{"id":151842,"date":"2025-09-18T10:20:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T10:20:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/151842\/"},"modified":"2025-09-18T10:20:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T10:20:07","slug":"50-riders-are-looking-for-spots-on-the-team-british-mens-cycling-club-squad-seeks-uci-continental-licence-for-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/151842\/","title":{"rendered":"’50 riders are looking for spots on the team’ \u2013 British men’s cycling club squad seeks UCI Continental licence for 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

British elite club Raptor Factory Racing<\/a> have announced their aim to step up a tier to UCI Continental level in 2026, in a bid to gain higher-level racing opportunities and help rebuild the domestic scene.<\/p>\n

This season marked the first since 2004 that there were no British men\u2019s Continental teams, following the collapses of Trinity Racing<\/a> and Saint Piran<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Founded at the start of the year, and supported by London-based brand Raptor Bikes, Raptor have been among the key animators of the UK\u2019s National Road Series<\/a>, winning a round in last month\u2019s Beaumont Trophy.<\/p>\n

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The team shared a call-out on Instagram earlier this week, seeking applications from riders, as they look to double their squad size to 15 in preparation for reaching Continental status.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Cycling Weekly, Tony Poole, Raptor co-founder and team boss alongside David Streule, said the interest has been \u201cvery positive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually checked 15 minutes ago. We\u2019re now above 50 riders who are looking for spots on the team,\u201d Poole said. \u201cWe\u2019re talking top performers across the national scene, plus existing Conti riders in Europe at that level, from all sorts of countries; we\u2019ve had interest from South Africa, Belgium, Spain, New Zealand…\u201d<\/p>\n

For Poole, the volume of riders getting in touch is testament to the size of the gap in the UK scene. Currently there is only one British UCI-registered men\u2019s team: Ineos Grenadiers<\/a>. France, by comparison, has three UCI WorldTour teams, two ProTeams, and 12 Continental teams.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThere just isn\u2019t a ride for all these people,\u201d Poole said. \u201cThe talent is there, and there is a lot of British talent, and we want to award them the platform to be able to develop and move up the ranks. That\u2019s one of the key core ethos of what we\u2019re trying to build.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to fellow boss Streule, formerly of London Dynamo, Raptor\u2019s plan to reach Continental status was hatched at the team\u2019s founding. \u201cIt was always a long-term goal, but we had to take the steps,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve gone from basically nothing to winning a National A road race. We\u2019ve finished top three at a UCI race, the CiCLE Classic, but we\u2019ve also had multiple top fives and top 10s abroad in UCI races. If you look at the British continental rankings for all the National A and National B road races in the UK, we\u2019re the third best team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Streule and Poole are now seeking financial and equipment sponsors to make the step up. Achieving Continental status will give the team access to UCI .1 races abroad, a tier up from the .2 races they can currently enter, as well as the Tour of Britain<\/a>, the promise of which they hope will attract potential partners.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe there should be UK Conti teams, we should be giving riders opportunities, and the UK market should be big enough to support these teams commercially,\u201d said Streule, \u201cin terms of the exposure we can give to brands to support us on our journey.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked what Raptor’s target budget is, Streule refused to share numbers. Other British riders who have tried to set up men\u2019s Continental teams in the past<\/a>, however, have estimated the running cost to be around \u00a3300,000 as season.<\/p>\n

Raptor have set a mid-October deadline for rider applications to join their ambitious project. The team will also need to file a Continental licence request to British Cycling<\/a>, who will assess the sustainability of the project, and its level of backing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re still very much open and looking for partners,\u201d said Poole, adding that the demises of Britain\u2019s previous men\u2019s Continental teams is serving as a \u201ccautionary tale\u201d for Raptor\u2019s plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not really that it\u2019s daunting, it\u2019s just that we have to navigate it carefully because of what\u2019s happened in the past,\u201d Poole said. \u201cI think it\u2019s more a matter of learning from other people\u2019s mistakes, and ensuring you don\u2019t repeat them. At the same time, someone has to fill the gap.\u201d<\/p>\n

Racers with at least a Cat-2 licence can apply to join Raptor Factor Racing until 10 October via the form on the team\u2019s website<\/a>. Potential sponsors can get in touch with the team by email at info@prometheansports.com<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"British elite club Raptor Factory Racing have announced their aim to step up a tier to UCI Continental…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":151843,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,85],"class_list":["post-151842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151842\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}