DAS–Hutchinson to close UCI Continental team at the end of 2026, citing rising costs
The team that has won the women’s National Road Series team title in every edition since 2019 will not race at UCI Continental level in 2027, pointing to the rising cost of racing in Europe. Team OnForm, the development programme it grew from, will continue.
In a statement published on Friday, the team said that “the cost of operating a competitive UCI Continental programme has risen significantly, particularly through the increasing costs associated with European racing and travel”.
“Despite the fantastic backing of our partners, maintaining the programme at the standard we believe our riders and staff deserve has become increasingly difficult,” it said. The team will not race at Continental level in 2027.
This is not a complete exit. The statement stressed that it is “not the end of Team OnForm”, the development programme from which the Continental squad grew and which raced this year as Brother UK–Team OnForm, a British Cycling Elite Development Team managed by Mark Botteley. That programme will continue.
“It has been an incredibly difficult decision to bring the Continental programme to an end, but now feels like the right time,” said Simon Howes, the team’s co-owner.
“Above all, I’m proud of the opportunities we have been able to give riders,” he said. “Seeing athletes come through the programme, develop with us and go on to take the next steps in their careers has always meant more than any individual result. Teams like this are such an important part of the pathway in women’s cycling.”
What the statement does not address is what happens next to the team’s riders and staff, or whether its sponsors will stay involved with OnForm.
Britain had a record six UCI Continental women’s teams in 2024. Lifeplus–Wahoo, the longest-running of them, closed that season, leaving five for 2025, and Hess Cycling Team’s collapse in the middle of last season left four for 2026: DAS–Hutchinson, Handsling Alba Development Road Team, O’Shea Red Chilli Bikes, and Smurfit Westrock Cycling Team. If the other three all continue, there will be three in 2027.
Lifeplus–Wahoo and Hess both stopped racing mid-season. DAS–Hutchinson is finishing its year and closing on its own terms, thanking its sponsors as it goes. That makes the decision harder to dismiss. The team with the best domestic record of its era has weighed up the cost of a Continental programme and concluded that it cannot be met at the standard it wants.
European racing and travel are the pressures the statement names. It does not mention the UCI rules that, from 2026, allow Continental teams into Women’s WorldTour races only when fewer than 15 WorldTeams and ProTeams have accepted. The rule has been applied loosely this season, and all four British teams rode the Tour of Britain Women, but their places were confirmed only in July. Speaking to The British Continental in December 2024, Howes said few Continental teams at its level had a comparable international programme, and that simply getting into races was “a real challenge” for every British team.
It is also the second women’s team closure to become public in two days. On Thursday, Nikki Metcalfe told The British Continental that Paralloy RT, the Elite Development Team that raced for eight seasons as Team Boompods, will stop at the end of the year. The two teams sat on different rungs of the same ladder. In April, Katie Scott won the East Cleveland Classic for Paralloy and within days had moved up to DAS–Hutchinson. Less than six months later, both have said they are closing.
What the national series lose
For domestic racing, the loss is of the team the others measured themselves against. In 2026 DAS–Hutchinson won the National Road Series team title by 21 points from Handsling Alba and finished 21 points behind the same team in the National Circuit Series. Yeoman, who took her first National A road race win at the Rapha Lincoln Grand Prix, and Scott were first and second in the Rapha Super-League. Noémie Thomson won the ANEXO/CAMS Women’s CiCLE Classic, and Josie Knight was second in the national road race after a long solo break. Only on the final day of the season, at a race it did not enter, did the team lose the lead of The British Continental’s women’s team rankings, to Loughborough Lightning, by eight points.
Robyn Clay (DAS-Hutchinson) wins the 2025 Tour of The Reservoir. Image: Olly Hassell/SWpix.com
Its riders will now need new teams.
From OnForm to the Continental ranks
By its own count the team has raced nine seasons. It began as Team OnForm, the squad Howes founded, where a young Anna Henderson, later an Olympic time trial silver medallist, led the line as the team won rounds of the Tour Series. In 2019, as Brother UK–Tifosi p/b OnForm, it won the National Road Series team title, with Rebecca Durrell taking the individual title.
A UCI Continental licence followed in 2020, as CAMS–Tifosi. The team became CAMS–Basso, then DAS–Handsling in 2023, before merging with Hutchinson–Brother UK for 2024, when Ian Watson joined Howes and co-owner Andrew Paine in the management. It has raced as DAS–Hutchinson since 2025.
The names changed and the results did not. It has won the National Road Series team title in every edition since 2019, and Sammie Stuart (2022), Monica Greenwood (2023), Robyn Clay (2025), and Yeoman have added the individual title. Clay’s 2025 was the peak at home: the National Road Series, the National Circuit Series, and the inaugural Rapha Super-League in a single season, alongside a UCI stage win at the Tour de Feminin.
Howes has long judged the team by where its riders went next. Henderson reached the WorldTour. Becky Storrie came through OnForm, joined CAMS–Basso in 2021, won the Lincoln Grand Prix the following year, and signed for Team DSM. Clay joined Team Picnic PostNL for 2026 and rode the Tour de France Femmes in her first season as a professional.
