BCC Race Team returns for its second season in 2025, the East Midlands outfit recently unveiling a new look squad of under-23 riders looking to build on the foundations laid in the team’s first year as an Elite Development Team. The team may have lost title sponsor HUUB but it has entered new partnerships with the University of Derby and charity Switch Up for 2025, with a vision to use cycling as a vehicle for positive change, helping both existing riders and young people in the East Midlands, and further afield, fulfil their potential.
The elite team has only come into being because of the pathway we’ve created over the last ten years
“The elite team is the destination and pinnacle of our pathway programme,” explains Team President John McCay to The British Continental, detailing the ten riders who make up the team, which spearheads a programme containing over 40 riders from under-14s to seniors, spread across seven squads, racing across both the road and track.
“They’re riding for every other rider in the pathway as a good example. The elite team has only come into being because of the pathway we’ve created over the last ten years,” he continues, pointing to the success of the junior team, who have won the last two editions of the Junior CiCLE Classic as well as the academy as a whole, where applications outnumbered the available positions by four to one for 2025.
Ahron Dick of HUUB BCC Race Team wins the Junior CiCle Classic. Image: Olly Hassell/SWpix.com
Marquee signing Alex Ball headlines the elite squad, the Scot one of the most promising young riders in Britain, proving his potential by finishing a number of tough races in Italy with Project1 in the first part of 2024, returning home to finish 4th in the Beaumont Trophy after winning a number of National B races north of the border.
The 22-year-old is joined by a number of riders from within the Beeston CC pathway structure, with the highly touted duo of Will Salter and Lewis Tinsley stepping up from the successful BCC Junior Race Team. Welsh rider Salter is already a senior national track champion in the team pursuit on top of winning the European junior omnium championship and picking up medals at the junior world championships in China. Tinsley, who first came to prominence in 2023 with a strong showing at the Dudley Grand Prix which defied his years, recorded a top ten in the Junior Tour of Wales and took 4th in the Junior National Road Race Championship in 2024.
Alex Galpin is promoted from the senior academy squad after impressing during 2024, the double Regional A winner joining his brother, Dan, who retains his place in the team alongside Zak Machin and George Stephen, the trio returning for a second year.
Theo Anderson debuts in the U23 ranks for the team after a season with Team Inca Juniors in France, the 18-year-old claiming victory in the Tour du Pays d’Olliergues early last year. Another first-year under-23 moving to the team is Toby Bush, brother to DSM Development rider Jacob, who continues his journey with the East Midlands team after two years with Giles Pidcock’s Fensham Howes MAS Design team.
Dan Galpin at the 2024 Guildford Town Centre Races. Image: Ian Wrightson/The British Continental
Rouleur Will Gilbank completes the line-up, joining from Lee Valley Youth CC, the first-year under-23 impressing on both road and track during his junior career.
The squad has a young look to it following the retirement of “real gem” road captain Adam Kenway, and National B winner Josh Housley moving on to Primera-TeamJobs; the team looking to improve on their inaugural season through basic values such as teamwork and executing plans.
“The team is a really good blend of under-23s, they are chomping at the bit,” says McCay, with infectious enthusiasm, noting a number of the riders could be capable of taking a more senior role in the team despite their age, as they continue to develop their skills under a performance team headed by coach and Olympic medallist Bryan Steel.
They’ve come back stronger and determined to be a smart racing team, committed for each other with clear focus on each race plan
“They are a team, a proper team,” he notes. “And that’s to do with the ethos of the academy, recognising some of the failings of last year and what good teamwork is. They’ve come back stronger and determined to be a smart racing team, committed to each other with clear focus on each race plan.”
On the road, the team will focus on the National Road and Circuit Series, as well as the U23 National Series, with the aim to animate the races and aim for the podium.
“We’re going to be there or thereabouts in around 50% of the National Series races, in the hunt for podiums,” McCay forecasts. “It doesn’t mean we’re going to get them, we might blow up and come in 11th or 12th, but it means we’re hungry, ready, and we’ve got the right team ethos to get that. We’ll be written in the dispatches for animating a race, racing with passion and racing as a team.”
