Lauren Dickson and James McKay take deserved success at the Rapha Lincoln GP

Sunday’s Rapha Lincoln GP served up two, hard fought, highly entertaining races, with James McKay (Wheelbase-CabTech-Castelli) taking the honours in the men’s race, while newcomer, Lauren Dickson won the women’s equivalent for Handsling-Alba Development.

Both races covered multiple laps of a 12.9km circuit, each closing with the steep, cobbled ascent of Michaelgate, before the finish line nestled between Lincoln’s castle and cathedral.

The sun beat down all day, and huge crowds either thronged the barriers or found whatever shade they could. Roars of the crowd, banging boards and hundreds of ringing cowbells heralded the race’s approach each lap, and made for an atmosphere as good as any Belgian classic, even if ice cream was preferred to beer for most.

The weather, though, created some of the most testing conditions of the domestic season so far, though McKay was well prepared.“I’ve been doing some heat training the past few years,” the 28 year-old told Cycling Weekly in the shade of the British Cycling podium truck, after finishing ahead of Alex Peters (DAS Richardsons) and Alexandre Mayer (Foran CT).

“I have a hot drink and then stick a load of layers on, put a heater on and then get on the turbo and then ride hard until you’re really cooking and just sit there for another hour just spinning, sweating out. It’s not the most pleasant thing, but the things we do for the love of the game and that give us the chance to pull off these great moments,” he said, clearly satisfied with the best win of his career.

The winning move formed with six of the 13 laps remaining, 11 riders initially forging clear and later joined by three others as the race reached the final.

“It’s always a very tactical race, the elastic kept on going out and coming back together,” continued McKay. “It’s kind of a kermesse-feel here, so you have to be on the front foot, but it’s not like if you get in a breakaway and that’s the race, because there’s always things coming from behind so you always have to be attentive and looking around and seeing the situation and not fully committing until later in the race, which is what I did.”

As the final lap began three distinct groups had formed and, as they descended to the final climb it was from there McKay fought for the best position onto the steep slopes of Michaelgate.

“It was a bit of a bun fight for the first wheel into the climb but I just about managed to get there,” the Sheffield-based rider said.

“The cobbles can really take the momentum out of you so you’ve gotta whack it as hard as you can and just power on as hard as you can. I think you’ve seen that the first guy who hits the hairpins [at the top] you can take the racing line and it’s so hard to come around because you’re not going that fast, so a bike length at the point on the climb is probably quite a few seconds, so to close that would take a big effort.”

Dickson leads Handsling Alba Development to victory

Despite the best efforts of solo riders like former WorldTour pro Sophie Wright (Ribble Outliers) and track world champion Anna Morris, the women’s race was a battle between UCI Continental teams, Handsling Alba Development, Hess and DAS-Hutchinson.

Dickson’s Handsling Alba squad arrived in Lincoln with a strong team and managed to take control of the race, infiltrating every one of the multiple moves, either with last year’s winner, Kate Richardson or Dickson ever present.

Dickson was part of a group of six who hit the final of eight ascents of Michaelgate, crossing the line just ahead of Morris, with Grace Lister (Hess) in third.

“It was really good fun yeah, I think our team did really well, we were always really strong, we had girls up the road girls chasing so for us to top it off at the end is just perfect,” said Dickson after receiving her cobble trophy. “We wanted to bring the race to us, we have so many strong girls this year so it’s really nice to showcase our talent.”

Her obvious tactical awareness and strength mean Dickson is likely to be a star of the future. She finished second at the Lancaster GP last summer, but second place at last week’s lumpy UCI 1.1 Pointe du Raz, on the Brittany coast, was the best of a number of European excursions and likely to be a portent of what she can achieve.

“My dream has always been to be a professional athlete so being a professional cyclist would be the best thing in the world for me. I have to give a huge amount of credit to my boyfriend because I’ve always ridden with him and he’s helped me so much.

“Also being around the girls in our team is really good, we have such strong riders, we have Kate, she won last year and there was some really good insight from her and all the girls are happy to help.”

After finishing fourth 2023 Robyn Clay (DAS-Hutchinson) now leads the National Series overall after three rounds. Lincoln was only the second round of the men’s series, with Adam Howell (Muc-Off-SCRT-Storck) retaining his overall lead after placing fifth.