DEFENDING champion Chris Lawless heads the initial entry list for this year’s Grand Prix of Wales - the highlight of July’s Abergavenny Festival of Cycling.

And Newport’s Jon Mould will be back on home soil during the Festival as he looks to continue an incredible year on the circuit race scene.

Lawless switched from Team Wiggins, whom he was with last summer when winning in Abergavenny, to the JLT Condor team and will be riding the Grand Prix of Wales alongside top British riders like former National Road Race and Tour of Ireland champion Russell Downing.

And the man from Wigan will be joined on the start-line by another JLT Condor team-mate, Graham Briggs, who was third in last year’s Grand Prix of Wales, in the 98 riders chasing for the title.

The Grand Prix of Wales, held on Sunday July 17, is the penultimate leg of the Motorpoint Grand Prix Series which ends in Leicester a month later and will see riders tackle a 113-mile route around Monmouthshire which will include, for the first time, three laps around Grosmont.

Lawless’ old side will also be making an appearance, with Team Wiggins a full complement of eight riders including Wales’ own European Track Championships silver medallist Sam Harrison and Andy Tennant, who also claimed silver and bronze at the World Track Championships this year.

Wales is also represented in the field by three senior riders in the NFTO team - Pontyclun’s Dale Appleby, Swansea’s Rhys Lloyd and Rob Partridge from Wrexham.

The Grand Prix of Wales will also have an international feel to it as a group of riders from Africa arrive in the county. Team Rwanda are entering the Festival events as part of the Team Africa Rising project which is aimed at unifying African countries through cycling.

For more information on the Festival, go to www.abergavennyfestivalofcycling.co.uk