Between them, Harry Tanfield and Sophie Wright had ridden one gravel race ahead of signing as much as their newest undertaking, however the former WorldTour duo at the moment are set to participate in much more, as a part of Ribble’s new gravel workforce.
Introduced these days, Ribble Outliers is a six-rider workforce made up of seasoned gravel execs and WorldTour newbies. The squad will compete within the calendar’s greatest occasions, together with the UCI Gravel Sequence and the Existence Time Grand Prix collection, which counts the marquee Unbound Gravel.
All six riders – Tanfield, Wright, Metheven Bond, Hayley Simmonds, Ben Thomas and Jenson Younger – had been provide at a release tournament in London on Thursday night time, the place they chatted with sponsors and ate margherita pizza, a stone’s throw from Buckingham Palace.
“I came on board in December,” Wright, a former Fenix-Deceuninck street professional, advised Biking Weekly. Between her and Tanfield, it was once the 25-year-old who boasted the only gravel race on her palmarès, an eighth-place end on a borrowed motorcycle at an tournament in Girona, Spain closing September. Round that point, she defined, she was once making plans to signal with any other workforce, ahead of the theory of Ribble Outliers was once put to her.
“It just sounded really appealing, and I signed the contract. Everything happened really fast and smoothly,” Wright mentioned. “I’ve done six years on the WorldTour and it’s definitely going to be different. In road racing, you’re working together as a team. Gravel is individual racing, and that’s kind of how I started racing years and years ago, with cyclo-cross and mountain bike.
“Now, I just feel like I’m ready for a change. I want to try something pretty different, and also go back to my off-road roots.”
(Symbol credit score: Ribble)
Tanfield’s dedication to the workforce has steadied a duration of instability for the previous WorldTour professional. After his earlier street workforce, Saint Piran, folded on the finish of closing 12 months, the 30-year-old scrambled to position in combination his squad, a bid that left him feeling “burnt out”.
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“I was still keen to race, obviously,” he mentioned. “At that moment, I was thinking, ‘This is killing me [trying to start a team]’. I had the option to start something fresh, and that option was Ribble.”
How a lot revel in does Tanfield have of gravel racing? “Zero,” he grinned, wearing a fresh-out-the-packet Ribble Outliers t-shirt. “I’ve always loved doing road races with gravel in them, and I thought, ‘Well, why not? Why not actually give it a try and see what it’s all about?’
“I’ve heard that for the Gralloch, you have to line up like one hour before the race – and it starts at a ridiculously early time as it is – and then you go down this really small track, and then everyone’s fighting for position for this 20-minute berg or something like that. It’s going to be wild.”
Ribble Outliers will race this 12 months on unreleased carbon gravel motorcycles from Ribble. One of the crucial prototype fashions was once on show on the release tournament, even supposing the riders don’t be expecting to obtain their motorcycles ahead of Would possibly. Till then, they’ll compete on Ribble’s present, off-the-shelf gravel machines.
The workforce’s first race will come subsequent Sunday at Turnhout Gravel, a UCI Gravel Sequence tournament in Belgium. “It’s going to be interesting,” mentioned Tanfield excitedly. “We’re certainly going to be getting some looks in all the pink. We can’t really hide anyway.”
It’s that garish equipment that the riders got here to pick out up in London, a brightly-coloured uniform for his or her latest journey.
“I turned up with a humongous suitcase,” mentioned Wright, primed for the swag. “I’ve got a Tesco carrier bag,” Tanfield laughed. “I couldn’t be bothered carrying the suitcase around, and I’m doing two flights tomorrow. It was a fortune to check it in. I’m just going to ship it to Belgium.”
Ribble Outliers’ complete 2025 programme may also be discovered at the workforce’s web site.
