Tour of Britain could be last race for British team that developed Tom Pidcock and Ben Healy, as sponsorship woes and increased running costs put squad’s future in doubt

Trinity Racing, the U23 development squad that laid the groundwork for Tom Pidcock, Ben Healy, and Ben Turner’s path to the WorldTour, could be the latest British cycling team to fall victim to the financial pressures currently having a debilitating effect on the UK’s domestic racing scene, with this week’s Tour of Britain reported to potentially be the team’s final ever race.

According to cycling journalist Daniel Benson, Trinity – whose riders are currently in the midst of a successful, attacking week of racing against elite opposition at their home stage rage – is facing an uncertain future, as years of increased running costs and sponsorship concerns, the catalyst for the demise of a number of British teams that operated at Continental level in recent years, continue to bite.

According to the development squad’s general manager Andrew McQuaid, one sponsor ended its deal with the team in 2023, while another reduced its financial backing this year, leading to what McQuaid describes as a “very tough situation” as the end of the season approaches.

Trinity rider Callum Thornley races up Saltburn Bank on stage two of the 2024 Tour of Britain (Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com)

“It’s extremely challenging times for everyone in cycling at the moment and it’s incredibly hard to find solutions,” McQuaid told Benson’s Substack site.

“This team means so much to me and it’s amazing when you think about the talent and the opportunities it has created for so many young riders over the last few years.

“That said, it’s a very tough situation because everyone loves the team but we’re still up against it.”

Originally established primarily as a cyclocross squad in 2018, before moving into road racing in 2020, Trinity has become one of the leading and most prestigious talent factories in the world, producing the likes of double Olympic champion and Tour de France stage winner Tom Pidcock, Giro d’Italia stage winner Ben Healy, Ineos Grenadiers classics rider Ben Turner, Visma-Lease a Bike’s highly-rated Thomas Gloag, American Luke Lamperti, and Groupama-FDJ’s Samuel Watson.

At this week’s Tour of Britain, racing against the likes of Remco Evenepoel, Stevie Williams, and Julian Alaphilippe, they have enjoyed a fruitful, attacking race so far, with Jayco-AlUla-bound Bob Donaldson, runner-up at this year’s U23 Paris-Roubaix, taking third and sixth on stage one and four respectively.

(Simon Wilkinson/SWpix.com)

After two days in the break, Callum Thornley is set to secure the race’s King of the Mountains classification, provided he finishes the race, after building an insurmountable lead in that competition (his closest rival for the jersey is his Trinity teammate Dean Harvey).

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However, despite the team’s success both on the road and in developing young talent, Trinity is now one of only two British teams left at UCI Continental level (alongside Saint-Piran), following the demise of the long-standing AT85 Pro Cycling team in March 2023, just months after fellow Continental outfit Ribble Weldtite called it a day due to a lack of sponsorship.

And in August, the financial pressures shrinking the British men’s racing scene also became strikingly apparent in the women’s side of the sport, as Lifeplus Wahoo, Britain’s longest-running UCI Continental team and the only UK-based squad to take part in the current iteration of the Tour de France Femmes, announced that it will close at the end of 2024 and had ridden its last race, with team bosses citing a “lack of appetite” to continue struggling to compete at the highest level and with a “professional vision” on a minimum budget.

“We have sadly raced our last race”: British cycling team who had 14 bikes stolen at Tour of Britain collapses, two months after overnight raid described as “absolute hammer blow to our over-achieving team on a stretched budget”

The news came just two months after the team were hit by a shocking overnight raid at the Tour of Britain, when thieves targeted their base at a hotel in Shropshire, raiding their mechanic’s van and stealing all 14 of the squad’s bikes.

The repercussions of that bike theft were described at the time as “an absolute hammer blow to our over-achieving team already on a stretched budget” and, as is currently the case with Trinity, along with the rising costs of running and maintaining a team, and a loss of sponsorship income due to the failure to secure an invite to this year’s Tour de France, were blamed by team managers and co-founders Bob and Tom Varney for the squad’s sudden demise.