The rider who saved his local race: Max Sillifant steps up to keep the Leicester Forest CC Road Race alive
PB Performance’s Max Sillifant refused to let the Leicester Forest Road Race vanish. With just weeks’ notice, he stepped up to organise what is now the inaugural Riders Collective GP — showing how riders themselves can keep Britain’s road races alive.
It’s not often a rider turns up to a race and ends up becoming its organiser. But that’s exactly what happened when PB Performance’s Max Sillifant heard the Leicester Forest CC Road Race was about to be cancelled.
I’m not letting another one get cancelled
“I’m not letting another one get cancelled,” he told himself. And with that, the 25-year-old swapped race prep for risk assessments, chasing entries and securing marshalls. The result will be the inaugural East Midlands Road Race League (EMRRL) Riders Collective GP, held on 20 September — a race saved, and reborn, by a rider who simply couldn’t stomach another gap in the calendar.
For Sillifant, who has spent seven years as part of the PB Performance team, racing is second nature. “I always joke that I’m part of the furniture now,” he says. “They’ve been so good to me that I’ve never really felt the need to move.” Over that time, he’s watched team managers Paul and Louise Bennett organise events such as this season’s PB Performance Espoirs Road Race — the opening round of the Under-23 National Road Series — while nurturing riders on to higher levels. When his own local race looked set to vanish, he followed their example.
Image: Olly Hassell/SWpix.com
The Leicester Forest CC Road Race had been a fixture for years, but like many long-running events, it was beginning to creak. Sillifant says that the club no longer has many active racers, and the appetite for shouldering hours of paperwork for little tangible benefit had faded.
“There’s no real benefit to them,” Sillifant explains. “It’s hours and hours spent filling out paperwork for British Cycling and local councils.”
When Sillifant heard on the grapevine that the race was destined for the scrapheap, he called the club.
“So I said, well, if I can help — provide people, bodies, marshalls — then I’ll do that, and that’ll be my way of keeping the race alive,” he says. “Plus it means I get to race on the 20th. I live closer to the course than the HQ is, so it felt like a local thing for me.”
An offer to help, however, quickly turned into signing up to organise the whole race. Sillifant says the club’s response was, “They said, ‘Well, we don’t really want to organise it, but we’re happy to help you organise it.'”
Sillifant’s decision was as impulsive as it was bold. “So I said, OK, let’s do it. I thought, well, I’ve not road raced since May for one reason or another. So I think my last race was the GA Bennett. Then obviously the Diss CC road race got cancelled the night before, Hackney CC road race again got cancelled, and then obviously the Jeff Schils Memorial went, along with the Tony Asplin Memorial. So that was a kind of double-header down at Colchester that I never did.”
Fed up with cancellations, Sillifant decided he couldn’t just sit back. “I thought, I’m not having another one cancel.” From there, it escalated quickly. “That was about three weeks ago, and now the race is in two weeks’ time.”
Fortunately, his day job as an events manager gave him the confidence to take it on. “I probably wouldn’t have done it if I didn’t already organise weddings, summer parties and corporate events,” he says. “I know how big these things are.”
As a one-man band, I cannot take financial liability this time around
Even then, the scale was daunting and Sillifant makes it clear that EMRRL’s offer to cover any financial losses was a key factor in his decision to take the race on. “As a one-man band, I cannot take financial liability this time around … it costs me over £1,500 just to put on the most bog-standard race I can. If the league hadn’t agreed to cover it, I couldn’t have done it.”
The 2024 Leicester Forest CC Road Race. Image: Emma Wilcock
He’s been leaning heavily on PB Performance’s Paul and Louise too, who “had to calm me down a little bit” and remind him to sort the British Cycling side before shouting too loudly. “I ignored that and told everyone straight away I was going to organise a race and that I needed support,” he laughs.
Family and friends have also been roped in, with sponsors found through contacts. “I couldn’t have done it without the support I’ve had so far, whether it’s from family, the team, friends or sponsors,” he says.
