Racing into 2025 with the Ribble Outliers pro gravel team

Last week under the dazzling lights of Westminster, London, the Ribble Outliers pro gravel team was unveiled to the world. An all British powerhouse lineup of Harry Tanfield, Sophie Wright, Jenson Young, Metheven Bond, Hayley Simmonds, and myself, came together for the launch event joined by around 70 special guests.

Having ridden as a privateer for the past few years I'm excited to be a part of a team again after riding for a couple of UCI mountain bike teams earlier in my career. With the athletes riding for Ribble Outliers we have a great chance of being competitive at each event we go to and should have a lot of fun along the way.

Travelling to each event as a group and with staff will be very different to previous years where I’ve always either travelled with coaching clients or had to travel on my own. At events I’ve either had to try to find support for feed zones or just do an event without support which is a huge disadvantage. You train all those hours and then go to an event without feed zones support and basically mess up each race by under fuelling or under hydrating. Now with this support I’m sure it can turn good race results into brilliant results.

When I first heard about the Ribble project late 2024 I was sure it was something I wanted to be involved with. It wasn't an easy decision to step away from so many of my personal sponsors but i've been able to maintain deals with Schwalbe, Reeves James Solicitors, Restrap, Wahoo and Squirt Cycling Products. Many of these brands have also now established deals with the team. It’ll be very odd not racing in the colours of my coaching business but many clients will keep those colours on the race track wearing the club kit.

I’ve been training harder than ever, November and December were the biggest hours I’d done those months, January was very close to the best I’d done, February was a bit disrupted with illness but since then I’ve been logging some huge weeks and my fitness is the best it’s been at this time of year since pre covid when I used to spend three weeks in Gran Canaria each February.

The event calendar allows me to fulfil so many dreams, we'll be doing all the major UK races, select events from the Life Time Grand Prix in the U.S. including Unbound, the Gravel Earth Series in Europe (including the Traka), and the UCI Gravel Series, culminating in the World Championships. With the support of the team and its sponsors we have everything we need to perform on the race track as well as enjoying some huge cycling adventures away from the race track.

The Outliers will compete on the Ribble gravel prototype set to launch in summer 2025 featuring SRAM, Zipp & Schwalbe components. I’ve been riding this bike for the past month and have been on the Ribble Allroad SL R since January.

The Outliers will compete in a bold, high-performance kit designed in collaboration with LE COL. The kit reflects the adventurous spirit of gravel cycling.

The team kicks off the season this weekend in Turnhout, Belgium, but my journey with Ribble Outliers begins next week in Italy at The Hills. I cannot wait to finally pin on a number board and race full gas in the new team colours. The wait is almost over, let's get this season started!