Exclusive: Stolen Goat 4Endurance go young for 2027 as Gilmour joins and Murphy moves on
Stolen Goat 4Endurance have rebuilt around under-23s for 2027, with Portsdown runner-up Matt Gilmour among five signings and Alex Murphy moving on after his breakthrough season. Team manager Simon Jodrell spoke exclusively to The British Continental.
When Alex Murphywon the Portsdown Classic in February, in Stolen Goat 4Endurance’s first race in their new kit, the rider in 2nd was Matt Gilmour. Next season Gilmour will be wearing that kit. He joins the Hampshire team for 2027, while Murphy moves on after his breakthrough season.
Gilmour is one of five new riders in an eight-rider squad made up of seven under-23s and Mohammad Ganjkhanlou, 29. Team manager Simon Jodrell spoke exclusively to The British Continental about why he has rebuilt the team after its first season as an Elite Development Team.
Murphy, Jack Bartholomew, Reuben Dando, Ben Goodwin, and Daniel Piercy leave. Ross Fawcett and Oliver Hurdle will still race in the team’s jersey, but outside the Elite Development Team squad and on calendars of their own, and Jodrell said the team will continue to support Melissa Denman “on her gravel and endurance adventures”, which may include the Transcontinental Race next year.
Among those leaving is Ben Goodwin, the 2025 Welsh time trial champion, who steps back after two seasons racing full time with the team.
Image: Milan Josy/The British Continental
A first year as an Elite Development Team
Stolen Goat were one of two men’s teams new to British Cycling’s Elite Development Team list in 2026, alongside JAKROO Handsling Racing. The status guarantees eight entries into every National Road Series and National Circuit Series race, and Jodrell called the year “a bit of an eye-opener”. “It’s quite a big commitment for such a small team to be present at every National Series road race, logistically,” he said. Partners and parents made it possible and “it’s worked really well”, he said, but it also showed him that “the team I had this year wasn’t necessarily suited to that”. A few riders told him towards the end of the season that they did not want another year at that level.
The team began as a group of friends racing locally, Jodrell said, and has grown organically since he took over in 2019. Bartholomew joined as a third-category rider and was thrown into everything the squad did for two seasons, UCI races included. “It’s not really what he wanted to do,” Jodrell said. Bartholomew will concentrate on time trials and triathlon. Fawcett, with the team since 2024, told Jodrell last year that he wanted to pick his own races and ride some gravel. “I said, ‘Look, stay with us. Just do that,’” Jodrell said.
Next year, this is where the focus needs to be, because those are the guys that will benefit from having that team environment
Watching his under-23s was the more rewarding part of the season, he said. “Knowing now what I know about this year, doing EDT, and seeing the under-23s do what they did, I thought, you know what? Next year, this is where the focus needs to be, because those are the guys that will benefit from having that team environment.” Riders with careers, like Fawcett and Bartholomew, could afford to get themselves to races. “They don’t necessarily need that team environment,” Jodrell said. “They’ve got professional jobs and careers. Whereas these other young lads seem to get more out of what we’re doing.”
Murphy wins at Portsdown. Image: Mark James
Murphy moves on
Murphy joined from Shibden Apex RT as a first-year under-23 in 2025 and became the team’s leading rider in his second season. After Portsdown he was 4th at the Jock Wadley Memorial Road Race and 7th at the Kennel Hill Classic, and his 5th place at the South Molton Grand Prix in July was, Jodrell said, the team’s best result in a National Road Series race. He finished 6th in The British Continental’s national rankings with 327 points, almost half of the 675 that put Stolen Goat 4Endurance 8th in the team standings. Where he will race in 2027 has not been announced.