If the short-term goal was to keep the race alive, the long-term aim is to reshape what a grassroots road race can look like.
“We’ve got a hefty sprint competition — I think it’s worth £500,” Sillifant says. “We’ve also got first East Mids rider, which wasn’t a necessity but we thought, well, let’s boost the riders in the East Mids doing this race.”
Sponsors are all Midlands-based: Ride Fire (who have sponsored a pair of Nimbl shoes for the East Midlands prize), Midlands Chain Waxing, CyclingChaos (sprints competition) and others. “That was the other thing,” he says. “Trying to keep it very much about building a community within the Midlands and hopefully using this as a bit of a launchpad for next year and the year after.”
I like the idea of putting on a race that isn’t just a bike race. Even as simple as having a bar and a BBQ, just for people to come out to
Looking further ahead, Sillifant is keen to create more of an event. “I like the idea of putting on a race that isn’t just a bike race. Even as simple as having a bar and a BBQ, just for people to come out to. Next year I’d love to do a men’s and women’s race, like at Cambridge — before we’d even finished our cool-down lap, the women were racing. I like that because it just keeps everything together.”
It’s a philosophy shaped not just by Paul and Louise at PB Performance but by innovators like Yomp Bonk Crew. “Someone asked me at the start, ‘Are you just trying to be like Yomp Bonk?’ And I’m like, well, they do it well … if I can put on a well-run race and people go away going, ‘That was actually a really well-run race,’ then that’s the aim.”
Max Sillifant at the 2024 Beaumont Trophy. Image: Olly Hassell/SWpix.com
Sillifant’s story highlights both the fragility and the resilience of British road racing. On one hand, the Leicester Forest CC Road Race would likely have disappeared without his intervention. On the other, his example shows how individuals, when supported by structures like the East Midlands Road Race League, can keep races alive and even reinvent them.
If I hadn’t taken this one on now, it would probably have disappeared
“It’s simple,” he says. “If I hadn’t taken this one on now, it would probably have disappeared.”
That’s the sobering reality: rising costs, fewer volunteers, and the decline of club-run racing threaten the very existence of the National B calendar. But the Riders Collective points to another path: one where riders stop assuming races will always be there and start playing their part in sustaining them.
This year’s Riders Collective GP may not look dramatically different from other Nat Bs this year. But its very existence is a statement — proof that with determination, creativity and community spirit, Britain’s road racing calendar can still have a future.
It’s not often a rider turns up to a race and ends up becoming its organiser. But that’s exactly what happened when PB Performance’s Max Sillifant heard the Leicester Forest CC Road Race was about to be cancelled.
“I’m not letting another one get cancelled,” he told himself. And with that, the 25-year-old swapped race prep for risk assessments, chasing entries and securing marshalls. The result will be the inaugural East Midlands Road Race League (EMRRL) Riders Collective GP, held on 20 September — a race saved, and reborn, by a rider who simply couldn’t stomach another gap in the calendar.
For Sillifant, who has spent seven years as part of the PB Performance team, racing is second nature. “I always joke that I’m part of the furniture now,” he says. “They’ve been so good to me that I’ve never really felt the need to move.” Over that time, he’s watched team managers Paul and Louise Bennett organise events such as this season’s PB Performance Espoirs Road Race — the opening round of the Under-23 National Road Series — while nurturing riders on to higher levels. When his own local race looked set to vanish, he followed their example.
The Leicester Forest CC Road Race had been a fixture for years, but like many long-running events, it was beginning to creak. Sillifant says that the club no longer has many active racers, and the appetite for shouldering hours of paperwork for little tangible benefit had faded.
“There’s no real benefit to them,” Sillifant explains. “It’s hours and hours spent filling out paperwork for British Cycling and local councils.”
When Sillifant heard on the grapevine that the race was destined for the scrapheap, he called the club.
“So I said, well, if I can help — provide people, bodies, marshalls — then I’ll do that, and that’ll be my way of keeping the race alive,” he says. “Plus it means I get to race on the 20th. I live closer to the course than the HQ is, so it felt like a local thing for me.”