That pathway is the thing the statement is proudest of, and part of it survives: OnForm will go on developing riders. From 2027, there will be one fewer British Continental team for them to step up to.
DAS–Hutchinson will close its UCI Continental team at the end of 2026, less than seven weeks after Morven Yeoman won the National Road Series and the Rapha Super-League in its colours.
In a statement published on Friday, the team said that “the cost of operating a competitive UCI Continental programme has risen significantly, particularly through the increasing costs associated with European racing and travel”.
“Despite the fantastic backing of our partners, maintaining the programme at the standard we believe our riders and staff deserve has become increasingly difficult,” it said. The team will not race at Continental level in 2027.
This is not a complete exit. The statement stressed that it is “not the end of Team OnForm”, the development programme from which the Continental squad grew and which raced this year as Brother UK–Team OnForm, a British Cycling Elite Development Team managed by Mark Botteley. That programme will continue.
“It has been an incredibly difficult decision to bring the Continental programme to an end, but now feels like the right time,” said Simon Howes, the team’s co-owner.
“Above all, I’m proud of the opportunities we have been able to give riders,” he said. “Seeing athletes come through the programme, develop with us and go on to take the next steps in their careers has always meant more than any individual result. Teams like this are such an important part of the pathway in women’s cycling.”
What the statement does not address is what happens next to the team’s riders and staff, or whether its sponsors will stay involved with OnForm.
Six teams in 2024, three in 2027
Britain had a record six UCI Continental women’s teams in 2024. Lifeplus–Wahoo, the longest-running of them, closed that season, leaving five for 2025, and Hess Cycling Team’s collapse in the middle of last season left four for 2026: DAS–Hutchinson, Handsling Alba Development Road Team, O’Shea Red Chilli Bikes, and Smurfit Westrock Cycling Team. If the other three all continue, there will be three in 2027.
Lifeplus–Wahoo and Hess both stopped racing mid-season. DAS–Hutchinson is finishing its year and closing on its own terms, thanking its sponsors as it goes. That makes the decision harder to dismiss. The team with the best domestic record of its era has weighed up the cost of a Continental programme and concluded that it cannot be met at the standard it wants.
European racing and travel are the pressures the statement names. It does not mention the UCI rules that, from 2026, allow Continental teams into Women’s WorldTour races only when fewer than 15 WorldTeams and ProTeams have accepted. The rule has been applied loosely this season, and all four British teams rode the Tour of Britain Women, but their places were confirmed only in July. Speaking to The British Continental in December 2024, Howes said few Continental teams at its level had a comparable international programme, and that simply getting into races was “a real challenge” for every British team.
It is also the second women’s team closure to become public in two days. On Thursday, Nikki Metcalfe told The British Continental that Paralloy RT, the Elite Development Team that raced for eight seasons as Team Boompods, will stop at the end of the year. The two teams sat on different rungs of the same ladder. In April, Katie Scott won the East Cleveland Classic for Paralloy and within days had moved up to DAS–Hutchinson. Less than six months later, both have said they are closing.
What the national series lose
For domestic racing, the loss is of the team the others measured themselves against. In 2026 DAS–Hutchinson won the National Road Series team title by 21 points from Handsling Alba and finished 21 points behind the same team in the National Circuit Series. Yeoman, who took her first National A road race win at the Rapha Lincoln Grand Prix, and Scott were first and second in the Rapha Super-League. Noémie Thomson won the ANEXO/CAMS Women’s CiCLE Classic, and Josie Knight was second in the national road race after a long solo break. Only on the final day of the season, at a race it did not enter, did the team lose the lead of The British Continental’s women’s team rankings, to Loughborough Lightning, by eight points.
Its riders will now need new teams.
From OnForm to the Continental ranks
By its own count the team has raced nine seasons. It began as Team OnForm, the squad Howes founded, where a young Anna Henderson, later an Olympic time trial silver medallist, led the line as the team won rounds of the Tour Series. In 2019, as Brother UK–Tifosi p/b OnForm, it won the National Road Series team title, with Rebecca Durrell taking the individual title.
A UCI Continental licence followed in 2020, as CAMS–Tifosi. The team became CAMS–Basso, then DAS–Handsling in 2023, before merging with Hutchinson–Brother UK for 2024, when Ian Watson joined Howes and co-owner Andrew Paine in the management. It has raced as DAS–Hutchinson since 2025.
The names changed and the results did not. It has won the National Road Series team title in every edition since 2019, and Sammie Stuart (2022), Monica Greenwood (2023), Robyn Clay (2025), and Yeoman have added the individual title. Clay’s 2025 was the peak at home: the National Road Series, the National Circuit Series, and the inaugural Rapha Super-League in a single season, alongside a UCI stage win at the Tour de Feminin.
Howes has long judged the team by where its riders went next. Henderson reached the WorldTour. Becky Storrie came through OnForm, joined CAMS–Basso in 2021, won the Lincoln Grand Prix the following year, and signed for Team DSM. Clay joined Team Picnic PostNL for 2026 and rode the Tour de France Femmes in her first season as a professional.
That pathway is the thing the statement is proudest of, and part of it survives: OnForm will go on developing riders. From 2027, there will be one fewer British Continental team for them to step up to.
Featured image: SWpix.com
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