For the first time since 2020, a number of the greatest riders in the country, including the reigning world champions Will Tidball, Emma Finucane, Neah Evans, and Neil Fachie, will be competing at the home of British Cycling, Newport’s Geraint Thomas National Velodrome of Wales.
There are still a few tickets available for this event online, with session rates ranging from £6.50 to £14.
Leading the strong men’s endurance field is Will Tidball, the world champion scratch racer competing in both scratch and points events. Tidball had a great season in 2023, winning silver in the points race and the national team pursuit championship. Since then, Tidball has won the UCI Track Champions League, an elimination race silver in the most recent European championship, and the scratch world title in spectacular fashion at a home world championship in Glasgow.
Tidball, who is sporting rainbow stripes this year, will undoubtedly be the target of opponents, including 2023 points national champion Will Perrett. The two will work together to represent Ward Performance S/B in the team competition. Tom Ward, Michael Gill, and Sebastian Garry with Kyle Gordon.
In the solo pursuit, where 2023 bronze medallist William Roberts will be attempting to reclaim the podium, Perrett, Ward, and Gill will also be competing.
Pilot Adam Duggleby and stoker Chris McDonald will be attempting to defend their championship in the tandem pursuit of the para-cycling endurance events, while Finlay Graham, Jaco Van Gass, Archie Atkinson, Will Bjergfelt, and Ryan Taylor will be contenders in the men’s C1-5 pursuit.
In the points race, Neah Evans will be attempting to hold onto her championship, but Maddie Leech, the 2023 silver medallist, and her colleagues on the Great Britain Cycling Team (GBCT), Jenny Holl, Grace Lister, Kate Richardson, and Danni Khan, among others, will provide fierce opposition. Izzy Sharp and Cat Ferguson, two recent additions to the Women’s WorldTour, will also participate in the bunch races.
Holl, the three-time para-track world champion, and her stoker, Sophie Unwin, will compete in the tandem pursuit, while Khan will be competing in her first tandem with Jordan. Corrine Hall will be piloting Lora Fachie, a double world and Paralympic medallist, in the chase. Daphne Schrager, a world record setter, is the clear favourite in the women’s C1-5 class.
Emma Finucane, the 2023 sprinting queen with four national crowns, will be vying for another coveted national champions’ jersey. She is a world and European champion. Together with Sophie Capewell, Milly Tanner, and Georgette Rand from Team Inspired, Finucane will compete in the women’s team sprint. They will compete against Rhian Edmunds, the 2022 sprint champion, Rhianna Parris-Smith, and Iona Moir, teammates on the Great Britain Cycling Team.
