Anna Morris, Matthew Richardson, Sophie Unwin and Jenny Holl, and Josh Charlton were among the GB stars to shine on day one of the Lloyds National Track Championships 2025 as action got underway at the National Cycling Centre in Manchester.
Women's scratch race
Anna Morris delivered a sublime performance to add the national scratch title to her palmares in a thrilling contest.
In the end, Morris’s breakaway with 11 laps to go was the defining moment of the contest, but the Welsh woman had to work hard with a fast-finishing Katie Archibald, Sophie Lewis (DAS-Hutchinson-Brother UK), Grace Lister (Team Inspired) and Erin Boothman (Toufati Everyone Active) all adding pressure in an entertaining conclusion.
The race started very conservatively as riders were unwilling to show their cards early, but it was the experienced Archibald who made the first significant acceleration with 27 laps to go to draw the pack out. From this moment on, little attacks were launched, but it wasn’t until Morris and Imogen Wolff (Team Visma Lease A Bike) moved away with over 15 laps to go that the real entertainment began. Wolff fell off the pace with the pack led by Archibald moving through ferociously.
Morris, who claimed European gold in the individual pursuit last week, said afterwards: “That was a great scratch race, I don’t think there has been anything quite like it at nationals. My plan wasn’t to go long but the opportunity presented itself. I thought there were a few of us off the front and suddenly I realised I was actually on my way and I just decided to go for it. It was an in the moment decision and luckily it paid off.
“I was definitely aware that there was a chase coming. You can never underestimate Katie, even with one to go, she could still come flying over my shoulder. So it was head down and focus all the way to the line.”
Men’s sprint
Matthew Richardson (Team Inspired) won his very first national jersey in GB colours after storming to a 2-0 win against Pete Mitchell (Black Line) in the men’s sprint final.
Olympic silver medallist Richardson breezed through qualifying and the knockout rounds without losing a single match as he cruised towards the gold medal final.
His opponent in the final waS reigning champion Mitchell, who had been just behind Richardson in qualifying and had produced similarly incredible rides in his knockout match sprints, defeating Luthais Arthur (Glasgow Track Racing Team) and subsequently both Team Inspired’s Harry Radford and Oliver Pettifer in straight heats.
However, he was overpowered by Richardson in the final, who came around on both occasions to comfortably take home his first national jersey with more opportunities to come across the weekend.
Post-race Richardson said:
“It feels pretty good, I was looking forward to racing nationals, it felt really good to be out here racing so to get out there, first race, first win!
“It was a good day, we started with a really big pool of riders that got diluted as the day went on. It was a long day and I stayed fueled, microwave rice in between sessions! But glad it ended this way.”
After two impressive rides Marcus Hiley (Team Inspired) defeated Pettifer 2-0 in the bronze medal match to earn his spot on the podium, ending a long day of competition for the pair with two controlled performances.
Para-cycling B pursuit
The women’s tandem races took centre stage during the Friday evening session, and it kicked off with Sophie Unwin and Jenny Holl taking a narrow victory in an unofficial world record of 4:36.737 ahead of Lora Fachie and Charlotte Deykin. while Selvi Krishna and Eva Hague bagged bronze.
Unwin said: “We wanted to do a good ride and I think we managed that. It is a new distance for us, so we were a bit nervous about how it would go. The last four laps was further than we usually do, so having the crowd cheering us on really helped us in those last few laps.”
Double Paralympic champion Steve Bate and his pilot Chris Latham caught Chris Wilkins and Henry Latimer at the halfway point in the 4km pursuit final, accelerating away to a time of 4:10.632 to be crowned the first national champions of the day.
Speaking after receiving his jersey on the podium, Bate said:
“We’re pretty happy with that ride, we’ve not done a lot of work on the pursuit since the Paris Games, so to come here and win, we’re buzzing.
“It’s always nice to race in Manchester. We train here everyday in complete silence so it’s great to be in front of the fans and feel the warmth."
Men’s individual pursuit
Newly crowned European champion Josh Charlton added domestic gold to his collection after an astonishing ride in front of a vocal home crowd.
Charlton, who held the world record briefly at last year’s world championships, caught defending champion Michael Gill (DAS Richardsons) just before the three quarter mark, but pushed on for a fast time. With the gold medal already sealed, Charlton dug in to win his national jersey in style, clocking 4:00.918.
