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Ever wondered what it takes to manage a professional cycling team on the cusp of a major race? Tom Varney, the General Manager of Lifeplus-Wahoo, joins us on The British Continental podcast for an eye-opening discussion on the eve of the Tour of Britain Women. 

Tom discusses the importance of the race for British cycling teams and riders, highlighting the what it means for exposure and sponsorship. We also explore the mix of WorldTour and Continental teams in this year's edition, and why it presents opportunities for the Lifeplus-Wahoo team. 

The conversation touches on Kate Richardson's horror crash just days out from the race when she was knocked off her bike by the driver of a 4x4 vehicle. 

Tom's disappointment at not being selected for the Tour de France Femmes this year is palpable, but hear also reflects on the silver-linings to non-selection. Tom sheds light on how they're revising their calendar, seeking alternative races, and revising the team's approach. The implications on morale and commercial aspects are significant, but the team remains hopeful and forward-focused.

Tom takes us through the team's plans to step up to ProTeam level in 2025 and the hurdles that will need to be overcome to make that happen. We reflect on the growth of UCI Continental teams in the UK .

In the final segment, Tom considers what has enabled the team to continue for so long, and reflects on the team's past successes and achievements as the it nears its ten year anniversary. 

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Stage 9. The last mountain stage, the penultimate stage of the race., and with only a flat final stage to come, this was the last opportunity for the GC riders to get one up on their nearest rivals, the last chance for the mountain goats to earn a potentially career-changing stage win.

There were no killer gradients, no monstrous extreme altitude climbs. But with climbing from the start, three category one climbs, a category three climb, and over 3000 metres of vertical gain, this was no easy stage either. The stage finished with two ascents of the Nevegal climb, and it was on these slopes that the decisive action occurred. 

The early stages of the race were more about whittling down the bunch than establishing breakaways and after about 80 kilometres, only around 45 riders were left in the peloton. As they passed through the town of Belluno there was a fright for the Maglia Rosa Juan Ayuso and our diarist Tom Gloag, who both fell on the cobblestone streets. But they recovered quickly and rejoined the reduced bunch well before the major action began. 

On the first pass on the Nevegal, Trinity Racing drove things, whittling the bunch down yet further and as they crested the summit there were just twenty riders left in the group. Development Team DSM then took up the pace until, in the last 6 kilometres, there were unsuccessful attacks from our diarist Tom Gloag, Asbjorn Hellemose and then Anders Johannessen. It was Yannis Voisard from the Swiss Racing Academy who then seized the moment and his attack stuck, earning him his first ever UCI race win. 

Behind him, Ayuso led in a fractured lead group, with the other Johannessen, Tobias Halland, on his wheel. Tom Gloag crossed the line in sixth just a few seconds later. 

Our other diarist Harrison was the next best Brit in 21st, a minute and 25 seconds behind the stage winner. Ben Healy, who did a lot of work for Tom during the stage, finished 25th.

On GC, Tom remains 4th and looks likely to stay there, barring disaster or a superlative final stage ambush. His teammate Ben Healy, one of the most aggressive riders in this year’s race, now lies 15th, while Harrison has made it into the top 20, sitting 19th overall.

The final stage from San Vito al Tagliamento to Castelfranco Veneto feels a little anti-climatic given its relatively flat nature. It’s unlikely to result in any major GC changes. But with tired legs and a few hills in the middle of the stage, a bunch sprint isn’t a foregone conclusion either. So this could be one for the break, perhaps even Ben Turner, who has continued to look incredibly strong. Let’s see…

We have the pleasure of dispatches from both Harrison and Tom once again in our diary segment. It was an eventful stage for them both. Harrison was on the attack, crashed hard and yet was still at the pointy end of the race right until the final slopes. Tom sounds tired, and understandably so, after throwing the kitchen sink at his GC rivals. Like Harrison, he crashed too, although says he came off pretty lightly. 

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In this edition, we welcome back our now-regular trio Colin Sturgess, Oscar Onley and Steve Lampier, who are joined by WiV SunGod’s young sprinter Jim Brown.

Stage 2 began in Hawich and ended in Duns. The early part of the stage was marked by a six-man break which featured brothers Harry and Charlie Tanfield from Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling, Saint Piran’s Adam Lewis, Travis Stedman of Team Qhubeka, Ukko Peltonen of Global 6 Cycling, and Sportsbreaks.com sprints competition leader Matthew Teggart (WiV SunGod). 

Teggart dominated the three intermediate sprints to extend his lead in the competition to 12 points. The peloton then sparked into action in the final 30 kilometres as the race took on a trio of late ŠKODA King of the Mountains climbs. Teggart was the last of the break to survive as they hit the first climb of Wanside Rigg, and was briefly joined by Human Powered Health’s Stephen Bassett, who struck out for more KOM points, but the pair were caught just after the summit.

INEOS Grenadiers then controlled the race on the narrow roads across the open moorland onto the second climb, with Jacob Scott (Wiv SunGod) jumping away near the top of Mainslaughter Law to secure enough points to move into the lead of the ŠKODA King of the Mountains competition.

Davide Gabburo (Bardiani CSF Faizanè) went clear on the descent, building a 30-second lead.  The Italian was caught approaching the top of the final climb of Hardens Hill, with German champion Nils Politt (BORA – hansgrohe) driving over the top and briefly going clear before Dylan Teuns (Israel – Premier Tech) countered.

 The Belgian was caught  by Magnus Sheffield (INEOS Grenadiers),  and then a Team DSM-led peloton mopped them up as they raced toward the finish in Duns.

DSM put their sprinter Cees Bol into a good position but an inspired late charge from the Great Britain team looked as if it was going to deliver Jake Stewart to victory, only for the Coventry rider to be pipped by millimetres by a late-charging Bol. Race leader Corbin Strong ((Israel-Premier Tech) finished third to take more bonus seconds on the line.

TRINITY Racing's Luke Lamperti was the best rider from the domestic teams in a very solid 5th, while WiV SunGod's Jim Brown and Saint Piran's Harry Birchill were 9th and 11th respectively. 

Strong still leads the race, extending his lead to 8 seconds, while Jake Stewart is second overall now. 

This year’s race ventures onto English soil for the first time on stage three, which takes place between Durham and Sunderland. It covers a distance of 163.6 kilometres and takes in 2,478 metres of elevation, including the first category Chapel Fell climb, which begins just 40 kilometres into the stage.

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Welcome back to The British Continental podcast!

We are absolutely delighted to be reviving our humble podcast this week to bring you another Tour of Britain diaries series.

Throughout the duration of the AJ Bell Tour of Britain, we’ll be taking you inside the race from the perspective of the domestic teams and riders with audio dispatches and interviews with managers, riders and staff. 

For the domestic teams, the Tour of Britain is akin to the Tour de France. By far the biggest event in their racing calendars, a chance to showcase their sponsors, attract new investment and prove themselves against higher-tier opposition, and it’s a shop window too for the riders, keen to put on an eye-catching performance that might bag them a pro contract. 

 This year’s Tour is a bit like a British version of the Race to the Sun – or Paris-Nice as it’s more formally known – in that it starts in the north of the country and then heads south to warmer climes. The 2022 edition starts where the 2021 version finished - in the Scottish coastal city of Aberdeen. It finishes eight days later overlooking The Needles on the Isle of Wight. 

It promises to be another tough edition. There is no team time trial – or any time trial for that matter – this year, meaning hilltop finishes, crosswinds, time bonuses and aggressive racing are likely to be the influential factors deciding the race’s overall winner. Any winner will certainly need good climbing legs. Every stage bar one - Stage 5 - has over 2000 metres of climbing and the race is bookended with hilltop finishes at the Glenshee Ski Centre in Aberdeenshire and The Needles on the Isle of Wight.

Ahead of that first summit finish, we hear from 19-year-old Scotsman Oscar Onley, a stage winner of the Giro Valle d’Aosta earlier this year, who is being given a GC shot by Team DSM at this year’s race.

Saint Piran’s team manager Steve Lampier talks us through his team, including their head-turning new signings, and fires a riposte to social media commentators who have questioned the team’s transfer policy this year.

WiV SunGod’s Jake Scott won two jerseys in last year’s Tour of Britain and was a feature of almost every break. He tells whether jersey-bagging will be another aim of his this year.

And his team manager, Tim Elverson, looks back on a successful year for the team and tells us what success would look like for the team at the race.

And, stop the press, we also have a late entry from Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling DS Colin Sturgess, who we’re delighted to say will be sending us dispatches throughout the race again this year.

Each of our guests also looks forward to the stage 1  ski centre summit finish. The consensus seems to be that the climb is hard enough to break the peloton up, but not so hard that it will be decisive for GC. They all agree too that the weather could up the ante and make the finish much harder than it looks on paper. 

We want a say a big thanks to HUNT bike wheels who are supporting this Tour of Britain podcast diary series. HUNT have been long-time supporters of The British Continental website – and the domestic scene more generally – so we’re chuffed that they are also backing the podcast this week. Their man Ollie Gray is embedded in the race this week, so he'll be helping to bring us interviews with riders and staff as the week progresses. 

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Our latest episode is an extended interview with one of the domestic riders of the season, Jake Scott. 

Now 26, the self-coached Canyon dhb SunGod rider who works part-time in a bike shop to earn a living has had an excellent year. On the road, his standout results include winning the National Road Series, victory at the Beaumont Trophy, 2nd in the Lancaster Grand Prix, 2nd at the Ilkley Cycle Races and 11th at the Heistse Pijl race in Belgium. And on the mountain bike, he won the National MTB Marathon Championships, a result which earned him a ticket to the world MTB Marathon Championships.

Perhaps most notably though, he put in a series of attacking displays at the Tour of Britain, featuring in the break day after day, a feat which earned both the Eisberg Sprints and SKODA King of the Mountains competitions. 

Jake was the very first person we interviewed for this podcast, way back in the heady pre-Covid days of September 2019. Back then it was Greg Trowman who interviewed Jake, and we're pleased to say that Greg dusted off his mic for a reunion. They met up just before Jake’s Beaumont win and his trip to the MTB marathon worlds to record this interview. It’s a long one, but it’s well worth a listen. A fascinating insight into how the last 12 months have been for Jake.

Don't forget, listeners can get 10% off at luxury skincare brand VeloSkin by using the code TBC-10 at veloskin.cc.

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Welcome to episode 8 of our Tour of Britain diaries, the final chapter covering what has been a thrilling edition of the race. 

In this final episode we have some brilliantly thoughtful concluding dispatches from our regular diarists Col Sturgess, Rory Townsend, and Bob Donaldson, plus an interview with Canyon dhb SunGod boss Tim Elverson, neatly bookending things after we published an in-depth interview with Tim on the eve of the race. Our other regular diarist Andy Turner was waylaid today so he send his virtual love across the airwaves to you all instead. 

We want to extend our enormous gratitude to all of our regular and ad hoc diarists and contributors to this Tour of Britain diary series. We’ve had some phenomenal feedback from listeners about these episodes and without our diarists and contributors finding time in their busy days to provide us with such insightful dispatches these shows wouldn’t have been possible. So our thanks go out to each and every one of them.

Stage summary

Stage 8 from Stonehaven to Aberdeen took in 173 kilometres of relatively flat roads, bar the famous climb of Cairn o’Mount, placed early on in the stage. 

Six riders formed the day’s breakaway, which went almost from the gun. These were TRINITY Racing duo Tom Gloag and Ben Healy, SwiftCarbon Pro Cycling’s William Bjergfelt, stage 2 winner Robin Carpenter (Rally Cycling), Michal Paluta (Global 6 Cycling) and Jokin Murguialday from Caja Rural.

The break was allowed little freedom, with several teams eyeing either the stage win or the bonus seconds at the finish. Carpenter and Irish road race champion Healy survived the longest, before being caught in the outskirts of Aberdeen setting up the expected sprint finish.

Alaphilippe led things out for Mark Cavendish (Deceuninck – Quick-Step) before André Greipel (Israel Start-Up Nation) hit the front, only for Wout van Aert (Jumbo Visma) to sweep past them both to take the stage and overall victory, thanks to the ten bonus seconds he got on the line.

