Ian Mansel-Thomas journal: the agent landgrab

Ian Mansel-Thomas is the latest contributor to The British Continental’s 2026 journal series. Ian co-manages camsmajaco, the mixed-gender junior super-team formed this season from the merger of Fensham Howes–MAS Design and Tofauti Everyone Active, alongside Giles Pidcock. It is a role that gives him a close view of one of the most changed, and increasingly contested, parts of British cycling.

In his opening entry, Ian looks at the decisive two-year passage from 16 to 18, and how dramatically it has shifted. The junior peloton now looks more like the WorldTour than the racing British teenagers know before 16, he writes. With that professionalisation has come opportunity, pressure, and an agent landgrab that is reaching riders far too young to need one.

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Junior cycling has undergone enormous change in the years since the pandemic passed. These days, what we see amongst the junior pelotons, male and female, bears closer resemblance to the WorldTour than it does to the racing that most British youngsters experience up to the age of 16.

As you’d predict, that’s both good and bad.

There’s plenty on the upside—for talented British junior riders, professional contracts are within closer reach than perhaps they’ve ever been before. Making a career as a pro cyclist is a real possibility now for a talented rider at age 18. The way many junior teams are run now makes the two years from 16 to 18 a real stepping stone to adult life, building independence, confidence, and resilience. Youngsters can travel around Europe with their mates, doing what they love, having fun, and learning to deal with the bad days, as well as the good. Same as it ever was, cycling is a good life skill, both on and off the bike.

The pressure to secure an under-23 deal is now off the scale for junior cyclists. Riders in their second junior year feel this most acutely, but even those in their first year are getting nervous about it

The list of negative things that this change has brought, though, is long. The pressure to secure an under-23 deal is now off the scale for junior cyclists. Riders in their second junior year feel this most acutely, but even those in their first year are getting nervous about it. And that anxiety passes on to the parents, which can pose a challenge for parent-child relationships, as well as acting to heap additional demands on the staff and volunteers of the junior teams. We have always said that parents can’t want a cycling career for their offspring more than their son or daughter wants it. We’re seeing frequent examples now where that is clearly the case, and that’s not good.

If you go to a start area of a junior UCI race in Europe, you’ll often see some familiar faces. Those aren’t just those of the gathered riders and team staff, but increasingly those of WorldTour team scouts and rider agents. It’s not rocket science to say that having a WorldTour scout talking to you just before you start a big race, or who is in your face as soon as you cross the line, can only add to the general feeling of hysteria around junior racing today.

We’ve seen a clear step change this year in the attitude of rider agents, who seem desperate to sign up almost every half-decent junior, just in case they somehow miss the next Pogačar or Vollering. This is crazy. If there is a diamond of those proportions in the junior peloton, it will be obvious—you won’t find it by signing 20 riders, hoping that one discovers some previously undetected super talent.

The presence of rider agents is filtering further down the age ranges too. There are now multiple under-16 riders with agents. I don’t think I need to explain the absurdity in that sentence

The presence of rider agents is filtering further down the age ranges too. There are now multiple under-16 riders with agents. I don’t think I need to explain the absurdity in that sentence, but if you can identify adult talent accurately from a child who is likely just to have been blessed with early maturity, then you’re probably better at this game than all the people who’ve been recruiting under-16s into junior teams for years.

This desperate ‘landgrab’ of younger and younger riders reminds me of the music industry in the 1990s, when record labels were signing multiple bands because other record companies were showing an interest. The 1990s music industry was renowned for its questionable morals, and that’s being reflected in agents today, who seem to think it is appropriate to strike up a conversation with someone under 18 on social media, without involving their parents, at least until they absolutely have to.

What this behaviour creates is a recipe for disappointment. Having a ‘big’ agent doesn’t make you a better bike rider, doesn’t get you better results, and doesn’t guarantee you a successful career

What this behaviour creates is a recipe for disappointment. Having a ‘big’ agent doesn’t make you a better bike rider, doesn’t get you better results, and doesn’t guarantee you a successful career. But that’s what is being sold to these youngsters by some agents, many of them based in Europe. A 16-year-old can feel they’ve ‘made it’ when they sign with a big agent. Teams though will want to see that the rider is a good person and a fit for their team—they never take the word of the agents, obviously. All agents will say their riders are super strong and also great people. Unfortunately, that can’t always be true.

So, the question presents itself—do young riders need an agent? Like all answers, it depends. For some super talented riders, having an agent can mean they have a gatekeeper to field multiple approaches from teams. That can only be a good thing for those riders, who are still only 17 or 18. For other riders, who are there or thereabouts talent- and results-wise, a good agent could mean the difference between getting onto a pro team or not. Could being the key word there.

There are, of course, some excellent agents out there. But those are the ones whose reputations mean they don’t have to approach multiple young riders trying to land ‘clients’. They know that riders who would really benefit from having an agent will find them. The misplaced frenzy about having to have an agent means that those good agents are now overwhelmed by the number of enquiries from young riders who, simply put, don’t need an agent.

But we all need to remember that professional cycling is still pretty much as precarious as it has ever been. We’re not in a period when the number of professional teams is increasing, nor in a period where budgets are increasing, or even becoming more secure. That means that there aren’t more pro contracts out there than there have been in the past. The number of riders who make it to the pro ranks is still very small.

Riders simply don’t need an agent any time before they become a junior, and even then, the majority of riders don’t need one. If your legs and racing chops mean you’re winning junior races, then maybe, just maybe, it will be useful for you to have one

So, it ultimately comes down to talent. If riders have the talent, and can back that up through conscientious training and developing great race skills, then they may be able to make it. If they don’t have the talent, or the work ethic to exploit their talent, no number of agents, £15,000 super bikes, or ribbed undervests will get them a pro career.

Like so much in cycling, fashion is a key driver of behaviour. And today’s fashion seems to be to try to sign with an agent as soon as possible. Riders simply don’t need an agent any time before they become a junior, and even then, the majority of riders don’t need one. If your legs and racing chops mean you’re winning junior races, then maybe, just maybe, it will be useful for you to have one. But an agent doesn’t make up for insufficient talent, unfortunately, and never will.

Featured image: Milan Josy/The British Continental

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