The elite squad, and its junior counterpart, will also look to capitalise on the sporadic nature of the UK calendar with a different approach to racing in Europe: trips to the continent focused around making riders race ready for their return to competition in the UK. “It’s not about can we get riders out there all the time, it’s about supporting the riders in a way they can utilise the gaps on the UK calendar and compliment it. We use the hashtag #thrivetorace, and this is just one element of it,” reflects McCay, who muses about sending riders on secondments with teams for up to five weeks at a time, the team working closely with European agents who are supporting them to build a suitable schedule.
Image: Ian Wrightson/The British Continental
The East Midlands outfit retains the support of WeBuyCycle as well as attracting a number of new partners, including Shimano, whose components will be used across the academy pathway, as well as on the team car bikes provided by WeBuyCycle, with Lazer and new kit suppliers Vanelli also coming on board to support the team.
The team is as much focused on matters off the bike as on them, however, with the whole of the academy pathway riding under the hashtag #raceforpositivechange. New partnerships with the University of Derby and Nottinghamshire Charity Switch Up signal their intent, with the charity’s logo set to adorn the front of the jerseys in a move McCay likens to Barcelona’s partnership with Unicef.
It gives riders the opportunity to have a career beyond racing
“[We’re] launching a cycling community initiative [with Switch Up], who provide life-changing support to vulnerable young people in communities across Nottinghamshire affected by crime and violence,” explains McCay. “Our partnership will support Switch Up’s physical activity pillar, which promotes mental and physical wellbeing. We’ll also open up a pathway to young talent that would not normally have the opportunity to be involved in our great sport and support them to potentially become an elite rider,” he continues, the vision to benefit young people clear. “Building champions on and off the bike,” as he puts it.
The academy pathway will also deliver the cycling element of the University of Derby’s Cycling Foundation Degree Award that will start in September 2025, giving young riders the opportunity to continue in education alongside racing; the course open to riders from all teams as well as individuals.
“It gives riders the opportunity to have a career beyond racing,” explains McCay, noting that the unique educational partnership could help make racing more sustainable for years to come, as well as helping to create a strong UK scene; both ambitious aims of the team who are focused on becoming the destination for young riders across the UK.
BCC Race Team returns for its second season in 2025, the East Midlands outfit recently unveiling a new look squad of under-23 riders looking to build on the foundations laid in the team’s first year as an Elite Development Team. The team may have lost title sponsor HUUB but it has entered new partnerships with the University of Derby and charity Switch Up for 2025, with a vision to use cycling as a vehicle for positive change, helping both existing riders and young people in the East Midlands, and further afield, fulfil their potential.
“The elite team is the destination and pinnacle of our pathway programme,” explains Team President John McCay to The British Continental, detailing the ten riders who make up the team, which spearheads a programme containing over 40 riders from under-14s to seniors, spread across seven squads, racing across both the road and track.
“They’re riding for every other rider in the pathway as a good example. The elite team has only come into being because of the pathway we’ve created over the last ten years,” he continues, pointing to the success of the junior team, who have won the last two editions of the Junior CiCLE Classic as well as the academy as a whole, where applications outnumbered the available positions by four to one for 2025.
Marquee signing Alex Ball headlines the elite squad, the Scot one of the most promising young riders in Britain, proving his potential by finishing a number of tough races in Italy with Project1 in the first part of 2024, returning home to finish 4th in the Beaumont Trophy after winning a number of National B races north of the border.
The 22-year-old is joined by a number of riders from within the Beeston CC pathway structure, with the highly touted duo of Will Salter and Lewis Tinsley stepping up from the successful BCC Junior Race Team. Welsh rider Salter is already a senior national track champion in the team pursuit on top of winning the European junior omnium championship and picking up medals at the junior world championships in China. Tinsley, who first came to prominence in 2023 with a strong showing at the Dudley Grand Prix which defied his years, recorded a top ten in the Junior Tour of Wales and took 4th in the Junior National Road Race Championship in 2024.
