Mercato, 22 September: Howell stays in France, Simpson Nouvelles sign two
Mercato is our regular round-up of transfers and rider moves in British domestic racing. This week: a re-signing in the Ain, two signings for Simpson Nouvelles, and a Muc-Off–SRCT–Storck graduate back at Continental level.
Adam Howell is staying in France. Bourg-en-Bresse Ain Cyclisme announced it on Monday with one word, “reconduction”, and a caption reading “here we go again”. That is, perhaps, about as talkative as a French Continental team gets. It also settles the most interesting question left over from the Muc-Off–SRCT–Storck diaspora: the rider who left with the most to prove gets another year to prove it.
This is Mercato, our round-up of transfers and rider moves in British domestic racing. This first one also sweeps up the past few weeks; after this, everything here will be new since the last edition. The full list lives on Mercato 2027, our tracker, and every entry carries a status: confirmed by the team, announced by the rider, or reported.
Drop us a line at info@thebritishcontinental.co.uk if you have any news you want us to add.
Britons abroad
Adam Howell (Bourg-en-Bresse Ain Cyclisme, re-signed for 2027, confirmed 21 September). Howell is 21 and has had the season to justify the faith. He won Arbent-Bourg-Arbent in May, a round of the Coupe de France N1, alone after 163 kilometres. At the Ronde de l’Isard he rode for Huw Buck Jones, who led from his stage win on the Col de Pailhères until bonus seconds on the final day handed the overall to Niels Driesen. Buck Jones lost it by five seconds; Howell was third. Then ninth at the Tour de l’Ain, a 2.1 with five WorldTeams in the field. He rode 2026 as a final-year under-23, so 2027 will be his first season out of the bracket.
Joshua Giddings (Lotto-Intermarché, extended to the end of 2028, confirmed 21 September). Nine days after his first professional win, he has two more years. The win came on stage 1 of the Tour of Taihu Lake, a sprint at Tangshan from Matteo Malucelli, and he left China second overall and first in the young riders’ classification. Domestic crowds saw the form first. On 1 July he won the Martin House Open Otley Grand Prix, attacking on the last lap and holding off Ollie Wood in the drag to the line (our report). The 23-year-old from Nottingham came through Team Inspired and Holdsworth Zappi before Lotto’s development squad. His Giro d’Italia debut in May, a late call-up when illness went through the team, ended on stage 5 after a crash.
Alex Beldon (Mayenne-Monbana-Rapido to NSN Devo Team, confirmed August, with immediate effect). This one slipped past us in the summer. Beldon left the French club team he joined from Muc-Off–SRCT–Storck to rejoin the Continental feeder of the WorldTeam formerly known as Israel-Premier Tech, where he finished 2025, on a deal to the end of 2027. The rider we interviewed in May 2025 about rebuilding after Trinity Racing folded has been back at UCI Continental level since early August.
Domestic signings
Áine Doherty (Dan Morrissey Primór by Pissei to Simpson Nouvelles, confirmed 21 September). The Irish pipeline into British women’s teams takes another rider. Doherty is 20, from Belfast, and won the Irish criterium title in 2025 as a first-year under-23, her 22nd national title after 21 at youth level across road, cyclocross and mountain bike. This year she was second in that championship to 16-year-old Emer Heverin, and rode Rás na mBan for the Cycling Ulster team that took best Irish team. She studies pharmacy at Queen’s, and told Sticky Bottle last year that the women’s Rapha Lincoln Grand Prix had left her wanting more racing in Britain and Belgium. She has ridden Lincoln in each of the last two seasons.
Megan Cherry (camsmajaco to Simpson Nouvelles, confirmed 22 September). The ride her new team cite in their welcome is the one that got away: nearly three laps alone at the front of the junior women’s national road race in July, a lead of a minute and a half, and silver when Mabli Phillips caught her on the last lap (our report). Cherry is 18, a second-year junior this season after a first with the team when it was still Tofauti Everyone Active Majaco. Ella Tandy took the same path to Nouvelles a year ago. Her senior outings this year include eighth at the Witham Hall Grand Prix and 19th overall at the Ronde van Wymeswold (Stats Hub).