Overnight race leader Ethan Hayter (INEOS Grenadiers) finished outside the top ten, missing out on time bonuses and dropping to second overall. As well as the WorldTour pair of Cavendish in third and Gabz Gullaigh (Movistar) in 10th, the top ten featured four domestic team riders. Rory was 6th, his third top ten of the race. Matt Gibson (Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling) backed up his 3rd place yesterday to finish 7th today, Ollie Peckover (SwiftCarbon Pro Cycling) grabbed his first-ever UCI top ten with 8th and Rory’s teammate Matt Bostock was 9th.

Jacob Scott (Canyon dhb SunGod) completed a remarkable week winning both the ŠKODA King of the Mountains and Eisberg Sprints classification, the jerseys for which he had held since stage 1. He was rewarded for his efforts by being presented with the Overall Combativity Award for the race.

 James Shaw (Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling) was the best domestic team rider on GC in 14th. Alex Peters (SwiftCarbon Pro Cycling), 21st, and Max Stedman (Canyon dhb SunGod), 25th, were the other two domestic riders in the top 25.

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Welcome to the latest episode of our Baby Giro Diaries! We're getting to the business end of the race now and stage 7 was one that appears to have been a decisive one in setting the GC pecking order for the remaining three stages.

Taking the riders from Sondrio to Lago di Campo Moro, it was a short one at 120 kilometres, But it was also brutal, featuring over 3000 metres of ascent. For hors d'oeuvres, it served up 2 category 2 climbs but without a doubt, the main course was the challenging 28.8-kilometre climb to Lanzada | Lago di Campo Moro. 

It was another stage where the break took a long time to form, with five riders eventually getting away. They reached the foothills of the final climb but by the time they had reached the steepest ramps, they had been caught and overtaken by a new front group of five made up of the Maglia Rosia Juan Ayuso,  Colombia's Jesus Peña and the riders lying 2nd, 3rd and 4th on GC: Tobias Halland Johannessen, Henri Vandenabeele and our diarist Tom Gloag. The imperious Ayuso forced the rhythm, gradually, detaching all but Jesus Peña, who he then dropped with a stinging acceleration, propelling him to his third stage victory of the race.

Peña finished in second, 52 seconds back, while Vandenabeele, Tom and Johannessen finished in that order a further 22 seconds behind.  Ben Healy was 20th, nearly five minutes back, while Harrison was 28th, almost six minutes down.

On GC, Tom remains 4th overall, just five seconds from a podium spot. Healy drops to 9th, and Harrison is up to 23rd. 

Stage 8 from Aprica to Andalo is another short one at 116 kilometres. It's not as fearsome as the one we've just had but has enough climbing to allow more GC action, especially coming on the back of such a tough stage. It will certainly be a tough start, with the opening 30 kilometres all uphill. The stage is then mainly downhill until the final 15 kilometre climb to Andalo. Our preview writer Jospeh Doherty says it’s a little harder than the average grade of 5% suggests thanks to some false flat kilometres that allow riders to recover before the final few clicks to the line.

In our diary section, we hear from Harrison, who had another good day, making more gains on GC. He talks about how his day went and discusses how he'll approach the remaining stages and the balance between riding for GC and looking to make it into the breaks. No entries as we speak from an understandably tired Tom and the continually hectic Callum, but if that changes we will of course stitch their entries into this episode as soon as we can. 

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Welcome to our stage 6 Baby Giro diary episode. Six stages in, four to go, and still plenty of challenges ahead for our diarists to negotiate.

Stage 6 from Bonferraro di Sorga to San Pellegrino Terme was the longest stage of the race at 177 kilometres. The first 144 of those were flat, until the peloton hit the 6% gradient, category 2 Selvino climb. From there it was a fairly technical, fast descent for 16 kilometres before flattening out to the finish.

The racing itself was a fairly straightforward affair. It began at a furious pace, with an average exceeding 51 kilometres an hour for the first two hours, as numerous riders attempted to form a break. Eventually, a break of 13 formed that included Trinity Racing’s Ben Turner. The break was relatively short-lived, however. Asbjorn Hellemose from the Vc Mendrisio struck out on the climb, cresting the peak alone, but he was swept up by a select group of just of around 20 riders – including the main GC riders – on the descent. As they approached the finish, Swiss Racing Academy’s Alois Charrin punched clear to win the stage, with the rest of the lead group crossing the line just a few metres after. 

Both our diarist Tom Gloag and his roommate Ben Healy were in that front group, protecting their respective GC challenges. But Ben Turner slipped out of contention, finishing 8 and a half minutes back. Harrison, meanwhile, was 38th, a minute and 20 seconds behind Charrin.

On the GC, Tom remains in 4th, Ben Healy is in 8th, Harrison jumps up to 32nd, while Ben Turner is now in 38th. Daan Hoeks continues to be Holdsworth-Zappi’s best GC man in 50th overall.

Tomorrow could see much more movement in the general classification. Finishing in Lago di Campo Moro, the stage culminates in a monstrous 28.8 kilometre climb. The opening part is shallow and rolling, but the meat of the climb from Lanzada to about 2 kilometres to go is 12.2 kilometres at an average gradient of 7.6%, and that’s where the real test lies.

As Josephy Doherty said in our race preview, “we’ve had some long climbs and some steep grades so far, but at this length and altitude, the best will rise to the top” and “if you have a bad day here, it’s race over … as there will be nowhere to hide.”

At the time of recording, we’ve only had a dispatch so far from Tom, who once again brings in fellow GC contender Ben Healy for additional ‘insight’. No word from Harrison or Callum so far, we hope they are well. We’ll add their dispatches in once we get them.

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In this episode, we chat to Joss Lowden. Joss is a relatively recent convert to cycling. As she explains in this interview, she didn’t even really like cycling for quite some time, only getting into it after suffering a running injury. A cycling trip to Mallorca in 2016 made her rethink her dislike of the sport. And not long after she bought a TT bike on eBay and promptly broke the local TT course record just a couple of days later. 

Since then, the now 33-year-old has spells with Aprire Bicycles-HSS Hire, Storey Racing, and Brother-Fusion before joining her current team, Drops-Le Col part way through 2019.  Despite her obvious talent, Joss has had a fair share of challenges since she started racing.  She essentially wrote off her 2018 season with a shoulder injury after a crash at the Tour de Yorkshire and then broke both her shoulder and elbow the following year at the Tour of California. On top of that, Joss’ team Drops lost a whole year of racing due to Covid.

When she has had opportunities to race, however, Joss’ talent has been obvious. In the National Road Series in 2019, for example, she was second in the Klondike Grand Prix and finished 3rd in the Lincoln Grand Prix. She then went one better, winning the South Coast Classic in July. That year she was also 7th in the time trial and the national road championships, won the national 10-mile championship and then finished the season with a memorable bronze in the team time trial at the world

Last year she finished 12th overall in the Setmana Ciclista Valenciana and won the national 25-mile championship. And this season has started well. She finished 11th at the Healthy Ageing Tour and then, just as I was writing this intro, she finished 5th at the hilly Brabantse Pijl race in Belgium.

Joss also made waves back in February when she unofficially broke the women’s hour record, when she went 153m further than the official women's Hour Record held by Italian Vittoria Bussi.

This interview was recorded in two parts, which we've stitched together in (hopefully) seamless fashion. In the first half, Joss recounts some of the key moments in her cycling journey so far, including her introduction to cycling, her injury challenges, her bronze medal at the world championships in Yorkshire and a disappointing 2020. In the second half, she discusses her plans and motivation for breaking the world hour record later this year.

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Our latest episode is with Canyon dhb SunGod's new recruit Damien Clayton.

About a year ago, we published the first instalment of a three-part interview with Damien on our website. The interview traced his remarkable transformation from an architect who barely rode a bike to a UCI race winner.

Back in the summer of 2016, Damien's love affair with the bike began. At that stage he'd  barely ridden more than 10 miles in one go on a bicycle, but a company bike ride from London to Brighton suddenly ignited his interest. He may have done it in gym shorts and on a single-speed bike with next to no experience, but he still found himself first to the top of all the hills, including Ditchling Beacon, the highest point on the South Downs. Afterwards, he bought himself a ‘proper’ road bike and then found himself falling headlong into a love affair with the bicycle.

Just three years later in 2019,  not only had he signed his first contract with a Continental team, Ribble Pro Cycling, he'd also won his first UCI road race, the Grand Prix des Marbriers. After that he won his first National A road race, the Bourne CiCLE Classic, and grabbed some eye-catching results in pro kermesses in Belgium, regularly mixing it with - and finishing ahead of - World Tour riders.

It’s was an astonishing transformation, one we documented fully in our three-part interview. If you haven’t read it yet, we wholeheartedly recommend you do so. 

A few things stood out to us in that interview.

• Damien is an exceptionally driven individual. He’s obsessive about his approach to training, nutrition and recovery. Something we wanted to find out more about.
• He still has bags of potential. He may be 28, relatively old in cycling terms, but nonetheless, new to the sport, he still has plenty to learn and plenty to improve on.
• He has a special relationship with his coach Rory Townsend, a rider he greatly admires and relies on for support and encouragement.

With a contract newly signed to ride with Rory’s team Canyon dhb SunGod in 2021, we were keen to speak to Damien again to find out more about what makes him tick, how far he thinks he can go in cycling and why he’d decided to switch teams. 

A couple of points of order:

First up, the interview was recorded just before Damien found out he’d been selected to race in the Zwift Academy finals. The finals take place on the 19th December and the winner will be offered a contract with Mathieu Van der Poel’s Aplecin-Fenix team. So at the time this was published, it wasn't completely clear which team Damien will end up riding for.

Second, we’re really pleased to announce a new sponsor, VeloSkin. For those that don’t know, Veloskin makes an excellent range of specialist skincare products for cyclists. Their chamois cream, soothing gel, shave cream and post-shave lotion are all made using natural products and are designed for and tested by cyclists. This season they have sponsored Damien’s Ribble Weldtite team and next year they will also be supporting Canyon dhb. We’ve used the products ourselves and can vouch for them. They work brilliantly. 
 
We’ve teamed up with them to offer you 10% off all orders made through their website. All you need to do is head to veloskin.cc and use the code TBC-10, which will give you a 10% discount on your first and future orders with VeloSkin. And better still every order will also support The British Continental. 

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Our latest podcast episode features an exclusive interview with Harry Tanfield. 

Harry has signed for Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling in what might well be one of the transfer coups of the close season. 

He has just spent the last two years competing at the World Tour level, first for Katusha Alpecin and then for AG2R La Mondiale. In many ways, it’s been a challenging period for the 25-year-old from Great Ayton. His first year about adjusting to the top tier of the sport and then, just as he was beginning to find his feet, the news dropped that his Katusha Alpecin team was folding. AG2R swooped in to rescue his World Tour career, offering him a one-year deal. But confined to a domestique role this season, and with the calendar severely interrupted, Harry has had few opportunities to prove himself. And when AG2R declined to renew his contract, he was left searching for a team once again. 

In a tough contract year, his hunt for a World Tour or Pro Conti deal wasn’t looking hopeful. Then in stepped Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling. It’s a team Harry knows well – he’s competed with and against many of their riders. And with a solid UCI race programme being planned for next season – coronavirus permitting – the team can offer Harry a platform to return to the highest levels of the sport, much in the same way as James Shaw and Scott Thwaites did after their stints at Continental level in 2019. What’s more, the team has agreed they will let Harry move to a bigger team should he get a better offer over the next few months.

Harry is no stranger to the domestic scene of course. He spent a year with JLT Condor and then three years with Tim Elverson’s Canyon team before stepping up to the World Tour. Arguably his most memorable moment during that spell was winning Stage 1 of the 2018 Tour de Yorkshire when he became the first UK rider (and the first rider from Yorkshire) to win a stage of the race.

Our interview with Harry took place just a week after he’d finished the Vuelta, his first Grand Tour, an experience Harry recounts in detail. He also told us about his (perhaps unfair) reputation for missing the start of races, how he felt about not getting his contract renewed this season, the lessons he’s learnt after two years in the World Tour, the adjustment it might take to race again at the Continental level again, his plans to work on his sprint finish for 2021, and why he’s missed domestic-level racing.

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Our latest podcast episode is the final part of our interview with Bahrain-McLaren rider Stevie Williams. 

Those of you that have already listened to Part 1 will have heard about Stevie’s late beginnings to bike racing, his years riding at the domestic level for Pedal Heaven and JLT Condor, his switch to the SEG Racing Academy and his career-changing ride at the Ronde L’Isard.

