Brother UK Cycling Podcast

The Rayner Foundation, a charity helping young British riders to realise their dreams of turning professional by racing abroad, is a one of the most cherished institutions in British cycle sport. Founded to honour the memory of the late Dave Rayner, a hugely gifted rider who lost his life in tragic circumstances 29 years ago, it has helped more than 80 British riders reach the sport’s top tier, including six from this year’s cohort. In this new episode of the Brother UK Cycling Podcast, we report from the Foundation’s gala dinner at the New Dock Hall in Leeds, gaining insights from the charity’s prime movers, its star guests, and the teams and riders moving ahead with the support of the Foundation’s Gateway and Springboard schemes. Elsewhere, co-hosts Timothy John and Phil Jones, Brother UK’s Managing Director, discuss the company’s extended sponsorship of the OnForm Elite Development Team and the new national calendar. Expert witnesses Mark Botteley, OnForm’s team manager, its rising star Amelia Staunton and her father Chris, and race organiser Chris Lawrence share their insights. The Brother UK Cycling Podcast has been nominated in the Best Fitness, Health and Wellbeing category at the Sports Podcast Awards. Follow the link below to vote. https://www.sportspodcastgroup.com/sports_category/best-fitness-health-wellbeing-podcast/

Oliver Stockwell is Britain’s newest WorldTour rider and the latest young talent to graduate to the professional ranks with support from The Rayner Foundation. Like all Rayner riders, Stockwell chose to pursue his dream by racing overseas. His courage and resilience have been rewarded with a two-year contract from Team Bahrain-Victorious. Moving to Italy without a word of Italian and later spending two weeks in an Italian hospital, the preliminary phase of a six-month recovery from a broken leg that saw him race only five times in 2023, are just some of the hurdles overcome by the 22-year-old from St Albans. Resilience, the common factor in the character of all Rayner riders, is a quality he possesses in abundance. In this detailed interview with co-host Timothy John, Stockwell describes his instant attraction to cycling as an 11-year-old discovering the velodrome in Welwyn while walking with his family. A founding education with Welwyn Wheelers and a national junior title followed before he joined British Cycling’s storied Olympic Academy in 2019. The Covid pandemic reduced his tenure with the federation’s flagship development programme, however. After racing just twice in 2020 and enjoying only 35 race days in 2021, he joined the Italian development team CTF Friuli in 2022 in search of further opportunities. The club became the official feeder of Bahrain-Victorious during Stockwell’s two-year stint, and his results impressed the WorldTour team sufficiently to win a contract. Stockwell discusses a range of topics, including his membership of a golden generation of young British riders now racing in the sport’s top tier, a talent for cyclo-cross that saw him selected for two world championships, and the vital support of The Rayner Foundation, whose combination of financial and emotional support helped him make the transition from the Olympic Academy to CTF Friuli. In 2018, Phil Jones, Brother UK’s Managing Director and this podcast’s co-host, rode the entire route of the Tour of Britain with ultra endurance cyclist James Golding to raise around £20,000 for the Foundation. The Leeds-based charity, founded in memory of the hugely gifted Dave Rayner, has helped scores of young British riders to turn professional, including Tour de France stage winners David Millar and Adam Yates.

Bjoern Koerdt is the latest rider supported by The Rayner Foundation to graduate to the UCI WorldTour. The charity, which funds young British riders to pursue their dreams of a professional career by racing abroad, is one of the most cherished in British cycle sport. In 2018, Phil Jones MBE, Brother UK’s Managing Director and this podcast's co-host, rode the entire length of the Tour of Britain with endurance rider James Golding, raising around £20,000 for the foundation. Koerdt, a 20-year-old from Leeds, will start a three-year contract with DSM-Firmenich-PostNL in January. There, he’ll join Rayner alumni Oscar Onley and Sean Flynn. The Dutch squad’s development team is home to Rayner riders Jacob Bush, Oliver Peace and Benjamin Peatfield. Max Poole, a former British junior champion and our guest in episode 49, is among the team’s most valued riders. In this interview with co-host Timothy John, Koerdt describes the early days in his cycling career as a member of Yorkshire’s White Rose Youth League, his Rayner-supported move to France with CC Étupes, the alma mater of Tour de France stage winner Adam Yates, and a relentless but rewarding finish to the season as a stagiaire with DSM-Firmenich-PostNL that included a rare outing on home roads at the Tour of Britain. From early showings in domestic races like the junior CiCLE Classic to competing in professional races in countries as far flung as Norway and Malaysia, Koerdt offers insights into the life a young rider learning his trade and determined to reach to the top. Broken bones, foreign languages, golden opportunities and the sweet taste of success are among his formative experiences. A winter in Girona followed by a move to his new team’s Keep Challenging Centre in The Netherlands will continue the international flavour of Koerdt’s burgeoning career. Enjoy this interview with the latest young British rider to reach the professional ranks in an era that has witnessed a generational shift in the peloton’s demographic.

