London Academy Dominates Maria Thompson Memorial as Wiley Seals Breakthrough Triumph and Historic Series Crown

A massive thank you to Phil Feather and his wonderful team at Kingston Wheelers for hosting the final race of the Team Cup Calendar. 

We were pleased to report the rain held off and we were even treated to a bit of warm sunshine on an otherwise challenging afternoon across the undulating Norwood Hill circuit.

From the opening miles, aggressive moves animated the bunch over the rolling terrain. Loughborough Lightning’s Rosie Simmons spearheaded the early attacks, while recent Duncan Murray Wines' victor Flo Wiggins applied pressure for London Academy. 

Independent offensives soon followed, notably from Paralloy RT, Jadan Vive Le Velo p/b Glasdon, and a temporary alliance between Rachel Chung and Harriet Moore. However, the peloton held firm. 

There were no combativity points awarded as no attempts to breakaway stuck despite the more hilly terrain. Instead, the steep climbs served as an attritional filter, steadily trimming the main field as the laps ticked down.

Huge congratulations to London Academy who retained their top spot to take their first ever win of the Team Cup Competition! With a strong showing today at the Maria Thompson, they would have had to have had a really disastrous race to have not won today, but they came through in flying colours.

A fast sprint finish gave Esme Wiley the win, marking a memorable maiden National B triumph for the under-23 talent, and Georgia Huddleston threw her bike over the line to just edge out Millie Gage of Wolfox into 3rd place, securing an emphatic one-two finish. Freya Taylor led Jadan Vive Le Velo home in 4th, with Paralloy RT’s Katie-Anne Calton rounding out the top five.

London Academy were 1st placed team today scoring 392 points. Then 2 top 10 positions for Jadan earned them 2nd place whilst the 3 riders from Brother UK - On Form earned them 158 points to take 3rd place.

London Academy sealed the overall championship on 1,590 points after finishing in 3rd place twelve months ago. Note FTP-Fulfil The Potential-Racing and Loughborough Lightning are joint 2nd on 1,120 points and will receive an equal share of the combined 2nd and 3rd placing prize monies.

Photo gallery: Mark James