CiCLE Classic winner Lucy Harris signs for rebranded Draft Racing
Bristol’s Mud Dock Racing rebrands as Draft Racing for 2026, unveiling a clearer structure, modest new backing and an expanded women’s programme led by CiCLE Classic winner Lucy Harris. Her arrival - alongside a strengthened men’s squad and a sizeable club contingent - signals a team focused on sustainability, balance and a positive racing culture in a challenging domestic landscape.
When a domestic team announces a rebrand, the reasons are usually straightforward: a change of sponsor, a shift in leadership, or a need to reset. In the case of Draft Racing – the new name for the Bristol-based Mud Dock Racing – the change reflects a more gradual evolution. The team had simply outgrown the identity it launched with two years ago. More significantly, the rebrand coincides with the arrival of CiCLE Classic winner Lucy Harris, whose move immediately gives the 2026 project greater definition and credibility.
For its first two seasons, the squad operated under the Mud Dock banner, drawing its name from the Bristol café and bike shop where founder Charlie Parry worked at the time. Several early riders did too. As employment patterns changed and the team became increasingly independent from the business, the name no longer felt representative of who they were.
“Since myself and the other two lads that worked for [Mud Dock] have left working at the shop,we’ve got no connection there anymore and so we’re rebranding and doing our own thing,” Parry tells The British Continental.
Draft Racing is the result: a neutral identity, untethered to a sponsor, intended to provide stability rather than signal ambition. Yet the timing is notable. The arrival of Harris – one of the strongest and most reliable riders on the domestic scene over the last two seasons – adds weight to a project that has otherwise grown quietly.
Harris’s move is not framed as a bid to return to the sharpest end of the sport, nor as a sentimental shift back to club-level racing. Instead, it reflects a pragmatic assessment of what she needs to continue competing: more control over her calendar, a lighter logistical load, and an environment that prioritises enjoyment and sustainability.
I didn’t feel like I was ready to quit racing yet. I wanted a positive and supportive environment
“I didn’t feel like I was ready to quit racing yet,” she says. “I wanted a positive and supportive environment.”
Following a demanding year balancing full-time work with Continental-level racing at Smurfit Westrock CT – who decided not to offer her a contract for 2026 – she chose an option that allowed her to stay competitive without the pressures she described during 2025.
A new structure for 2026
Her decision aligns closely with the direction in which Draft Racing is moving. For 2026, the team has introduced a clearer structure: a six-rider men’s national squad, a seven-rider women’s team.
Will Jewitt, Tom Adby, Will Deely, Tom Ashcroft Adam Lightfoot and Ollie Cadin will form the men’s national team, while Harris will spearhead the new women’s team which will also include: Isabel Wallace, Ruby Carleton, Emily Jones, Hayley Lenton and Kayleigh Parker.
Harris’s presence strengthens the women’s programme significantly. The squad brings together riders across a range of abilities and experience levels, and her involvement offers both leadership and a benchmark. It also signals that Draft Racing’s rebrand is not cosmetic. The team intends to serve as a stable, positive environment for riders who want to compete seriously while maintaining balance – a positioning that resonates with Harris at this stage of her career.
Charlie Parry
Supporting them is a substantial club team, a stable community of riders who have underpinned the project since its beginning.
For the first time, Draft Racing will also have a modest financial footing. Backing from KLM Taxis – a family connection through rider Will Deely – will allow the men’s national squad to have race entries, accommodation and some logistics covered. It is not transformative money, but it will lighten the load on riders who have, until now, shouldered the cost of everything themselves.
If the entire squad DNF’d a race but everyone was still happy with what they got from the day, that’s fine. Cycling is supposed to be enjoyable
Despite this, Parry stresses that Draft Racing’s trajectory is not driven by budget or ambition in the traditional sense.
“We’re not a results-or-you’re-out team,” he says. “If the entire squad DNF’d a race but everyone was still happy with what they got from the day, that’s fine. Cycling is supposed to be enjoyable. That’s the only non-negotiable.”
It is an ethos that stands out in a domestic culture where pressure can quietly suffocate enjoyment, and where even National B teams can sometimes adopt the tone of professional outfits without the infrastructure to support it.
Parry says that Draft Racing are determined not to become that.
The men’s programme
The men’s national squad will centre its season on the National Circuit Series, where the riders feel most at home. They will also appear at selected UCI and National Road Series events – including CiCLE, a race they have contested for the past two years – and extend their European excursions with a stage race in France, a planned trip to Ireland and, if logistics allow, racing in Belgium.
It is a programme built with both ambition and restraint. With six riders, the team cannot afford injuries, illnesses or scheduling clashes, but the club team provides depth if needed, and Parry is firm that no rider will ever be pushed to overcommit.
“We’re committed,” he says, “but not in a way that breaks people. Everyone has lives outside this.”
Image: Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com
Lucy Harris: choosing autonomy, balance, and a team that fits
If Draft Racing’s new structure gives the team shape, the women’s team gives it momentum – and its most compelling story.
