2026 Maria Thompson Memorial: preview and startlist
The British Women’s Team Cup finale hits the roads of Surrey as the Kingston Wheelers host the always-exciting Maria Thompson Memorial Road Race this Sunday, 30 August
The British Women’s Team Cup finale hits the roads of Surrey as the Kingston Wheelers host the always-exciting Maria Thompson Memorial Road Race this Sunday, 30 August
When a red weather warning cancelled the Tour des Deux-Sèvres with Cycling Sheffield already en route, team manager Dave Coulson turned the van around and pointed it at Belgium’s kermesses instead. He talks to Jack Beavis about improvisation, development, and what a warming Europe means for British teams racing abroad.
George Stephen returns with the second entry in his 2026 journal for The British Continental. Writing from Mallorca after burnout forced him out of the National Championships, the BCC Race Team rider and Nottingham student pays tribute to the people who never appear on the results list — but without whom no bike rider gets anywhere.
Fifth in the national time trial on caffeine alone, then two laps of bluff and counter-bluff in Aberystwyth that settled the under-23 title — Mattie Dodd on a Nationals he can barely remember, and a stand-off he could not win.
A first UCI win on stage 4 of the Ronde de l’Isard, a week of donkey work in the Alps and eight summits’ worth of climbing points at the Giro d’Italia Next Gen — Mattie Dodd on the best month of his season, and the prize he has since mislaid.
A week at the Tour de Bretagne leaves Mattie Dodd feeling the strongest he has all season, if without the result to show for it — before fighter jets, First World War mines and his new team’s first road race win enliven a run through the Ardennes and Flanders.
George Stephen is the latest contributor to The British Continental’s 2026 journal series. The BCC Race Team rider and Nottingham student writes about a Movember ride that came to mean more than he expected, the crash in France that changed everything, and the diagnosis that arrived just as he had got back to racing.
We are really pleased to introduce Ian Mansel-Thomas as the latest of The British Continental’s 2026 journal contributors. Ian co-manages the junior super-team camsmajaco, and in his opening entry he examines how junior racing has come to resemble the WorldTour — and the rider-agent landgrab that now reaches under-16s.
We are really pleased to introduce Tizzie Robinson-Gordon as the latest of The British Continental’s 2026 journal contributors. In her opening entry, she takes us from a broken ankle in a Calpe villa garden to a return to the Scottish scene six weeks later — via a meditation on a gravel bike she does not need.
We are really pleased to introduce Hope Inglis as the first of The British Continental’s new journal contributors for 2026. In her opening entry, she makes the case for what road cycling might learn from its muddier cousins – and why a trip to Cannock Chase rekindled her love of racing.