The East Midlands provides the backdrop as the women’s HSBC UK | National Road Series reaches its third round with the CiCle Classic next Sunday.

This will be the fourth staging of a women’s race on the course – which will start and finish in Melton Mowbray – and the event has some high-profile previous winners:

2018:

Neah Evans (Storey Racing) was victorious in 2018, eventually finishing ahead of the two riders she’d formed an early breakaway group alongside – Sophie Wright and Nikki Juniper. With the trio clear of the peloton, Wright launched an attack to attempt to split the leading group, however Evans was able to chase her down and overhaul the Torelli-Brother rider in the final 500m.

2017:

Evans’ Great Britain and Scotland team-mate Katie Archibald stood on the top step of the podium 12 months previously. Riding for Team WNT, Archibald outsprinted Laura Massey and Juniper in far from ideal, wet conditions in Melton Mowbray, after Massey – who had built a substantial lead – had been reeled back in by the group.

2016:

Rebecca Durrell – then riding for Drops - was the first winner of the women’s event back in 2016. Durrell beat Elizabeth Howard in a sprint to the line, to top a podium which also included Bethany Howard.