Entries are now open for the 2014/15 British Cycling National Trophy Cyclo-cross Series and the British Cycling National Cyclo-cross Championships.
The series opens at last season’s finale venue of Shrewsbury in mid October, before moving on to Southampton, Durham, Milton Keynes and Bradford, finishing in the new year at last year’s national championship venue of Derby. The 2015 British Cycling National Cyclo-cross Championships return to Abergavenny, ten years after they were previously staged there.
Although the venues may look familiar, there are a number of changes to the 2014-15 programme. Most significantly, the overall winners in all categories will now be decided by the best five rides out of six, thus allowing a rider to drop his or her lowest score; and all races will now be covered by chip timing, with lap splits uploaded to the British Cycling website.
The four under-16 categories have now been split into two races, while following the success of last season’s inaugural veteran women’s championship, there will now be a separate veteran women’s classification, running behind the elite and junior women’s start.
Junior men have a variation in their programme for round four, when the National Trophy forms day two of a bumper weekend of cyclo-cross, with Saturday hosting round three of the UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup, with races for elite women and elite men.
The junior men’s National Trophy will move to the Saturday morning to become a part of the World Cup spectacular. The venue for both days will be Milton Keynes’ Campbell Park, which last saw National Trophy action in the mid 1980s.
This will be the first ever UCI Cyclo-Cross World Cup staged in Britain, and quite apart from all the other top stars in action, it represents a first and last chance to see cross legend Sven Nys race on British soil in his retirement year.
