Lee Valley Youth CC name 2027 junior squad and team up with VC Londres to chase UCI places
Lee Valley Youth CC have named 11 riders for 2027, with Noah White staying and Alex MacInnes stepping up, and have applied for UCI junior races as a mixed team with VC Londres. Team manager Bob Griffiths spoke to The British Continental.
Lee Valley Youth CC have named 11 riders for their 2027 junior team, and have teamed up with VC Londres to try to break into UCI races that both clubs have been turned down for many times before.
Noah White, 7th in this year’s junior national road race, is one of five riders staying from 2026. Alex MacInnes, a Lee Valley club member who raced for Team Ohten as a youth this year, steps up to the juniors, and five riders join from other clubs: Bayley Woodger from Grouwels–Watersley R&D Cycling Team, Finley Staunton and Ben Fiennes from Sprockets Cycling Club, Daniel Branford from Poole Wheelers, and Cooper Barkey from Portsmouth North End CC. Team manager Bob Griffiths gave The British Continental details of the squad ahead of the club’s own announcement.
A joint bid with VC Londres
Lee Valley have applied for 10 UCI junior races across Europe in their own right, Griffiths said, and for a further 10 as a mixed team with VC Londres’ junior men. “We have applied as a mixed team to increase the strength of the team in an attempt to be accepted into UCI races, which as individual teams we have both been declined on many occasions previously,” he said. “It is also hoped that the partnership with VCL will enable us to receive invites to races we haven’t participated in previously.”
Both clubs were among the 10 junior squads backed by the Rayner Foundation’s Gateway Project this year, which helps British teams with the extra cost of racing in mainland Europe.
At home, the National Junior Road Series stays at the centre of the programme. Griffiths said the team hope the more experienced riders can get results in the bigger UCI races, while those stepping up from youth racing show what they can do in other UCI races and the national series. The Junior Tour of Ireland will be “a major focus, as all the team can ride and we have enjoyed much success there in the last three visits,” he said. In 2025 Lee Valley won the team classification there, and Toby Tombs won the sprint and young rider jerseys.
The 2027 squad
Lee Valley’s 11 riders for 2027 are Cooper Barkey, Daniel Branford, Ben Fiennes, Sam Genazzini, Henry Jago, Alex MacInnes, Gaspard Robertson, Finley Staunton, Noah White, Bayley Woodger, and Jack Wright.
MacInnes is a first-year junior who has been on British Cycling’s Olympic Development Apprentice programme. This year he was 2nd at the VeloPark GP and 10th at the Hog Hill GP, both rounds of the National Youth Circuit Series, and 8th overall at the Youth Tour of Kent, another round. The team said he finished 7th overall in the series. In Belgium he was 3rd at Denderhoutem, one of three top-10 finishes on consecutive days, with 4th at Kortemark and 9th at Berlare, the team said.
Woodger, who rode the junior national road race for Grouwels–Watersley R&D this year, brings experience of UCI racing, Griffiths said. Staunton, Fiennes, Branford, and Barkey all step up from youth racing. Barkey raced mainly in Europe this year, Griffiths said.
Image: Mark James
Who is leaving
Griffiths said George Collins is moving to Schils–Doltcini RT and Isaac Starmer to Colchester Rovers. Noah Wheller has joined a Spanish U23 team, which has not been named. Thomas Heap and Ben Jones move up to U23 but stay with the club, and Harry Skinner, Harry Tozer, Luca Geddes Gasco, and Joe Tysoe have left for university. Archie Sewell-Gaiger has also left as he moves up to U23.
2026 and the club
Lee Valley’s two UCI podiums this year came from guest riders. Harper Johnson, of 360cycling, was 3rd on stage 2b of the Ronde des Vallées in August, where Lee Valley finished 3rd in the team classification, the best of the British teams. Jacob Mauger, a Lee Valley rider in 2025, was 3rd at the Classique Puisaye Forterre in September, where the team won the team classification.
The club set up its junior team in 2016. Lee Valley Youth CC itself was founded in 2000 and is one of the biggest youth clubs in the country, Griffiths said, with around 20 former members going on to race at Continental level and others reaching the WorldTour. He runs the junior team with help from club parents and former junior riders.