In this second part, Stevie discusses his successful Baby Giro back in 2018, his transfer to what was then called Bahrain Merida and his fightback from an injury which threatened to derail his pro career before it had even begun.

It was a long, challenging road back to recovery for Stevie, and we're especially grateful to him for being so open about both the physical and mental battles he has fought. 

The interview took place not long after his comeback race in the Czech Republic earlier this year. Now, Stevie has just ridden in his first Grand Tour, finishing ten stages of the Vuelta before retiring from the race. He may have been a little disappointed to leave the race early. But nonetheless, considering what he has been through, it should be regarded as a very successful end to his neo-pro years, given all he has gone through.

Thanks, as ever, for tuning in.

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Twenty-five-year-old Scot Lauren Dickson only pinned on a race number in 2024 - yet by May 2025 she was 3rd overall at the Tour of Norway and winner of the Rapha Lincoln Grand Prix. 

In this conversation with host Denny Gray, the former mountain-runner and triathlete breaks down the defining moments, steep learning curves and audacious goals that have made her one of Britain’s fastest-rising road racers.

The Handsling Alba Development Road Team rider's sporting life did not start on two wheels. She began as a Scotland-capped junior runner but broke a bone in her left foot in 2019, leaving her ankle too fragile for downhill running. Rehab led her to triathlon and draft-legal duathlon in Spain, where she picked up bunch-riding skills. 

In 2024 she Googled how to start road racing, joined Edinburgh Road Club, finished 44th in her first event, then won two local races a fortnight later. Second place at the Lancaster Grand Prix caught Handsling Alba Development Road Team’s eye; a runner-up ride at Ryedale and methodical work on her descending followed. 

She delivered Alba’s first National Road Series win at the Rapha Lincoln GP and, with new confidence, matched WorldTour climbers at the Tour of Norway. Next up is the Tour of Britain Women on home roads, while former pro Hannah Barnes is helping her to navigate WorldTour interest. 

For now, though, the plan is simple: keep learning fast, race even faster—and enjoy every descent she once feared.

If you enjoy the show, please rate us, leave a review and share it with a club-mate who still thinks Cat-4 is the ceiling.

Produced by Will Jones.

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In this episode, we bring you the first part of a feature-length interview following Stevie Williams' remarkable cycling journey.

The 24-year-old Welshman joined the pro ranks after a sparking 2018 season. That year, Stevie won two stages and the overall in one of the most prestigious U23 races around - the Ronde de l'Isard. If that wasn’t indication enough of his talent, he followed that up with a stage win and 5th overall at the Baby Giro. 

The results earned him a WorldTour contract with Bahrain Merida – now called Bahrain McLaren – but his debut season with the team was virtually over almost before it had begun. Towards the end of 2018, he began to suffer from sharp knee pain every time he got on the bike. Whilst the cause of the pain was unclear, it was an injury which effectively derailed his season. Despite aborted attempts to race at the Tour of the Basque Country and the Tour de Romandie, most of the year was spent trying to get to the bottom of the problem. 

The issue was eventually discovered in September 2019, when he was diagnosed with a rare condition called fabella syndrome. Stevie underwent surgery to rectify things and then began a long process of rehabilitation, supported by both his team and the Sport Wales Institute.

After many challenging months, he eventually made his return to racing in August this year at the Czech Tour. Since then, he’s gradually been edging his way back into shape, culminating in selection for this year’s Vuelta. 

In this first part of the interview with Stevie, recorded not long after his comeback race in the Czech Republic, we chat about how his bike racing career first began, his years riding at the domestic level for Pedal Heaven and JLT Condor, his switch to the SEG Racing Academy and his career-changing ride at the Ronde L’Isard.

Part 2 of the interview, focusing on his long fightback from injury, will be out soon.

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Today’s episode is with James Shaw. 

You might not know this, but not long after we set up The British Continental, towards the end of 2018, the very first interview we did was with James. 

Back then, he was still reeling from the news that Lotto Soudal had decided not to renew his contract, despite quietly impressing with two seasons of reliable, diligent work as a domestique in some of the world’s top races before finishing 10th in the U23 world road race championships. As the year was drawing to a close, he told us that time was running out to save his barely-begun cycling career. 

Eventually, he joined the newly created UK Continental team SwiftCarbon Pro Cycling, hoping to earn the results that would enable him to return to the pro ranks. A successful season followed, with wins in the National Road Series and 5th overall in the Tour de Yorkshire, helping him to secure a one-year contract with the Pro Continental Danish team Riwal Readynez.

This year has been a tough one for James, not just because of the pandemic-hit calendar, but also because his team hit financial hard times, meaning the riders had to forego wages in order for the team to continue racing. Despite the interruptions, he’s put together a very a solid year, including selection for the worlds road race. But now, with the team’s future uncertain, he has ended his season once again looking for a contract. With the search not going well so far, James said in a recent Instagram post that he may even have raced the last race of his career. 

In this interview, James looks back on the last two years of his career, from the tough rejection he faced at Lotto Soudal, his season at the domestic level with SwiftCarbon Pro Cycling, joining Riwal this year and the sense of déjà vu he now has as he once again faces an uncertain future in cycling. 

Apologies for the sound quality in this one. Despite trying for ages, James and Denny weren’t quite able to rectify a slightly dodgy line, one of the perils of remote interviewing. Do bear with it though, because James’ candidness and honesty is well-deserving of a listen.

This podcast is sponsored by Continental tyres.

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We’re back after a short break with an in-depth interview with the youngest ever stage winner of the Tour de l’Avenir, Ben Healy.  

Ben currently rides for the new British development team Trinity Racing alongside a whole host of promising young riders, not least of which is Tom Pidcock. 

Growing up in the Midlands, he started his cycling career racing mountain bikes and was good enough to be on British Cycling’s Olympic development programme. But he was dropped from the programme just before he moved up to the junior level. He decided to try out road racing instead, and almost by accident ended up at the Zappi Racing junior team. The team gave a good programme of international racing and Ben excelled. Not only did he finish second in the Junior Tour of Wales, he also won the junior Tour of the Basque Country beating Remco Evenepoel in the process. Not a bad start to his road racing career. Despite his success, the British team overlooked for selection to the world championships. This led him to decide to switch to an Irish racing licence, a decision he says he hasn’t regretted at all.

Riding for Wiggins-Le Col, last season was his first an under-23 rider. He finished 11th in the U23 Gent-Wevelgem and 15th in the U23 time trial at the worlds in Yorkshire. But undoubtedly his standout result was his Tour de l’Avenir stage win. Not only was he the youngest ever stage winner of the race, he was also the first Irishman to win a stage since Stephen Roche in 1981. 

Like most British-based riders, his season has been stunted by the postponement and cancellation of races across Europe in the wake of COVID-19.  The interview was recorded just before his recent racing exploits but in the few chances he has had since then, he has already impressed in the few chances he has had. He supported Tom Pidcock to his baby Giro win at the beginning of September and then finished second on stage 1 of the Ronde de l’Isard, a race which is still ongoing as we recorded the intro to this podcast. To top it off, he’s also been selected to represent Ireland in the world road race championships this year.

Big thanks to our new title sponsor Continental tyres. It’s lovely that a brand that is such a big sponsor of the Tour de France is also backing our humble podcast too. 

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Charlie Quarterman went from struggling to find a team for the 2019 season to World Tour rider in 2020 thanks to in large part to a purple patch of form which culminated him winning the British U23 national time trial championships. In this episode, the 21-year-old takes us through his less-than-conventional journey to the World Tour.

In the interview, he reveals he was one of the generation of British riders to get into cycling as a result of Bradley Wiggins' Tour and Olympic success in 2012. He talks about his junior years at Zappi Racing, the junior team set up by former Italian pro, Flavio Zappi. Stepping up to the U23 ranks, he spent a challenging, often isolated, two years at the UCI Continental Leopard Pro Cycling team. Results didn't come his way to the extent that teams had little to no interest in signing him for the 2019 season. With options limited, he was reunited with Flavio Zappi, joining his Italian-based development team Holdsworth-Zappi.

The move presented him with leadership opportunities and he was quick to take advantage of them. His fourth place in the prologue at the Baby Giro in June began to turn heads. He followed that up with third on stage 7 of the race with a swashbuckling ride to bridge solo to the winning break. Then, just days later, he beat Ethan Hayter to take the British U23 time trialling crown. Interest from the World Tour quickly followed and not long after, he joined Trek-Segafredo as a stagiaire ahead of a permanent move this season.

Charlie talks about his strong start to the 2020 season, how he's found adjusting to life at the World Tour level, and his hopes (and fears) ahead of his return to racing post-lockdown.

This show is sponsored by Verge Sport, suppliers of quality custom cycle clothing.

More on Charlie Quarterman on The British Continental:

To the World Tour and beyond: Charlie Quarterman interview

Inside the Baby Giro: Charlie Quarterman’s race diary:

• Race diary #11
• Race diary #10
• Race diary #9
• Race diary #8
• Race diary #7
• Race diary #6
• Race diary #5
• Race diary #4
• Race diary #3
• Race diary #2

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In today's episode we review stage 4 of the Tour of Britain, a stage every bit as full-on as us fans had been hoping for.

The short punchy stage from Redcar to Duncombe Park was full gas from start to finish, with barely a pause for breath for riders or spectators. Colin Sturgess, Josh Charlton, Ben Perry, Oscar Onley and Steve Lampier all give us their views of how it went in a fascinating set of diary entries.

 As expected, it took a long time for any kind of break to form, with seemingly every team in the race keen to be represented. WiV SunGod performed admirably in defending Ben Perry’s lead in these opening 40 to 50 kilometres, closing down as many moves as they could while every man and his dog tried to get up the road. 

Eventually, Magnus Sheffield of Ineos Grenadiers and Harry Birchill of Saint Piran punched clear, stretching out a lead of up to a minute. As the peloton hit the first major climb of the day at Robin Hood’s Bay, however, Tom Pidcock put in a stinging attack, taking a select group of riders with him. The race reformed on the false flat over the top, but it was a sign of things to come.  

Ahead of the next categorised climb of Egton Bank, the Uno-X team swarmed to the front of the bunch and set a searing pace that blew the race to pieces as they hit the climb. Around 18 riders survived over the top, including race leader Ben Perry and our audio diarist Oscar Onley (Team DSM), and for a while, it looked like this group might go all the way to the finish line. 

The group wasn’t cohesive enough, however, and were eventually joined by a chasing group to swell the front of the race to around 40 riders.

As this lead group hit Carlton Bank – the hardest climb of the day under 30 kilometres from the finish – Pidcock once again attacked. Only Dylan Teuns (Israel – Premier Tech) and Onley could stay with him, and they quickly set about putting time into their chasers. 

It took a while for the chase to organise itself, but efforts from the Movistar team, Ollie Rees of TRINITY Racing and Jake Stewart (Great Britain), amongst others, eventually reeled the trio back. 

The final climb of the day with 8.4 kilometres remaining was Newgate Bank, and this proved decisive. Pidcock was once again a protagonist, moving clear with his teammate Omar Fraille, Teuns again, and Movistar’s Gonzalo Serrano. They stayed clear as they hit the finish in Duncombe Park, with Serrano edging Pidcock in the sprint.

Serrano’s win moved him into the AJ Bell leader’s jersey, with Pidcock, Fraile and Perry trailing by seven seconds.

 WiV SunGod’s Matthew Teggart retained the Sportsbreaks.com sprints jersey, while Mathijs Paasschen’s (Bingoal Pauwels Sauces WB) is the new leader of the ŠKODA King of the Mountains jersey, level on points with erstwhile leader Jacob Scott (WiV SunGod). 

Stage 5 is the only stage of the race with under 2000 metres of climbing, so is probably the peloton’s best bet for a blanket finish. Running from West Bridgford to Mansfield the stage is 186.8 kilometres long.

Show sponsored by HUNT Bike Wheels.

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In today’s episode, we review what was a truly fascinating stage 3 of the Tour of Britain with the help of Saint Piran team manager Steve Lampier, new race leader Ben Perry, Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling sports director Colin Sturgess and Team DSM’s young gun Oscar Onley.