The signing of Lucy Harris, the 2025 CiCLE Classic winner and one of Britain’s standout domestic riders, is significant. But the reasons behind her decision to join Draft Racing tell a deeper, more interesting story than the headline alone suggests.
Harris reached the end of 2025 at a crossroads. After a demanding year with Smurfit Westrock, she had begun to question whether she could continue balancing elite racing with full-time work. The long journeys, rigid schedules and emotional dips had accumulated. When she learned her contract would not be renewed, she felt something unexpected: relief.
When it wasn’t renewed anyway, I thought, okay, well, actually I’m less disappointed than I thought I would be with that news.
“I did say to Rick [Lister, team manager at Smurfit Westrock] that I was interested in staying on at Smurfit for another year, but I also had some doubts because it’s a lot with the job. I struggle a lot with the travelling and had some ows during the season and I was just finding it quite difficult to balance everything,” Harris shares. “When it wasn’t renewed anyway, I thought, okay, well, actually I’m less disappointed than I thought I would be with that news.”
Harris wasn’t ready to quit racing, but she did know that she wanted a different racing environment. “What I wanted from the team was like a positive and supportive environment… I want freedom so that I can pick and choose which races I do and don’t do,” she says. “I need quite a lot of notice to know whether or not I’m taking time off.”
She didn’t need a team bike, didn’t want the pressure of a results-driven environment, and only had one real competitive non-negotiable: “I need a team car at CiCLE,” she says. “That race is chaos otherwise.”
A month spent mountain biking in Colorado had also nudged her towards a more multidisciplinary approach. She wanted a place where she could explore that without apology.
She also wanted to give back. What she needed was a team that sat somewhere between grassroots and structured, somewhere close enough to home to feel personal, and somewhere that saw value in experience as well as results.
Draft Racing turned out to be exactly that.
Image: Olly Hassell/SWpix.com
“They seem like really sound guys. It seems like everything I want in terms of the positive environment… everyone just seems really sound, really on board with the whole, you know, pick and choose races and just stay enjoying it basically,” she enthuses.
She will act as the team’s captain and mentor, helping develop the group across road, multi-discipline riding and race craft, while still targeting races she loves – including a return to CiCLE Classic to defend her title.
Her arrival gives Draft Racing’s women’s squad immediate experience and direction.
A new future
Harris’s arrival also reflects a wider shift occurring in British domestic racing. As riders increasingly balance demanding jobs with high-level competition, teams that provide flexibility, stability and a supportive culture are becoming more valuable. Draft Racing’s rebrand and new structure position it clearly within that space: not a semi-professional outfit, but a team offering a realistic framework in which riders can compete seriously without compromising the rest of their lives.
As the team steps into 2026 with a defined men’s programme, a strengthened women’s squad and its first financial backing, it does so without grand declarations. Draft Racing is not promising transformation. Instead, it is offering clarity, continuity and an environment riders trust. In a domestic calendar facing persistent pressures, that combination may prove more sustainable than any headline ambition.
When a domestic team announces a rebrand, the reasons are usually straightforward: a change of sponsor, a shift in leadership, or a need to reset. In the case of Draft Racing – the new name for the Bristol-based Mud Dock Racing – the change reflects a more gradual evolution. The team had simply outgrown the identity it launched with two years ago. More significantly, the rebrand coincides with the arrival of CiCLE Classic winner Lucy Harris, whose move immediately gives the 2026 project greater definition and credibility.
For its first two seasons, the squad operated under the Mud Dock banner, drawing its name from the Bristol café and bike shop where founder Charlie Parry worked at the time. Several early riders did too. As employment patterns changed and the team became increasingly independent from the business, the name no longer felt representative of who they were.
“Since myself and the other two lads that worked for [Mud Dock] have left working at the shop,we’ve got no connection there anymore and so we’re rebranding and doing our own thing,” Parry tells The British Continental.
Draft Racing is the result: a neutral identity, untethered to a sponsor, intended to provide stability rather than signal ambition. Yet the timing is notable. The arrival of Harris – one of the strongest and most reliable riders on the domestic scene over the last two seasons – adds weight to a project that has otherwise grown quietly.
Harris’s move is not framed as a bid to return to the sharpest end of the sport, nor as a sentimental shift back to club-level racing. Instead, it reflects a pragmatic assessment of what she needs to continue competing: more control over her calendar, a lighter logistical load, and an environment that prioritises enjoyment and sustainability.
“I didn’t feel like I was ready to quit racing yet,” she says. “I wanted a positive and supportive environment.”
Following a demanding year balancing full-time work with Continental-level racing at Smurfit Westrock CT – who decided not to offer her a contract for 2026 – she chose an option that allowed her to stay competitive without the pressures she described during 2025.
A new structure for 2026
Her decision aligns closely with the direction in which Draft Racing is moving. For 2026, the team has introduced a clearer structure: a six-rider men’s national squad, a seven-rider women’s team.
Will Jewitt, Tom Adby, Will Deely, Tom Ashcroft Adam Lightfoot and Ollie Cadin will form the men’s national team, while Harris will spearhead the new women’s team which will also include: Isabel Wallace, Ruby Carleton, Emily Jones, Hayley Lenton and Kayleigh Parker.
