“Last year, there wasn’t one regional road race”: Charlie Crawt on holding the domestic middle
When Charlie Crawt says no regional road race ran in the Eastern Region last season, he isn’t complaining. He’s describing a gap. This is the story of Primo RT’s attempt to hold that space open - between a rider’s first start and the leap to National A - at a time when entries are fragile and races can’t be taken for granted.
“Last year, there wasn’t one regional road race that ran in the Eastern Region.”
Charlie Crawt says it matter-of-factly in a WhatsApp voice note, recorded between the everyday logistics of running a small domestic team. It’s offered as a plain observation, but it points to a wider issue: when regional road racing thins out, the first steps into open-road competition become harder to take, and the pathway into National B and National A racing narrows for developing riders.
For Crawt – rider, manager and founder of Primo Race Team – the consequences are straightforward. Without regional road racing, riders don’t get a proper introduction to open-road dynamics. They don’t pick up licence points. They don’t learn the rhythms that make National B racing survivable, let alone National A. They lose the most ordinary, essential thing a developing rider needs: regular starts.
Crawt links it to what he calls “a massive decline in road races” and the number of events cancelled. That uncertainty, he says, feeds back into entries. “If they’re unsure if a race is going to run, then that ultimately means they put off entering,” he says – leaving organisers a few entries short of guaranteeing a race will run, and teams reluctant to book accommodation and transport.
Primo RT sits in the middle of that – not as a grand fix, and not as a brand exercise, but as a practical attempt to keep progression possible. The team has riders aiming at National B and National A start lines, and it’s also putting time and money into rebuilding the entry point: regional racing that can bring new riders in and keep the pool from shrinking further.
I thought: why not create what I’m looking for? If I’m looking for it, others must be too
Crawt didn’t arrive in cycling with a development blueprint. He arrived with the itch to race, found the structures didn’t fit, and built something that did. “In all honesty, I’m still very new to cycling,” he says. “So I thought: why not create what I’m looking for? If I’m looking for it, others must be too.”
Charlie Crawt (left) at the 2025 Andrews Trophy. Image: Mark James
He came to cycling from motorsport. “Motorsport is ghastly expensive,” he says. “We were almost doing like £1,000 a weekend on tyres.” He’s clear that cycling is cheaper – but only up to a point. “Obviously, the costs are a bit lower in cycling, but still probably higher than I initially anticipated, if I’m totally honest.”
Crawt started racing halfway through the 2023 season, “just doing three four races,” then rode a full season in 2024. Before that, he’d done what thousands of riders do: café rides, steady miles, enjoying the simple rhythm of riding. But he wanted competition. “It wasn’t kind of scratching the itch I had for competitive racing,” he says. Cycling became a replacement for racing motorbikes after “numerous injuries,” and the familiar issue of funding. “Lack of sponsorship and support… is a common theme in all sports these days,” he says.
When he first looked around for a team, the options were limited. He joined a coaching team, then changed coaches, and the consequence was immediate: “After a while, I parted ways that coach and moved to an alternate coach. So kind of left me teamless… you had to be coached by that person to be in that team.”
Then came the practical questions: “Do I race as a private member? Do I join a local cycling club, or do I try and find another race team?” He’s based in Essex, in the Eastern Region. “There is… good cycling clubs here, but… not many members race,” he says. He wanted what a developing racer often needs: people around him who are turning up to the same events, talking about the same tactical problems, learning together.
There were other coaching teams available – but that wasn’t the dynamic he wanted. “There seems to be plenty of cycling coaching clubs out there… which require you to be kind of coached by one of their coaches… But I wasn’t looking for that dynamic. I was looking for… a specific purpose, you know, focused race team.”
He also knew where his local ceiling was at the time. “My local… local race team here is… [DAS] Richardsons… and I… I was nowhere near that level.” The conclusion he drew is disarmingly straightforward. “So I kind of thought, well, why don’t I create something that I’m looking for?”
Primo RT was formed at the end of 2023, and 2024 became its first season. “It was mostly local people, or people that I race with,” Crawt says. “All kind of looking for the same thing… effectively, we’re just a… collective of passionate riders.” The team’s pitch, if there is one, is not glamour. It’s access to a focused race environment for riders who aren’t yet ready for the top domestic development squads but want something more structured than turning up alone.