On paper at least, this stage was one for the sprinters. The stage route featured a lumpy start, including the first category Chapel Fell, which then gave way to slightly less fierce, rolling terrain on relatively wide roads.  However, the stage was anything but formulaic, as we’ve often come to expect at the Tour of Britain. 

In contrast to stages 1 and 2, there was a fierce battle to get into the day’s break. And when it did eventually form, it was a strong quartet that got away. The domestic team duo of Saint Piran’s Alex Richardson and WiV SunGod’s Ben Perry were joined by Belgian pairing of Kamiel Bonneu of Sport Vlaanderen – Baloise and Mathijs Paasschens (Bingoal Pauwels Sauce WB).

With the break still young, some lively and very visible discussions ensued between the leading quartet, the four riders debating how they would work together for the remainder of the stage. More on this later from our audio diarists Steve Lampier and Ben Perry. 

Perry and Paasschens mopped up most of the bonus seconds on offer at the intermediate sprints – important given their GC proximity – while Bonneu took maximum points atop each of the KOM climbs. None of the escapees picked up enough points, however, to trouble the incumbent competition leaders, meaning WiV SunGod’s Matt Teggart and Jake Scott retained their respective leads in the Sportsbreaks.com sprints and ŠKODA King of the Mountains competitions.

As torrential rain hit the race in the closing 50 kilometres, it became apparent that the leading four had a fighting chance of making it to the end. With 30 kilometres left the gap was three and half minutes, and despite the best efforts of the peloton – and the gap slowly dwindling – the advantage continued to stay with the break. 

For much of the final kilometres, Richardson declined to cooperate with his fellow escapees – for reasons Steve Lampier explains in his dispatch – but even this didn’t overly hinder the break’s position. 

In the closing stages, Richardson tried multiple attacks but all were quickly closed down. The break then slowed considerably, so much so it looked like they might be caught. Bonneu then put in a strong attack just a few hundred metres out which his rivals were too slow to react to. 

It enabled Bonneu to surge to the biggest victory of his professional career, with a visibly disappointed Perry in second. Richardson rolled in third with Paasschens fourth. The speeding peloton arrived at the line just seconds later. 

Initially, the commissaires awarded the race lead to overnight leader Corbin Strong (Israel – Premier Tech), with Perry in second on the same time. After reviewing the race footage, however, the jury decided that Perry finished seven seconds ahead of the peloton which, together with the time bonuses he earned on the road, means he is now the new race leader. 

As far as we can work out, it’s the first time a domestic team has ever held the race lead of the modern-day Tour of Britain. 

WiV SunGod will certainly have their work cut out defending Perry’s lead as stage 4 looks brutal. Running from Redcar to Duncombe Park, it’s a short stage at 149.5 kilometres. But it features some punishing climbs and the final 30 kilometres, in particular, are unforgiving, and include the climbs of Carlton Bank (2km long, 9.8% average gradient) and Newgate Bank (2km long, 6% average gra

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Ahead of the women’s CiCLE Classic this weekend- the first National A road race for 666 days – we are publishing two special episodes focusing on the race. In this first episode, we talk with the race’s reigning champion, Emily Nelson, who gives us an insight into what it takes to ride – and win – one of the UK’s most prestigious one-day women’s races.

It has been a dizzying few years or so for 24-year-old Emily. 

One of the world’s top track riders, she hit the heights in 2018, becoming the world madison champion on the track, and adding a world championship silver medal in the team pursuit to her palmares too. With both events on the 2020 Tokyo track programme, her Olympic dreams were looking bright. 

The following year she then won scratch gold at the European track championships, and silver in the elimination race at the same event. And she excelled on the road that year too, despite riding only a handful of road races. She won the East/West Midlands women’s road race championships, and finished 12th in the national road championships road race too.

But her most notable feats were her victories at the Women’s CiCLE Classic and the women’s Bourne CiCLE Classic. The former is one of the most prestigious women’s road races in the UK, famous for its off-road sectors and Belgian roadside atmosphere. The latter, meanwhile, holds notoriety not only because it was a cracking event but also because it was the last National A road race held in the UK. All that will change, however, this Sunday, when the Women’s CiCLE Classic returns.

Unfortunately, things have not been plain sailing for Emily in-between times. She was dropped from the Olympic squad towards the end of 2019. Determined to continue racing, however, she joined the Belgian Isorex-NoAqua squad the following season to pursue a road racing career instead. But almost before she had started, the pandemic hit, and racing was put on hold. And after some tricky deliberations, Emily decided to retire. 

With the Women’s CiCLE Classic due to return, we were lucky enough to speak with the race’s reigning champion before a new one is anointed.

Emily speaks about what it was like to miss out on her Olympic dreams, why she decided to hang up her wheels, what it takes to win the CiCLE Classic, what she did with her giant pork pie, and her sister Josie’s great start to her road racing career in Belgium.

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Stage 10 from San Vito al Tagliamento to Castelfranco Veneto was the last stage of this year’s edition of the U23 Giro and it ended on a high for British team Trinity Racing, to cap off an excellent race all round for the development set-up. 

As we predicted, the flat-ish parcours didn’t result in any real changes to the GC, but it didn’t give the sprinters their day either. We said it might be a day for the break, even going so far as to tip Trinity Racing’s Ben Turner. But instead it was Trinity’s other Ben – Healy – who took the spoils. And well-deserved they were too. 

The opening half of the stage was marked by numerous attacks and escape attempts, with riders desperate to grasp a final opportunity for a stage win. It wasn’t until around the half way point, however, that a meaningful break formed. It contained just three riders: Jacopo Menegotto of the General Store team, Harrison Wood’s SEG Racing teammate Daan Hoole and the Irish road race champion Ben Healy. 

A strong group then, and one that quickly carved out a good advantage over the peloton. Just eight kilometres from the finish, the three leaders still had a three minute advantage and it was clear by then that one of them would take stage honours. Healy attacked three kilometres out and kept his lead over Menegotto and Hoole right to the end. He becomes the first ever Irish stage winner at the Baby Giro, a neat landmark to add to his record of being the youngest ever stage winner at the Tour de l’Avenir. He was aggressive all race and the win was no more than he deserved.

The peloton came in 54 seconds behind, containing all of the main GC riders. It means that the prodigious Juan Ayuso wins the Baby Giro in just his first year as as under-23. He seems destined to be one of the WorldTour’s next bright young things. Alongside him on the podium are Tobias Halland Johannessen and Henri Vandenabeele. 

It means 4th overall for our diarist Tom Gloag. With Ayuso taking all the acclaim, it’s perhaps easy to overlook what a fantastic performance that is for a rider who is still only in his second year as an under-23. And as he told us when we interviewed him for this podcast, it’s not that long ago that he really started taking racing that seriously. If WorldTour teams hadn’t already had their heads turned by him, it surely won’t be long before suitors begin knocking on his metaphorical door.

Elsewhere on the GC, Healy moves up to 12th, a fine result in itself. And our other diarist Harrison Wood – a relative late starter when it comes to racing – can take a lot of confidence after a resilient performance to finish in 19th overall. We’re certain there is a lot more to come from him in future years. 

We should also give shoutouts to the other Brits in the race. Ben Turner animated the race, especially in the early stages, even taking the race lead for a day. The cyclocross talent has had an outstanding start to his road season and it’s surely just a matter of time before he picks up his first UCI road race win. And whilst Ollie Rees may not have made headlines with his result, we know that he put in a lot of solid teamwork to support Tom and the Bens in the race, a role which is oft-overlooked but absolutely vital nonetheless.

We want to say a huge thank you to both Tom and Harrison. It was a last-minute decision to do this daily diary show, yet both of them embraced my request to send in dispatches. We are hugely grateful to them both for taking the time to record their thoughts and help to illuminate one of the most under-reported yet potentially career-changing races around. 

In his final dispatch, Tom is also joine

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Stage 8 already; where has the time gone? Just two stages left to go now and then it will time for some well-earned rest. The riders might need a lie down too.

Anyway, with that terrible joke out of the way, let’s get stuck into the stage round-up. Stage 8 from Aprica to Andalo was another mountain stage, featuring 2300 metres of climbing. A good chunk of that climbing began immediately, with the riders tackling the first category Passo del Tonale almost from kilometre zero. It was on these early slopes that a large group of no less than 36 riders made their escape over the Maglia Rosa group. The two Bens – Healy and Turner – were in there, as was our diarist Harrison Wood, making good on his objective to get in the breaks. 

Before the break reached the final 15-kilometre climb to Andalo, Ben Healy escaped from that lead group with the Swiss Racing Academy rider Andréa Mifsud. Healy soon dropped Mifsud, stretching out a lead of over a minute on the chasers. On the final climb, Healy was joined by Riccardo Ciuccarelli, Harrison’s teammate Marco Frigo, Didier Merchan and Yannis Voisard. The Irishman eventually lost contact, however, as Ciuccarelli went on to take an impressive solo win. Behind, there was once again nothing to separate the main GC men, with Ayuso, Vandenabeele,  Johannessen and our diarist Tom all finishing a minute and 37 seconds back. Fellow diarist Harrison was also in that group – a great day out for him – while Ben Turner was just 6 seconds further back. Impressive. Healy faded to 41st, but hats off to him for such an aggressive display. 

On GC, Tom stays 4th, Healy drops to 13th and Harrison is up to 21st.

Stage 9 – the penultimate stage – will be another mountainous day for the riders. With the final stage a fairly flat affair, this is probably the last opportunity for the GC hopefuls to gain time on their rivals. The last chance for Tom to leap up to the podium. 

There are no killer climbs as such but like stage eight the opening kilometres are uphill to the category one Passo Valles. Then after a long descent, there is a category 3 climb before the riders tackle the final climb of Nevegal twice. No easy day out, especially with eight days of frenetic racing in the riders’ legs.

In our diaries, we hear first from Harrison who talks about his day in the break and finishing with the top GC guys. Tom’s back again too. He shares his recollections from stages 7 and 8 and ponders whether he can make up the seconds he needs to make it on the podium.

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Welcome to stage 4 of our Baby Giro diary show, which comes after a great day for the Brits. As usual, we’ll bring you a short round-up of the day’s action, together with diary entries from Trinity Racing’s Tom Gloag, SEG Racing Academy’s Harrison Wood and Holdsworth-Zappi manager Callum Ferguson.

Stage 4 was a pan flat 25-kilometre individual time trial from Sorbolo Mezzani to Guastalla. Time trials of this length are a rarity at the under-23 level, so it wasn’t completely clear which riders the course would suit. Harrison’s tip for the stage win, his teammate Daan Hoole, was one of the early leaders, eventually finishing in 7th. Tom’s teammate Ben Healy was also in the hot seat for a while before being knocked off the top spot by just one second to Italian Filippo Baroncini from the powerful Colpack Ballan team. Healy nonetheless finished second on the stage, and was joined on the podium by Trinity Racing’s other Ben – Turner – who continued his fine run of form with third.

Most of the main overall favourites managed strong results, keeping their GC ambitions intact, including Tom Gloag. He finished 22nd, just over a minute down, which must be regarded as a good result for someone who admitted on yesterday’s show that he’s had little time trialling practice of late. Harrison put in a solid if unspectacular ride to finish 64th, while Holdsworth-Zappi’s best finisher was once again Daan Hoeks, who was 28th. 

All this means that Ben Turner is now the new Maglia Rosa, leading the stage winner Filippo Baroncini by just one second overall. Tom moves up to 15th overall, just over one minute back, while Ben Healy has clawed some time back and is now just under two minutes down in 28th.

Next up, Stage 5 is from Fanano to Sestola. It’s 142 kilometres long and ends with two category one climbs. It’s the same finish used in the elite Giro last month on stage 4 won from the break by Joe Dombrowski. It should result in another GC shake-up and one of the big questions for those with British interests will be whether Ben Turner can hang on to pink.

In our diaries, we hear first from an understandably jubilant Tom, who reports that team morale is now sky-high. Tom’s buoyant mood contrasts with disappointment and exhaustion for Harrison and Callum. Both report that they didn’t get the respective performances they were hoping for, while Callum also had some tricky logistical issues to negotiate too.

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James McKay joins host Denny Gray fresh from a career-making victory at the 2025 Rapha Lincoln Grand Prix. The 28-year-old Sheffield-based rider in Wheelbase-CabTech-Castelli green relives the sprint up Michaelgate that delivered his first National A win and explains why “it’s just about sunk in” now the champagne haze has cleared.