An offer to help, however, quickly turned into signing up to organise the whole race. Sillifant says the club’s response was, “They said, ‘Well, we don’t really want to organise it, but we’re happy to help you organise it.'”
Sillifant’s decision was as impulsive as it was bold. “So I said, OK, let’s do it. I thought, well, I’ve not road raced since May for one reason or another. So I think my last race was the GA Bennett. Then obviously the Diss CC road race got cancelled the night before, Hackney CC road race again got cancelled, and then obviously the Jeff Schils Memorial went, along with the Tony Asplin Memorial. So that was a kind of double-header down at Colchester that I never did.”
Fed up with cancellations, Sillifant decided he couldn’t just sit back. “I thought, I’m not having another one cancel.” From there, it escalated quickly. “That was about three weeks ago, and now the race is in two weeks’ time.”
Fortunately, his day job as an events manager gave him the confidence to take it on. “I probably wouldn’t have done it if I didn’t already organise weddings, summer parties and corporate events,” he says. “I know how big these things are.”
Even then, the scale was daunting and Sillifant makes it clear that EMRRL’s offer to cover any financial losses was a key factor in his decision to take the race on. “As a one-man band, I cannot take financial liability this time around … it costs me over £1,500 just to put on the most bog-standard race I can. If the league hadn’t agreed to cover it, I couldn’t have done it.”
He’s been leaning heavily on PB Performance’s Paul and Louise too, who “had to calm me down a little bit” and remind him to sort the British Cycling side before shouting too loudly. “I ignored that and told everyone straight away I was going to organise a race and that I needed support,” he laughs.
Family and friends have also been roped in, with sponsors found through contacts. “I couldn’t have done it without the support I’ve had so far, whether it’s from family, the team, friends or sponsors,” he says.
If the short-term goal was to keep the race alive, the long-term aim is to reshape what a grassroots road race can look like.
“We’ve got a hefty sprint competition — I think it’s worth £500,” Sillifant says. “We’ve also got first East Mids rider, which wasn’t a necessity but we thought, well, let’s boost the riders in the East Mids doing this race.”
Sponsors are all Midlands-based: Ride Fire (who have sponsored a pair of Nimbl shoes for the East Midlands prize), Midlands Chain Waxing, CyclingChaos (sprints competition) and others. “That was the other thing,” he says. “Trying to keep it very much about building a community within the Midlands and hopefully using this as a bit of a launchpad for next year and the year after.”
Looking further ahead, Sillifant is keen to create more of an event. “I like the idea of putting on a race that isn’t just a bike race. Even as simple as having a bar and a BBQ, just for people to come out to. Next year I’d love to do a men’s and women’s race, like at Cambridge — before we’d even finished our cool-down lap, the women were racing. I like that because it just keeps everything together.”
It’s a philosophy shaped not just by Paul and Louise at PB Performance but by innovators like Yomp Bonk Crew. “Someone asked me at the start, ‘Are you just trying to be like Yomp Bonk?’ And I’m like, well, they do it well … if I can put on a well-run race and people go away going, ‘That was actually a really well-run race,’ then that’s the aim.”
Sillifant’s story highlights both the fragility and the resilience of British road racing. On one hand, the Leicester Forest CC Road Race would likely have disappeared without his intervention. On the other, his example shows how individuals, when supported by structures like the East Midlands Road Race League, can keep races alive and even reinvent them.
“It’s simple,” he says. “If I hadn’t taken this one on now, it would probably have disappeared.”
That’s the sobering reality: rising costs, fewer volunteers, and the decline of club-run racing threaten the very existence of the National B calendar. But the Riders Collective points to another path: one where riders stop assuming races will always be there and start playing their part in sustaining them.
This year’s Riders Collective GP may not look dramatically different from other Nat Bs this year. But its very existence is a statement — proof that with determination, creativity and community spirit, Britain’s road racing calendar can still have a future.
Enter the race here.
Featured image: Olly Hassell/SWpix.com
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