There was a clear gap… there was nothing like us at the time, offering that opportunity for riders that are still developing
“There was a clear gap,” he says. “Certainly was in our region… there was nothing like us at the time, offering that opportunity for riders that are still developing.
Colin Ward. Image: Mark James
“We split our team into two. We have an elite squad that mainly focus on National A and B road racing and crits, and we have a core team that focus on regional racing.” Importantly, he doesn’t describe this as a hierarchy where the “core” is simply a waiting room. “Some of the core team… have ambitions to be in that elite team… some don’t, you know, and that’s absolutely fine.”
Primo also made a point of staying “agnostic” about coaching. “We don’t have any requirements in terms of coaching… some people haven’t got coaching. Some people are self-coached. Some people have different coaches.” Primo, he says, is “a race team platform, not… a coaching club… Everyone that’s in our team does race and actively races.”
The model is simple, but in the domestic scene, it’s also deliberate. It says: we are here to create better race-days, not to control how you train.
That distinction becomes even sharper when Crawt talks about support. He doesn’t dismiss equipment sponsorship, but he doesn’t centre it either. “Whilst we don’t maybe provide you a pair of shoes, a helmet and a bike, we do provide you the things that really matter… helping you with entries, helping you nutrition, helping you things like tyres, accommodation, transport.
“Ultimately, everyone that’s racing at kind of even a regional level, let alone a national level, everyone’s got a bike, everyone’s got a helmet, everyone’s got a pair of shoes.”
Primo’s sponsorship is mostly cash support from local backers. “We’re very lucky to have some actual cash… supporters, some sponsors,” he says, naming Essex and Southend Sports Trust, Tried and Tested Cycle Coaching, and Sunshine Scooters & Mobility. That money is used for kit, travel, accommodation, nutrition, tyres and entries – the basics that stop racing becoming an occasional luxury.
You see a lot of teams come and go… And I have no aspiration to be one of them teams
It also feeds directly into the thing Crawt keeps returning to: stability. “This is meant to be a supportive platform, and we want to be here… for years to come,” he says. “You see a lot of teams come and go… even the short time that I’ve been in cycling, there’s been multiple teams start and multiple teams fold… And I have no aspiration to be one of them teams.
Image: Mark James
“What young and developing riders need is… stability. They need to be in a stable team where they can get the support on a long term basis and know that we will be here.”
Crawt argues the calendar needs the same certainty, and he is blunt about the state of road racing. “There’s been a massive decline in road races,” he says. “I don’t think I’ve ever been in a sport where there’s been so many events cancelled… which is… a real shame.”
Riders don’t know where they are or where they’re going, right? If they’re unsure if a race is going to run, then that ultimately means they put off entering
His explanation for the entry problem is direct. “Riders don’t know where they are or where they’re going, right? If they’re unsure if a race is going to run, then that ultimately means they put off entering.” Riders leave options open. Races sit on the edge. Cancellation becomes more likely, which makes riders even more hesitant the next time.
For Crawt, this isn’t theoretical. Primo stepped in to support the 2025 Kennel Hill Classic. “Ultimately, they were a couple of entries short of guaranteeing the race runs,” he says. “I spoke to Seb [Ottley, the organiser] and he said, look… we’re short a couple of entries. I said, well, what if I sponsor that in cash, and then I can guarantee this race is going to happen.”
“I had multiple riders entered, including myself… and we wanted to book accommodation, book transport,” he says. “So… we needed that… stability factor.” You can’t plan a National-level programme on maybes.
He believes that if organisers can credibly promise an event will run, it would likely shift rider behaviour. “If organisers said, look, this race will happen regardless of entries – within reason, of course – then they ultimately would get more early entries.”
Image: Mark James
Primo also supported a local National B organised by Southend Wheelers, the Andrews Trophy. And here, Crawt is explicit about who is still holding the sport up. “We’ve got to be super thankful to these clubs,” he says. “They have… the power of the people, because they have the people to be able to volunteer… marshals… sign on… help putting signs out.”