It’s not a loss if he goes on and progresses. That’s what the aim is
Jodrell sees his departure as the team doing its job. “It’s a loss because I’m very fond of him, and I like spending time with him and his parents, and he’s been a great asset to the team,” he said. “What we’ve done is give him a platform to show himself off and to do well.” He encouraged Murphy to take guest rides in races the team could not get into, to gain experience of those races and of how other teams work. “It’s not a loss if he goes on and progresses. That’s what the aim is,” Jodrell said. “I’m not here to keep him as long as I can and get every result out of him.”
The difficulty is what comes next. Britain had six men’s UCI Continental teams in 2019 and none at all in 2025. “The shame of it is there is no clear path for him to progress, unless perhaps he goes into Europe, which is easier said than done,” Jodrell said. “Ten years ago, there were plenty of teams that you could have approached and put him into that would have been a clear progression.” At home, he said, nobody offers significantly more than Stolen Goat 4Endurance can. “There are perhaps a couple of teams that can do more for him in terms of overseas calendar, and if he’s going somewhere he can get that, then all power to him.”
The patron and the two Hughs
Ganjkhanlou joined from Reading CC for 2026, and Jodrell calls him “the patron, really”. A former professional in Iran, where he was national under-23 champion, he won the Asian under-23 road race title in 2019. This year he was 5th at the Jock Wadley, 3rd at the Riders Collective GP in September, and 14th at the Rutland–Melton CiCLE Classic in April, one place ahead of Murphy. In July the pair were, in Jodrell’s words, “in the mix” again at the Midden-Brabant Poort Omloop, a flat UCI 1.2 race in the Netherlands full of Continental teams, where Ganjkhanlou was 26th and Murphy 43rd.
I’ve actually had to ask him to be a bit more relaxed about racing, because he goes full gas all the time
“Everything he does, he’s so meticulous in all his preparation and training,” Jodrell said. “I’ve actually had to ask him to be a bit more relaxed about racing, because he goes full gas all the time.” He has seen Ganjkhanlou come a cropper a couple of times by going too hard, he said, “but what a great guy to have around for younger riders to learn from and work with.”
Mohammad Ganjkhanlou. Image: Milan Josy/The British Continental
Aubrey, 20, and Watkins, 19, the riders Jodrell calls “the two Hughs”, joined from Beeston Cycling Club and Lee Valley Youth CC respectively for their first seasons with the team, and watching them develop was what he enjoyed most this year. He puts them about a year behind Murphy in their development. Aubrey broke his shoulder and fractured his elbow in a crash at the Midden-Brabant Poort Omloop on 5 July and missed the middle third of the season. He came back to finish 13th at the Chas Messenger Trophy, the final round of the U23 Open National Road Series, and 6th at the Nick Clayton Memorial a week later. “He came back so strong at the end of the season,” Jodrell said. Watkins was 15th overall at the Sherpa Performance Stage Race and 17th at the Chas Messenger.
Five signings, and how they came
Jodrell does little advertising for riders. “I seem to get the emails and applications anyway, organically,” he said. He runs them past two people still involved with the team, the coach Tom Kirk and Stephen Bradbury, who raced at UCI Continental level, and then talks to each rider to make sure “what we can provide them and what they want to do” match up.
Matt’s just a lovely guy, quiet as a mouse. But put him on a bike and he changes character totally
Gilmour, 21, came through Velo Club Venta with Murphy and Buenfeld, and raced for Primera-TeamJobs before joining Nopinz RT this year. Besides his 2nd at Portsdown, he won the Chitterne Road Race in April, was 3rd at the London Dynamo Road Race in May, and finished 13th in the national rankings. He has already raced for Stolen Goat 4Endurance: as a guest at the Classi’Cotentin weekend in Normandy in May, he was 9th in the first of its two races, the team’s best result of the trip. “Matt’s just a lovely guy, quiet as a mouse,” Jodrell said. “But put him on a bike and he changes character totally.”
Buenfeld, 19, also a Venta graduate, rode for Team Tor 2000 Kalas in 2025 and Aero CLCTV this year. He was 3rd behind Gilmour at Chitterne and 9th in the Stourbridge CC National U23 Road Race. Both had very busy seasons, Jodrell said, and he has given them the same advice for 2027: “Perhaps next year do fewer races, but focus on the races that you want to do and do well in, rather than try and do everything.”
