Harry Tanfield Warns British Cycling Pathway Is “Broken”

Harry Tanfield a Tour de Yorkshire stage winner has voiced concerns about the state of professional road cycling in Britain, calling it a “broken pathway.” Tanfield, who has competed at the highest level in the World Tour warns that the sport’s future in the UK is at risk without the reintroduction of professional domestic Continental teams. He emphasized that without such teams, young talent especially those in the under-23 category would have nowhere to develop leading to lost potential and affecting future Olympic medal hopes.

Tanfield recently lost his contract with Saint Piran which folded its program last month while Trinity a team that once hosted Tom Pidcock also announced it would not compete in 2025. With no teams at the Continental level, Harry Tanfield fears a vicious cycle in which young riders are discouraged from pursuing their cycling dreams. As costs continue to rise and with riders having to pay their own entry fees, Tanfield stresses that events are becoming less viable.

He is hoping to generate interest from sponsors to establish a new Continental-level team for 2025 to fill the gap left by the disappearing domestic teams. British road cycling had a strong presence in the past decade, notably with Team Sky’s dominance of the Tour de France. However, with the decline of domestic teams, the talent pipeline has weakened. Ineos is currently the only British team in the World Tour while there are no British teams at the ProTeam level.

A British Cycling spokesperson assured support for any team applying for UCI Continental Team status in 2025, offering assistance with applications and registration processes.