For 2026, Primo plans to collaborate with Southend Wheelers and London Academy to run a women’s and open regional road race. Crawt describes it as a “collaborative approach”: Primo and London Academy will help promote it and provide support on the day, while Southend Wheelers provide organisational expertise and volunteers.
The Essex Reservoir Road Race, provisionally scheduled for 26 July, will use the same circuit as this year’s Andrews Trophy – which moves from East Hanningfield to West Hanningfield for 2026 to offer something different for riders. The day will feature both an open and a women’s 2/3/4 road race, with prize money and prizes provided by Primo RT, LDN Academy and Southend Wheelers’ sponsors. Entries are expected to open shortly on British Cycling.
The practical rationale is safety, confidence and retention. “Because it is a regional race… it will possibly be a lot of riders’ first-ever road race,” Crawt says. Primo intends to create a buddy system: help new riders find sign-on, warm up properly, check equipment and tyre pressures.
And he makes the core point in a way that will resonate with anyone who has watched a first-time road racer get spat out the back, panicked, or simply never come back. “It’s a bit crazy to me that you know you could… be a Cat 4… or a Cat 3… may have never done a road racing. You’re going to just turn up on that day and race for two hours plus on an open road where the racing dynamic is very different.”
Providing that kind of buddy system will hopefully provide these new riders a bit of reassurance and also encourage people to enter
He’s not arguing for hand-holding. He’s arguing for basic infrastructure that helps riders feel they belong there. “Providing that kind of buddy system will hopefully provide these new riders a bit of reassurance and also encourage people to enter.”
That returns us to his Eastern Region claim. If regional races don’t run, what fills that space? Crawt’s answer is that nothing fills it cleanly, and that the sport pays later. “You need… 2/3/4 regional races to run, in order for these riders… to develop, to get British Cycling points, to upgrade their licence, to be able to even… encourage them to enter a national race.”
He links the lack of racing opportunity directly to recruitment. “It’s something that we’ve even found this year is… we’ve seen a lack of younger riders applying to be in teams… the pool of riders is reducing.” He widens the lens to Britain’s broader conditions: “We haven’t got the best terrain to train on, we don’t have the best weather, and the sport itself is not particularly well received by the public.”
The conclusion he draws is simple: the riders who remain are often the ones who really want it. “You’ve got to be really dedicated, and you’ve got to really want it.”
Olly Curd in 2025, who has now stepped up to DAS Richardsons. Image: Mark James
Primo’s 2026 elite squad reflects that pragmatic approach – a tight roster with clarity about roles rather than a sprawling list. In Crawt’s own words, the elite line-up for 2026 is: Colin Ward, Benedict Thompson, Kaine Petrie, Josh Ballinger, Charlie Crawt and Will Barham. “Rob Staines and Louis Digance have moved to our core team to focus on regional racing,” he adds, while “Oliver Curd has gone Richardsons.”
Curd’s progression is the most obvious example of how Crawt envisages his team supporting riders. Curd had some “some fantastic results,” in 2025, including second place at the Kennel Hill Classic behind the flying Adam Howell.
Crawt, however, is specific about the one that matters most in this context: “had a fifth at Beaumont last year… his best National A result.” He frames it not as a miracle result, but as what happens when the team environment helps a rider put the pieces together. “It’s down to the rider to train… recover… and turn up to race day with the right mindset,” he says. “With the support of the team, it’s putting all them jigsaw pieces together.
“That got him that opportunity at Richardsons for this season, which we’re… really excited about for him.”
Let’s actually try and make change… do what we can as a team, to support the scene and support racing
Crawt’s instincts remain rooted in action rather than complaint. “We’re not ones just to sit and moan about… what everyone else is doing,” he says. “Let’s actually try and make change… do what we can as a team, to support the scene and support racing.”
He’s realistic about what that means. It means budgeting carefully. It means cash sponsorship going into tyres and entries rather than shiny objects. It means turning up to races with a plan. It means working with clubs because clubs still provide the volunteer backbone. It means trying to make a rider’s first road race less intimidating so they come back for the second.