Ben Goodwin. Image: Milan Josy/The British Continental
Dutton, 20, brother of the camsmajaco junior Gus Dutton, has raced for VC Londres since he was a junior. He was 11th at the Jock Wadley this year and 12th at the Chas Messenger Trophy. “He applied. Simple as that,” Jodrell said, describing VC Londres as “a great club for younger riders”. Clarke, 18, steps up from the same club’s junior team.
Sutton, 20, who rode for Optimum Coaching before joining La Vetta CC in April, found the team himself. He approached Jodrell after the North Yorkshire Grand Prix in August and asked for a chat. “I thought that was really cool, that he bothered to come and say hello,” Jodrell said, “despite having just finished a very arduous race.”
I’m not trying to bring superstars onto the team. I should hopefully be sending out superstars
That is the model, he said. “I’m not trying to bring superstars onto the team. I should hopefully be sending out superstars, and taking in guys that need to be promoted. I give the guys a platform to race their bikes. I help promote them on social media and put their names out there, and they pedal the bikes, and we try and get the results and help them move on.”
“We don’t charge riders for anything”
Stolen Goat 4Endurance have applied to stay an Elite Development Team in 2027, and their sponsors are staying: the clothing brand Stolen Goat, the nutrition brand 4Endurance, the helmet maker ABUS, and Silverfish, which supplies the team’s Michelin tyres. “In fact, it’s probably gone up slightly, which is a nice thing to be able to say,” Jodrell said of the budget.
“We don’t charge riders for anything,” Jodrell said. Riders do not pay for their kit, helmets, tyres, nutrition, or National Series entries, and he subsidises travel and accommodation where he can. “They’re not asked to take on a particular coach or anything like that.”
Talking to prospective riders, and to riders looking to move up, he has been struck by what other teams ask of them. “Some of the teams in Europe are asking for, like, 10,000 euros plus, which is incredible,” he said. “And you’ve got UK teams who are now demanding the riders take on coaching programmes.” He does not think that is necessarily the right way to do it, but he understands why teams do. “If that’s how teams are funding themselves, I guess it’s better than not being a team at all.”
Image: Milan Josy/The British Continental
Jodrell has a full-time job and still races himself. “It’s hard work. It’s very rewarding,” he said. “And when it stops being fun, I guess it’s time to hang up.”
2027: the series, Brabant, and the Cotentin
The National Road Series remains the centre of the programme, with three or four weekends abroad. They will go back to the Midden-Brabant Poort Omloop and to Classi’Cotentin, two days of racing near Cherbourg that they rode for the first time this year, and plan to return to French National-level races they rode in 2025 but missed this year, when injuries left Jodrell without a squad strong enough to do them justice.
Hopefully we can get at least three or four good weekends away with the new lads
“I can’t devote the time to all the travel and everything that’s required to pursue a full European calendar,” he said. “So hopefully we can get at least three or four good weekends away with the new lads.” Many of the new riders have raced abroad before. “A lot of them have got plenty of experience of racing in Europe already as juniors,” Jodrell said. Clarke rode the Ronde des Vallées stage race in France with VC Londres’s junior team this year.
Back to Portsdown
Asked for the highlight of 2026, Jodrell went back to February. Portsdown is “a horrible race, a horrible time of the year”, he said, and he never tells riders they have to ride it. He remembers Tom Heal finishing it hypothermic one year. “If you want to do it, do it. But there’s no pressure.”
This year it opened the team’s season, in new kit and with new sponsors, and Murphy, unexpectedly, won. “It was phenomenal,” Jodrell said. Murphy’s mother was in tears at the finish. “She puts a lot of hard work into supporting Alex, and that’s all she does it for: seasons like that.”
