Ride Revolution are not the first British club team to declare that they want to go pro. In the past couple of years, there have been whispers of others wanting to move to UCI Continental level, not least Raptor Factory Racing, who declared this time last year that they were aiming to move up. That didn’t come to pass.
Since Trinity Racing and Saint Piran disappeared in 2024, there has been no domestic men’s conti team, if you don’t count Netcompany-Ineos Racing Academy, who are a WorldTour development squad.
However, hoping to change that in the next two years are Ride Revolution. The Milton Keynes-based club have been ever-present in domestic racing in the past couple of years, along with some forays abroad, and want to move up a level.
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Their aim is to become a Continental team by 2028, not jumping up immediately. Their mid-August Instagram post explained: “For the last few seasons, we’ve been building Ride Revolution, one small step at a time. From domestic racing, to National Series success, to our first UCI races and international campaigns, every season has taken us a little further. Now, we’re ready to take a much bigger step.
“Our goal is to build Ride Revolution towards a professional level and establish a genuine UK development pathway supported by the people, partners, equipment and infrastructure required to compete at that level.”
Founded and run by Jake Hales, alongside team manager Zak Dawson, the pair are keen for the growth to be sustainable, as the latter explained to Cycling Weekly last week: “We’ve said 18 months because we know there are challenges. Jake has ridden on a Continental team before, and knows the level it needs to be, and we want to professionalise and give the riders the opportunity.”
“We’re not trying to do this to make money, if we could see our team as a Continental squad racing around the world, how cool would that be?” he continued. “We’re not just a race team with someone owning us, and we want to say to the top riders in the UK we can offer you a full programme, come on board. There’s a story line of trying to create a development team and create opportunities, but also have a bit of fun.”
There’s also the coaching side, which is how Ride Revolution began in the first place, in 2019. Dawson said: “It’s a sustainable method of bringing them in, coaching them, and also offering a race programme. We could have come out with the news and said we need this amount of money, but it’s about what can be sustainable to continue our growth.”
“I’m organising the races and the riders, while Jake’s overseeing the whole programme, the coaching, and the selection,” he continued. “Between the two of us, it’s become a passion project. Since the start of last year, we also had a coaching client come onboard, offering his support to the team, which was a really good help.
There are currently eight British Cycling-backed Elite Development Teams. Ride Revolution were not among those in 2026, but they want to go bigger.
“We want to try and create a platform for British cycling because it has been lacking, and a lot of riders on the UK scene need a way through,” Dawson says.
2027 will be a year for progress, and attempting to prove to sponsors that they should back the outfit: “It’s about showing the professional side next year, offering opportunities, showing that we can achieve what we want to achieve before we take the big step.”
The reaction has been good so far, Dawson said: “When we announced it, we were sceptical about whether it would go well or not, but we’ve done really well. There has been a lot of support for it, people have been coming up at races to mention it, and the overall attitude is that we can make this work.”
However, the real work begins, with partners needed to make the dream a reality. Elite and under-23 riders are also encouraged to apply.
“We’re open to any kind of conversation,” Dawson said. “We need support from people, staff, riders, others that have gone through this process. Ideally, we’re looking to bring more sponsors, as Ride Revolution is currently the only one. We want to stay the same team, but we’re open to others coming on board. The more people we can get, the more hype we can create, the more chance we have of success.”