And it means hoping the calendar gives everyone half a chance. That is why Crawt’s comment about the Eastern Region matters – not as a throwaway complaint, but as a warning about what happens when the base of the sport thins out. If riders can’t learn their craft regionally, and if organisers can’t rely on early entries, the pressure concentrates higher up. National B becomes a bigger leap. National A becomes a narrower corridor. The pool shrinks again, and the cancellations become easier to predict.
Primo RT isn’t claiming to solve that. But it is responding to it in ways that are unusually concrete: underwriting races when they’re short of entries, building a roster that races with a plan, and putting support around first-time road racers so they don’t disappear after one hard day. In 2026, the question for British domestic road racing isn’t whether there’s talent at the top – it’s whether the middle holds long enough for that talent to arrive.
“Last year, there wasn’t one regional road race that ran in the Eastern Region.”
Charlie Crawt says it matter-of-factly in a WhatsApp voice note, recorded between the everyday logistics of running a small domestic team. It’s offered as a plain observation, but it points to a wider issue: when regional road racing thins out, the first steps into open-road competition become harder to take, and the pathway into National B and National A racing narrows for developing riders.
For Crawt – rider, manager and founder of Primo Race Team – the consequences are straightforward. Without regional road racing, riders don’t get a proper introduction to open-road dynamics. They don’t pick up licence points. They don’t learn the rhythms that make National B racing survivable, let alone National A. They lose the most ordinary, essential thing a developing rider needs: regular starts.
Crawt links it to what he calls “a massive decline in road races” and the number of events cancelled. That uncertainty, he says, feeds back into entries. “If they’re unsure if a race is going to run, then that ultimately means they put off entering,” he says – leaving organisers a few entries short of guaranteeing a race will run, and teams reluctant to book accommodation and transport.
Primo RT sits in the middle of that – not as a grand fix, and not as a brand exercise, but as a practical attempt to keep progression possible. The team has riders aiming at National B and National A start lines, and it’s also putting time and money into rebuilding the entry point: regional racing that can bring new riders in and keep the pool from shrinking further.
Crawt didn’t arrive in cycling with a development blueprint. He arrived with the itch to race, found the structures didn’t fit, and built something that did. “In all honesty, I’m still very new to cycling,” he says. “So I thought: why not create what I’m looking for? If I’m looking for it, others must be too.”
He came to cycling from motorsport. “Motorsport is ghastly expensive,” he says. “We were almost doing like £1,000 a weekend on tyres.” He’s clear that cycling is cheaper – but only up to a point. “Obviously, the costs are a bit lower in cycling, but still probably higher than I initially anticipated, if I’m totally honest.”
Crawt started racing halfway through the 2023 season, “just doing three four races,” then rode a full season in 2024. Before that, he’d done what thousands of riders do: café rides, steady miles, enjoying the simple rhythm of riding. But he wanted competition. “It wasn’t kind of scratching the itch I had for competitive racing,” he says. Cycling became a replacement for racing motorbikes after “numerous injuries,” and the familiar issue of funding. “Lack of sponsorship and support… is a common theme in all sports these days,” he says.
When he first looked around for a team, the options were limited. He joined a coaching team, then changed coaches, and the consequence was immediate: “After a while, I parted ways that coach and moved to an alternate coach. So kind of left me teamless… you had to be coached by that person to be in that team.”
Then came the practical questions: “Do I race as a private member? Do I join a local cycling club, or do I try and find another race team?” He’s based in Essex, in the Eastern Region. “There is… good cycling clubs here, but… not many members race,” he says. He wanted what a developing racer often needs: people around him who are turning up to the same events, talking about the same tactical problems, learning together.
There were other coaching teams available – but that wasn’t the dynamic he wanted. “There seems to be plenty of cycling coaching clubs out there… which require you to be kind of coached by one of their coaches… But I wasn’t looking for that dynamic. I was looking for… a specific purpose, you know, focused race team.”
He also knew where his local ceiling was at the time. “My local… local race team here is… [DAS] Richardsons… and I… I was nowhere near that level.” The conclusion he drew is disarmingly straightforward. “So I kind of thought, well, why don’t I create something that I’m looking for?”
Primo RT was formed at the end of 2023, and 2024 became its first season. “It was mostly local people, or people that I race with,” Crawt says. “All kind of looking for the same thing… effectively, we’re just a… collective of passionate riders.” The team’s pitch, if there is one, is not glamour. It’s access to a focused race environment for riders who aren’t yet ready for the top domestic development squads but want something more structured than turning up alone.
