With the collapse of both remaining British men's Continental teams at the end of 2024, former WorldTour racer Harry Tanfield has launched an ambitious bid to create a new Continental squad ahead of the 2025 season.
The team would be the only British UCI men’s team in existence, alongside Ineos Grenadiers, after both existing Continental outfits Trinity Racing and Saint Piran fold at the end of 2024.
Tanfield raced in the WorldTour from 2019 to 2021 for Katusha-Alpecin, AG2R la Mondiale and Team Qhubeka-NextHash. He competed for the soon to be closed Saint Piran in 2024 and hopes to fill the gap now evident in the British racing scene.
"There is a bright future for UK cycling. But that exciting future will happen without Saint Piran Pro Cycling," read a statement from the Saint Piran’s management earlier this week. The team based in Cornwall had their application for UCI Continental status refused by British Cycling.
Trinity Racing has existed as UCI Continental level team since 2020, providing a pathway to the WorldTour for the likes of Tom Pidcock, Ben Turner (both Ineos Grenadiers) and Ben Healy (EF Education First-EasyPost).
Yorkshireman Tanfield is in a race against time, with a deadline for raising funds for the new squad approaching quickly. British Cycling have already extended this deadline by two weeks in order to give the team more time to prepare its application.
"I spoke to BC and they agreed that it would be a two week grace period. 'If you can come back to us with a completely new team that's not in any way related to Saint Piran, then we would look at that application and we would consider it'," Tanfield told Cyclingnews on Sunday afternoon, having heard about the closure of Saint Piran in a team video call on Tuesday evening.
"We've got two weeks to try and do the best we can. It's not like all the contracts have to be done by 6th December, but it's principle agreements and letters of intent."
"There's been a lot of people reaching out to support either personally or helping out with getting me in front of people to talk to... At the moment, obviously time is not on our side but we're just doing the best we can in the circumstances."
The team aims to "bridge the gap" between the domestic scene in the UK and the higher levels of the sport. Tanfield hopes to raise between £250,000 and £300,000 in order to fund a race programme which would include racing in continental Europe and the UK. He says that he has already had some promising conversations in the last few days.
Despite there being a record 34 British racers set to compete in the men’s WorldTour next year, the closure of Saint Piran and Trinity Racing leaves the domestic scene at a twenty-year low. During the peak years of British cycling from 2010-2019, there were at least five UK-based Continental teams running. The last time there were none was in 2004. Four British women's Continental teams are set to be operational in 2025.
Tanfield thinks it's important for the sport that the UK scene has at least one Continental men's team.
"I think it's really important for the scene. I've seen it myself. I came through the whole system ten years ago and I went pro because of the UK scene. I owe a lot to the scene but it was a very different racing scene compared to when I think back to ten years ago versus what it is now," Tanfield said.
"I think it's just really important that there is an option for guys that are coming up from juniors to go abroad and they can aspire to join a team, potentially like this one if it gets started, and give them the exposure that they need to progress further in the sport."