DAS-Hutchinson-Brother UK’s overall victory in the National Road Series and the team’s domination of the Ras na mBan are just two topics discussed by co-hosts Timothy John and Phil Jones, Brother UK’s Managing Director, in this packed episode. The World Championships in Zurich, an exhilarating edition of the Tour of Britain Men, and British Cycling’s progress report on recommendations made by the Elite Road Racing Task Force are also analysed in detail. Expert witnesses include Ras na mBan winner Mia Griffin, whose triumph on home roads followed her Olympic debut in Paris, and Irish U23 road champion Caoimhe O’Brien, who rolled out for her country against the world’s best female riders on a rain-soaked course in Zurich. Ian Watson, the co-manager of DAS-Hutchinson-Brother UK, and rising star Louis Sutton, whose hugely impressive debut at the Tour of Britain Men won him a combativity award and the plaudits of seasoned observers, also share insights. From the pressure faced by young riders in an era of accelerated career development to the commercial and budgetary context shaping British Cycling’s implementation of the Task Force recommendations, Phil and Tim apply the expert insights of a business leader and an experienced journalist to the biggest stories in domestic and professional cycling.

Rising star Louis Sutton revealed his talent to a television audience of millions with a series of exciting performances at the recent Lloyds Bank Tour of Britain Men. The 22-year-old from St Albans played a pivotal role in the breakaways that shaped stages two and three, finding himself in wheel-to-wheel combat with Soudal Quick-Step’s superstars, Remco Evenepoel and Julian Alaphilippe. While Sutton’s career has developed rapidly, he is no overnight sensation. Close observers of the sport will note his Rayner Foundation-funded pathway through AVC Aix-en-Provence: a route to the top followed by the Cofidis duo of Harrison Wood and Oliver Knight. Like his compatriots, Sutton has found the Provençal lifestyle and a blend of French and Spanish racing highly conducive to his development. Now in his second year with the team, Sutton has continued to deliver results. After winning three times in Spain for AVC-Aix in his debut campaign, this year he added a GC victory at the Bidasoa Itzulia and a second stage win at the Volta a Castelló. He has proved himself a valuable team-mate too, playing a pivotal role for Clément Izquierdo, who next year will follow Wood and Knight to Cofidis. Additionally, Sutton has impressed in Team GB colours, finishing second on his Nations Cup debut at the Course de la Paix and providing invaluable service to team-mate Joe Blackmore in the latter’s historic victory at the Tour de l’Avenir, cycling’s most prestigious U23 race. Great Britain team manager Matt Brammeier was sufficiently impressed to grant Sutton’s request for a reserve slot for the Tour of Britain. The rest is history. In this warm and candid interview with co-host Timothy John, formerly the editor of RoadCyclingUK.com and Rouleur.cc, Sutton describes his rapid ascent through the sport. A weekend mountain biker with only a handful of junior road races to his credit, his acceptance of an offer to spend a year in Spain racing for the team now known as Brocar-Rali-Alé proved life-changing. Sutton takes us inside Brammeier’s mix-and-match selection for the Tour of Britain, a squad of old hands, rising stars, mountain bikers and more, and reveals the additional willingness to ‘go deep’ that comes from racing against a double Olympic champion and a double world champion. From combativity awards to crashes and concussion, Sutton offers a detailed description of his first professional race: one very unlikely to be the last. Now preparing for his final engagement of the season, an assignment with Great Britain’s U23 squad at the forthcoming world road race championships in Switzerland, Sutton can already reflect on a pivotal campaign. With his U23 career now nearly complete, his next goal is to join the professional ranks. Any of the heavyweight squads who competed against him at the Tour of Britain will surely require no further evidence of his abilities.