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As September arrives and the autumn leaves fall, the time trial season starts to wrap up and the hill climbers begin to limber up and remove their bar tape. With just two national championships to come, the Closed Circuit at Croft and the National Hill-Climb, the engravers can get started etching names on to the grand trophies to be awarded at the gala dinner.
Beyond the single event championships, it’s an opportune time to reflect on the multi-event titles. The Traditional BBAR has seen the 2024 winners gallantly defend their titles, Jake Sargent of Team Bottrill and Naomi De Pennington of DRAG2ZERO. The Champion of Champions titles will be going to Alex Clay, who won from a whisker from her Team Bottrill team mate Emily Martin, and one of 2024’s breakthrough riders Tom Lee, somewhat predictably also from the all-conquering Team Bottrill, taking the Open title.
In recent years the addition of a Short BBAR competition - the average speed across 10, 25, 50 and 100 miles - has been a huge success in complementing the Traditional BBAR. In the Female category there has been a dominant win from Emily Martin of Team Bottrill, a well-earned consolation for her narrow defeat by Clay in the race for the Beryl Burton Champion of Champions Trophy.
However in the Open category we find ourselves in the knife-edge position in late September of having not two, not three but four riders still vying for the title. We head into this weekend with the title likely to be decided at the aptly named ‘Falling Leaves 10’ promoted by Sotonia CC on the P612/10 at Andover in Hampshire, where three of our four protagonists line up. This course has not been used often, but having yielded a 17:47 to Jamie Whitcher in 2024 it has been chosen by the well informed rivals for very good reason.
James Jenkins (Hart Performance Coaching) is in the enviable position of being ‘Leader in the Clubhouse’ on 31.37mph. He is however in the least comfortable position of being the bullseye in the three Team Bottrill (who else?) riders’ crosshairs… whilst not actually being able to do anything about it as he watches on from his end of season break in Texas. Jenkins, second in the Short BBAR in 2024, has had a typically consistent season with top-10s in all the championship events he raced, including third in the ‘100’ – matching his Closed Circuit Nationals placing in 2024. His trump card for this year’s BBAR competition was winning at the fastest 100 mile event of the year, the E2/100C ‘ECCA 100’ in June, sticking a 29mph 3hr24 time on the board.
Jake Sargent (Team Bottrill) is perhaps the only rider in the country that can claim to be more consistent than Jenkins in recent years, winning at will week in week out, a long-distance specialist earning two national titles at each of the ‘100’, 12 hour and the Traditional BBAR – yet still able to mix it with the best at short distance. Perhaps the only weakness in his armoury is that he has ill-advisedly guided his best friend Rob Francis into a position that Francis has now started to regularly beat him! Sargent sits on 30.95mph, but with a relatively weak qualifying ‘10’ time of 18:54 he can match Jenkins with a 17:57 in Hampshire – and has a faster PB than that to his name.
Thomas Lee (Team Bottrill) Lee (Team Bottrill), as mentioned above, has been one of two major breakthrough riders in 2025, along with Matt Rossiter (George Fox Cycling Solutions). Both come from other sports – Lee from middle distance running and Rossiter stepping off the water onto two wheels, having been an Olympic rower turned Americas Cup sailing for the Ineos Britannia crew. These two riders have arrived with a sonic boom into 2025 - powerhouses delivering performances as relative rookies that must make the dominant CTT rider of recent years, John Archibald, sit up and take notice. In their only head to head this year at the National 50, John took the honours (via a 1:30:08 competition record) but the two men alongside him on the podium will rightly be hoping to close the gap in 2026. In Lee’s case, he has built strongly through the season, peaking for the Nationals – placing 5th at the Circuit Champs, 4th at the ‘100’, 3rd at the ‘50’, 2nd at the ‘25’ and rounding out the sequence with the National 10 title – and with it the Ron Kitching Champion of Champions Trophy. Having delivered a stellar Nationals campaign, he’s now been filling in gaps in his Short BBAR scorecard, leaving scorch marks on the A11 en route to a 1:32 at the ECCA 50, and a short 45 on the fast R25/3H. Sitting today in third place on 30.85mph, this includes 19:35 for 10 which needs to be lowered to 18:20 this weekend to surpass Jenkins – a mark surely well within his capabilities in all but the most inclement conditions, and whilst currently lying third he is considered the big favourite by those in the know.
The final of the three Team Bottrill musketeers taking aim at Jenkins is Rob Francis (Team Bottrill). Whilst Lee and Rossiter arrived with a loud bang, Francis’ story is one of quiet but rapid progress across the last two years. He clearly enjoyed the taste of his first National podium with second at the Closed Circuit champs at Goodwood in 2024, making no less than four further visits in 2025 with third at the Circuit and ‘25’, and second at the ‘100’ and ‘10’. Nobody (not least his mentor, best friend and taxi driver Jake Francis) will be surprised if the man with the biggest podium smile in time trialling finds his way to the top step of a National Championship in the near future. With such a strong season, a competitive Short BBAR average of 30.70mph has naturally followed. Francis needs a 17:33 this weekend to match Jenkins – that may be within his capabilities but he also needs to beat Lee by 46 seconds which is a far taller order.
An extra BBAR wrinkle however is that Francis and Sargent are also riding the Welsh Championship 50 on 27 September on the same fast R50/1B course used for the National 50. It will be a hard ask for Sargent to beat his 1:36 PB from that day, but Francis had a rare off day and has a very beatable time of 1:38 to lower. A combination of a long-17 at the Sotonia event and a long 1:36 in Wales would get him to Jenkins’ mark – Francis is definitely not out of it.
With the stage set, the start lines in Andover and Abergavenny ready, and as at writing the unpredictable September forecasts set (reasonably) fair such that the target times mentioned above are achievable, what do our four riders think?
Jenkins’ work is done, but he’s watching on closely: “Having come second to a flying John Archibald last year, winning the Short BBAR has been a target of mine this year and I’m really happy with my year. My season finished early, so it’s a bit nervy watching from afar how the other guys get on – but I’m sure they’re also nervous watching the changeable September weather forecasts!”
Despite his young age, Sargent is the seasoned veteran of the Bottrill trio: “After we all missed out on the fast E2/100 event I don’t think any of us viewed dethroning James as possible. But the fast 25s have put us all back in the game. I’m happy sat in second place right now but am expecting to be knocked down by Tom and Rob, which is fine by me as my target was retaining the Traditional BBAR title. Tom has to be favourite after his phenomenal rise this year, but watch out for Rob at the 50 given his form right now”.
The bookies’ favourite Lee says: “The Nationals, in particular the National 10, were my main goals this year, but I’ve always had the Short BBAR on the back of my mind. Unfortunately I missed a fast local 10 due to an infuriating traffic jam, and with it I assumed my chance of winning had gone. However, the Sotonia event being rescheduled has opened the door for me – it should be a fun event to race with my teammates Jake and Rob to see if we can push each other to pass James.”
Francis is the dark horse: “The Short BBAR is always a target for me. I’d love to get on the podium after 5th last year. Whilst we don’t have any fast local courses we are near enough to the fast Welsh courses to give it a good crack. Conditions are going to play a part of course, but it’s great fun to be in a four-way battle for the podium places.”
Have the three challengers left it too late? Will conditions in Hampshire play ball and give the Team Bottrill riders the chance to usurp Jenkins? Will an Indian summer turn up in South Wales next weekend to give Francis a chance of an upset? Will Jenkins take the title while lying on his sunbed? Watch this space!