Mercato, 27 October: Richardsons Cycles steps down at DAS Richardsons, and Solas name their first Performance Team riders
Richardsons Cycles steps down as DAS Richardsons’ title sponsor after 13 years, Lowri Richards and Lydia Louw are the first riders in Solas’s Performance Team, and Charlie Paige stays at Bourg-en-Bresse. The latest transfers and rider moves for 2027.
Richardsons Cycles is stepping down as title sponsor of DAS Richardsons after 13 seasons. The Leigh-on-Sea shop took the title in 2014 and always meant to stay until its centenary, which falls this year, and the Essex team has yet to say what it will be called in 2027.
Solas Race Team name Lowri Richards and Lydia Louw as the first riders in their new Performance Team and keep Tess Byrne in their Development Team, Liv French stays with The Hera Project and Rory Condon with Zappi Racing Team, and Cycling Sheffield are looking for an experienced rider to go with their young squad. We also catch up with Mieke Docx’s move from DAS–Hutchinson to Minimax. Abroad, Charlie Paige stays with Bourg-en-Bresse Ain Cyclisme.
Drop us a line at info@thebritishcontinental.co.uk if you have news you want us to add.
Team news
DAS Richardsons will race 2027 without Richardsons Cycles as their title sponsor. The Leigh-on-Sea shop stepped in when the Essex team needed one in 2014, and had always intended to stay until its centenary, which falls this year. The team, fourth in our open team rankings in 2026, called it ‘the end of an era but not a goodbye’, but has not said whether a new title sponsor is lined up or what it will be called next season. The news comes in the same autumn as the departure of Simon Alexander, the road captain who joined in 2013, a season before the shop became title sponsor.
Cycling Sheffield are looking for experience. The team, built over the past two seasons around riders aged 17 to 22, said on 26 October that it wants to recruit a rider past under-23 age for 2027, proven at national level and ideally with experience of racing in Europe. Four riders have already left, among them Alex Foster, who won the Danum Trophy in April, and the team has yet to confirm anyone for next season. The departures are in our men’s team guide.
Domestic
Mieke Docx (DAS–Hutchinson to Minimax Cycling Team, confirmed 5 October) is a move we missed at the time. The 30-year-old Belgian joined DAS–Hutchinson from Lotto Ladies for 2026, and with the team’s Continental programme closing at the end of the year she moves to another UCI Continental team, where she will also work for Minimax off the bike. That makes six DAS–Hutchinson riders with 2027 teams; the full list is in our women’s team guide.
Solas Race Team have named the first two riders for the top tier of the pathway they set out in September. Lowri Richards (Solas Race Team, staying, confirmed 26 October) and Lydia Louw (Solas Race Team, staying, confirmed 27 October) go into the Performance Team, for riders competing at the highest level in the UK; the seven riders the team confirmed before them are all in its Development Team. Richards, 21, joined Solas this season after racing for Smurfit Westrock Cycling Team and the Wales Racing Academy, and won the Solihull CC Women’s Road Race in July. Louw, also 21, was second at the Scottish road race championships in August and sixth at the Torvelo Women’s Road Race in June. Tess Byrne (Solas Race Team, staying, confirmed 25 October), 18, is the seventh of those Development Team riders. She has raced for Solas since 2025, and was 15th in the same Scottish championship. All nine are in our women’s team guide.
Liv French (The Hera Project, staying, confirmed 26 October) is the first rider The Hera Project have re-signed for 2027. French, 26, spent three seasons with Stolen Goat before her first year at Hera. She races time trials and hill climbs as well as on the road, and was 16th in the national time trial championships in June. Christine White, the team principal, called her “someone our developing riders can learn a great deal from”.
Rory Condon (Zappi Racing Team, staying, confirmed 26 October) comes back for what the team calls his second season, the fifth rider Zappi Racing Team have kept for 2027 after Otis Jones, Seb Zajaczkowski, Finn Slade and Noah Hollamby. The 18-year-old from Mallow in Co Cork first raced in Italy with Zappi as a junior in 2025, after taking silver in the Irish junior road race championship, and his results there earned him a first Ireland selection, for the European championships.
Britons abroad
Charlie Paige (Bourg-en-Bresse Ain Cyclisme, staying, confirmed 26 October) will spend a second straight season with the French UCI Continental team. The 25-year-old from Lancashire won the Tour du Piémont Pyrénéen with Bourg in 2023 before two seasons as a professional with Unibet Tietema Rockets, and returned to the club this year. His best results in 2026 were fifth places at the Lancaster Grand Prix and the Grand Prix de Puyloubier, and 13th overall at the Alpes Isère Tour. Read our 2021 interview with him here.
All of the moves above are on Mercato 2027, our tracker of transfers and rider moves, and the domestic moves are in our 2027 team guides for women’s and men’s teams. If you missed it, the last edition had Awen Roberts and Phoebe Taylor completing CAMS Alba’s squad and Joseph Brookes’s move to Véloce Club Rouen 76.
