprints for a prime. Image: Cyclingchaos
It did not hold together. Hartley attacked inside the break and only Lewis and Housley could follow; McKay, left in what remained, rode across on his own to make it four. “Jack Hartley detonated it really early,” McKay told The British Continental. “So then there was Adam, Josh Housley and Jack Hartley away, and I had to ride across from what was left of the rest of the break. And then there was just four of us chopping off for ages, and then it was just not enough.” By the second of the two Vetta intermediate sprints the four were clear and working well together, and they pushed the gap out to 50 seconds.
Fifty seconds was not enough. With five laps to go a chasing group of around 10 came across, three DAS Richardsons riders among them, and the race reset with the defending champion still in it. With just under four to go Gill, the DAS Richardsons rider who spends most of his year on the track with the Great Britain team pursuit squad, attacked, and Lewis went with him. “We broke clear,” Lewis said. “A lap later I ended up solo and managed to hold on, had about 30 seconds over second place.” McKay, watching from the group, saw it the same way. “Adam got away with a guy from Richardsons, and then he just blew. So they had nothing, because Richardsons were blocking everything behind, so they basically just gifted Adam the win, and then we all raced for second.” Lewis rode the last three laps alone, around 30 seconds clear at the line, to win the Riders Collective GP for the second time in its two editions.
Behind him it got cagey and the group split. Nisbett, the 19-year-old JAKROO brought to Walton as one of two riders and the one more likely to be asked to work, took the five-rider sprint for second from Ganjkhanlou, Clay Davies (Ride Revolution Coaching) and William Perrett (DAS Richardsons), with Housley sixth. Alexander Pritchard (Team Novo Nordisk Development) led the next five home for seventh, ahead of McKay, out of legs, Hartley and Cameron McLaren (TAAP Kalas), and Gill, who had started it all, was 11th. Peter Cocker (DAS Richardsons) was 12th, Hugh Aubrey (Stolen Goat 4Endurance) 13th, Cai Curtis-Roberts (360cycling), who signed on as a reserve, 14th, and Matthew King 16th. Thomas Doig (Foran CT) was 22nd and Ashley Hutchison (TAAP Kalas), the Nick Clayton winner, 33rd. Among the 41 who did not finish were Sam Chaplin, JAKROO’s other rider, Benjamin Arey, Denholm Edwards and Oliver Hurdle.
“Adam was the strongest and deserved to win,” McKay said. “He was in the first move, and then when it came across he had the legs to go again, which no one else had. So fair play.” It caps a season that has brought Lewis a first UCI win at the Tour of the Gila, a yellow jersey at the Rás Tailteann and a Tour of Britain start, and it keeps his name on a race he first won with the same move, alone in the rain, a year ago.
The result closes The British Continental’s rankings for 2026. Ride Revolution Coaching came to Walton 17 points clear of JAKROO Handsling Racing in the team table, 1,353 to 1,336, with seven riders on the startlist to JAKROO’s two, and Wheelbase CabTech Castelli third on 1,228 with nobody entered; Ride Revolution scored 71 through Davies and Housley, JAKROO 52 through Nisbett, and the final team standings are on the Stats Hub. Thomas Armstrong’s individual title was settled before the day: on 578 points, with Danylo Riwnyj second on 448 and Lewis Tinsley third on 382, none of them racing, no rider in the field could reach him. Davies’s fourth place lifts him two spots to fourth overall on 364, past Oliver Dawson and Alex Murphy; Lewis climbs seven to 10th on 285; Housley is up five to 16th, Perrett up 11 to 24th, Ganjkhanlou up 31 to 41st, and Nisbett up 88 places to 100th.
Olivia Bates, a former GB Rowing Team lightweight sculler riding unattached in only her second road race, won the inaugural KLM Taxis Women’s GP at Walton in Leicestershire on Saturday, alone. Millie Salmon (Grouwels-Watersley R&D), a junior, won the bunch sprint for second, with Charlotte Deykin (FTP–Fulfil The Potential Racing) third.
In the Riders Collective GP, Adam Lewis (APS Pro Cycling) won for the second year running, and alone for the second year running, following Michael Gill’s attack with just under four laps to go after the day’s long break had been caught, then riding the last three laps on his own to close the national road season around 30 seconds ahead of Oscar Nisbett (JAKROO Handsling Racing), who won the five-rider sprint for second, and Mohammad Ganjkhanlou (Stolen Goat 4Endurance).
Featured image: Cyclingchaos
Reports
KLM Taxis Women’s GP
Eighteen laps of the new 4.6-kilometre circuit at Walton, 83 kilometres on a flat, technical lap with three left-hand corners, around 25 metres of climbing each time round and a finish that drags slightly uphill into a cross-headwind, under overcast skies that turned to rain in the last third. There were primes through the race and two Milly Grace Jewellery intermediate sprints. Twenty-three riders started the first women’s race the Riders Collective has run, added to the programme this year with KLM Taxis’ backing and carrying the same prize money as the open race, and the last round of The British Continental’s women’s road rankings.