The 2027 season is due to start at Portsdown again on Sunday 14 February, subject to British Cycling confirming the date. Jodrell will not be telling anyone they have to ride it. On this year’s performance, though, don’t bet against his young squad starting the season with another statement ride.
Featured image: Milan Josy/The British Continental
When Alex Murphy won the Portsdown Classic in February, in Stolen Goat 4Endurance’s first race in their new kit, the rider in 2nd was Matt Gilmour. Next season Gilmour will be wearing that kit. He joins the Hampshire team for 2027, while Murphy moves on after his breakthrough season.
Gilmour is one of five new riders in an eight-rider squad made up of seven under-23s and Mohammad Ganjkhanlou, 29. Team manager Simon Jodrell spoke exclusively to The British Continental about why he has rebuilt the team after its first season as an Elite Development Team.
The 2027 squad
Stolen Goat 4Endurance’s eight riders for 2027 are Hugh Aubrey, Bobby Buenfeld, Milo Clarke, Isaac Dutton, Mohammad Ganjkhanlou, Matt Gilmour, Jack Sutton, and Huw Watkins. Aubrey, Ganjkhanlou, and Watkins stay from 2026. Gilmour joins from Nopinz RT, Buenfeld from Aero CLCTV, Dutton and Clarke from VC Londres, and Sutton from La Vetta CC.
Murphy, Jack Bartholomew, Reuben Dando, Ben Goodwin, and Daniel Piercy leave. Ross Fawcett and Oliver Hurdle will still race in the team’s jersey, but outside the Elite Development Team squad and on calendars of their own, and Jodrell said the team will continue to support Melissa Denman “on her gravel and endurance adventures”, which may include the Transcontinental Race next year.
Among those leaving is Ben Goodwin, the 2025 Welsh time trial champion, who steps back after two seasons racing full time with the team.
A first year as an Elite Development Team
Stolen Goat were one of two men’s teams new to British Cycling’s Elite Development Team list in 2026, alongside JAKROO Handsling Racing. The status guarantees eight entries into every National Road Series and National Circuit Series race, and Jodrell called the year “a bit of an eye-opener”. “It’s quite a big commitment for such a small team to be present at every National Series road race, logistically,” he said. Partners and parents made it possible and “it’s worked really well”, he said, but it also showed him that “the team I had this year wasn’t necessarily suited to that”. A few riders told him towards the end of the season that they did not want another year at that level.
The team began as a group of friends racing locally, Jodrell said, and has grown organically since he took over in 2019. Bartholomew joined as a third-category rider and was thrown into everything the squad did for two seasons, UCI races included. “It’s not really what he wanted to do,” Jodrell said. Bartholomew will concentrate on time trials and triathlon. Fawcett, with the team since 2024, told Jodrell last year that he wanted to pick his own races and ride some gravel. “I said, ‘Look, stay with us. Just do that,’” Jodrell said.
Watching his under-23s was the more rewarding part of the season, he said. “Knowing now what I know about this year, doing EDT, and seeing the under-23s do what they did, I thought, you know what? Next year, this is where the focus needs to be, because those are the guys that will benefit from having that team environment.” Riders with careers, like Fawcett and Bartholomew, could afford to get themselves to races. “They don’t necessarily need that team environment,” Jodrell said. “They’ve got professional jobs and careers. Whereas these other young lads seem to get more out of what we’re doing.”
Murphy moves on
Murphy joined from Shibden Apex RT as a first-year under-23 in 2025 and became the team’s leading rider in his second season. After Portsdown he was 4th at the Jock Wadley Memorial Road Race and 7th at the Kennel Hill Classic, and his 5th place at the South Molton Grand Prix in July was, Jodrell said, the team’s best result in a National Road Series race. He finished 6th in The British Continental’s national rankings with 327 points, almost half of the 675 that put Stolen Goat 4Endurance 8th in the team standings. Where he will race in 2027 has not been announced.
