Is British Cycling about to kill the UK Gravel Championships?
In this video, I break down exactly what happened between Red On Sports and British Cycling — and why 2025 will be the final edition of the British Gravel Championships as we know them.
For five years, Red On Sports built the UK’s biggest gravel event completely independently, growing it from under 300 riders to over 1,000. It became a full weekend festival with elite racing, age groups, family activities and charity rides — setting a new standard for British gravel.
But negotiations with British Cycling have collapsed.
No guarantees on safety, age categories, livestreaming or long-term investment… and a commercial model that simply didn’t work.
So Red On Sports are stepping away.
British Cycling now plan to take the championship in a new direction — but will that help the sport, or risk destroying what made it special?
In this video I explain the full story, why it matters, and what this means for riders, fans and the future of UK gravel racing.
Let me know your thoughts in the comments — is this the right move, or a big mistake?
📢 Mentioned In This Video
Full Statement From Red On Sport – https://tinyurl.com/redonsports
🎬 Watch More…..
Latest Video – https://latest.tcc.watch
Gravel Racing – https://gravel.tcc.watch
Gravel Racing Is Brutal : The Gralloch 2025 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3qmB9FCHsI&list=PLLfHRkPMFeDZJ99GPBgF90XyHqIiuA_4s&index=5
Thetford Trophy Gravel Race – https://youtu.be/9omGra7zpM0?si=aZb1imKW9CkihvgH
Please Subscribe – https://www.youtube.com/@TheCoeliacCyclist?sub_confirmation=1
👉 FOLLOW MY CYCLING ADVENTURES
📸 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/the.coeliac.cyclist/
👍 Facebook https://www.facebook.com/thecoeliaccyclist
🕸️ WEBSITE https://thecoeliaccyclist.com
PARTNERSHIP & MEDIA ENQUIRIES
✉️ simon@thecoeliaccyclist.com
Chapters
00:00 The British Gravel Championship Crisis
00:36 How It All Started
01:13 The Growth of British Gravel
01:24 Talks With British Cycling
02:36 What Red On Sports Needed
03:16 The Breaking Point
04:44 Is British Cycling Killing the Championships?
05:35 What’s Next for Red On Sports
06:35 What This Means for Riders
07:28 My Final Take
ABOUT THIS CHANNEL
Welcome to The Coeliac Cyclist – The Home of Gritty Cyclocross, Gravel Racing Action & Epic Cycling Events.
If you’re obsessed with cycling, enjoy the chaos of cyclocross, the adventure of gravel racing, and the energy of epic cycling events, you’re in the right place. This channel delivers high-quality race and event footage with raw, honest commentary that puts you right in the middle of the action.
Here’s what to expect:
• Cyclocross race POVs from the mud, barriers, and mayhem
• Gravel racing content from epic events and beyond
• On-bike footage with rider commentary, tactics, and reactions
• Training insights to help you ride stronger and race smarter
• Gear reviews and honest feedback on bikes, kits, and tech
Whether you’re racing, spectating, or just love watching the grit and grind of cycling, this channel brings it all to your screen.
DISCLAIMER:
Links included in this description might be affiliate links. If you purchase a product or service with the links that I provide I may receive a small commission. There is no additional charge to you! Thank you for supporting me and my channel.
26 Comments
Bc is a shame
On a separate note, one of your chain lubes is slightly out of place chap ! Lovely service course.
BC only interested in a cash grab. Keep Supporting the Red On events. They’re happy to take your licence fees quick enough, then they disappear.
As you say just look how road cycling has dwindled under British Cycling's watch!! Bloody men in suits I expect who've never raced a bike!!
Everyone knows it. Except BC.
Red-On should just focus on themselves and maybe look at other structures like GloriousGravel. Just produce high quality events and maybe a national series and let BC simmer until they come crawling back.
There's two sides to this – BC (who I loathe) need a structured age category system in order to send riders to UCI Euro/world status races. Then there's the majority of US (99%) who'll never race at Euro/world level who should boycott BC events and enter the events hoste by Red On etc. The same thing happened with the mountain bike race scene, adventure racing , triathlon etc.
There's no easy fix , just vote with your feet.
I rode the first national and have ridden all of the Gralloch races so far as well as UCI events in Wales, Holland and Belgium. RedOn produce excellent events that you want to ride, I would go so far as to say in my experience they're best events!