Potholes on the first straight cost a couple of riders punctures in the opening laps, and when the rain came, at around 60 kilometres, there was a crash on the run-in to one of the sprints. The field was still together at halfway, and stayed that way until the last two laps, when a rider attacked off the front. Bates went after her.
“I just thought that this was the chance to go if there was going to be one, so I caught up to her and was going to try and ride with her to stay away,” Bates told The British Continental. “But after I had gone past her she couldn’t get on my wheel, so then I was on my own and just thought I needed to carry on, as I know sprinting is not my strongest point, so this would be my best chance at winning. And I just about managed to stay away until the end.”
Behind, nobody expected it to work. “I didn’t expect a solo rider to manage to stay out in these conditions, so it really shows how strong she is,” Salmon said. “Everyone was a bit reluctant to chase, so I attempted to bridge at one point, but got caught back in the headwind just before the line with one to go. I thought at this point it’s best to go all in for the bunch sprint for second rather than attempting to bridge again with only 3km to go.” By the finish Bates was alone and clear of the bunch.
She admits she was not taking much in. “I can’t really remember much, as I was just focusing so hard on trying not to crash, as I’ve not been racing long at all,” she said. Bates is not a cyclist by trade, or was not until this year. A lightweight sculler with the GB Rowing Team, she joined the senior squad in 2023 and won two World Cup bronze medals in the single scull in her first season, then gold at the opening World Cup of 2024 in Varese and bronze in Lucerne, and was fourth in the lightweight double at the 2024 European Championships, all while studying veterinary science at the University of Nottingham. Then the Olympic programme changed under her. “I was an elite rower until after Paris 2024, then the lightweight event that I used to race in got taken out of the Olympic programme, so I train for triathlon now, but have been doing some cycling too, as I really love the bike and it has been helping me improve my bike skills,” she said. Her first road race was the Seacroft Wheelers Road Race in Yorkshire in August, where she was second, beaten by a bike length in a sprint from a five-rider break. Her second she won alone.
Salmon had spent the first half of the race using the primes and both intermediate sprints as reconnaissance. “It was a difficult finish, with a cross-headwind and slightly uphill, so I used the primes as an opportunity to figure out the best way to approach the finish if it ended up as a bunch sprint,” she said. “I rode on the right each time, because it was so sheltered from the wind that it was difficult for others to pass on the left even if I opened up the sprint early, so I used this tactic for the bunch sprint for second at the end.” It worked. The junior, who moved from Shibden Apex RT to the Dutch Grouwels-Watersley development programme for 2026 and rode the Watersley Ladies Challenge against elite fields in July, had reasons of her own for wanting the result. “I felt a lot of pressure to try and win this race, because I’m currently without a team for next season as a first-year under-23, as the team I was supposed to move on to folded,” she said. “So I really wanted to prepare well for today to get a good result.”
Deykin was third for FTP. Hannah Slater (Charlotteville CC) was fourth, Georgia Lancaster (Loughborough Lightning) fifth, Hannah Clough (University of Nottingham CC) sixth and Lucy Havard (Jadan Vive le Velo p/b Glasdon) seventh, with Eloise Ward (CAMS majaco), another junior, eighth, Erin Avill (Simpson Nouvelles) ninth and Annabel Ramsay (Smurfit Westrock Cycling Team) 10th. Rosie Simmons (Loughborough Lightning) was 13th, Eleanor Dixon (The Hera Project) 14th and Sian Botteley (Brother UK–Team OnForm) 16th. Twenty-one riders finished; Teri Bayliss (FTP) and Isabella Boyles (O’Shea Development Team) did not.
In the women’s rankings, Lancaster’s fifth place lifts her five spots to 12th on 208 points and Simmons climbs four to 16th; Havard and Clough each rise 14 places, to 22nd and 25th, and Deykin’s 45 points carry her up 78 places to 75th. Bates enters the table on 60 points and Salmon on 52. The individual title was already Lily Martin’s: on 582 points, with Morven Yeoman second on 435 and neither racing, nobody in the field could reach her. The team title was the open question. DAS–Hutchinson came to Walton leading Loughborough Lightning by 38 points with no rider entered; Lightning scored 46 through Lancaster and Simmons, and FTP–Fulfil The Potential Racing, third going in, scored 48 through Deykin and Gemma Mitchell. The final team standings are on the Stats Hub.
