The 2014 British BMX Series begins on 15-16 March at Manchester’s National Cycling Centre with UCI-ranked races attracting an international field.

The £24 million facility will host the first of ten rounds with the series visiting Kent, Preston, Derby and Birmingham before returning to Manchester for the series finale in September.

The first round fixture is a repeat of the 2013 season opener, which saw Liam Phillips and Shanaze Reade take victory in the national series races and the UCI-ranked supercross. World champion Phillips approaches the series in fine form, after a win at the NCC Winter Series on the same track.

Phillips, along with Great Britain teammates Kyle Evans, Tre Whyte, Abbie Taylor and Charlotte Green are all confirmed to ride, along with a host of international riders using the event as a recce ahead of the opening round of the UCI BMX Supercross in April.

Amongst them, 2013 elite men’s runner up Tory Nyhaug of Canada will return along with fifth placed Quentin Caleyron from France.

Shanaze Reade will be absent, the Olympian taking time out from her Great Britain Cycling Team commitments to spend 2014 contesting the ABA BMX Series in the USA. Third in 2013, Denmark’s Simone Tetsche Christensen will contest the UCI elite women’s and championship women’s events.

Action moves on to the Kent Cyclopark track for rounds two and three on 12-13 April. Last year’s Kent round saw Great Britain Cycling Team riders Curtis Manaton and Charlotte Green dominate the elite men’s and championship women’s proceedings.

The Kent result was a blueprint for things to come; Manaton went on to take the overall series win in the elite men’s category, whilst Green did likewise in the championship women’s class. 

Rounds four and five will take place in Preston, at the home of 2013 club champions Preston Pirates BMX Club. The track in Fishwick was the subject of a £100,000 refurbishment in 2013, bringing the venue up to the national series standards.

The series continues in Derby at the Alvaston Park track on 5-6 July before heading to Perry Park in Birmingham for rounds nine and ten on 2-3 August. Birmingham will see riders test their form ahead of the British Cycling BMX Championships in Kent later in the month (23-24 August) before the final round sees the series wrapped up back at the National BMX Centre on 13-14 September.

Beyond the elite ranks the series will see titles contested in categories from six-years-and-under to veteran cruiser.