Alex Galpin is promoted from the senior academy squad after impressing during 2024, the double Regional A winner joining his brother, Dan, who retains his place in the team alongside Zak Machin and George Stephen, the trio returning for a second year.
Theo Anderson debuts in the U23 ranks for the team after a season with Team Inca Juniors in France, the 18-year-old claiming victory in the Tour du Pays d’Olliergues early last year. Another first-year under-23 moving to the team is Toby Bush, brother to DSM Development rider Jacob, who continues his journey with the East Midlands team after two years with Giles Pidcock’s Fensham Howes MAS Design team.
Rouleur Will Gilbank completes the line-up, joining from Lee Valley Youth CC, the first-year under-23 impressing on both road and track during his junior career.
The squad has a young look to it following the retirement of “real gem” road captain Adam Kenway, and National B winner Josh Housley moving on to Primera-TeamJobs; the team looking to improve on their inaugural season through basic values such as teamwork and executing plans.
“The team is a really good blend of under-23s, they are chomping at the bit,” says McCay, with infectious enthusiasm, noting a number of the riders could be capable of taking a more senior role in the team despite their age, as they continue to develop their skills under a performance team headed by coach and Olympic medallist Bryan Steel.
“They are a team, a proper team,” he notes. “And that’s to do with the ethos of the academy, recognising some of the failings of last year and what good teamwork is. They’ve come back stronger and determined to be a smart racing team, committed to each other with clear focus on each race plan.”
On the road, the team will focus on the National Road and Circuit Series, as well as the U23 National Series, with the aim to animate the races and aim for the podium.
“We’re going to be there or thereabouts in around 50% of the National Series races, in the hunt for podiums,” McCay forecasts. “It doesn’t mean we’re going to get them, we might blow up and come in 11th or 12th, but it means we’re hungry, ready, and we’ve got the right team ethos to get that. We’ll be written in the dispatches for animating a race, racing with passion and racing as a team.”
The elite squad, and its junior counterpart, will also look to capitalise on the sporadic nature of the UK calendar with a different approach to racing in Europe: trips to the continent focused around making riders race ready for their return to competition in the UK. “It’s not about can we get riders out there all the time, it’s about supporting the riders in a way they can utilise the gaps on the UK calendar and compliment it. We use the hashtag #thrivetorace, and this is just one element of it,” reflects McCay, who muses about sending riders on secondments with teams for up to five weeks at a time, the team working closely with European agents who are supporting them to build a suitable schedule.
The East Midlands outfit retains the support of WeBuyCycle as well as attracting a number of new partners, including Shimano, whose components will be used across the academy pathway, as well as on the team car bikes provided by WeBuyCycle, with Lazer and new kit suppliers Vanelli also coming on board to support the team.
The team is as much focused on matters off the bike as on them, however, with the whole of the academy pathway riding under the hashtag #raceforpositivechange. New partnerships with the University of Derby and Nottinghamshire Charity Switch Up signal their intent, with the charity’s logo set to adorn the front of the jerseys in a move McCay likens to Barcelona’s partnership with Unicef.
“[We’re] launching a cycling community initiative [with Switch Up], who provide life-changing support to vulnerable young people in communities across Nottinghamshire affected by crime and violence,” explains McCay. “Our partnership will support Switch Up’s physical activity pillar, which promotes mental and physical wellbeing. We’ll also open up a pathway to young talent that would not normally have the opportunity to be involved in our great sport and support them to potentially become an elite rider,” he continues, the vision to benefit young people clear. “Building champions on and off the bike,” as he puts it.
The academy pathway will also deliver the cycling element of the University of Derby’s Cycling Foundation Degree Award that will start in September 2025, giving young riders the opportunity to continue in education alongside racing; the course open to riders from all teams as well as individuals.
“It gives riders the opportunity to have a career beyond racing,” explains McCay, noting that the unique educational partnership could help make racing more sustainable for years to come, as well as helping to create a strong UK scene; both ambitious aims of the team who are focused on becoming the destination for young riders across the UK.
Read our domestic team guide here.
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