The British Continental

Mercato, 25 September: two Britons to French Continental teams, and Zappi open for 2027

by British Conti September 25, 2026

FeaturesSee all posts

Rayner Foundation dinner returns to Leeds in November

The charity behind 723 grants for young British riders racing abroad will hold its fundraising dinner at the Queens Hotel on 7 November. Ticket sales close on 21 October.

Latest Posts

by British Conti September 28, 2026

Features News

Rayner Foundation dinner returns to Leeds in November

The charity behind 723 grants for young British riders racing abroad will hold its fundraising dinner at the Queens Hotel on 7 November. Ticket sales close on 21 October.

by British Conti September 22, 2026

Features News Riders

Mercato, 22 September: Howell stays in France, Simpson Nouvelles sign two

Mercato is our regular round-up of transfers and rider moves in British domestic racing. This week: a re-signing in the Ain, two signings for Simpson Nouvelles, and a Muc-Off–SRCT–Storck graduate back at Continental level.

by British Conti September 20, 2026

Features News

2026 national road race rankings: the final standings

Loughborough Lightning and Ride Revolution Coaching are the 2026 team champions, and Lily Martin and Thomas Armstrong the individual champions, after both team titles were decided on the last day of the season at Walton.

by British Conti September 19, 2026

Features Reports

2026 Riders Collective GP and KLM Taxis Women’s GP: reports and results

Olivia Bates, a former GB lightweight rower in only her second road race, rode away from the field to win the inaugural KLM Taxis Women’s GP at Walton, and Adam Lewis defended his Riders Collective GP title, alone again, after a race that came back together with five laps to go.

InterviewsSee all posts

Features Interviews

Jack Rootkin-Gray: ‘I’ve never really told people the extent of the injury’

A year after a broken leg ended his time at EF Education–EasyPost and nearly ended his career, Jack Rootkin-Gray has spent 2026 racing British roads on his own terms. Now bound for Swatt Club for the rest of the season, he talks to Jack Beavis about Andorra, London, the injury he kept to himself, and why simply getting back to the WorldTour isn’t enough.

Features Interviews

A new career in an old town: Josh Whitehead’s move from rider to sports director

Features Interviews

First through the door: Alex Foster and Cycling Sheffield’s new generation

Features Interviews

‘You’ve got to be pragmatic’ – how a cancelled French stage race sent Cycling Sheffield to Belgium

Features Interviews

‘It’s about building it for the future’: inside Max Sillifant’s expanding Riders Collective GP

Rider JournalsSee all posts

Features Journals

Tizzie Robinson-Gordon journal: stop being surprised by strong women

Cycling has spent a decade opening the front door to new women, and almost none of it rethinking what happens once they are inside. In her second journal entry, Tizzie Robinson-Gordon writes from the interior: the chaingang, the feed zone, and the surprise that never stops.

Features Journals

Ian Mansel-Thomas journal: why 16 is too young to sign for a European team

For every British rider the move to a European team has worked for, camsmajaco co-manager Ian Mansel-Thomas can point to another it hasn’t. In his second journal entry he argues that the problem isn’t Europe but the age at which riders go: 16, with school, exams, and friendships all still at home.

Features Journals

Hope Inglis journal: between days at the office

Hope Inglis returns with the second entry in her 2026 journal for The British Continental. Looking back from the end of a placement in an air-conditioned Birmingham office, the London Academy rider describes keeping a racing season going around a full-time job — the annual leave spent driving to a muddy field in Belgium, the week she commuted to work from a campervan, and the tan lines her work trousers hide.

Features Journals

George Stephen journal: the names that aren’t in the results

George Stephen returns with the second entry in his 2026 journal for The British Continental. Writing from Mallorca after burnout forced him out of the National Championships, the BCC Race Team rider and Nottingham student pays tribute to the people who never appear on the results list — but without whom no bike rider gets anywhere.

Features Journals

Mattie Dodd journal: playing chicken at the Nationals

Fifth in the national time trial on caffeine alone, then two laps of bluff and counter-bluff in Aberystwyth that settled the under-23 title — Mattie Dodd on a Nationals he can barely remember, and a stand-off he could not win.

Features Journals

Mattie Dodd journal: a first UCI win, and five kilos of pasta

A first UCI win on stage 4 of the Ronde de l’Isard, a week of donkey work in the Alps and eight summits’ worth of climbing points at the Giro d’Italia Next Gen — Mattie Dodd on the best month of his season, and the prize he has since mislaid.

Features Journals

Mattie Dodd journal: near misses in Brittany, a breakthrough in Flanders

A week at the Tour de Bretagne leaves Mattie Dodd feeling the strongest he has all season, if without the result to show for it — before fighter jets, First World War mines and his new team’s first road race win enliven a run through the Ardennes and Flanders.

Features Journals

George Stephen journal: the highs, the lows, and rock bottom

George Stephen is the latest contributor to The British Continental’s 2026 journal series. The BCC Race Team rider and Nottingham student writes about a Movember ride that came to mean more than he expected, the crash in France that changed everything, and the diagnosis that arrived just as he had got back to racing.