Two signings in two days makes Simpson Nouvelles the first British domestic team off the mark for 2027.
Juniors
Xander Graham (to JEGG-SKIL-DJR U19, 2027, confirmed 16 September). You have seen the clip: a 12-year-old riding the pavement alongside the Tour of Britain breakaway outside Edinburgh in 2021, taking a bidon from Pascal Eenkhoorn. Five years on, the Scot has signed for the Dutch junior team that works with Visma-Lease a Bike, for his second junior road season.
Without a team for 2027
Two riders with big September results are looking for a home. Ted McDaid (Gers Cycling Développement), 20, won the Chas Messenger Trophy at Astwood on 6 September from a seven-rider sprint, having spent the year racing in south-west France with no domestic result to his name. He told us afterwards that he is actively looking for a team. Millie Salmon (Grouwels-Watersley R&D), 18, won the bunch sprint for second at the KLM Taxis Women’s GP at Walton on 19 September, behind Olivia Bates, and starts her first under-23 season without a team after the one she was due to join folded. Managers with a place to fill can reach both of them through us.
Team news
BCC Race Team and MyPad Racing p/b ONDO Sports merge for 2027, racing as BCC–MyPad with a National Road Series calendar and UCI races abroad, as we revealed on 9 September.
RideRevolution Coaching CT want to be a UCI Continental team in 2028. Next season is the proving year: more investment, a bigger international calendar, and a top tier of around 10 riders supported as close to full-time as the team can manage, as Jake Hales told us in August. Since Trinity Racing and Saint Piran closed at the end of 2024, the only British men’s Continental team has been the WorldTeam-backed Netcompany INEOS Racing Academy.
Further up the ladder
Ben Turner leaves Netcompany INEOS for Soudal Quick-Step, confirmed on 16 September after the Belgian team’s chief executive had already let it slip during the Vuelta. His deal runs to the end of 2029. Ben Swift, 38, is retiring after 18 seasons, all but three of them at Sky and INEOS.
Adam Howell is staying in France. Bourg-en-Bresse Ain Cyclisme announced it on Monday with one word, “reconduction”, and a caption reading “here we go again”. That is, perhaps, about as talkative as a French Continental team gets. It also settles the most interesting question left over from the Muc-Off–SRCT–Storck diaspora: the rider who left with the most to prove gets another year to prove it.
This is Mercato, our round-up of transfers and rider moves in British domestic racing. This first one also sweeps up the past few weeks; after this, everything here will be new since the last edition. The full list lives on Mercato 2027, our tracker, and every entry carries a status: confirmed by the team, announced by the rider, or reported.
Drop us a line at info@thebritishcontinental.co.uk if you have any news you want us to add.
Britons abroad
Adam Howell (Bourg-en-Bresse Ain Cyclisme, re-signed for 2027, confirmed 21 September). Howell is 21 and has had the season to justify the faith. He won Arbent-Bourg-Arbent in May, a round of the Coupe de France N1, alone after 163 kilometres. At the Ronde de l’Isard he rode for Huw Buck Jones, who led from his stage win on the Col de Pailhères until bonus seconds on the final day handed the overall to Niels Driesen. Buck Jones lost it by five seconds; Howell was third. Then ninth at the Tour de l’Ain, a 2.1 with five WorldTeams in the field. He rode 2026 as a final-year under-23, so 2027 will be his first season out of the bracket.
Joshua Giddings (Lotto-Intermarché, extended to the end of 2028, confirmed 21 September). Nine days after his first professional win, he has two more years. The win came on stage 1 of the Tour of Taihu Lake, a sprint at Tangshan from Matteo Malucelli, and he left China second overall and first in the young riders’ classification. Domestic crowds saw the form first. On 1 July he won the Martin House Open Otley Grand Prix, attacking on the last lap and holding off Ollie Wood in the drag to the line (our report). The 23-year-old from Nottingham came through Team Inspired and Holdsworth Zappi before Lotto’s development squad. His Giro d’Italia debut in May, a late call-up when illness went through the team, ended on stage 5 after a crash.
