British cycling crisis as lack of funding leaves smaller teams on the brink: “It’s incredibly challenging”

The struggle for British Continental cycling teams to secure sponsors has reached a critical point. Cycling Weekly recently investigated just how tough the fight for funding has become, shedding light on a system where teams are often searching for sponsors the same way students search for part time work.

Josh Hand, owner of British elite squad Spectra Racing p/b DAS, described the grind to secure backing, “I have mine and then you have yours, don’t you?” he says to his team manager Gina Ball, comparing their strategies for finding sponsors. Hand admits, “Yours tend to be more successful. I tend to use LinkedIn as a huge research platform, and then it comes down to essentially cold emailing.”

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For Ball, success has often come through an equally grassroots method, “The last few sponsors that I’ve brought in,” she explains, “I’ve genuinely just DMed them on Instagram through the team account, and it’s fallen to the right person at exactly the right time. It’s just finding the right person at the right time.”

Teams are sending cold emails, LinkedIn posts, and even Instagram messages to potential sponsors, approaches that illustrate the precarious and difficult task smaller teams have in finding sponsors.

The consequences of this funding shortfall have been devastating. For the first time since 2004, there will be no British men’s Continental squads in 2025. Teams like Saint Piran and Trinity Racing were forced to collapse this year, unable to bridge the financial gap.

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Hand underscores just how challenging the situation remains for those still fighting to keep their teams afloat, “I wouldn’t say it’s more challenging this year than in the past, but it’s just always a definite level of incredibly challenging.” For Hand, an ideal annual budget sits at £60,000, a figure that most teams find nearly impossible to secure.

The struggles of teams like Spectra Racing reveal a much deeper issue, a lack of sustainable support and funding for smaller cycling teams. As more teams disappear, the development pipeline for young riders and future stars is increasingly threatened. Without a clear solution, the absence of British Continental squads could soon signal an even greater crisis for the sport in the UK.

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