Anyone who follows our former journal contributor Joe Laverick on social media may have noticed that he guested for a new British team in a set of UCI road races last month in Greece: Sn Vitae Bim Bam Coaching RT.
Donning a striking blue and pink kit, the team participated in the South Aegean Tour, the International Rhodes Grand Prix, and the International Tour of Rhodes in quick succession. The team acquitted itself well, by all accounts, and looks set to expose more British riders to UCI road racing this season with another ten UCI races already on its programme, including races in Poland, Hungary and far-flung Uzbekistan.
I decided to apply to some UCI races for the team without expecting any replies as in 2022 we didn’t exist and had zero results
Indeed, the team’s extensive race programme means that it may well end up being the most well-raced British elite-level team on the UCI circuit this year.
With our interest well and truly piqued, we got in touch with team manager Charlie Lacaille to find out more about the new set-up and what he hopes to achieve with it.
Lacaille explains that the initial aim was to set up a small, focused team to allow some of his friends to race cyclocross.
“I coached some friends who didn’t have a team for 2023 and wanted to race for my coaching company, Bim Bam Coaching,” he says. “Their main focus was cyclocross and I decided to set up a team just for them and keep it a small thing.
“After a bit of thinking I decided to approach some more sponsors: SN Vitae, Brick Caps and others to increase our budget and we added more riders to the roster.”
Having already had a taste of UCI road racing himself through the Velo Schills – Interbike race team, Lacaille thought he’d try his luck and secure some UCI road race invites. To his surprise, despite the team begin newly created with no track record, the invites came flooding in.
“After I had done my first UCI race for Velo Schils Interbike RT at the Tour de Serbie I decided to apply to some UCI races for the team without expecting any replies as in 2022 we didn’t exist and had zero results,” he tells us.
“The goal of the team from then was to get more UK riders who have super strong experience racing in UCI races as we have received many invites, including the seven race days in Rhodes and, among others, races in Poland and Hungary.”
Lacaille believes that UCI road racing could help riders in the UK who are talented but not well-suited to the type of circuits found in a typical national road race.
“For many reasons the UK scene doesn’t suit certain riders, either being too flat for pure climbers or that not many races are pure sprints,” Lacaille says. “I wanted to help guys see what racing is like abroad.”
The team may have an impressive programme, but it will be done mostly on a shoestring, meaning that riders will be expected to pay their own way to a large extent.
“The team has a very minimal budget which only really covers a small amount of kit,” Lacaille reveals. “Most of our riders have part-time jobs or at university so pay their own way for the races abroad. We have gone for a minimalist setup where riders can have their own personal sponsors as long as they don’t clash against the team’s main backers.”
The team announced in its first Instagram post that the aim is to race in the UK and across Europe in multiple disciplines. In reality, Lacaille tells us that “the main focus in road racing”, although the team’s riders “have raced in cyclocross, MTB, fixie crits, time trials as well as road races.”
Our riders will mainly race in the UK as it’s a great way to learn tactics, cornering and bunch positioning before going to UCI races abroad
We can expect to see the distinctive team jersey in UK races too, despite the impressive international programme, says Lacaille.
“Our riders will mainly race in the UK as it’s a great way to learn tactics, cornering and bunch positioning before going to UCI races abroad and, moreover, the UK scene needs as much support as possible at the moment because there are definitely fewer races and less interest in the scene as a whole.”
The team squad is compact, with seven riders – Freddie Grover, Joe Surmon, Finn Mansfield, Alex Reynard, Junda Niu, Fraser Parnham and James Brown – making up the team’s core roster. As such, Lacaille plans to use guest riders to supplement the squad when they race abroad. Hence the involvement of riders with UCI Continental team experience like Joe Laverick and Ewan Mackie when they raced in Rhodes.
“The team doesn’t have a massive squad as it was set up initially as a smaller team and hence we sometimes rely on guest riders if not all of our riders can do the UCI races as many are in term time at university,” says Lacaille.
Recent guest riders like Joe Laverick and Ewan Mackie might catch the eye, but Lacaille is keen to stress that his core squad contains some quality riders in their own right.
“The team has a number of good sprinters in Joe Surmon and Freddie Grover who will go well at crits, while our two climbers Alex Reynard and Fraser Parnham should go well in hilly races in the UK and abroad.”
Regardless, for Lacaille, the team’s goals are not about results for the time-being, it’s more about learning.
“Success for the team is not massively about results as there’s a big learning experience racing abroad its more about the riders learning what the level is and how different the racing is to the UK. The dream would be to pick up some UCI points and get entry into many more UCI races.”
The team has only just been created, with Lacaille’s focus so far just on getting the show on the road. But we end our discussion by asking Lacaille if he has any thoughts about how he sees the team developing in the future.
In reality, most of what UK UCI Continental teams do, except for the Tour of Britain, can be done with a well-funded club team
“It would be cliché to say the team wants to step up to UCI Continental level and I don’t necessarily believe that there is any point. In reality, most of what UK UCI Continental teams do, except for the Tour of Britain, can be done with a well-funded club team,” Lacaille posits.