Featured image: Milan Josy/The British Continental
Richardsons Cycles is stepping down as title sponsor of DAS Richardsons after 13 seasons. The Leigh-on-Sea shop took the title in 2014 and always meant to stay until its centenary, which falls this year, and the Essex team has yet to say what it will be called in 2027.
Solas Race Team name Lowri Richards and Lydia Louw as the first riders in their new Performance Team and keep Tess Byrne in their Development Team, Liv French stays with The Hera Project and Rory Condon with Zappi Racing Team, and Cycling Sheffield are looking for an experienced rider to go with their young squad. We also catch up with Mieke Docx’s move from DAS–Hutchinson to Minimax. Abroad, Charlie Paige stays with Bourg-en-Bresse Ain Cyclisme.
Drop us a line at info@thebritishcontinental.co.uk if you have news you want us to add.
Team news
DAS Richardsons will race 2027 without Richardsons Cycles as their title sponsor. The Leigh-on-Sea shop stepped in when the Essex team needed one in 2014, and had always intended to stay until its centenary, which falls this year. The team, fourth in our open team rankings in 2026, called it ‘the end of an era but not a goodbye’, but has not said whether a new title sponsor is lined up or what it will be called next season. The news comes in the same autumn as the departure of Simon Alexander, the road captain who joined in 2013, a season before the shop became title sponsor.
Cycling Sheffield are looking for experience. The team, built over the past two seasons around riders aged 17 to 22, said on 26 October that it wants to recruit a rider past under-23 age for 2027, proven at national level and ideally with experience of racing in Europe. Four riders have already left, among them Alex Foster, who won the Danum Trophy in April, and the team has yet to confirm anyone for next season. The departures are in our men’s team guide.
Domestic
Mieke Docx (DAS–Hutchinson to Minimax Cycling Team, confirmed 5 October) is a move we missed at the time. The 30-year-old Belgian joined DAS–Hutchinson from Lotto Ladies for 2026, and with the team’s Continental programme closing at the end of the year she moves to another UCI Continental team, where she will also work for Minimax off the bike. That makes six DAS–Hutchinson riders with 2027 teams; the full list is in our women’s team guide.
Solas Race Team have named the first two riders for the top tier of the pathway they set out in September. Lowri Richards (Solas Race Team, staying, confirmed 26 October) and Lydia Louw (Solas Race Team, staying, confirmed 27 October) go into the Performance Team, for riders competing at the highest level in the UK; the seven riders the team confirmed before them are all in its Development Team. Richards, 21, joined Solas this season after racing for Smurfit Westrock Cycling Team and the Wales Racing Academy, and won the Solihull CC Women’s Road Race in July. Louw, also 21, was second at the Scottish road race championships in August and sixth at the Torvelo Women’s Road Race in June. Tess Byrne (Solas Race Team, staying, confirmed 25 October), 18, is the seventh of those Development Team riders. She has raced for Solas since 2025, and was 15th in the same Scottish championship. All nine are in our women’s team guide.
Liv French (The Hera Project, staying, confirmed 26 October) is the first rider The Hera Project have re-signed for 2027. French, 26, spent three seasons with Stolen Goat before her first year at Hera. She races time trials and hill climbs as well as on the road, and was 16th in the national time trial championships in June. Christine White, the team principal, called her “someone our developing riders can learn a great deal from”.
Rory Condon (Zappi Racing Team, staying, confirmed 26 October) comes back for what the team calls his second season, the fifth rider Zappi Racing Team have kept for 2027 after Otis Jones, Seb Zajaczkowski, Finn Slade and Noah Hollamby. The 18-year-old from Mallow in Co Cork first raced in Italy with Zappi as a junior in 2025, after taking silver in the Irish junior road race championship, and his results there earned him a first Ireland selection, for the European championships.
Britons abroad
Charlie Paige (Bourg-en-Bresse Ain Cyclisme, staying, confirmed 26 October) will spend a second straight season with the French UCI Continental team. The 25-year-old from Lancashire won the Tour du Piémont Pyrénéen with Bourg in 2023 before two seasons as a professional with Unibet Tietema Rockets, and returned to the club this year. His best results in 2026 were fifth places at the Lancaster Grand Prix and the Grand Prix de Puyloubier, and 13th overall at the Alpes Isère Tour. Read our 2021 interview with him here.
All of the moves above are on Mercato 2027, our tracker of transfers and rider moves, and the domestic moves are in our 2027 team guides for women’s and men’s teams. If you missed it, the last edition had Awen Roberts and Phoebe Taylor completing CAMS Alba’s squad and Joseph Brookes’s move to Véloce Club Rouen 76.
Featured image: Milan Josy/The British Continental
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