The conversation rewinds to 2022, when McKay was black-flagged at the same race, rode home in despair and phoned development-team boss Dave Coulson to quit - only for Coulson to reply “nonsense” and insist the talent was still there. That single vote of confidence pulled McKay back from the brink and set in motion the comeback the pair dissect on air.

McKay credits a whole cast of British road-racing royalty - Ali Slater, Tom Stewart, the Downing brothers, Graham Briggs, and 1995 Lincoln winner Mark Walsham - for the chain-gang sessions and blunt advice that “made me realise I was actually at a decent level” . Their wisdom, plus a breakout 2023 season, helped him banish the imposter syndrome he once masked by calling every good result “a fluke”.

He also lifts the lid on Wheelbase’s distinctive ethos: “we race selfishly together”. With no fixed leader, prize money split evenly and trust that everyone will get their day, the system lets multiple engines fire without ego - something McKay believes was decisive both at East Cleveland and again in Lincoln’s heat.

Race-day detail comes thick and fast: the late attack that shed Ben Granger, Alex Peters’ solo gamble, and a three-abreast elbow-fight into the famous left-hander. On the climb McKay twice kicked clear - “with the roar of the crowd I had no idea who was on my wheel, so I just kept drilling it”. Friends who had trained with him all winter formed a noisy green wall that, he says, “gave me wings”; later they soaked up the moment in the pub while he nursed a podium sip of champagne before driving home.

Looking ahead, the Lincoln trophy resets nothing and everything. McKay still wants a crack at the National Road Championships, plans to focus on the National Road Series rather than the Circuit Series, and admits he’d consider a return to UCI Continental level “if the right people and calendar came along” -but at 28 he’s determined to savour the sport rather than chase a long-shot pro contract.

Tune in for a candid masterclass in resilience, team chemistry and the sheer emotional punch of Britain’s cobbled monument - plus the reminder that sometimes a single word of faith can change an athlete’s life.

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Welcome to the third of our daily Baby Giro shows, bringing a round-up of the day’s action, together with diary entries from Tom Gloag, Harrison Wood and Holdsworth-Zappi. 

Stage 3 from Cesanatico-Cesanatico was 133 kilometres long and featured over 2000 metres of climbing. After a flat first 29 kilometres, the stage then included four categorised climbs in relatively quick succession, culminating in the category 1 Barbotto climb, which topped out with around 43 kilometres to go. After that, it was pretty much all downhill to the finish. 

It was a day for the breakaway today with Alessio Bonelli from the Biesse Arvedi taking the spoils over Luca Colnaghi in an 8-man tussle for the win. The main bunch rolled in 26 seconds later and included our diarists Tom Gloag and Harrison Wood – who crossed the line together – as well as Trinity Racing’s two Bens – Healy and Turner. Holdsworth-Zappi’s best finisher was once again Dan Hoeks, who also finished in the main bunch.

Juan Ayuso retains the pink jersey, while Ben Turner remains in 4th overall, just 13 seconds back. Tom Gloag lies 22nd, at 21 seconds behind the leader. 

Tomorrow’s pan flat 27-kilometre individual time trial should result in a GC shake-up before the race heads into the mountains on stage 5.

In our diary entries, we hear first from Tom, who had a relatively uncomplicated stage. He talks about how the heat has affected the race so far, weighs up the potential GC contenders, and says he hopes to fare better in the stage 4 time trial than he did in his last TT, when he came dead last (listeners should check out our interview with Tom from earlier in the series to find out the full story). Harrison is up next. He experienced a better day despite a small crash in which he broke his shoe and says he’s looking forward to tomorrow’s time trial, tipping his teammate Daan Hoole for the win.

No dispatch from Holdsworth-Zappi from this stage, alas.

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Welcome to the second of our daily shows following this year’s U23 Giro d’Italia.

After each stage, we are bringing you short round-ups of the day’s action, together with audio diaries from the British-registered Holdsworth-Zappi team, Trinity Racing’s Tom Gloag, and SEG Racing and Rayner Foundation rider Harrison Wood. 

Stage 2 from Riccione to Imola was 138.2 kilometres long and featured two categorised climbs, both positioned towards the back end of the stage. The last of the climbs, the Cima Gallisterna, was also the final climb in last year’s world road race championships.

The race itself began with the familiar sight of an early break while the rest of the peloton held its fire. The break featured four riders, including Holdsworth-Zappi’s Connor Sens. It was never allowed more than about three minutes, however, and was brought back with around 40 kilometres to go.

Pre-race favourite Juan Ayuso punched clear to lead solo over the top of the Gallisterna. He was joined by his Colpack Ballan teammate Alessandro Verre and Henok Mulubrhan of Team Qhubeka. Despite having just a slender lead, they held off the chasers on the downhill finish, with Ayuso taking the win. 

The result moves 18-year-old Ayuso into the overall lead. It’s early days in the race, but given his form this year, it would not be a surprise to see him hold on to pink all the way to the end of the race.

Behind Ayuso, Trinity Racing’s Ben Turner picked up yet another top 10, finishing 8 seconds back in 7th, while our diarist Tom Gloag was also in the mix, crossing the line in 14th at 11 seconds. 

It was less positive news for his teammate Ben Healy’s GC hopes, though, as he lost almost two minutes, while diarist Harrison Wood came in in 77th, around three minutes down.

The other Brit, Ollie Rees, endured another tough day, crossing the line 160th. Holdsworth-Zappi’s best finisher, meanwhile, was the Dutch rider Daan Hoeks, in 53rd.

The next stage – stage 3 – is from Cesenatico-Cesenatico. It’s 133km long and features over 2000m of climbing. Most of the climbing comes in the middle of the stage, however, so it’s more likely to be a breakaway day or a reduced bunch finish than a major GC stage. 

In our diaries today, we hear first from Tom, who seems pleased with his day’s work despite the heat. Harrison then tells us he didn’t quite have the legs today but is hoping for better as the race progresses, and we also hear from his roommate, the Italian Marco Frigo, who shares his thoughts about stage 3. Finally, we hear from a disappointed Holdsworth-Zappi manager Callum Ferguson, whose team's GC hopes were dashed today. He once again provides a fascinating insight into the logistical challenges that teams like his face and is hopeful his team can turn their fortunes around as the race develops.

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Welcome to the first of our daily shows following this year’s U23 Giro d’Italia, a race affectionately known as the Baby Giro. 

After each stage, we’ll be bringing you short round-ups of the day’s action, together with audio diaries from the British-registered Holdsworth-Zappi team, Trinity Racing’s Tom Gloag, and SEG Racing Academy’s Harrison Wood. The latter is of course of supported by the Rayner Foundation.

Stage 1 was a 144 kilometre from Cesenatico to Riccione. In our preview of the race, Joseph Doherty predicted this flat-ish stage would be one for the sprinters. But it was Italian Andrea Cantoni who took a surprise win at the end of a long day in the break on his home roads in Romagna. Cantoni will wear the leader’s pink jersey tomorrow as a result and now holds a 26 second lead in the general classification. 

Behind Cantoni, Trinity Racing’s Ben Turner was the best-placed Brit, finishing a fine 6th after jumping away with 30 kilometres to go and closing a three-minute gap on his own. Tom Gloag and Harrison Wood – as well as Ireland’s Ben Healy - all finished in the main bunch behind, while the other Brit in the race, Ollie Rees, was 165th, just over 11 minutes down.

Tomorrow’s stage to Imola should be a more selective affair. It features the Cima Gallisterna, the same climb that Alaphillipe used as his springboard to win the world championships last year. Positioned just 10 kilometres from the finish, it offers opportunities for puncheurs and GC contenders alike to gain time and grab a stage win.

See the full results here. 

We have three diary entries for your delectation in this episode.

First up is Trinity Racing’s Tom Gloag, who describes how his stage went (he crashed), bigs up Ben Turner’s incredible bid for the stage win and explains the roles each rider in the team has. 

Harrison then provides a thoughtful review of the stage, explaining why his team decided not to chase the break today.

And last but not least we hear from Holdsworth-Zappi manager Callum Ferguson. Callum gives us an insight into the busy life of a team manager at the Baby Giro, and lends us his local knowledge too.

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Today’s episode features an interview with 25-year-old Max Stedman. Max is a climber by trade, an asset that last year helped him to win the early-season Tour of Antalya and break the British Everesting record in September. 

Max currently rides for Tim Elverson’s Canyon dhb SunGod squad. In fact, Max has ridden for Elverson since he was a second junior. Like his teammate Rory Townsend, who we interviewed last year for the podcast, Max’s results on the road have been promising enough so far to suggest he deserves a contract with a Pro Conti or even WorldTour team. 

Despite only switching to riding full-time until relatively recently - choosing to balance his cycling career with completing a university degree in his first few years as a senior - he’s a five-time UCI race winner and has managed to pull off a number of eye-catching results against top competition over the years. 

Four of his UCI race wins have come at the Tour of Quanzhou Bay stage race in China, a race in which he won a stage and the overall in both 2017 and 2018. These were important results for Max at the time, but it was his performance at the Tour of Britain in 2018 that first made us think he had the potential to step up to cycling’s higher ranks. He finished 20th overall in that race, but without a team time trial performance that lost him a lot of time, he may well have bagged a top ten. Certainly, 9th place on the queen stage up Whinlatter Pass, crossing the line with Tom Pidcock – and ahead of Primoz Roglic that day – suggested he was one of the strongest riders in the race.

Last year’s Tour of Antalya win – a 2.1 race that included WorldTour opposition – confirmed that Max had the talent to turn pro. As Max explains in the interview, that performance led to WorldTour interest. Of course, since then, the Covid pandemic has pretty much put his race plans on hold. But he did, nonetheless, use the pause in racing to break the British Everesting record.

We covered a huge amount of ground in the interview. Starting with his journey into cycling, topics discussed included:

• His early track racing prowess
• What has kept him with the Canyon team so long
• Whether the British scene has been the right place for a climber like him to showcase his talents
• His madcap adventure to race the Tour of Bulgaria in 2016
• His breakthrough rides at the Tour of Quanzhou Bay and the Tour of Britain
• Learning how to successfully ride 30-minute climbs in Europe
• His Tour of Antalya win
• Interest from Jumbo-Visma
• Whether at 25 he ever considers how much longer he can keep chipping away at turning pro
• Breaking the British Everesting record
• And his plans to make an attempt at the world Everesting record later this year.

Finally, we wanted to express our continued thanks to one of our key partners, HUNT bike wheels, who of course are also an important sponsor for Max’s Canyon dhb team. 

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Our latest podcast episode features an in-depth interview with Jim Brown, the first of five new signings for the Canyon dhb SunGod team.

In our minds, Jim is one of the most under-rated young British riders around. He dreams of winning Roubaix one day but after a difficult first two years at the under-23 level, the Yorkshireman hasn’t yet had the opportunity to show his full potential. 

As a junior, he grabbed our attention with plenty of top results without ever quite grabbing that big win. In 2018, for example, he was 2nd in the Keizer der Juniores, 4th in the E3 Harelbeke, 6th in the Guido Reybrouck and 7th in Gent-Wevelgem. A fine tally, especially considering that more often than not he was up against Remco Evenepoel that year.  

In 2019, his first as an under-23, the first half of his year was interrupted by injury. But he finished strongly, riding the Tour de l’Avenir – where he grabbed a top 10 on stage 4 – and was then part of the Great Britain team at the Tour of Britain that catapulted Matt Walls to some top sprint results.

This year Jim has been based with the French elite team CC Étupes, the team Adam Yates rode for before he turned pro. Like every other road rider in the world, he endured a disrupted race season. Nonetheless, he enjoyed a lot more racing than his British-based peers, picking up several podiums and top tens along the way.

His team would have been happy to keep him, but when Canyon dhb boss Tim Elverson came calling, Jim decided to join the British based team. As he explains in the interview, the team will have six under-23 riders next year, and hopes to put together a race programme that will take in some of the top under-23 races in Europe.

With a good run of form, the right team support and a set of races that will suit him, it could be that 2021 is the year that Jim truly begins to demonstrate his potential.

In the interview, Jim explains how he got into cycling doing club runs on a tandem. He reviews his junior years, explains what kind of rider he is, discusses a tough year at the GB Senior Academy, tells us how he found racing in France with CC Étupes and explains why he decided to join Canyon dhb SunGod. 

