British Junior Men’s Road Series winners – the definitive list
As well as the national junior road race championships, contested over one day, the top junior male cyclists in the UK also get to compete in a season-long competition that aims to find the most consistent young riders in the UK.
Racing for the prestigious Peter Buckley trophy, named in honour of a promising Manx champion cyclist who died aged only 24, this series sees the best Juniors from around the country competing on anything from 5 to 12 events depending on logistics. In recent years the competitors also do battle over the multi-day Junior Tour of Wales, allowing the calibre of the country’s future international stage race winners to shine through.
We’ve gone through our archives to build what proves to be an interesting list of the cream of the UK’s top young riders. We’ve highlighted which ones who continued to have success on the road bike and went on to ride in the Tour de France, which ones became senior world champions, which ones are in cycling families, which ones ended up riding for Team Sky and which ones set world records.
We’ve had some incredible riders break through on the world stage in recent years. We can only wonder what would have happened to more of the youngsters of the 70’s and 80’s had there been the support there is now.
Anyway, let’s enjoy their achievements and wonder what success the current crop of youngsters will win for GB on the world stage.
| YEAR | WINNER | SECOND | THIRD |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1971 | Tony Davies | Jeff Morris | Mike Heathcock |
| 1972 | Stu Morris | Peter Hall | Steve Fleetwood |
| 1973 | Dave Penketh | John Harrison | Dave Baronowski |
| 1974 | Les Fleetwood | Mike Williams | Alaric Gayfer |
| 1975 | Jon Kettell | Glen Mltchell | Jim Parry |
| 1976 | Glenn Mitchell | Tony Doyle | John Kettell |
| 1977 | Steve Joughin | Shaun Fenwick | Nigel Bloor |
| 1978 | Mark Bell | Neil Martin | Simon Thomas |
| 1979 | Mike Doyle | John Wainwright | Malcolm Elliott |
| 1980 | Darryl Webster | John Wainwright | Craig Stevens |
| 1981 | Keith Reynolds | Rob Kennison | Kevin Davis |
| 1982 | Chris Walker | Kevin Byers | Rob Kennison |
| 1983 | Chris Walker | Deno Davie | Chris Lillywhite |
| 1984 | Chris Lillywhite | Simon Cope | Will Mansfield |
| 1985 | Stuart Coles | Glen Sword | Paul Brown |
| 1986 | Lester Clarke | David Cook | Alex Webster |
| 1987 | Simeon Hempsall | Simon Lillistone | Dylan Williams |
| 1988 | Matt Stephens | Gareth Gimson | Ian Wright |
| 1989 | Mark Dawes | Ian Bryant | Toby Pinn |
| 1990 | Victor Slinn | Julian Ramsbottom | Paul Spencer |
| 1991 | Mark Dolan | Will Wright | Scott Bennett |
| 1992 | Tim Griffin | Richard Bruce | Jeremy Hunt |
| 1993 | Danny Axford | Hugh Fairgrieve | Anthony Malarcyzk |
| 1994 | James Taylor | Huw Pritchard | Paul Manning |
| 1995 | Gavin Sellen | David George | Russell Downing |
| 1996 | Charlie Wegelius | Russell Downing | James Griffiths & Graham Hughes |
| 1997 | Bradley Wiggins  | Martin Lonie | Stephen Joseph |
| 1998 | Richard Heath & Jamie Alberts | Joint 1st Place | Sam Collins |
| 1999 | Mark Baker | Stephen Cummings & Tom Southam | Joint 2nd Place |
| 2000 | Andrew Allan | James Bell | Alex Coutts |
| 2001 | Alex Coutts | Chris Penketh | Ross Adams |
| 2002 | Adam Illingworth | Andrew Murphy | Christian Varley |
| 2003 | Tim Wallis | Ryan Bonser | Matt Brammeier |
| 2004 | Geraint Thomas | Ian Field | Andrew Hill |
| 2005 | Alex Dowsett | Russell Hampton | Alex Atkins |
| 2006 | Andrew Griffrths | Mark McNally | Simon Holt |
| 2007 | Peter Kennaugh | Luke Rowe | Mark McNally |
| 2008 | Erick Rowsell | Luke Rowe | David Nichols |
| 2009 | Joe Perrett | Tim Kennaugh | David Nichols |
| 2010 | Simon Yates | Tom Moses | Joshua Edmondson |
| 2011 | Alistair Slater | Luke Grivell-Mellor | Brennan Townshend |
| 2012 | Alex Peters | Harry Tanfield | Tao Geoghegan Hart |
| 2013 | Jake Kelly | Scott Davies | Gabriel Cullaigh |
| 2014 | Matthew Gibson | James Shaw | Alexander Braybrooke |
| 2015 | Etienne Georgi | Joey Walker | Robert Scott |
| 2016 | Charlie Meredith | Robert Scott | Peter Kibble |
| 2017 | Oscar Mingay | Harry Hardcastle | Daniel Coombe |
| 2018 | Mason Hollyman | Samuel Watson | Lewis Askey |
| 2019 | Leo Hayter | Max Walker Lewis Askey | Joint 2nd Place |
| 2020 | Covid | Covid | Covid |
Key:
Strong cycling family
Became a senior world champion
Won Olympic medals
Set a UCI World Record
Rode the Tour de France
You might have noticed some surprising names missing from the list. No Robert Millar, Chris Boardman, Mark Cavendish, Mark Walsham, Ed Clancy, Rob Hayles, Roger Hammond or Dean Downing.
Some developed their endurance later on, others concentrated on track or time-trialling and for some travelling the length of the country as a teenager just wasn’t viable. But that’s a feature for another day.
Want more old school cycling knowledge? Check out our pages on the legendary cycling commentator David Duffield
