Saint Piran just announced the closure of their men’s pro cycling team and all other racing activities.
Everyone from British Cycling to the UCI are getting involved, so Owen looks into why Britain’s last pro cycling teams just shut down, what factors led to the decision, and where we go from here.
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11 Comments
Hi folks, it's Owen from the video! I'd recommend checking out the incredible work Cycling Weekly did on this directly if you're at all interested in learning more as I didn't want to bog down the video too much – we save that for the podcast! 😆
As a former professional team mechanic, I'd be interested to know more about the bike failures & allegations.
Then, with my many years experience, I could then (maybe) pinpoint more light onto the matter.
As INEOS Grenadier is registered in the UK would it not qualify as an existing British team?
Gutted. Used to enjoy Pete on Never strays far talking about Trinity racing too. Those teams were all part of us fan boy/girls ecosystem. The tour of Britain was awesome. Bad times 😢
If you are at a good standard join a club team in Europe and race .If you win or you do well you will get noticed.Many UK cyclists have followed this route.
St Piran sounds extremely dodgy. Alleged fraudulent use of UCI stickers….
Money, Chinese Companies will step in with Government funding. Our loss is there gain, I expect this trend to continue until beyond 2030 as china becomes more involved in TDF.
There's no mystery here. The sport, at least at this level, is being killed for three reasons.
Firstly, planned obsolescence. When even teams can't afford to buy top end bikes it's unlikely that fans will be able to either.
Secondly, hiding cycle sport almost completely behind paywalls, means that it's even less likely that sponsors will get their money's worth, when it comes to advertising. Watching a race briefly pass at speed, while standing by the side of the road, or being only allowed to watch highlights (due to paywalls) just doesn't cut it.
And finally, sponsors are starting to discover that there are many more ways to promote their image, as the growth of "Alt" events (and especially targeted social media advertising) is showing.
Start a Monument Cycling UCI conti team.
Good work Owen, it’s a sad state we find ourselves in as a sport in the UK.
First became aware of St. Pirran through the vlogging of Chris Opie in 2020. Really liked the idea and it's sad it won't continue, e.g there was something great about seeing Jack R-G mixing it up in Glasgow 2023 and securing an EF contract. Can't help think though, it's not bad luck, it's bad management in a bad environment. 2025 just isn't economically conducive to pro cycling in the UK.