“There was a clear gap,” he says. “Certainly was in our region… there was nothing like us at the time, offering that opportunity for riders that are still developing.
“We split our team into two. We have an elite squad that mainly focus on National A and B road racing and crits, and we have a core team that focus on regional racing.” Importantly, he doesn’t describe this as a hierarchy where the “core” is simply a waiting room. “Some of the core team… have ambitions to be in that elite team… some don’t, you know, and that’s absolutely fine.”
Primo also made a point of staying “agnostic” about coaching. “We don’t have any requirements in terms of coaching… some people haven’t got coaching. Some people are self-coached. Some people have different coaches.” Primo, he says, is “a race team platform, not… a coaching club… Everyone that’s in our team does race and actively races.”
The model is simple, but in the domestic scene, it’s also deliberate. It says: we are here to create better race-days, not to control how you train.
That distinction becomes even sharper when Crawt talks about support. He doesn’t dismiss equipment sponsorship, but he doesn’t centre it either. “Whilst we don’t maybe provide you a pair of shoes, a helmet and a bike, we do provide you the things that really matter… helping you with entries, helping you nutrition, helping you things like tyres, accommodation, transport.
“Ultimately, everyone that’s racing at kind of even a regional level, let alone a national level, everyone’s got a bike, everyone’s got a helmet, everyone’s got a pair of shoes.”
Primo’s sponsorship is mostly cash support from local backers. “We’re very lucky to have some actual cash… supporters, some sponsors,” he says, naming Essex and Southend Sports Trust, Tried and Tested Cycle Coaching, and Sunshine Scooters & Mobility. That money is used for kit, travel, accommodation, nutrition, tyres and entries – the basics that stop racing becoming an occasional luxury.
It also feeds directly into the thing Crawt keeps returning to: stability. “This is meant to be a supportive platform, and we want to be here… for years to come,” he says. “You see a lot of teams come and go… even the short time that I’ve been in cycling, there’s been multiple teams start and multiple teams fold… And I have no aspiration to be one of them teams.
“What young and developing riders need is… stability. They need to be in a stable team where they can get the support on a long term basis and know that we will be here.”
Crawt argues the calendar needs the same certainty, and he is blunt about the state of road racing. “There’s been a massive decline in road races,” he says. “I don’t think I’ve ever been in a sport where there’s been so many events cancelled… which is… a real shame.”
His explanation for the entry problem is direct. “Riders don’t know where they are or where they’re going, right? If they’re unsure if a race is going to run, then that ultimately means they put off entering.” Riders leave options open. Races sit on the edge. Cancellation becomes more likely, which makes riders even more hesitant the next time.
For Crawt, this isn’t theoretical. Primo stepped in to support the 2025 Kennel Hill Classic. “Ultimately, they were a couple of entries short of guaranteeing the race runs,” he says. “I spoke to Seb [Ottley, the organiser] and he said, look… we’re short a couple of entries. I said, well, what if I sponsor that in cash, and then I can guarantee this race is going to happen.”
“I had multiple riders entered, including myself… and we wanted to book accommodation, book transport,” he says. “So… we needed that… stability factor.” You can’t plan a National-level programme on maybes.
He believes that if organisers can credibly promise an event will run, it would likely shift rider behaviour. “If organisers said, look, this race will happen regardless of entries – within reason, of course – then they ultimately would get more early entries.”
Primo also supported a local National B organised by Southend Wheelers, the Andrews Trophy. And here, Crawt is explicit about who is still holding the sport up. “We’ve got to be super thankful to these clubs,” he says. “They have… the power of the people, because they have the people to be able to volunteer… marshals… sign on… help putting signs out.”
For 2026, Primo plans to collaborate with Southend Wheelers and London Academy to run a women’s and open regional road race. Crawt describes it as a “collaborative approach”: Primo and London Academy will help promote it and provide support on the day, while Southend Wheelers provide organisational expertise and volunteers.