Not only for the racing, but the whole festival vibe that they bring to their events, which I somehow doubt BC could do. My partner loves going to the Gralloch and even rode the sportive on the Sunday this year. Will BC be able to replicate this, creating an inclusive atmosphere that means even the non-racers have a good time?
It's like the UCI granfondo road series – RedOn ran the Tour of Cambridgeshire as well – BC showed no interest in age category racing, but were happy to pocket the membership & license fees we needed to go to the world championships (I did 3 and loved them) I think while I was riding these events BC showed no interest whatsoever. Their interest seems to lie only in the olympic events, forgetting the 95% of us weekend warriors who's fees pay to keep things going (along with Lottery). Of course that is expensive and we all love to see British riders doing well every 4 years, but it would be nice to see some attention on the grass root events that members are actually riding.
I think RedOn are right to step away and let BC take over, but it must be incredibly frustrating after all that hard work they put in over the years. It will be interesting to see if they manage to match the live footage and commentary at this year's event, that was great.
Oh and must say, tidy workshop, well impressed!
Ive ridden the gralloch and had a great time, it's a super event, I even qualified for worlds out of it , big thank you to the locals of gatehouse and red on. on the other side no NGB is perfect but it's the cycling community and local club events that need our support if cycling is to keep afloat. Red on come in and do a job and leave, is any of that money going back into local clubs, youth cycling, volunteers who marshal and coach underage? We all want age group events…why is there no underage event at any of these uci qualify events… Because its an expensive pain in the arse that big companies don't want..Look at the hill climb scene, absolutely amazing and no big company involved.. let's get off zwift and back out on club spins and Sunday races.. if riders turn up , local clubs will happily put on the events and our lovely sport will grow…
Well said. My only disagreement with what you said is ref MTB…BC have done an awful job at that. Truly awful. Nothing good comes of BC involvement I fear.
Anything BC gets involved in is for the cash only…they will ensure that Gravel goes to shit..
BC suck , pretend to support grass roots cycling but are truly crap , 40 quid to do a 40 minute cross race, don't care if its a national event, same course as a league race, you'll pay 20 quid for that.
The guys who volunteer or do the running of events are usually great but BC itself is often loathed.
BC will only invest in Olympic sports that boosts their funding. Gralloch and Welsh uci qualifier look like they are doing fine.
Welsh cycling is exactly the same pass the responsibility to the organisers idiotic
I broke my wrist week before Gralloch this year. Red on Sports said I cannot get a refund and would have to pay £50 to transfer entry to next year!
Having been an Accredited Marshal for British Cycling for many years, I stepped away last year as BC were an absolute shambles. I volunteered on the National Gravel Champs this year – my first event with Red-On. The event was fantastic – they looked after their marshals so, so well. I am very much looking forward to volunteering on The Gralloch in 2026.
I dont think BC will, or can, make a positive difference to gravel. Many of us saw a rapid decline in the domestic road scene many years ago & fast forward to now the whole UK scene is not so much on the bones of its arse but its pretty much finished full stop. BC have absolutely no interest in supporting grass roots amateur racing at any level – its organisers such as Red-On who do get it right and are now keeping our sport alive.
BC is a joke. They made a complete bollocks of the last Cyclocross British Championships. They didn't send a Cross team to the Euros a couple of years ago.
Would be great to see a big gravel event in the South. That's what puts me off – travelling distances in the UK – awful.
BC should just accept that they are incapable of delivering any domestic racing…. If they stepped away maybe it would open the door for others to actually do the job.
sounds like red-on should go it alone.
The kings cup was a brilliant event, shame it had to move.
It's entirely predictable behaviour from BC. They haven't done a great job with MTB. They've done a great job on the olympic programme but have totally lost sight of why the lottery funds olympic sports in the first place – to increase participation and improve the health of the nation. Everything they touch turns to turd on the event side of things. The national cyclocross champs is left to clubs to organise .They do a great job all things considered, but it is embarrassing compared to countries like France and Italy. Was it last year that the event livestreaming was a little girl livestreaming from her phone to YouTube? What an embarrassment they are.
Hope BC days are numbered memberships have massively dropped hopefully that keeps going
Well said, BC are killing the sport on many platforms..fingers crossed Red On will rise above and I suggest Red On just promote their own Gravel Champs as I think it will gain better attendance
This looks a bit like what Percy Stallard was up against when he organised the first ever massed start RR in England & Wales – Llangollen to Wolverhampton in 1942! Percy and all the riders were banned from the NGB, the National Cycling Union, for life! Those in charge did not like it!