The Story of the Track Season, 2025
As we reach the end of the year we thought we’d take a look back at the summer race season, who won each league and how the year unfolded.
Jump to: Convene ESG Track League / Condor Women’s Legue / Speed League / Vets League / What’s Next?
Convene ESG Track League
Senior Racing
The opening weeks of the season were anything but predictable. Early leaderboards shifted weekly, and no rider stamped authority in the opening round. Len Delicaet struck first, opening the year with a strong Week 1 score and backing it up again in Week 3. In between, Conor White landed the first real statement ride of the season, unleashing a huge Week 2 performance that briefly put him top of the standings and marked him as the rider to beat.
As the season progressed Arthur Tye started to emerge as the most consistent points scorer, winning some of the toughest races, finding ways to beat his opponents with his attacking style of racing and not giving up too many points when others did manage to get the better of him. Securing himself the overall title with a few weeks to spare and becoming the 9th different track league champion in 10 years.
Len managed to fight off a late season push from Conor and juniors Dylan Belton-Owen and Luke Meyer Eland to maintain 2nd overall, with Conor taking 3rd.
The battle for first woman was a close one, with Cassie Baldi taking the most wins on the women’s nights and amassing lots of points. Aalia Clay was close behind, but also managed to score consistently throughout the year, picking up points in B category races too and eventually passing Cassie to take the overall win, doubling up after taking the title in 2024.
The final spot on the podium was taken by Martha Crooks, hanging on by the narrowest of margins to beat Yamina Clay by just 0.5 points. Heading into the final night’s racing Martha had a healthy gap over Yamina, but a 2nd place in the B trackstand competition for Yamina was almost enough for the podium.
14 year old Jasper Shapton was the winner of the B category, outscoring Sean Bridgeman in the closing weeks of the league. Fast finisher Atiba Quildan took the final podium spot and several race wins along the way.
Strong starts in the C category races for Tom Coke-Smyth, Oliver Warren and Matt Inman earned themselves promotion to the B category. Matt, who only started racing this year, scored well in the B races and ended up being awarded Most Improved Rider. That left the way clear for Simon Tucker to take the overall win, from Fran Hall in 2nd and Peter Farnley in 3rd.
Youth Racing
Emma Buffa became the first girl ever to win the youth track league overall. She was consistently on the podium from start to finish, picking up race wins throughout the season. James Earl turned regularly minor placings in the early weeks of the year into winning the majority of the races in the last few rounds. He took a slim 10 point lead over Jacob Matthews into the final race of the year, and managed to hold on, with the 2 riders marking each other out of contention for the win.
Kitty Belton Owen took 2nd girl overall, with Eva Unsworth finishing 3rd. Both riders made a significant step up in 2025 and will be looking to build on that going into next year
In the U12s Ren Baty took the overall title, backing up on his win in 2024, with several weeks where he won every race of the night. Maddie Buffa was first U12 girl and 2nd U12 overall, with Sho Baty rounding out the U12s podium
We’re pleased to announce the Convene ESG will be supporting the league again in 2026.
Condor Women's League
Coming into this season’s league, Jasmine Cornelius was looking to make it 3 years in a row as Condor Women’s League Champion. After a slower start she was behind Yewande Adeside and promising young riders Martha Crooks and Emma Buffa . But with a dominant 2nd round, and being in the top 2 riders every night for the rest of the season she won the title again in 2025. The A category podium ended up being the same 3 riders as the previous year, with Cassie Baldi going one better than in 2024, thanks to an impressive late season run, and Katherine Fodor scoring consistently all year to take 3rd.
There was really close competition in the B category from start to finish with the lead changing after almost every round of the year. Maisie Wright took the overall lead on the final night of racing, narrowly beating previous leader Isobelle Bartholomew into 2nd, with Harriet Talbot 3rd. The C category was won by Annabelle Tang, who started racing for the first time this year, and won the opening night of the league on debut. Martha Crooks won the competition for first under 18, with Lousie Moriarty taking the honours in the over 40s category.
Click the links here for a more detailed recap of each round on our instagram:
April / May / June / July / August / September
Thanks to Condor Cycles for their ongoing support of the league, and all of the volunteers and riders for making the events special
Speed League
In the Open Sprint Competition Luca Lupo, last year's winner, came out flying after a strong winter, setting what ended up being the fastest 200m time of the whole season in the first night of racing. He went on to comfortably win the league, but didn’t have it all his own way, with Charlie Watson closing the gap through the year and taking victory in the final round - ending an impressive unbeaten run of more than a year for Luca.
After riding the pursuit events in the first 2 rounds, 2023 sprint league champion Atiba Quildan came back to sprinting and was pushing Andrii Bilogub hard for the final spot on the podium. Andrii sealed the deal with a narrow victory over Atiba by the width of a tyre in the final round of the season.
Isobelle Bartholomew won the women’s sprint league. She was beaten by last year’s champion, Eve James, on the opening night of the league, but went on to win the remaining 4 rounds. Eve ended up 2nd overall, with Sheona Arnold, the league winner in 2022 and 2023, in 3rd
Special mentions to Izu Chukwulobelu, George Thompson and James Billett who improved the most from the times they posted in the 200m time trial in the first round.
In the team pursuit league Dulwich Paragon dominated, getting faster every round they rode and getting within 2 seconds of the track record which has stood since 2019. Penge CC took 2nd place overall ahead of 2024 Champions Twickenham CC.
Vets League
Backing up his strong showing on Wednesday nights, Len Delicaet dominated the A category in the Vet’s League. He won every race in the 2nd round and ended up with nearly twice as many points as his closest rival by the end of the season. There was a closer battle for the podium, Chris Bedson started strong, but was overtaken, first by Mark Gower (winner in 2022 & 2024) and then eventually by 2021 league champion Jonathan Harris on the final evening of racing, despite a daring early attack from Chris in the final points race
In the Bs Tom Coke-Smyth took the overall win, and was also awarded most improved rider for the season. The Cs couldn’t have been any closer, with Dan Capstick scoring enough points on the final night to draw level with Carl Ison. Dan came away with the win on countback. Michelle Lewis rode well all season, consistently picking up points in the C Category to take the Women’s Overall ahead of Katie Styles and Ruth Beale. Mark Lloyd won the Over 60s competition, overturning a big deficit to Tim Phillips with victory in the final race of the year.
Masssive thanks to Sam Holden, who’s volunteered to run the league for the last few years and done an amazing job growing it and creating exciting racing. Sam’s stepping down in 2026 to be replaced by a small group of volunteers.
What's Next?
More Racing?
If you’re missing the racing already there’s still time to squeeze in one more race before the end of the year. The FHHV Christmas Classic take places on Saturday 20th December at 1.30pm, there’s a shorter warm-up race (a 12 days of Christmas reverse win-out), followed by a 20 lap chase race for youth riders and a 25km chase race for senior riders. Come down and represent your category! If you’re not up for racing in the off-season come down and watch and catch-up with other riders or show off your other talents by entering the mince pie bake-off or joining the FHHV Community Orchestra
Even More Racing?
We’ll be announcing our calendar for 2026 in the new year, so keep your eyes peeled. We’ll have the return of our usual Wednesday & Saturday Leagues, and a slightly revamped schedule of Open Meetings. Follow us on Instagram and subscribe to our newsletter to stay up to date.