NOTE: THIS VERSION OF THE INTERVIEW HAS BEEN SLIGHTLY EDITED TO REMOVE THE NAMES OF CANYON DHB SUNGOD'S OTHER NEW SIGNINGS! IT WILL BE REPLACED BY  AN UNEDITED VERSION ON FRIDAY

Sponsored by Continental Tyres.

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Baby Giro preview with Lewis Askey & Harrison Wood. Presented by Continental.

Whilst most of the cycling world will be gazing at Nice this Saturday for the Grand Depart of the Tour de France, about seven hours drive away, in Urbino, Italy, the grande partenza of the U23 Giro d’Italia will also be taking place. 

In a season with barely an under-23 race to its name, the race affectionately known as the Baby Giro, takes on even greater significance for the world’s top young under-23s this year. It’s a race that has helped propelled many a rider to the professional ranks in past years. Previous winners Aleksandr Vlasov, Pavel Sivakov, Joe Dombrowski and Carlos Betancur amongst others. 

It’s also been a happy hunting ground for Brits in recent seasons too. Ethan Hayter, Fred Wright, Matt Walls, Charlie Quarterman, Stevie Williams and Mark Donovan have all either won stages in the race or put in eye-catching performances. 

All of them are now either at, or headed for, the World Tour. 

Two riders that are hoping to follow in their footsteps are Rayner Foundation riders Lewis Askey and Harrison Wood. 

Lewis first shot to our attention in 2018 when he won the junior Paris-Roubaix as a first-year junior. 2018 also saw him finish 5th in the junior E3 Harelbeke Juniors, 2nd in the Junior CiCLE Classic and 2nd in the British junior road race championships. 

Last season he consolidated his position as one of the most exciting junior talents in the cycling world. He ‘only’ finished 8th in Paris-Roubaix and 2nd in Gent-Wevelgem. But in stage racing, he really excelled. He won the Sleepwell Hotels Isle of Man Junior Tour in May and then took victory the UK’s most prestigious junior road race at the end of August: the Junior Tour of Wales.

This year he joined Jake Stewart at the Groupama-FDJ Continental team, one of the best development teams around. 

Wood is a second-year under-23 at SEG Racing Academy, arguably the most successful development team around. They are regular winners at the under-23 level and have helped numerous riders onto the WorldTour. 

Relatively new to competitive cycling (he’s only been riding seriously for three years), he’s a rider with plenty of potential. He spent last season in France at AVC Aix-en-Provence. Starting on their reserve team, he quickly picked up top results in amateur races in France. In June he was second overall at the Spanish stage race Volta a Castelló and then backed that up with 10th in the under-23 time trial at the national road championships. He rounded out the year with 9th in the under-23 Chrono des Nations, underlining his ability to time trial as well as climb. 

This preview episode features short interviews with both riders as they look to their debuts in this prestigious race. They will also be keeping audio diaries for us during the Baby Giro, which we will edit together for a special episode that we’ll publish once the race is over.

If you want to find out more about the route for this edition and which riders to look out for, under-23 cycling expert Joseph Doherty, who runs the excellent U23 Cycling Zone blog, has put together an incredible preview of the race on our website here. 

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In the latest episode, we move our focus away from riders and onto the delicate juggling act of domestic team management, as we interview Matt Hallam, rider-manager at Crimson Performance – Orientation Marketing. 

Matt’s story is fascinating and one we’ve featured in-depth on our website over the last couple of years. The short version is that in 2017, Matt set up a new business, Crimson Performance, “a platform for power-based testing, training and professional bike fitting”. And to help promote the new business, he decided to set up an elite-level cycling team at the same time. 

This was no straightforward task. For a start, he had no experience of running a bike team before. He was also doing this all by himself, alongside his day job of running his newly-established business. Oh, and he had just eight weeks to get things in place so that he could register a team for the 2018 season. Eight weeks. To find sponsors, to find a team of riders, to sort out paperwork, admin and lots more besides. Eight. Weeks.

He accomplished this challenge with aplomb, gradually building up the team’s experience and sponsorship levels to the point that they started 2020 as arguably one of the strongest and best-supported elite level teams in the UK. It felt like the team could be on the verge of a breakthrough season.

The most eye-catching changes for the team came in the form of some big new signings, including the capture of former Team Sky and Great Britain rider Joshua Edmondson was a real coup. But some of the other, less obvious, changes were just as noteworthy. Matt had brought in three new sponsors for the team, whilst also securing increased funding from existing sponsors. Impressive stuff at a time when sponsors seem to be leaving the support. In fact, the team had 45% more funding this season compared to last. This allowed him to have a bigger squad this year (14 men and 6 women), a more ambitious race programme (including races in Belgium and Spain) and better infrastructure to support the riders behind-the-scenes.

Not a bad achievement for someone who essentially runs the team in his spare time.

But then of course lockdown hit and the team’s challenges changed from trying to compete with the UK’s best on the roads to maintaining motivation, keeping sponsors on board and thinking about how to creatively market the team without any road racing happening. 

In this interview, we go back over the team’s history, how Matt has grown things from small beginnings, how the team has addressed the challenges that COVID-19 has thrown at them, what Matt thinks about the state of domestic road racing and the team’s plans for next season.

Find out more

• The rough guide to starting a bike team: Matt Hallam interview, part 1
• The rough guide to starting a bike team: Matt Hallam interview, part 2
• The rough guide to starting a bike team: Matt Hallam interview, part 3
• The revolutions will not be televised: a sponsor’s view

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At the age of 22, talented Welshman Peter Kibble took the tough decision to retire from racing in May this year. Deciding not to pursue your pro cycling dream must be a difficult moment for any talented young rider, so we were really grateful when Peter agreed to speak about his career and why he decided to hang up his metaphorical wheels.

Peter showed promise as a cyclist from a young age. In his first year as a junior, he took an impressive 6th overall in the Junior Tour of Wales, a race regarded as Britain’s premier junior stage race. He followed that up with a stage win and 4thon GC in the same race.

He started his under-23 career at the Zappi Racing Team, before moving to the Wales Racing Academy, where he stayed for the rest of his career. Despite injury troubles, Peter continued to show his promise. Last season he finished second in the early season Betty Pharoah road race to Connor Swift and came close to bagging top tens in National Road Series races. He also produced an aggressive ride at the notoriously tough Tour de Bretagne stage race, coming close to securing the polka dot jersey.

We interviewed Peter for the website at the beginning of the year, ahead of his final year as an under-23. It’s a time in rider’s career when the pressure can mount, with riders often seeing as their last opportunity to snag a pro contract. Indeed, Peter described 2020 as a make or break season for him.

He made the best possible start, taking two wins from two races – the Evesham Vale road race and the Betty Pharoah - before lockdown arrived. 

Then, at the end of May, Peter announced his decision to retire, declaring he no longer had the inner drive required to chase his dream of turning pro.

It was a brave decision for a rider who had been showing such great form and so we were keen to find out more.

Supporters' tees

We’ve teamed up with the clothing brand Band of Climbers to produce British Conti supporters t-shirts. Designed by our very own Greg Trowman, the t-shirts are made 100% ringspun organic cotton available in two colourways and in both men’s and women’s fits.

Band of Climbers are kindly donating the profits from the sale of the t-shirts to us, so if you’re in the market for a new t-shirt and want to support what we do, please do check them out on the Band of Climbers website at: 

https://www.bandofclimbers.com/collections/collabs

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An in-depth interview with Rory Townsend, arguably the best rider in the domestic peloton in 2019. The Irishman races for Tim Elverson’s Canyon dhb p/b Soreen team. In fact, he’s ridden under Tim since 2013. 

His feats last season included two UCI road race wins, a further four UCI road race podiums, three National Road Series race wins, winning the Tour of Britain sprints jersey, a Tour Series win, 4th in the Irish national road race and selection for the World Road Race Championships. Not bad considering he’d come close to quitting at the beginning of the year after a crash at the Challenge Mallorca.

And yet, whilst many of his domestic peers earned contracts with World Tour and Pro Continental teams – including Matt Holmes, Jon Dibben, Gabz Cullaigh, Alex Richardson, Scott Thwaites, James Shaw, Mark Donovan, Ethan Hayter, Charlie Quarterman and Fred Wright – Rory narrowly, painfully, missed out. As he explains in the interview, he was very, very close to stepping up himself, only to be flicked because of his nationality.

He’s 25 now, an age at which some riders might be having second thoughts about their future. But Rory says seems more determined and more self-confident than ever. In the interview, he recalls a number of setbacks which have posed existential threats to his racing career and explains how each time he has come back stronger than ever. It would be no surprise to us if we see him making a step in the next year or two.

Glossary

Classic Loire Atlantique. An annual UCI 1.1 road race in the Loire Atlantique region of France. See the results from 2019 here.
Damien Clayton. Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling coached by Rory. Damien went from being an architect to a UCI race winner in just three years. See our interview with him here.
Grinta Coaching. The coaching company Rory coaches for, run by Simon Holt, DS at Canyon dhb p/b Soreen.
Klondike Grand Prix. National Road Series race in East Cleveland, won by Rory last season, ahead of Connor Swift and Scott Thwaites.
National B / 'Nat B'. A British Cycling road race classification. Read our race race classification explainer here.
National Road Series. The premier road racing series in the UK for men and women. Read our explainer here.
Pedal Heaven. A bike shop.
Perfs Pedal. The traditional season-opening road race in the UK.
Tim Elverson. Team manager at Canyon dhb p/b Soreen.

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Host Denny Gray is joined by Saint Piran's James McKay and Jo Tindley of Pro-Noctis - 200º Coffee - Hargreaves Contracting Ltd to discuss the latest domestic road racing developments. 

The trio consider:

• Saint Piran's decision to close its USKIS development team. Hear directly from James about the team's decision to merge their development and UCI Continental squads.
• The important of competition. James, Jo and Denny compare and contrast the dominance of Saint Piran in men's domestic scene versus the more competitive, less predictable women's racing scene.
• The season so far. We dissect the races that have shaken up 2024, spotlighting riders and teams that have caught the eye. Jo drops insights from last month's the ANEXO CAMS CiCLE Classic. 
• The East Cleveland Classic: James and Jo dish out insider info and make bold predictions for the next National Road Series round.

Listen now to stay ahead of the pack and join the conversation about the ever-evolving landscape of domestic road racing.

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After a challenging team time trial for the domestic teams, our diaries feature our three regular audio diarists – Rory Townsend (Canyon dhb SunGod), Colin Sturgess (Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling DS) and Andy Turner (SwiftCarbon Pro Cycling) – and, ahead of tomorrow’s queen stage, we also hear from climbers Tom Gloag (TRINITY Racing) and Max Stedman (Canyon dhb SunGod).

Stage summary

INEOS Grenadiers came up trumps at the stage 3 team time trial in Carmarthenshire, with a commanding ride. The result moves Ethan Hayter – fast fulfilling his road racing promise – into the race lead.

On the 18.2 kilometre course, INEOS were 17 seconds faster than Deceuninck – Quick-Step and 20 ahead of Jumbo-Visma.

It was a tough day out for the domestic teams. Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling’s high hopes were dashed by a mechanical for Si Wilson, as Colin Sturgess explains in his diary entry. They nonetheless finished 8th, the best of the UCI Continental teams, just a 1’09” down. And TRINITY Racing, down to five riders after Rudy Porter’s retirement on yesterday’s stage, put in a strong ride for 9th, just 1’24” back.

The rest of the British teams shipped nearly two minutes or more, however, meaning riders like Alex Peters and Rory Townsend, both of whom had been in the top ten on GC at the start of day, tumbled down the general classification.

Team DSM’s Mark Donovan is now the best under-23 rider in 11th, just over a minute back on GC. And with the mountains to come tomorrow, it will be interesting to see if he can make his climbing prowess count.

Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling’s James Shaw is not that much further behind, 1’15” back, and he must now fancy his chances of breaking into the top ten on GC tomorrow.

Don't forget, use the code TBC-10 at veloskin.cc and get 10% off your next order.

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This bonus episode of the podcast is a snippet of our forthcoming in-depth interview with April Tacey. The 19-year-old Drops rider has become something of an e-racing sensation this summer. Over the last couple of weeks, she has beaten some of the world's best riders to win two stages of the Virtual Tour de France. Not only that but she's done this after coming back to racing from a fractured patella. It's a story we'll recount in detail in our full interview. 

