Location: Hillingdon Cycle Circuit, Hayes
Event: 21 April 2012

First category riders are now welcome in the Archer Spring Criterium 50-mile race at the Hillingdon Circuit on Saturday 21 April.

Moving from being an open road race to the closed circuit, riders will have a prize list of £500 to add to the attraction of increased safety plus state of the art headquarter facilities and catering.

The Archer Spring event started in 1957 and is the second oldest race in the calendar, one year behind the Lincoln GP. For most of its history it was a support race for the classic international Archer GP, which ceased a few years ago for lack of sponsorship.

Although a support event, the Archer Spring event became a semi-classic in its own right as a ‘stepping stone’ to greater things for race winners such as early world champion Graham Webb, Bradley Wiggins, David Millar, Roger Hammond, and Matt Stephens in the early days of their careers.

Organiser since the inception of the Archer Spring race, Stuart Benstead, said: “We welcome this change of rule and look forward to now holding a top class race for aspiring riders with an appropriate £500 prize list to match, with the winner getting £100. We are reasonably sure this will be at the higher range of rewards at this level of racing."

“Of course there will be a supporting race which itself has been promoted since 1958, plus youth races for all age groups.”