JAKROO Handsling Racing has applied for UCI Continental registration for 2027, ten months after its managers told us British Cycling had not made clear what a Continental team needed. With the Frome bike shop Pronto Bikes as title partner, it would race as Pronto Bikes Racing by Promethean, though the name is not yet final.
Its 13 riders include Dylan Hicks, who won the 2025 Beaumont Trophy in the team’s colours and returns after a year away; Ben Askey, formerly of Groupama–FDJ’s Continental team; and Alex Murphy, who won the Portsdown Classic in February. If the application succeeds, it would be the first independent British men’s team at Continental level since 2024. Britain had six men’s Continental teams in 2019 and none in 2025, and this year’s only one, INEOS Grenadiers Racing Academy, is the development arm of a WorldTeam rather than a domestic project.
Ten months on
This is the team’s first formal application. It looked at stepping up for 2026 last autumn but did not apply, and when its co-managers, Tony Poole and David Streule, spoke to us at the team’s launch in January about what ‘ready’ looks like, Streule said British Cycling had not made clear what was required. “We’re hoping to get UCI registration in, you know, next year,” Poole said then.
We have a fully funded programme as it stands, which BC supports
What changed, Poole told The British Continental, was months of talks. “A lot of back and forth with British Cycling on the art of the possible until we landed on a structure that was mutually acceptable,” he said. “Not one size fits all.” The team learned of some of British Cycling’s red lines, such as a minimum level of equipment for riders, only through those talks; from there, it was a matter of building a budget to fit the money it had secured. Poole credits the governing body with the shift. In the last couple of months, he said, “they’ve been constructive in guiding us [on] what’s acceptable to them and achievable for us”.
“To be clear, there’s no application without proof of funds for the whole year,” Poole said, “so we have a fully funded programme as it stands, which BC supports.” That budget covers the calendar the team has set out, but not the Tour of Britain. “More funding and we start to look at things like the Tour of Britain,” he said.
Others have shown how hard the step is. Muc-Off–SRCT–Storck won the 2025 open National Road Series and then folded, and RideRevolution Coaching CT, top of our road rankings this year, has set 2028 as its target for Continental status.
Third name, third season
Promethean Sports launched the team at the end of 2024 as Raptor Factory Racing, with a three-year plan to reach Continental level (we went inside its launch in January 2025). When Raptor Bikes stepped back as title sponsor a year ago, Promethean set out plans for a bigger 2026, and the team raced this season as JAKROO Handsling Racing, with Phill Maddocks, formerly of Muc-Off–SRCT–Storck, leading the sporting side. It was one of two men’s teams new to British Cycling’s Elite Development Team list, which guarantees eight entries into every National Road Series and National Circuit Series race.
In UCI races, Oliver Dawson was second at the Grand Prix de la ville de Nogent-sur-Oise in France and fourth at the Rutland-Melton CiCLE Classic, both 1.2 races, and Harrison Dainty was third in the prologue of the Tour of Małopolska, second among the under-23s. In the National Road Series, Alex Franks was third at the East Cleveland Classic, Dainty third at the Tour of the Reservoir, and Dawson fourth at the South Molton Grand Prix. The team finished second in the series’ team competition, behind Wheelbase CabTech Castelli, when it ended at the North Yorkshire Grand Prix, and second in The British Continental Road Rankings, 24 points behind RideRevolution.
The 2027 squad
Five riders stay from this year’s squad. Dawson, the 2024 national junior road race champion, spoke to us at the team’s launch in January about resetting after a difficult first spell as an under-23 in Italy. Oscar Nisbett, 19, was second at the Riders Collective GP, and Sam Chaplin joined from MyPadRacing p/b ONDO Sports in June after winning the BUCS road race and finishing fifth overall at the Tour of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Dainty and Dylan Belton Owen, both 19, also stay.
Four riders come from Pronto Bikes: Angus Collard and Charlie Hoy, both first-year under-23s this year; Nathan Hallett, who has raced for the shop’s team since 2024; and George Smith, 30. Charlie Hoy is the son of Justin Hoy, who runs the shop. Smith was 13th in British Cycling’s national road rankings in 2019 and won six regional races this year.
Four more join from elsewhere. Hicks returns after a season with UN Cycling Team x Pyörävarikko. He raced for Development Team Picnic PostNL and Saint Piran before joining the team for 2025, when he told us that “as one door closes, another opens”, and won the Beaumont Trophy in its Raptor Factory Racing colours that summer.
Askey, 22, spent two seasons with Groupama–FDJ’s Continental team, where he was 10th at Paris–Roubaix Espoirs in 2023 and sixth in 2024, before moving to CC Étupes and, this year, the Belgian club team Team COPPI–BO.Buro. His best road result this season was third at the Grand Prix des Marbriers in northern France in August. The younger brother of NSN Cycling Team’s Lewis Askey, he also races cyclo-cross, and in January won the under-23 title and was third in the elite race at the national championships.
Murphy joins after a breakthrough season with Stolen Goat 4Endurance, whose 2027 squad we reported last month. He won the Portsdown Classic in February, climbing clear of the break on Crooked Walk Lane, and finished sixth in our open individual rankings.
