2026/27 Cyclo-cross National Trophy: an explainer

The road season is over, and Britain’s best off-road riders are swapping tarmac for grass, mud and sand. The 2026/27 Lloyds Cyclo-cross National Trophy Series starts at Moorways in Derby this weekend, the first of six rounds that take the series to Wales, Kent, Shropshire and Scotland before it finishes in January.

Whether you follow the Trophy every winter or you’re coming to cyclo-cross from the road, here’s what you need: the calendar, how a Trophy weekend works, how the points and the start grid are decided, and why none of this season’s rounds carries UCI points.

Featured image: Joe Hudson

What is it?

The National Trophy is Britain’s premier cyclo-cross series, run by British Cycling with Lloyds as title sponsor. It covers every age group, from under-14s to masters riders aged 70 and over, with separate open and women’s competitions in each, and a leader’s jersey in every category. The elite and under-23 riders race together, with the under-23s scored as a competition of their own.

Entry is by selection rather than first come, first served. Places go to the highest-ranked riders in British Cycling’s national rankings when entries close, fields are capped at 100 per category, and there is no reserve list. At Derby, late entries are accepted at double the fee, but those riders start at the back.

What are the rounds?

Derby opens the series for the third year running. Cyclopark in Gravesend, which hosted the national championships in January 2025, is round three, and Shrewsbury returns for round four on the weekend before Christmas.

Pontypool is new. It hosts a Trophy round for the first time on 7 and 8 November, the series’ only visit to Wales this winter.

The finale has moved. When British Cycling announced the calendar in January, the last two rounds were to be held on consecutive days at Peel Park in Bradford, a format it described as a trial. It has since confirmed that rounds five and six will be held in North Ayrshire on 23 and 24 January instead.

The national championships come before that final round, at Clanfield, near Portsmouth, on 9 and 10 January. And a fortnight after Cyclopark, the UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup comes to Glasgow, at Kelvingrove Park on 13 December.

Calendar

Date	Round	Venue
17 and 18 October	1	Moorways Leisure Centre, Derby
7 and 8 November	2	Pontypool
28 and 29 November	3	Cyclopark, Gravesend
19 and 20 December	4	Shrewsbury
9 and 10 January	National Championships	Clanfield, Hampshire
23 and 24 January	5 and 6	North Ayrshire

How a Trophy weekend works

At Derby, Saturday belongs to the masters and youth riders: 40-minute masters races from 09:20, then 30-minute under-16 and under-14 races in the afternoon. Sunday starts with a non-ranking youth mixed relay, followed by the junior races at 11:00, the elite women’s race at 13:05 over 50 minutes, and the elite open race at 14:15 over an hour.

Gridding

In cyclo-cross the start can decide the race. A rider stuck in the fourth or fifth row will queue at the first corner while the front of the race rides away, so where riders line up matters as much as anywhere in the sport. The Trophy grids by ranking, in this order:

1. Elite and junior, round one: UCI cyclo-cross individual ranking, then last season’s final Trophy standings, then a random draw
2. Elite and junior, later rounds: UCI ranking, then the current Trophy standings, then British Cycling’s national ranking, then a random draw
3. All other categories, round one: last season’s final Trophy standings, then a random draw
4. All other categories, later rounds: the current Trophy standings, then the national ranking, then a random draw

So even though no round has UCI status this season, UCI points earned elsewhere still decide the front of the elite and junior grids. The chief commissaire can move up riders whose national ranking is well above their series position, or who have been in the overall top five but dropped down through injury or time away, but not into the first two rows, and can’t override the UCI ranking. Riders who miss the call-up can be sent to the back.

Scoring

Points go 100 places deep, far further than in the National Circuit Series, where only the top 40 score, and the top of the scale is steep. In every category, the top 11 places score as follows:

Pos	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11
Pts	200	180	170	160	150	140	135	130	125	120	115

From 12th to 21st, the points drop by three a place, from 112 to 85. From 22nd to 31st they drop by two, from 83 to 65, and from 32nd by one, reaching a single point at 95th. Places 96 to 100 also score a point each.

Each rider’s best four rounds count, so with six rounds this winter, everyone can drop their two worst results, or miss two rounds without losing ground. If two riders finish level on points, the higher place goes to the rider who finished higher in the final round; if neither rode it, the tie is settled on the round before, and so on back through the series.

Jerseys

The series leader in each category wears a leader’s jersey at the next round, and the colour depends on the category. Yellow is for the elite open and women’s leaders, the junior open leader, the under-16s and masters 40 to 49; green for the under-23s, under-14s and masters 50 to 59; blue for the junior women and masters 60 to 69; and red for masters 70+.

UCI points and prize money

Last season every round was scheduled as a UCI C2 race. When British Cycling announced this season’s calendar in January, it said only Derby would keep UCI status, and that the change was made “to help ease pressure on our round hosts”. But Derby no longer appears on the UCI calendar, so none of this winter’s rounds carries UCI points. Of this season’s changes more broadly, British Cycling’s head of talent development and sport, Joe Malik, said it was looking at “different ways we can improve the experiences of riders as well as race organisers”.

The change matters most to the elite and junior riders. UCI points help decide start positions at international races, including World Cups, so riders chasing them will have to score them outside the Trophy this winter.

UCI status also affects the prize money. Under the series regulations, rounds without it pay the elite podium £150, £100 and £70, and the junior podium £70, £50 and £30. At every round, masters winners receive £50 and youth winners £30.

Who to watch

Thomas Mein (Hope Factory Racing) won five of last season’s six rounds on his way to the series title, having also won it in 2023/24. In the women’s series, Ffion Drake (Wold Top Pactimo) won the first four rounds and took the title despite struggling with injury over the last two.

The national champions are Cameron Mason (Seven Racing), who won a fourth consecutive elite open title in South Shields in January, and Anna Flynn (Spectra Racing), who won her first elite women’s title there, eight days after winning the final Trophy round in Irvine. Our report from South Shields has the full results, and our 2023 explainer covers the series’ earlier history.

How to follow

Timing will be on RaceResult, and British Cycling publishes results on its website, but last season it provided no live updates from Trophy rounds, and its reports are now folded into general National Series round-ups. We will, however, be aiming to cover the series through the winter as best we can.

Read more

British Cycling’s National Trophy calendar is here, the 2026/27 regulations are here, and entry details for the Derby round are here.