Alex Beldon (Mayenne-Monbana-Rapido to NSN Devo Team, confirmed August, with immediate effect). This one slipped past us in the summer. Beldon left the French club team he joined from Muc-Off–SRCT–Storck to rejoin the Continental feeder of the WorldTeam formerly known as Israel-Premier Tech, where he finished 2025, on a deal to the end of 2027. The rider we interviewed in May 2025 about rebuilding after Trinity Racing folded has been back at UCI Continental level since early August.
Domestic signings
Áine Doherty (Dan Morrissey Primór by Pissei to Simpson Nouvelles, confirmed 21 September). The Irish pipeline into British women’s teams takes another rider. Doherty is 20, from Belfast, and won the Irish criterium title in 2025 as a first-year under-23, her 22nd national title after 21 at youth level across road, cyclocross and mountain bike. This year she was second in that championship to 16-year-old Emer Heverin, and rode Rás na mBan for the Cycling Ulster team that took best Irish team. She studies pharmacy at Queen’s, and told Sticky Bottle last year that the women’s Rapha Lincoln Grand Prix had left her wanting more racing in Britain and Belgium. She has ridden Lincoln in each of the last two seasons.
Megan Cherry (camsmajaco to Simpson Nouvelles, confirmed 22 September). The ride her new team cite in their welcome is the one that got away: nearly three laps alone at the front of the junior women’s national road race in July, a lead of a minute and a half, and silver when Mabli Phillips caught her on the last lap (our report). Cherry is 18, a second-year junior this season after a first with the team when it was still Tofauti Everyone Active Majaco. Ella Tandy took the same path to Nouvelles a year ago. Her senior outings this year include eighth at the Witham Hall Grand Prix and 19th overall at the Ronde van Wymeswold (Stats Hub).
Two signings in two days makes Simpson Nouvelles the first British domestic team off the mark for 2027.
Juniors
Xander Graham (to JEGG-SKIL-DJR U19, 2027, confirmed 16 September). You have seen the clip: a 12-year-old riding the pavement alongside the Tour of Britain breakaway outside Edinburgh in 2021, taking a bidon from Pascal Eenkhoorn. Five years on, the Scot has signed for the Dutch junior team that works with Visma-Lease a Bike, for his second junior road season.
Without a team for 2027
Two riders with big September results are looking for a home. Ted McDaid (Gers Cycling Développement), 20, won the Chas Messenger Trophy at Astwood on 6 September from a seven-rider sprint, having spent the year racing in south-west France with no domestic result to his name. He told us afterwards that he is actively looking for a team. Millie Salmon (Grouwels-Watersley R&D), 18, won the bunch sprint for second at the KLM Taxis Women’s GP at Walton on 19 September, behind Olivia Bates, and starts her first under-23 season without a team after the one she was due to join folded. Managers with a place to fill can reach both of them through us.
Team news
BCC Race Team and MyPad Racing p/b ONDO Sports merge for 2027, racing as BCC–MyPad with a National Road Series calendar and UCI races abroad, as we revealed on 9 September.
RideRevolution Coaching CT want to be a UCI Continental team in 2028. Next season is the proving year: more investment, a bigger international calendar, and a top tier of around 10 riders supported as close to full-time as the team can manage, as Jake Hales told us in August. Since Trinity Racing and Saint Piran closed at the end of 2024, the only British men’s Continental team has been the WorldTeam-backed Netcompany INEOS Racing Academy.
Further up the ladder
Ben Turner leaves Netcompany INEOS for Soudal Quick-Step, confirmed on 16 September after the Belgian team’s chief executive had already let it slip during the Vuelta. His deal runs to the end of 2029. Ben Swift, 38, is retiring after 18 seasons, all but three of them at Sky and INEOS.
Mercato 2027 is updated as moves are confirmed.
Featured image: Joe Hudson
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