Lee Valley Youth CC have named 11 riders for their 2027 junior team, and have teamed up with VC Londres to try to break into UCI races that both clubs have been turned down for many times before.
Noah White, 7th in this year’s junior national road race, is one of five riders staying from 2026. Alex MacInnes, a Lee Valley club member who raced for Team Ohten as a youth this year, steps up to the juniors, and five riders join from other clubs: Bayley Woodger from Grouwels–Watersley R&D Cycling Team, Finley Staunton and Ben Fiennes from Sprockets Cycling Club, Daniel Branford from Poole Wheelers, and Cooper Barkey from Portsmouth North End CC. Team manager Bob Griffiths gave The British Continental details of the squad ahead of the club’s own announcement.
A joint bid with VC Londres
Lee Valley have applied for 10 UCI junior races across Europe in their own right, Griffiths said, and for a further 10 as a mixed team with VC Londres’ junior men. “We have applied as a mixed team to increase the strength of the team in an attempt to be accepted into UCI races, which as individual teams we have both been declined on many occasions previously,” he said. “It is also hoped that the partnership with VCL will enable us to receive invites to races we haven’t participated in previously.”
Both clubs were among the 10 junior squads backed by the Rayner Foundation’s Gateway Project this year, which helps British teams with the extra cost of racing in mainland Europe.
At home, the National Junior Road Series stays at the centre of the programme. Griffiths said the team hope the more experienced riders can get results in the bigger UCI races, while those stepping up from youth racing show what they can do in other UCI races and the national series. The Junior Tour of Ireland will be “a major focus, as all the team can ride and we have enjoyed much success there in the last three visits,” he said. In 2025 Lee Valley won the team classification there, and Toby Tombs won the sprint and young rider jerseys.
The 2027 squad
Lee Valley’s 11 riders for 2027 are Cooper Barkey, Daniel Branford, Ben Fiennes, Sam Genazzini, Henry Jago, Alex MacInnes, Gaspard Robertson, Finley Staunton, Noah White, Bayley Woodger, and Jack Wright.
White was 7th in the junior national road race at Beckwithshaw in July and 18th at the Junior CiCLE Classic in March. Genazzini, Jago, Robertson, and Wright also stay.
MacInnes is a first-year junior who has been on British Cycling’s Olympic Development Apprentice programme. This year he was 2nd at the VeloPark GP and 10th at the Hog Hill GP, both rounds of the National Youth Circuit Series, and 8th overall at the Youth Tour of Kent, another round. The team said he finished 7th overall in the series. In Belgium he was 3rd at Denderhoutem, one of three top-10 finishes on consecutive days, with 4th at Kortemark and 9th at Berlare, the team said.
Woodger, who rode the junior national road race for Grouwels–Watersley R&D this year, brings experience of UCI racing, Griffiths said. Staunton, Fiennes, Branford, and Barkey all step up from youth racing. Barkey raced mainly in Europe this year, Griffiths said.
Who is leaving
Griffiths said George Collins is moving to Schils–Doltcini RT and Isaac Starmer to Colchester Rovers. Noah Wheller has joined a Spanish U23 team, which has not been named. Thomas Heap and Ben Jones move up to U23 but stay with the club, and Harry Skinner, Harry Tozer, Luca Geddes Gasco, and Joe Tysoe have left for university. Archie Sewell-Gaiger has also left as he moves up to U23.
2026 and the club
Lee Valley’s two UCI podiums this year came from guest riders. Harper Johnson, of 360cycling, was 3rd on stage 2b of the Ronde des Vallées in August, where Lee Valley finished 3rd in the team classification, the best of the British teams. Jacob Mauger, a Lee Valley rider in 2025, was 3rd at the Classique Puisaye Forterre in September, where the team won the team classification.
The club set up its junior team in 2016. Lee Valley Youth CC itself was founded in 2000 and is one of the biggest youth clubs in the country, Griffiths said, with around 20 former members going on to race at Continental level and others reaching the WorldTour. He runs the junior team with help from club parents and former junior riders.
Lee Valley Youth CC are now in our 2027 men’s domestic team guide, and all the moves above are on Mercato 2027, our tracker of transfers and rider moves.
Featured image: Mark James
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