Harris’s presence strengthens the women’s programme significantly. The squad brings together riders across a range of abilities and experience levels, and her involvement offers both leadership and a benchmark. It also signals that Draft Racing’s rebrand is not cosmetic. The team intends to serve as a stable, positive environment for riders who want to compete seriously while maintaining balance – a positioning that resonates with Harris at this stage of her career.
Supporting them is a substantial club team, a stable community of riders who have underpinned the project since its beginning.
For the first time, Draft Racing will also have a modest financial footing. Backing from KLM Taxis – a family connection through rider Will Deely – will allow the men’s national squad to have race entries, accommodation and some logistics covered. It is not transformative money, but it will lighten the load on riders who have, until now, shouldered the cost of everything themselves.
Despite this, Parry stresses that Draft Racing’s trajectory is not driven by budget or ambition in the traditional sense.
“We’re not a results-or-you’re-out team,” he says. “If the entire squad DNF’d a race but everyone was still happy with what they got from the day, that’s fine. Cycling is supposed to be enjoyable. That’s the only non-negotiable.”
It is an ethos that stands out in a domestic culture where pressure can quietly suffocate enjoyment, and where even National B teams can sometimes adopt the tone of professional outfits without the infrastructure to support it.
Parry says that Draft Racing are determined not to become that.
The men’s programme
The men’s national squad will centre its season on the National Circuit Series, where the riders feel most at home. They will also appear at selected UCI and National Road Series events – including CiCLE, a race they have contested for the past two years – and extend their European excursions with a stage race in France, a planned trip to Ireland and, if logistics allow, racing in Belgium.
It is a programme built with both ambition and restraint. With six riders, the team cannot afford injuries, illnesses or scheduling clashes, but the club team provides depth if needed, and Parry is firm that no rider will ever be pushed to overcommit.
“We’re committed,” he says, “but not in a way that breaks people. Everyone has lives outside this.”
Lucy Harris: choosing autonomy, balance, and a team that fits
If Draft Racing’s new structure gives the team shape, the women’s team gives it momentum – and its most compelling story.
The signing of Lucy Harris, the 2025 CiCLE Classic winner and one of Britain’s standout domestic riders, is significant. But the reasons behind her decision to join Draft Racing tell a deeper, more interesting story than the headline alone suggests.
Harris reached the end of 2025 at a crossroads. After a demanding year with Smurfit Westrock, she had begun to question whether she could continue balancing elite racing with full-time work. The long journeys, rigid schedules and emotional dips had accumulated. When she learned her contract would not be renewed, she felt something unexpected: relief.
“I did say to Rick [Lister, team manager at Smurfit Westrock] that I was interested in staying on at Smurfit for another year, but I also had some doubts because it’s a lot with the job. I struggle a lot with the travelling and had some ows during the season and I was just finding it quite difficult to balance everything,” Harris shares. “When it wasn’t renewed anyway, I thought, okay, well, actually I’m less disappointed than I thought I would be with that news.”
Harris wasn’t ready to quit racing, but she did know that she wanted a different racing environment. “What I wanted from the team was like a positive and supportive environment… I want freedom so that I can pick and choose which races I do and don’t do,” she says. “I need quite a lot of notice to know whether or not I’m taking time off.”
She didn’t need a team bike, didn’t want the pressure of a results-driven environment, and only had one real competitive non-negotiable: “I need a team car at CiCLE,” she says. “That race is chaos otherwise.”
A month spent mountain biking in Colorado had also nudged her towards a more multidisciplinary approach. She wanted a place where she could explore that without apology.
She also wanted to give back. What she needed was a team that sat somewhere between grassroots and structured, somewhere close enough to home to feel personal, and somewhere that saw value in experience as well as results.
Draft Racing turned out to be exactly that.
“They seem like really sound guys. It seems like everything I want in terms of the positive environment… everyone just seems really sound, really on board with the whole, you know, pick and choose races and just stay enjoying it basically,” she enthuses.
She will act as the team’s captain and mentor, helping develop the group across road, multi-discipline riding and race craft, while still targeting races she loves – including a return to CiCLE Classic to defend her title.
Her arrival gives Draft Racing’s women’s squad immediate experience and direction.
A new future
Harris’s arrival also reflects a wider shift occurring in British domestic racing. As riders increasingly balance demanding jobs with high-level competition, teams that provide flexibility, stability and a supportive culture are becoming more valuable. Draft Racing’s rebrand and new structure position it clearly within that space: not a semi-professional outfit, but a team offering a realistic framework in which riders can compete seriously without compromising the rest of their lives.
As the team steps into 2026 with a defined men’s programme, a strengthened women’s squad and its first financial backing, it does so without grand declarations. Draft Racing is not promising transformation. Instead, it is offering clarity, continuity and an environment riders trust. In a domestic calendar facing persistent pressures, that combination may prove more sustainable than any headline ambition.
Featured image: Olly Hassell/SWpix.com
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