The Essex Reservoir Road Race, provisionally scheduled for 26 July, will use the same circuit as this year’s Andrews Trophy – which moves from East Hanningfield to West Hanningfield for 2026 to offer something different for riders. The day will feature both an open and a women’s 2/3/4 road race, with prize money and prizes provided by Primo RT, LDN Academy and Southend Wheelers’ sponsors. Entries are expected to open shortly on British Cycling.
The practical rationale is safety, confidence and retention. “Because it is a regional race… it will possibly be a lot of riders’ first-ever road race,” Crawt says. Primo intends to create a buddy system: help new riders find sign-on, warm up properly, check equipment and tyre pressures.
And he makes the core point in a way that will resonate with anyone who has watched a first-time road racer get spat out the back, panicked, or simply never come back. “It’s a bit crazy to me that you know you could… be a Cat 4… or a Cat 3… may have never done a road racing. You’re going to just turn up on that day and race for two hours plus on an open road where the racing dynamic is very different.”
He’s not arguing for hand-holding. He’s arguing for basic infrastructure that helps riders feel they belong there. “Providing that kind of buddy system will hopefully provide these new riders a bit of reassurance and also encourage people to enter.”
That returns us to his Eastern Region claim. If regional races don’t run, what fills that space? Crawt’s answer is that nothing fills it cleanly, and that the sport pays later. “You need… 2/3/4 regional races to run, in order for these riders… to develop, to get British Cycling points, to upgrade their licence, to be able to even… encourage them to enter a national race.”
He links the lack of racing opportunity directly to recruitment. “It’s something that we’ve even found this year is… we’ve seen a lack of younger riders applying to be in teams… the pool of riders is reducing.” He widens the lens to Britain’s broader conditions: “We haven’t got the best terrain to train on, we don’t have the best weather, and the sport itself is not particularly well received by the public.”
The conclusion he draws is simple: the riders who remain are often the ones who really want it. “You’ve got to be really dedicated, and you’ve got to really want it.”
Primo’s 2026 elite squad reflects that pragmatic approach – a tight roster with clarity about roles rather than a sprawling list. In Crawt’s own words, the elite line-up for 2026 is: Colin Ward, Benedict Thompson, Kaine Petrie, Josh Ballinger, Charlie Crawt and Will Barham. “Rob Staines and Louis Digance have moved to our core team to focus on regional racing,” he adds, while “Oliver Curd has gone Richardsons.”
Curd’s progression is the most obvious example of how Crawt envisages his team supporting riders. Curd had some “some fantastic results,” in 2025, including second place at the Kennel Hill Classic behind the flying Adam Howell.
Crawt, however, is specific about the one that matters most in this context: “had a fifth at Beaumont last year… his best National A result.” He frames it not as a miracle result, but as what happens when the team environment helps a rider put the pieces together. “It’s down to the rider to train… recover… and turn up to race day with the right mindset,” he says. “With the support of the team, it’s putting all them jigsaw pieces together.
“That got him that opportunity at Richardsons for this season, which we’re… really excited about for him.”
Crawt’s instincts remain rooted in action rather than complaint. “We’re not ones just to sit and moan about… what everyone else is doing,” he says. “Let’s actually try and make change… do what we can as a team, to support the scene and support racing.”
He’s realistic about what that means. It means budgeting carefully. It means cash sponsorship going into tyres and entries rather than shiny objects. It means turning up to races with a plan. It means working with clubs because clubs still provide the volunteer backbone. It means trying to make a rider’s first road race less intimidating so they come back for the second.
And it means hoping the calendar gives everyone half a chance. That is why Crawt’s comment about the Eastern Region matters – not as a throwaway complaint, but as a warning about what happens when the base of the sport thins out. If riders can’t learn their craft regionally, and if organisers can’t rely on early entries, the pressure concentrates higher up. National B becomes a bigger leap. National A becomes a narrower corridor. The pool shrinks again, and the cancellations become easier to predict.
Primo RT isn’t claiming to solve that. But it is responding to it in ways that are unusually concrete: underwriting races when they’re short of entries, building a roster that races with a plan, and putting support around first-time road racers so they don’t disappear after one hard day. In 2026, the question for British domestic road racing isn’t whether there’s talent at the top – it’s whether the middle holds long enough for that talent to arrive.
Featured image: Mark James
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