Jodrell sees his departure as the team doing its job. “It’s a loss because I’m very fond of him, and I like spending time with him and his parents, and he’s been a great asset to the team,” he said. “What we’ve done is give him a platform to show himself off and to do well.” He encouraged Murphy to take guest rides in races the team could not get into, to gain experience of those races and of how other teams work. “It’s not a loss if he goes on and progresses. That’s what the aim is,” Jodrell said. “I’m not here to keep him as long as I can and get every result out of him.”
The difficulty is what comes next. Britain had six men’s UCI Continental teams in 2019 and none at all in 2025. “The shame of it is there is no clear path for him to progress, unless perhaps he goes into Europe, which is easier said than done,” Jodrell said. “Ten years ago, there were plenty of teams that you could have approached and put him into that would have been a clear progression.” At home, he said, nobody offers significantly more than Stolen Goat 4Endurance can. “There are perhaps a couple of teams that can do more for him in terms of overseas calendar, and if he’s going somewhere he can get that, then all power to him.”
The patron and the two Hughs
Ganjkhanlou joined from Reading CC for 2026, and Jodrell calls him “the patron, really”. A former professional in Iran, where he was national under-23 champion, he won the Asian under-23 road race title in 2019. This year he was 5th at the Jock Wadley, 3rd at the Riders Collective GP in September, and 14th at the Rutland–Melton CiCLE Classic in April, one place ahead of Murphy. In July the pair were, in Jodrell’s words, “in the mix” again at the Midden-Brabant Poort Omloop, a flat UCI 1.2 race in the Netherlands full of Continental teams, where Ganjkhanlou was 26th and Murphy 43rd.
“Everything he does, he’s so meticulous in all his preparation and training,” Jodrell said. “I’ve actually had to ask him to be a bit more relaxed about racing, because he goes full gas all the time.” He has seen Ganjkhanlou come a cropper a couple of times by going too hard, he said, “but what a great guy to have around for younger riders to learn from and work with.”
Aubrey, 20, and Watkins, 19, the riders Jodrell calls “the two Hughs”, joined from Beeston Cycling Club and Lee Valley Youth CC respectively for their first seasons with the team, and watching them develop was what he enjoyed most this year. He puts them about a year behind Murphy in their development. Aubrey broke his shoulder and fractured his elbow in a crash at the Midden-Brabant Poort Omloop on 5 July and missed the middle third of the season. He came back to finish 13th at the Chas Messenger Trophy, the final round of the U23 Open National Road Series, and 6th at the Nick Clayton Memorial a week later. “He came back so strong at the end of the season,” Jodrell said. Watkins was 15th overall at the Sherpa Performance Stage Race and 17th at the Chas Messenger.
Five signings, and how they came
Jodrell does little advertising for riders. “I seem to get the emails and applications anyway, organically,” he said. He runs them past two people still involved with the team, the coach Tom Kirk and Stephen Bradbury, who raced at UCI Continental level, and then talks to each rider to make sure “what we can provide them and what they want to do” match up.
Gilmour, 21, came through Velo Club Venta with Murphy and Buenfeld, and raced for Primera-TeamJobs before joining Nopinz RT this year. Besides his 2nd at Portsdown, he won the Chitterne Road Race in April, was 3rd at the London Dynamo Road Race in May, and finished 13th in the national rankings. He has already raced for Stolen Goat 4Endurance: as a guest at the Classi’Cotentin weekend in Normandy in May, he was 9th in the first of its two races, the team’s best result of the trip. “Matt’s just a lovely guy, quiet as a mouse,” Jodrell said. “But put him on a bike and he changes character totally.”
Buenfeld, 19, also a Venta graduate, rode for Team Tor 2000 Kalas in 2025 and Aero CLCTV this year. He was 3rd behind Gilmour at Chitterne and 9th in the Stourbridge CC National U23 Road Race. Both had very busy seasons, Jodrell said, and he has given them the same advice for 2027: “Perhaps next year do fewer races, but focus on the races that you want to do and do well in, rather than try and do everything.”