After receiving his gold medal, he said: “It is pretty cool actually! I didn’t think I’d be here in October time of last year, still competing and still holding steady at the low four minute times. I’ve made some good progression again over the winter and it just feels good to keep the momentum going.
“You can’t usually hear the crowd but it was pretty loud when they were going for it! I didn’t realise there wasn’t even a time, they just loved to see me going fast! I didn’t know how I was going to be feeling to be honest, so I went out of the gates easier than I usually do and if I’ve got it, I’ll just book it in the back end. It was really good having the crowd behind me all the way.”
Will Perrett (DAS Richardsons) took the bronze after a perfectly-timed race, coming from behind to beat Matthew Bostock (TEKKERZ CC). Perrett started conservatively which allowed Bostock to take a lead in the opening stages of the race but this was cut down significantly in the last eight laps. With two laps remaining, the deficit had been overhauled and Perrett sealed the bronze.
Para-cycling C1-5 Time-Trials
Archie Atkinson produced one of the performances of the day as he overhauled Jody Cundy in superb style to claim the national title in front of a vociferous home crowd.
Pushing the pace early on, the Paris silver medallist showed his quality as he rode to a time of 1:06.295 ahead of Cundy - who took the silver medal in Manchester - to bag the C4 title. Josh Betteley secured the bronze medal after a strong ride to finish just a second behind Cundy.
Afterwards, a delighted Atkinson said: “It feels pretty good, I wasn’t really expecting that! I’ve had no track form, I’ve been focusing on the road but it’s really good prep for the season. It was really good fun, it’s my home track, so it’s really nice to win on home soil."
There was a C2 1km time-trial crown for Matthew Robertson (Woolwich CC) after a strong ride. After a bronze medal at the Paralympic Games last summer, Robertson was back in track action, and he captured the national jersey with a fine display.
Post-race, Robertson said: “It’s really nice actually. It’s always good to get a good race in here. I enjoy doing these nationals all the time. I’ve done it for years and it’s really nice to be able to perform to some sort of level, albeit not maybe what I was happy with.”
Elsewhere, Jacob Smith claimed a dominant victory in the C3 1km time-trial as he beat second place Ben Heatherington (HUUB Wattshop) by almost seven seconds with a time of 1.12.369, averaging almost 50kph.
Alex Jones clinched the final men’s 1km time-trial national title of the day in the C5 category, as his time of 1.05.980 saw him triumph over both Xavier Disley (AeroCoach) and Samuel Davies.
Jones was calm and collected even after the podium ceremony, but put his attitude and victory down to his preparations, saying: “In training, I put myself under race day pressure, so when the time came, everything felt very familiar. I had a really good feeling when I woke up this morning, all the hard work was done, it was just a matter of executing everything correctly. I’m really glad it worked!”
During the evening session, there was a golden moment for Elisabeth Simpson who secured the C1-5 1km time-trial impressively in a time of 1:18.555 ahead of Elsie Hughes (Secret-Training CC) and Katie Toft (Storey Racing).
Women's team sprint
Team Inspired A’s trio of Lauren Bell, Rhian Edmunds and Lowri Thomas stormed to the gold medal in the final event of the evening, beating off teammates Iona Moir, Rhianna Parris-Smith and Georgette Rand.
Moir was quickest off the line, but the A team brought it back to take a time of 47.437, winning by a second and a half on the B team's 49.073.
The bronze medal match was a home nations battle royale as Wales took on Scotland PD with the former triumphing in a tight contest. Wales had the upper hand on each lap, but in the closing stages, the gap narrowed. It was the Welsh trio of Amy Cole, Bronwen Howard-Rees and Eve James who earned their place on the podium with a time of 51.230 to Scotland’s 51.575.
Speaking after the win, Bell said: “Each ride we built on the experience we learnt from the previous one, we haven’t actually ridden together as a team so the first run was seeing how we went. We improved on each ride, so things are pretty exciting looking forwards.”
Thomas added: “There weren't any teething problems, we’ve all been around each other enough so we understood what was going to happen, but as an actual team it went pretty well!”
The second day of the Lloyds National Track Championships 2025 will see the women’s individual pursuit, para-cycling C1-5 pursuits, para-cycling tandem time-trials, women’s keirin, men’s team sprint and men’s points race titles up for grabs.