Riders Collective Open GP
Twenty-six laps of the same circuit, 120 kilometres, with £10 primes on 23 of them and two intermediate sprints. Eighty-one riders started the second Riders Collective GP, a race Max Sillifant took on with five weeks’ notice last year to keep the Leicester Forest CC Road Race alive and which has moved one village along to Walton for 2026, with a new circuit, a women’s race and a sportive beside it. With the Strade del Vescovo cancelled, it was the final national road race of the season and the last round of The British Continental’s road rankings. Forty riders finished.
“Very fast start to the race, nothing was sticking,” Lewis told The British Continental. “About 40 minutes in a group of around 10 of us went clear. We rode pretty well together but never got a huge gap on the bunch behind; max was about 20 seconds.” Forty-five minutes in, by our count, a group of nine had around 15 seconds: Lewis, the defending champion, with James McKay (Atom 6–Cycleur de Luxe–Auto Stroo Continental Team), Josh Housley (Ride Revolution Coaching), Jack Hartley (Moonglu SpatzWear), Iestyn Jones (Team PB Performance), Joshua Horsfield (Cycling Sheffield), Harvey Stroh (TAAP Kalas), Ben Waghorne (League-Fortè Chiropractic) and a BCC Race Team rider. Ride Revolution had a rider there in Housley; JAKROO Handsling Racing, 17 points behind them in the team rankings with two riders in the race, had nobody.
It did not hold together. Hartley attacked inside the break and only Lewis and Housley could follow; McKay, left in what remained, rode across on his own to make it four. “Jack Hartley detonated it really early,” McKay told The British Continental. “So then there was Adam, Josh Housley and Jack Hartley away, and I had to ride across from what was left of the rest of the break. And then there was just four of us chopping off for ages, and then it was just not enough.” By the second of the two Vetta intermediate sprints the four were clear and working well together, and they pushed the gap out to 50 seconds.
Fifty seconds was not enough. With five laps to go a chasing group of around 10 came across, three DAS Richardsons riders among them, and the race reset with the defending champion still in it. With just under four to go Gill, the DAS Richardsons rider who spends most of his year on the track with the Great Britain team pursuit squad, attacked, and Lewis went with him. “We broke clear,” Lewis said. “A lap later I ended up solo and managed to hold on, had about 30 seconds over second place.” McKay, watching from the group, saw it the same way. “Adam got away with a guy from Richardsons, and then he just blew. So they had nothing, because Richardsons were blocking everything behind, so they basically just gifted Adam the win, and then we all raced for second.” Lewis rode the last three laps alone, around 30 seconds clear at the line, to win the Riders Collective GP for the second time in its two editions.
Behind him it got cagey and the group split. Nisbett, the 19-year-old JAKROO brought to Walton as one of two riders and the one more likely to be asked to work, took the five-rider sprint for second from Ganjkhanlou, Clay Davies (Ride Revolution Coaching) and William Perrett (DAS Richardsons), with Housley sixth. Alexander Pritchard (Team Novo Nordisk Development) led the next five home for seventh, ahead of McKay, out of legs, Hartley and Cameron McLaren (TAAP Kalas), and Gill, who had started it all, was 11th. Peter Cocker (DAS Richardsons) was 12th, Hugh Aubrey (Stolen Goat 4Endurance) 13th, Cai Curtis-Roberts (360cycling), who signed on as a reserve, 14th, and Matthew King 16th. Thomas Doig (Foran CT) was 22nd and Ashley Hutchison (TAAP Kalas), the Nick Clayton winner, 33rd. Among the 41 who did not finish were Sam Chaplin, JAKROO’s other rider, Benjamin Arey, Denholm Edwards and Oliver Hurdle.
“Adam was the strongest and deserved to win,” McKay said. “He was in the first move, and then when it came across he had the legs to go again, which no one else had. So fair play.” It caps a season that has brought Lewis a first UCI win at the Tour of the Gila, a yellow jersey at the Rás Tailteann and a Tour of Britain start, and it keeps his name on a race he first won with the same move, alone in the rain, a year ago.
The result closes The British Continental’s rankings for 2026. Ride Revolution Coaching came to Walton 17 points clear of JAKROO Handsling Racing in the team table, 1,353 to 1,336, with seven riders on the startlist to JAKROO’s two, and Wheelbase CabTech Castelli third on 1,228 with nobody entered; Ride Revolution scored 71 through Davies and Housley, JAKROO 52 through Nisbett, and the final team standings are on the Stats Hub. Thomas Armstrong’s individual title was settled before the day: on 578 points, with Danylo Riwnyj second on 448 and Lewis Tinsley third on 382, none of them racing, no rider in the field could reach him. Davies’s fourth place lifts him two spots to fourth overall on 364, past Oliver Dawson and Alex Murphy; Lewis climbs seven to 10th on 285; Housley is up five to 16th, Perrett up 11 to 24th, Ganjkhanlou up 31 to 41st, and Nisbett up 88 places to 100th.
Results
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