“The money saved by not going Continental can help reduce the financial burden on our foreign trips. Moreover, there are many super hard 1.2s and 2.2s which we can participate in as a club team. Therefore our main goal for the future is just increasing our budget to allow for more foreign race days as well as hopefully having a women’s team for next year with similar goals to ones we have for the men’s team in 2023.”
Anyone who follows our former journal contributor Joe Laverick on social media may have noticed that he guested for a new British team in a set of UCI road races last month in Greece: Sn Vitae Bim Bam Coaching RT.
Donning a striking blue and pink kit, the team participated in the South Aegean Tour, the International Rhodes Grand Prix, and the International Tour of Rhodes in quick succession. The team acquitted itself well, by all accounts, and looks set to expose more British riders to UCI road racing this season with another ten UCI races already on its programme, including races in Poland, Hungary and far-flung Uzbekistan.
Indeed, the team’s extensive race programme means that it may well end up being the most well-raced British elite-level team on the UCI circuit this year.
With our interest well and truly piqued, we got in touch with team manager Charlie Lacaille to find out more about the new set-up and what he hopes to achieve with it.
Lacaille explains that the initial aim was to set up a small, focused team to allow some of his friends to race cyclocross.
“I coached some friends who didn’t have a team for 2023 and wanted to race for my coaching company, Bim Bam Coaching,” he says. “Their main focus was cyclocross and I decided to set up a team just for them and keep it a small thing.
“After a bit of thinking I decided to approach some more sponsors: SN Vitae, Brick Caps and others to increase our budget and we added more riders to the roster.”
Having already had a taste of UCI road racing himself through the Velo Schills – Interbike race team, Lacaille thought he’d try his luck and secure some UCI road race invites. To his surprise, despite the team begin newly created with no track record, the invites came flooding in.
“After I had done my first UCI race for Velo Schils Interbike RT at the Tour de Serbie I decided to apply to some UCI races for the team without expecting any replies as in 2022 we didn’t exist and had zero results,” he tells us.
“The goal of the team from then was to get more UK riders who have super strong experience racing in UCI races as we have received many invites, including the seven race days in Rhodes and, among others, races in Poland and Hungary.”
Lacaille believes that UCI road racing could help riders in the UK who are talented but not well-suited to the type of circuits found in a typical national road race.
“For many reasons the UK scene doesn’t suit certain riders, either being too flat for pure climbers or that not many races are pure sprints,” Lacaille says. “I wanted to help guys see what racing is like abroad.”
The team may have an impressive programme, but it will be done mostly on a shoestring, meaning that riders will be expected to pay their own way to a large extent.
“The team has a very minimal budget which only really covers a small amount of kit,” Lacaille reveals. “Most of our riders have part-time jobs or at university so pay their own way for the races abroad. We have gone for a minimalist setup where riders can have their own personal sponsors as long as they don’t clash against the team’s main backers.”
The team announced in its first Instagram post that the aim is to race in the UK and across Europe in multiple disciplines. In reality, Lacaille tells us that “the main focus in road racing”, although the team’s riders “have raced in cyclocross, MTB, fixie crits, time trials as well as road races.”
We can expect to see the distinctive team jersey in UK races too, despite the impressive international programme, says Lacaille.
“Our riders will mainly race in the UK as it’s a great way to learn tactics, cornering and bunch positioning before going to UCI races abroad and, moreover, the UK scene needs as much support as possible at the moment because there are definitely fewer races and less interest in the scene as a whole.”
The team squad is compact, with seven riders – Freddie Grover, Joe Surmon, Finn Mansfield, Alex Reynard, Junda Niu, Fraser Parnham and James Brown – making up the team’s core roster. As such, Lacaille plans to use guest riders to supplement the squad when they race abroad. Hence the involvement of riders with UCI Continental team experience like Joe Laverick and Ewan Mackie when they raced in Rhodes.
“The team doesn’t have a massive squad as it was set up initially as a smaller team and hence we sometimes rely on guest riders if not all of our riders can do the UCI races as many are in term time at university,” says Lacaille.
Recent guest riders like Joe Laverick and Ewan Mackie might catch the eye, but Lacaille is keen to stress that his core squad contains some quality riders in their own right.
“The team has a number of good sprinters in Joe Surmon and Freddie Grover who will go well at crits, while our two climbers Alex Reynard and Fraser Parnham should go well in hilly races in the UK and abroad.”
Regardless, for Lacaille, the team’s goals are not about results for the time-being, it’s more about learning.
“Success for the team is not massively about results as there’s a big learning experience racing abroad its more about the riders learning what the level is and how different the racing is to the UK. The dream would be to pick up some UCI points and get entry into many more UCI races.”
The team has only just been created, with Lacaille’s focus so far just on getting the show on the road. But we end our discussion by asking Lacaille if he has any thoughts about how he sees the team developing in the future.
“It would be cliché to say the team wants to step up to UCI Continental level and I don’t necessarily believe that there is any point. In reality, most of what UK UCI Continental teams do, except for the Tour of Britain, can be done with a well-funded club team,” Lacaille posits.
“The money saved by not going Continental can help reduce the financial burden on our foreign trips. Moreover, there are many super hard 1.2s and 2.2s which we can participate in as a club team. Therefore our main goal for the future is just increasing our budget to allow for more foreign race days as well as hopefully having a women’s team for next year with similar goals to ones we have for the men’s team in 2023.”
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