For now, with Sunday's final stage of the Tour de France coming up (on the Zwift's virtual Champs-Élysées), we hear April's thoughts on the course and whether she thinks a third stage victory could be on the cards.

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In this episode, Greg Trowman interviews the Saint Piran rider Joe Evans. As readers of The British Continental website will know, Joe has been keeping a journal for us, documenting life both on and off the bike this season. 

Before moving to the elite-level Saint Piran team at the beginning of 2018, Joe spent three seasons riding for Madison Genesis. This year, Joe has combined racing with full-time study at the University of Sheffield. 

In the interview, we hear from Joe about how he balances training with studying full-time, why he thinks it’s important for a rider to have more than one string to his bow, and his unexpected love for racing the Tour Series.

Please accept our apologies for the audio quality in the interview. Unfortunately, we had a few technical hiccups, which means there is more background noise than we’d have liked. But please do bear with it, it’s well worth it!

Thank you to A-ten in Sheffield for letting us use their space to record this episode.

Artwork photo: Ewan Thatcher

Read more

Rider journals: Joe Evans #4 - On the Road

Rider journals: Joe Evans #3 - It's not all about the bike

Rider journals: Joe Evans #2 - Why can't I concentrate?

Rider journals: Joe Evans #1 - Staying true to who I am 

Rider journals: introducing Joe Evans

Follow Joe on Twitter here

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Today’s episode features our latest catch-up with young super-talent Lewis Askey, one of the ten male riders on our recently published list of under-23s to watch this season. 

Just 19 years old, and now into his second year at under-23 level, Lewis rides for the Groupama-FDJ development team. 

As regular listeners of this podcast will know, Lewis is keeping a diary of sorts on the podcast; we’re checking in with him throughout the season to see how his year progresses. 

In our first catch-up with Lewis, recorded in the middle of February, he was on training camp in Italy. Now, a couple of months later, we caught up with Lewis as he was having a short break after a run of five tough one-day races that saw him make three appearances for the Groupama-FDJ WorldTour team. 

Those five races were packed with incident too. Le Samyn was a lesson in how not to ride conservatively, he won the most aggressive rider award at the Grand Prix Jean-Pierre Monseré, he had a close-up view of the Jake Stewart-Nacer Bouhanni clash at the Grand Prix Cholet, he helped Arnaud Démare to the win at La Roue Tourangelle, and then had the disappointment of having to pull out of Scheldeprijs because of a positive Covid test within the team. 

 In the interview, we talk about all of these incidents and a whole lot more besides. We also debut our ‘Ask Askey’ feature, in which we put questions to him posed by our followers on social media, including knockouts such as, ‘when will Lewis be getting a new pair of shoes’ and ‘who is his favourite gymnast?’ 

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The British Continental Podcast is back with a fresh look at the state of British domestic road racing. With key teams like Saint Piran, Trinity Racing, and Lifeplus-Wahoo all folding recently, host Denny Gray sits down with James McKay (Wheelbase CabTech Castelli) and Lucy Gadd (Smurfit Westrock CT) to discuss the fallout, explore its impact on riders’ careers, and debate what it means for the future of the sport.

In a candid and insightful conversation, James and Lucy share their experiences dealing with the uncertainty of team closures, the challenges in navigating their careers, and their thoughts on the evolving landscape of the UK peloton.

Also in this episode, we hear from one of the early standout performers of the season, Adam Howell (Muc-Off-SRCT-Stork). Adam talks through his remarkable rise, from taking up cycling during lockdown to winning major domestic races this year, and what it means for his confidence and ambitions.

Finally, the panel previews the upcoming East Cleveland Classic, offering tactical insights, highlighting key riders and teams, and sharing their predictions for what promises to be an intriguing race.

Featuring:

• James McKay (Wheelbase CabTech Castelli)

• Lucy Gadd (Smurfit Westrock CT)

• Adam Howell (Muc-Off-SRCT-Stork)

Keep up with all things British domestic racing at www.thebritishcontinental.co.uk

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The break had its day on Stage 7 and we very nearly had the first-ever stage win by a British Continental team at the Tour of Britain. With plenty to reflect on, our diary dispatches today come from Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling DS Colin Sturgess, Canyon dhb SunGod pair Rory Towsend and Ryan Christensen, SwiftCarbon Pro Cycling's Andy Turner and Bob Donaldson from the Great Britain team.

Stage summary

Stage 7 from Hawick to Edinburgh was a day for the break. As on stage 6, just getting into the break was a battle in itself, with six riders eventually going decisively clear. 

The sextet was Deceuninck–QuickStep pair Yves Lampaert and Davide Ballerini, Matteo Jorgenson (Movistar Team) and Pascal Eenkhoorn (Jumbo Visma) - all from the WorldTour - together with domestic team riders Matt Gibson (Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling) and Christopher Blevins (TRINITY Racing). 

They built a lead of nearly 10 minutes and were allowed their head coming into Edinburgh as INEOS Grenadiers controlled the gap to ensure the race didn’t come back together to give Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) any opportunity to collect time bonuses to threaten Hayter’s lead.

Blevins was the first to be distanced with 20 kilometres to go on an unclassified climb out of Ford before Lampaert attacked with 8.5 kilometres to go splitting the group.  Jorgenson reacted first to get onto the former Belgian champion’s wheel with Gibson putting in a concerted effort to then get across to the pair reaching them with five kilometres remaining.

The trio distanced Eenkhoorn and Ballerini. Coming into Holyrood Park Gibson's World Tour rivals used their experience to force him to lead out the sprint. 

Belgian rider Lampaert came around him to take Deceuninck – Quick-Step’s first victory in the race, with Jorgenson in second and Gibson third.

Behind, race leader Hayter finished safely within the peloton to retain his overall lead and move to within a day of becoming the first British winner of the national tour in five years. Our diarist Bob Donaldson also finished with Hayter in the main bunch, while Rory rolled in nearly eight minutes back in 89th. 

Rory's teammate Jacob Scott retains both the ŠKODA King of the Mountains and Eisberg Sprints jerseys and he will win both providing he finishes the final stage.

Speaking of which, stage 8 is from Stonehaven to Aberdeen over 173 kilometres and incorporates three classified climbs, including the famous climb of Cairn o’Mount early in the stage, as well as three intermediate Eisberg Sprints.

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Welcome to the first episode of Tour of Britain diaries. After each stage, we’ll be bringing you daily audio diaries from British Continental riders and staff, giving you unparalleled insight into the race from the perspective of the domestic teams. 

We have three regular diarists lined up:

·      Canyon dhb SunGod’s Rory Townsend, a previous podcast interviewee, one of the best domestic riders around and winner of the sprints jersey at the 2019 Tour of Britain.

·      British racing legend Colin Sturgess, DS at the Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling team. Colin was a world champion on the track and a national champion on the road. And was DS for Madison Genesis at the Tour of Britain back in 2018.

·      Andy Turner, who rides for the SwiftCarbon Pro Cycling team. Andy is a Tour of Britain debutant, so he will be coming into the race wide-eyed.

We’ll also be grabbing ad hoc dispatches from elsewhere in the peloton. And, in today’s episode, these come from breakaway hero Jacob Scott of the Canyon dhb SunGod team, and 19-year-old Great Britain rider Bob Donaldson, an impressive 11th on today’s stage. 

Stage summary

The break of the day featured Jacob Scott of Canyon dhb SunGod, along with fellow Brits Max Walker of TRINITY Racing and Oliver Stockwell from the Great Britain national team. They were joined by South Africa’s Nic Dlamini from Team Qhubeka NextHash and US National champion Joey Rosskopf of Rally Cycling.

Scott was the most successful of the five, coming home with both the ŠKODA King of the Mountains jersey – a jersey he won outright in the 2019 edition of the race - and the red Eisberg Sprints jersey.

They were all eventually swept up on the run-in to Bodmin where, perhaps inevitably, Wout van Aert sprinted to victory on the steep finish, with Nils Eekhoff (Team DSM), Gonzalo Serrano (Movistar) and home favourite Ethan Hayter (INEOS Grenadiers) following him in.

Just 2 seconds behind, our audio diarist Rory Townsend was the best domestic rider finishing a fine 5th. Bob Donaldson, 11th and James Shaw (Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling), 12th, also finished on the same time as Rory. Our other audio diarist Andy Turner attempted to get into the break early on but ultimately had to settle for a team role, coming home in 89th.

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Stage 4 of the Tour of Britain was the queen stage and it didn’t disappoint. Glorious sunshine, glorious scenery and a glorious parcours was matched with glorious racing. Just glorious. 

We also have five glorious diary entries for your delectation this evening.  We hear from a disappointed Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling DS Colin Sturgess, a shattered Andy Turner from SwiftCarbon Pro Cycling, a confident Matt Bostock itching for a sprint finish on stage 5, a double-act from Great Britain riders Bob Donaldson and Oli Stockwell, and a happy Rory Townsend, who says he had a lot of fun today.

Stage summary

Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) triumphed atop the Great Orme after out-sprinting – just - reigning world champion Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quickstep).

The pair finished on the same time, with Michael Woods (Israel Start-Up Nation) one second further back, while overnight leader Ethan Hayter (INEOS Grenadiers) slipped back to second place overall – just two seconds in arrears on van Aert – after finishing eight seconds behind. Just two seconds now separate him and Van Aert on GC.

The break of the day contained four of the six domestic teams (if you count Great Britain as the sixth), with the breakaway artist Jacob Scott (Canyon dhb SunGod), Bob Donaldson, home favourite Gruff Lewis (Ribble Wedltite Pro Cycling) and Ollie Peckover (SwiftCarbon Pro Cycling) joined by Nicolas Sessler (Global 6) and Jokin Murguialday (Caja Rural). Scott’s third breakaway in as many road stages meant he extended his lead in both the ŠKODA King of the Mountains and Eisberg Sprints classifications.

As the race entered the Snowdonia National Park, yesterday’s diarist Tom Gloag and his TRINITY Racing teammate Ben Healy teamed up with Movistar’s Marc Soler for a foray of their own. They eventually joined the leading six but ultimately they were all swept up by the speeding peloton with around 50 kilometres to go. We saw Rory Townsend amongst others make a few digs to establish a new break but ultimately it all came down to the final, punishing climb up the Great Orme.

Max Stedman was the best-placed of the domestic team riders coming in 11th just 29 seconds back, while Mark Donovan (Team DSM) and 19-year-old Oli Stockwell (Great Britain) were the best under-23 riders in 14thand 15th respectively. James Shaw managed 22nd after a mechanical, as Colin Sturgess explains. Nonetheless, Shaw is up one place on GC to 14th and is the best-placed domestic rider overall. And a shout-out too for Tom Gloag, who came in just 1’14” down despite his breakaway efforts. He now lies 23rd overall.

Stage Five sees the peloton heading to Cheshire for a 152.2-kilometre outing that is widely predicted to be one for the sprinters.

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Welcome to episode six of our Tour of Britain diaries. 

The racing was frenetic today, probably the best day yet at the Tour of Britain, a real treat to watch. And we have plenty of treats coming too in this episode. We have dispatches from all three of our regular audio diarists, Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling DS Colin Sturgess, Rory Townsend from Canyon dhb SunGod and Andy Turner from SwiftCarbon Pro Cycling. We welcome Great Britain’s Bob Donaldson on board as a new regular diarist for the rest of the race. And we hear from Saint Piran’s Steve Lampier, who tells us what the race has been like for the Cornish team’s first Tour of Britain start.

Stage summary

Stage 6 of the AJ Bell Tour of Britain crossed the Pennines from Carlisle to Gateshead over 198 kilometres, taking in three first category climbs along the way.

It began at a frenetic pace, with riders and teams knocking six bells out of each other trying to get into the break. Rohan Dennis, Julian Alaphillipe and others were all part of the tussle to get away. 

Eventually, a nine-rider group formed consisting of our own Rory Townsend, Mark Cavendish, no less, Cav’s Deceuninck-QuickStep teammate Tim Declerq, Jimmy Janssens of Alpecin-Fenix, Colin Joyce (Rally Cycling), George Bennett (Jumbo-Visma), Arkéa-Samic’s Dan McLay, Mark Donovan (Team DSM) and Mason Hollyman (Israel Start-Up Nation). It was a strong group, with Rory the only domestic team rider represented. The group soon decided that Mark Donovan – lying 9th on GC – was too much of a threat to their chances of success, and duly manoeuvred to drop both him and Mason Hollyman.

