Seventh place in the final round was enough for Robyn Clay (DAS-Hutchinson) to clinch the National Road Series on Sunday, completing an impressive treble in also winning the National Circuit Series and the inaugural Rapha Super-League.
The 21-year-old first earned the white leader’s jersey in May, going on to win the Tour of the Reservoir in June, and placing consistently in or near the top 10 in all seven events of the series. In Sunday’s curtain closer, the Wentworth Woodhouse Grand Prix in South Yorkshire, Clay went in with the plan to “stay out of trouble”, and guarantee her series lead.
“We just had to follow,” she said afterwards, adding that winning her first National Road Series title “means a lot – I didn’t really expect it coming into this season. In the first few rounds I did, I did better than I expected, but it was a slow start. It’s really nice that it’s come round this way.”
Clay’s breakthrough year was rewarded with a call-up to race the Tour de l’Avenir for Great Britain last week, where she finished 53rd. Last season, her spring was blighted by a finish-line crash in which she broke four vertebrae in her back, and had to undergo surgery for a fractured collarbone.
Her dominance this year means she secured the National Road Series by 57 points ahead of Smurfit Westrock’s Holly Ramsey (280 to 223), and won the Rapha Super-League – which comprises sixteen events including road races, criteriums and the National Championships – by a narrow five points ahead of track cycling Olympian Anna Morris (346 to 341).
It was Clay’s DAS-Hutchinson team-mate, Tammy Miller, who won the final round in the grounds of Wentworth Woodhouse, a Grade I listed mansion. The victory marked four on the trot in the series for the squad, and came after an 80km solo, Miller attacking just two laps into the five-lap race.
“For some reason, no one came with me,” the 25-year-old told Cycling Weekly. “I think I just caught the right moment to go. I sort of wish someone had come with me, but it just ended up being quite a long and grippy, windy day out.
“[The win] meant a lot not just for me personally, but for the entire team,” Miller continued. “I don’t think we could have ended the National Series for 2025 off in a better way.”
With the season now over, series winner Clay’s next appointment is a holiday to Florida, where she plans to visit Disneyland.
Howell in disbelief at National Series win
(Image credit: Craig Zadoroznyj/SWpix.com)
At just 20 years old, Adam Howell never even dreamed of winning the National Road Series this season. But after claiming two victories from six, the MUC-OFF-SRCT-STORCK rider wrapped up the title at Sunday’s Wentworth Woodhouse Grand Prix, with a shaky 15th place.
The final round was won by James McKay, in a one-two for his Wheelbase Cabtech Castelli team. The event came down to a reduced bunch sprint, from which Howell was absent, having stopped mid-race to fix a loose saddle.
“To take the overall series lead doesn’t quite feel real,” he told Cycling Weekly. “If you told me last year I’d even have a chance to have the leader’s jersey for a stage, let alone keep it for the entire season, I wouldn’t have believed you. I still can’t quite believe it myself at the moment.”
After winning the opening round in the East Cleveland Classic, Howell took top spot in the Tour of the Reservoir in June. McKay’s victory at Wentworth was also his second of the series, having triumphed too in the Rapha Lincoln Grand Prix.
“It was pretty hectic coming into this narrow road,” McKay said on Sunday. “I overshot the corner and ended up on the gravel, but it opened up nicely for me. Tom [Armstrong, Wheelbase team-mate who finished second] would have won, but I think his gears went into crash mode or some such malarkey at the finish… I’m a bit gutted for him in a way, because I’ve already won a round, but I had to sprint because I didn’t know if other guys were coming.”
Meanwhile, Matt Bostock (TEKKERZ CC) secured the Rapha Super-League title, with his performances across summer of crits enough to pip William Truelove (MUC-OFF-SRCT-STORCK).
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