Matt Fletcher steps up from the junior team Harrogate Nova Race Team after a season raced largely abroad. He won stages of two UCI junior stage races, the Gipuzkoa Klasikoa in Spain and the Watersley Junior Challenge in the Netherlands, and was in the top ten overall at the junior Vuelta a Cantabria and at La Philippe Gilbert juniors in Belgium, where he was seventh on the stage to the top of the Côte de la Redoute. At home, he was fifth in the national junior road race and 12th at the Portsdown Classic.
Our ambition isn’t just to compete at Conti level, but to create a pathway for young British riders to progress into the pro ranks
It is a young squad, and deliberately so. Next season, nine of the 13 will be under-23s, five of them aged 20, with Fletcher, at 19, the youngest. Smith turns 31 and Hallett 38, which lifts the squad’s average age to just under 23, though eight of the 13 will be 21 or younger.
“Our ambition isn’t just to compete at Conti level, but to create a pathway for young British riders to progress into the pro ranks,” Poole said. “In that sense, we’re looking to compete with and benchmark ourselves against WorldTour devo teams, rather than necessarily comparing ourselves with more established Conti squads.” He called it an important distinction, given how few development opportunities British riders have at the moment.
Poole said no further signings are planned for now, which means five of this year’s riders leave: Rowan Baker, Alex Franks, Thomas Heal, William Truelove, and Conor White. Baker, with the team since its first season, took bronze in the open competition at the national hill climb championships in October and called it his “final race in red” on Instagram. He has not announced where he will race in 2027.
| 2027 squad | 2026 team |
|---|---|
| Ben Askey | Team COPPI–BO.Buro |
| Dylan Belton Owen | JAKROO Handsling Racing |
| Sam Chaplin | JAKROO Handsling Racing |
| Angus Collard | Pronto Bikes |
| Harrison Dainty | JAKROO Handsling Racing |
| Oliver Dawson | JAKROO Handsling Racing |
| Matt Fletcher | Harrogate Nova Race Team |
| Nathan Hallett | Pronto Bikes |
| Dylan Hicks | UN Cycling Team x Pyörävarikko |
| Charlie Hoy | Pronto Bikes |
| Alex Murphy | Stolen Goat 4Endurance |
| Oscar Nisbett | JAKROO Handsling Racing |
| George Smith | Pronto Bikes |
Two programmes, one team
Pronto Bikes, which Justin Hoy and his wife, Kate, opened in Frome in 2021, launched its National Race Team for 2026 with a focus on under-23 riders. He knows the level the new team is aiming for. A prolific winner of circuit races in the south of England, he stepped up in 2015, aged 36, to ride for NFTO, then one of Britain’s UCI Continental teams, and won the Castle Combe Easter Classic in its colours. The shop now becomes the new team’s title partner.
Joining forces with Promethean gives us the chance to build something bigger, combining our experience and resources to support a serious domestic and international racing programme
“We’ve really enjoyed building Pronto Bikes over the past season, and it’s fantastic that some of our riders will now have the opportunity to take the next step as part of this new team,” Justin Hoy said in a statement. “Joining forces with Promethean gives us the chance to build something bigger, combining our experience and resources to support a serious domestic and international racing programme.”
It is a partnership rather than a full merger, Poole said: Justin Hoy runs the Pronto business and Promethean runs the team. The new team will be Pronto’s flagship men’s team, but the shop will still run a men’s Pronto Bikes team of its own, Justin Hoy said, alongside its women’s team.
Pronto brings the equipment partners: Pinarello bikes, Met helmets, Oakley eyewear, Castelli kit, Precision Fuel & Hydration nutrition, and Muc-Off cleaning products, with a wheel supplier still to be confirmed. Trupart Automotive continues its support, and Twelve Wealth Management is a new backer. The name is provisional, and the final naming structure depends on talks with further commercial partners. The team’s statement also thanks JAKROO, whose title sponsorship this year it calls fundamental to reaching this point, along with Handsling and its other 2026 partners.
A new structure
Poole will become team principal next year, responsible for strategy, commercial development, and operations. Maddocks will continue as head sporting director, while Streule, who co-founded the team, will step back from its day-to-day running to occasional race-day involvement. The team says the programme will be built on a full top-level domestic calendar and about 30 days of UCI racing in Europe, though where the team races abroad will depend on registration and on invitations from organisers.
British cycling desperately needs more opportunities for riders to progress. This is a small but important step towards rebuilding that pathway
Poole said Continental status would open up a bigger UCI calendar, with a better chance of places at the most prestigious races, and bring more exposure and financial support, while Pronto’s involvement means a fuller equipment package for the riders. “British cycling desperately needs more opportunities for riders to progress,” he said in the statement. “This is a small but important step towards rebuilding that pathway.”
The team now waits on British Cycling and the UCI, and says it will give a further update once a decision on its registration has been made.
Every confirmed move for 2027 is on the Stats Hub’s transfers page, and our 2027 men’s domestic team guide previews next season’s teams.