 Rory hoovered up as many ŠKODA King of the Mountains and Eisberg Sprints points as he could en route, meaning teammate Jacob Scott has now secured the former outright and has a commanding lead in the latter.

 The break was caught some way out, however, by a reduced peloton. James Shaw (Ribble Weldtite Pro Cylcing) then attacked on an uncategorised climb with around 15 kilometres to go, kickstarting a ten-rider move that went all the way to the finish. The move included all the main race favourites, with Wout van Aert sprinting to the win ahead of Ethan Hayter and Julian Alaphillipe. Shaw rolled in with an impressive 5th place. A 20-man group came in 10 seconds behind the leaders that included our diarist Bob Donaldson, Alex Peters (SwiftCarbon Pro Cycling) and Max Stedman (Canyon dhb SunGod).

 Hayter still leads the race overall but he now only has 4 seconds in hand over van Aert with two stages left. Shaw remains the best domestic team rider on GC in 14th.

 Sadly, our diarist Andy Turner didn’t finish the stage, one of four withdrawals from the day along with Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling’s Charles Page. And injuries for both Dan Bigham (Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling) and Ethan Vernon (Great Britain) meant that neither began the stage. 

 The race moves to Scotland tomorrow with a 194.8-kilometre stage from Hawick to Edinburgh with a picturesque route through the Scottish Borders

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In today's audio diaries, we are once again joined by Canyon dhb SunGod rider Rory Townsend, Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling DS Colin Sturgess, and SwiftCarbon Pro Cycling's Andy Turner. 

Our roving reporter within the Canyon dhb SunGod team, Ollie Gray from HUNT Bike Wheels, once again speaks with serial jersey-bagger Jacob Scott, and he also chats with Thomas Mein, who suffered a heavy fall today. And, from inside the Great Britain team camp, we hear from Ethan Vernon, 8th today. Look out too for our interview with Andy's teammate Alex Peters, which should be up on our website by the time you hear this.

The stage began with the usual battle to establish a breakaway and, when one did go, it was once again five riders who escaped up the road. The lucky five were Robin Carpenter (Rally Cycling), Nicolas Sessler (Global 6 Cycling), Will Bjergfelt (SwiftCarbon Pro Cycling) and Leon Mazzone (Saint Piran), together with leader of the ŠKODA King of the Mountains and Eisberg sprints competitions Jacob Scott .  

Mazzone and then Bjergfelt were distanced on the climb of Rundlestone above Tavistock, with Sessler the next to go before Carpenter shed Scott on one of the numerous small climbs littering the stage. At this point, Carpenter had a lead of around four minutes with 25 kilometres remaining and he took full advantage this to take a superb solo win in Exeter.

He finished 33 seconds ahead of a much-reduced peloton which was led in by British duo Ethan Hayter (INEOS Grenadiers) and Alex Peters (Swift Carbon Pro Cycling). Our diarist Rory Towsend was also in the top ten, finishing 6th, with Ethan Vernon taking 8th. 

Carpenter now leads the race by 22 seconds ahead of yesterday's stage winner van Aert and 26 seconds in front of Hayter. Peters moves up to 5th overall thanks to the bonus seconds he got on the line, with Townsend, James Shaw (Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling), Bob Donaldson (Great Britain), Connor Swift (Arkéa-Samsic), and Mark Donovan (Team DSM) among an 11-rider group just 32 seconds back.

The race moves to Wales for stage 3 tomorrow as the 18 teams face an 18.2 kilometre team time trial in Carmarthenshire.

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Welcome to episode five of our Baby Giro Diaries. If you’ve been listening to our previous episodes, you’ll know the crack by now. We give a short round-up of the day’s action and then you hear from our diarists Tom Gloag, Harrison Wood and Callum Ferguson for their reflections on how the day went.

Stage 5 was arguably the toughest of the Baby Giro so far, culminating in two category 1 climbs. Heavy rain and some particularly aggressive racing meant that this was no easy day out for any of the riders.

Fast from the off, it took until around 45 kilometres for a break to form, and our man Harrison Wood was in it. His break of 7 was eventually joined by about 20 riders, including Trinity Racing’s Ben Healy and some other GC hopefuls. 

With little cohesion in the group, Harrison attacked with about 50 kilometres to go to form a leading group of 7, including Healy. The group was caught by the GC leaders on the penultimate climb and from there the GC battle commenced. At that point, Wood and Healy had been joined by the Maglia Rosa Ben Turner, our fellow diarist Tom Gloag and former race leader Juan Ayuso, amongst a few select others. 

Healy then escaped solo but was caught again on the final climb by six others, including Tom and GC favourites Ayuso, Vandenabeele and Tobias Halland Johannessen. Ayuso then made his made move, staying away all the way to the finish. He crossed the line just over a minute clear of Johannessen and Healy, who were 2nd and 3rd respectively. Behind, Tom led in a select group of four a further 17 seconds back. The climbs were too much for Ben Turner, who nonetheless rode strongly to finish 28th, just under 3 minutes down, while Harrison was 30th, just two seconds behind Turner. Holdsworth-Zappi’s best finisher today was Jelte Krijnsen in 57th.

The result propelled Juan Ayuso back into the race lead. He now has a 1 minute 35 second advantage over Johanssen, in second, while Vandenabeele is now third overall, 2 minutes and 22 seconds back. Our diarist Tom Gloag is now up to a superb 4th overall, just one second behind Vandenabeele, with the two Bens – Healy and Turner – in 7th and 8th, just over 20 seconds further down. Harrison, meanwhile, is up to 42nd overall.

Tomorrow’s stage to San Pellegrino Terme looks a little less challenging on paper. It’s mostly fairly flat, with a category 2 climb topping out just 20 kilometres from the line, however, it feels much more like a breakaway kind of day than one for the sprinters.

In our diaries, Tom is once again on a high after another great day out for the team, and his roommate Ben Healy even makes a small guest appearance too. Harrison is also in an upbeat mood after a day in which he was in the thick of the action. 

We haven’t yet had a dispatch through from Callum at Holdsworth-Zappi but, as usual, we’ll add that to the edit once it arrives.

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We have a slimmed-down core of dispatches in today’s episode from our three regular audio diarists: Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling DS Colin Sturgess, Andy Turner (SwiftCarbon Pro Cycling) and Canyon dhb SunGod’s Rory Townsend. 

Don’t be fooled though. While the episode may be lighter in contributors than normal, it packs a punch when it comes to drama. An episode not to be missed.

Stage summary

On the face of it, stage 5 was a straightforward affair. A break went up the road, it was caught in the closing stages and it ended in the expected sprint finish. But a crash on the final bend meant that it wasn’t the duke-out for bonus seconds between race leader Wout van Aert and second-placed Ethan Hayter that we’d all expected.

The day’s break once again consisted of five riders, including four from the British domestic teams. These were short-track cross-country mountain bike world champion Christopher Blevins (TRINITY Racing), Dan Bigham (Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling), Leon Mazzone (Saint Piran), Nickolas Zukowsky (Rally Cycling) and perennial breakaway member Jacob Scott (Canyon dhb SunGod). 

Scott has somehow mustered the energy to make the break on every single road stage so far. He once again dominated the points scoring in the ŠKODA King of the Mountains and Eisberg Sprints competitions and unsurprisingly now has commanding leads in both.

Bigham, Blevins, and Zukowsky, meanwhile, lasted well into the finish town of Warrington and were only with only 1.8 kilometres of racing remaining.

As the bunch hit the final bend, Owain Doull crashed out on the wet, greasy roads, taking out several other riders on the process, including Rory. Van Aert was caught behind the melee, as were many others, meaning only select few riders fought it out for the win.

It was Ethan Hayter (INEOS Grenadiers) who took the honours ahead of European Champion Giacomo Nizzolo (Team Qhubeka NextHash), Dan McLay (Team Arkéa Samsic) and 18-year-old American TRINITY Racing rider Luke Lamperti. The win was Hayter’s 7th UCI road win of the season, and the 38th by a Brit this season.

All this meant that Hayter retakes the overall race lead from van Aert, thanks to the ten bonus seconds he picked up at the line.

The sixth stage of the AJ Bell Tour of Britain crosses the Pennines from Carlisle to Gateshead over 198 kilometres, with the finish alongside Sir Antony Gormley’s world-famous Angel of the North. With three first category ŠKODA King of the Mountains climbs – at Hartside, Killhope Cross and Burtree Fell – during the route through Cumbria, County Durham and Northumberland it could be another day where the overall lead changes hands. An Alaphillipe long-range attack anyone?

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Welcome back to The British Continental. Refreshed and eager to get podcasting again after a summer break, we’ve got a set of episodes planned for you all focused on this year’s Tour of Britain.

Listen out for daily audio diaries from British Continental riders and staff, giving you unparalleled insight into the race from the perspective of the domestic teams after each stage.

First up, though, we have an in-depth interview with Canyon dhb SunGod owner and DS Tim Elverson. 

Elverson has taken the team a long way in its short existence. Established in 2015 as elite-level squad Pedal Heaven, the team is now the domestic scene’s longest-running – and arguably most successful - squad. They have an ambitious race calendar, one that sees the team regularly competing at a high level, often going toe-to-toe with some of the best WorldTour teams.

We spoke with Tim just a few days out from the Tour of Britain. The British road racing calendar has been severely disrupted by Covid-19 restrictions, leaving domestic teams with slim pickings when it comes to top-level racing at home. As the only major road race on UK soil for men in 2021, the Tour of Britain is even more important than usual for British Continental teams.

What’s more, as Tim reveals in the interview, the team goes into the race with an uncertain future, still looking for the additional funds it needs to continue into 2022. 

As well as the team’s potentially perilous position, we talk about how the season has gone for the team, the tough decisions Tim has had to make in choosing his squad for the race, and the approach the team will take to racing the first UCI stage race held in Britain for two years.

**Listeners can still get 10% off with luxury skincare brand VeloSkin, a brand that sponsors Tim’s Canyon dhb SunGod team as well as Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling. Just shop at using this link and the discount should automatically be applied when checking out. **

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In this episode, we sit down with British Cycling CEO Jon Dutton OBE for an exclusive interview, following the organisation’s much-anticipated update on implementation of the 43 recommendations put forward by the elite road racing task force.

The task force was charged with developing recommendations for British Cycling to implement in 2024 and beyond, aimed at breathing new life into the ailing, fragile elite road racing scene. 

Jon Dutton promised that the task force would not be "a talking shop" and said “there are a number of areas where we can and will make immediate progress” [Ed: emphasis added].

In January 2024, the task force's report presented 43 key actions for British Cycling to implement, condensed into 16 published recommendations, with British Cycling responding that a "long-term action plan" was already in development in response.

Our latest conversation with Jon Dutton dives into what progress has been made so far. Dutton emphasises the organisation's efforts to implement one of the standout recommendations - saving the Tours of Britain - but what about the other 42 actions, the ones directly aimed at revitalising the elite level? Fans were promised fast results, but has British Cycling delivered?

In this candid discussion, recorded just before the publication of the official progress update on 13 September, Jon sheds light on British Cycling's efforts so far and whether he is satisfied with progress.

For domestic road racing enthusiasts, this episode offers a deep dive into the state of the sport, what’s been done so far, and what the future holds. Listen in to hear whether British Cycling is meeting expectations, and check out our upcoming progress scorecard on the website to see our own assessment of their efforts.

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Jake Scott of SwiftCarbon Pro Cycling has gone from strength to strength this year, securing a win at the South Coast Classic and then posting second at the Ryedale GP. We were lucky enough to sit down with Jake after a training session 4 days out from the Tour of Britain. 

We discuss Jake’s approach to training, the rollercoaster of self-belief and motivation, as well as his unique approach to juggling a busy training schedule and working. It’s clear from Jake’s story that his job at the local bike shop is much more than just a job and one of the many factors of support that has helped Jake become the rider he is today.

Jake also discusses his future goals, riding the Tour of Yorkshire, what it’s like to coach yourself as a rider on a UCI Continental team and many other topics.

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