Dutton, 20, brother of the camsmajaco junior Gus Dutton, has raced for VC Londres since he was a junior. He was 11th at the Jock Wadley this year and 12th at the Chas Messenger Trophy. “He applied. Simple as that,” Jodrell said, describing VC Londres as “a great club for younger riders”. Clarke, 18, steps up from the same club’s junior team.
Sutton, 20, who rode for Optimum Coaching before joining La Vetta CC in April, found the team himself. He approached Jodrell after the North Yorkshire Grand Prix in August and asked for a chat. “I thought that was really cool, that he bothered to come and say hello,” Jodrell said, “despite having just finished a very arduous race.”
That is the model, he said. “I’m not trying to bring superstars onto the team. I should hopefully be sending out superstars, and taking in guys that need to be promoted. I give the guys a platform to race their bikes. I help promote them on social media and put their names out there, and they pedal the bikes, and we try and get the results and help them move on.”
“We don’t charge riders for anything”
Stolen Goat 4Endurance have applied to stay an Elite Development Team in 2027, and their sponsors are staying: the clothing brand Stolen Goat, the nutrition brand 4Endurance, the helmet maker ABUS, and Silverfish, which supplies the team’s Michelin tyres. “In fact, it’s probably gone up slightly, which is a nice thing to be able to say,” Jodrell said of the budget.
“We don’t charge riders for anything,” Jodrell said. Riders do not pay for their kit, helmets, tyres, nutrition, or National Series entries, and he subsidises travel and accommodation where he can. “They’re not asked to take on a particular coach or anything like that.”
Talking to prospective riders, and to riders looking to move up, he has been struck by what other teams ask of them. “Some of the teams in Europe are asking for, like, 10,000 euros plus, which is incredible,” he said. “And you’ve got UK teams who are now demanding the riders take on coaching programmes.” He does not think that is necessarily the right way to do it, but he understands why teams do. “If that’s how teams are funding themselves, I guess it’s better than not being a team at all.”
Jodrell has a full-time job and still races himself. “It’s hard work. It’s very rewarding,” he said. “And when it stops being fun, I guess it’s time to hang up.”
2027: the series, Brabant, and the Cotentin
The National Road Series remains the centre of the programme, with three or four weekends abroad. They will go back to the Midden-Brabant Poort Omloop and to Classi’Cotentin, two days of racing near Cherbourg that they rode for the first time this year, and plan to return to French National-level races they rode in 2025 but missed this year, when injuries left Jodrell without a squad strong enough to do them justice.
“I can’t devote the time to all the travel and everything that’s required to pursue a full European calendar,” he said. “So hopefully we can get at least three or four good weekends away with the new lads.” Many of the new riders have raced abroad before. “A lot of them have got plenty of experience of racing in Europe already as juniors,” Jodrell said. Clarke rode the Ronde des Vallées stage race in France with VC Londres’s junior team this year.
Back to Portsdown
Asked for the highlight of 2026, Jodrell went back to February. Portsdown is “a horrible race, a horrible time of the year”, he said, and he never tells riders they have to ride it. He remembers Tom Heal finishing it hypothermic one year. “If you want to do it, do it. But there’s no pressure.”
This year it opened the team’s season, in new kit and with new sponsors, and Murphy, unexpectedly, won. “It was phenomenal,” Jodrell said. Murphy’s mother was in tears at the finish. “She puts a lot of hard work into supporting Alex, and that’s all she does it for: seasons like that.”
The 2027 season is due to start at Portsdown again on Sunday 14 February, subject to British Cycling confirming the date. Jodrell will not be telling anyone they have to ride it. On this year’s performance, though, don’t bet against his young squad starting the season with another statement ride.
Featured image: Milan Josy/The British Continental
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Read the 2027 men’s domestic team guide here, and follow every rider move on Mercato 2027.
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