'I’ve just accepted burning through my savings to pay my way to races' – meet five full-time British riders laying it on the line for the sheer love of racing
No salaries, no cameras, no guarantees – yet they train and race like their lives depend on it.
At the top end, Britain has never been better represented: in 2025, 50 riders – 32 men and 18 women – raced for WorldTour teams. On the men’s side, a further 20 riders competed at second-division ProTeam level.
The British riders often forgotten, though, are those racing at far below the WorldTour – without TV cameras, crowds or salaries – in UCI Continental and elite club teams. Why, you might ask, do they do it?
The racing is taken no less seriously at this level; just like their WorldTour counterparts, the riders train 20 hours a week, turn themselves inside-out to get faster, and travel long distances to UCI races – despite earning absolutely nothing.
Adam Lewis: ‘Most pro teams tell me I’m too old’
Age: 30
Years racing: 16 years
Team: Skyline
Division: Continental
Biggest result: 4th – GP Albert Fautville-Baulet (2018)
After spending four years riding for various teams in Belgium’s U23 scene, Lewis has since ridden for Dutch, French, British and American teams. He won’t give up his Continental racing career until he’s secured a maiden UCI victory.
"My progression has been linear every year since stepping out of the U23 ranks, and my last two seasons with Skyline [in the US] have been my best two years, even though I’ve turned 30. I’ve been one of the most consistent Conti-level riders across the globe, especially in stage races, and I’ve still got a burning desire to experience the pro level, even just for a year. Usually when I reach out, they say I’m too old, but if I get that inaugural UCI-level win, who knows what can happen.
"Life as a Conti rider has its ups and downs. On most teams, riders are not paid, and I’ve been funding my career by working as a coach and picking up a reasonable amount of prize money. I’m also lucky that I don’t have any major financial obligations yet. I’ve just accepted that I burn through my savings to pay my way to races.
"On most teams I’ve been on I’ve always booked my flights, and with Skyline for the past two years we’ve organised our own Airbnbs, car hire, and I’ve even been in charge of getting us race invites.
"What happens at the WorldTour definitely trickles down to our level, and the standard among Conti riders now is extremely high, even though there’s a lack of money. If I had been doing my current [power] numbers before Covid, I would have been winning quite a few of these races. There’s certainly no pressure on me to turn pro, though, and I’ll keep doing it as long as I enjoy it, and maybe tick a few more countries off the list to race in."
James Jobber: ‘It’s not unusual to have a 50p roadside meal’
Age: 31
Years racing: 15
Team: Hurricane & Thunder CT
Division: Continental
Biggest result: 8th – Tour de Taiwan (2022)
In the last seven years, Jobber has raced for Continental teams from six countries – Serbia, Brunei, Kuwait, Guam, Luxembourg and China – establishing himself as a true journeyman. He currently rides for The Hurricane & Thunder Cycling Team in China and also runs his own coaching business, NE1 Performance.
"I raced for elite teams in the UK when I was at university, and was chasing the cycling dream. With the beginning of the demise of the UK scene in 2017, people advised me to race stage races, so I went to a few in Ireland and in the Caribbean. It was while racing the Tour of Martinique that I got to know people with similar ambitions to mine, and that’s how my journey around the world began.
"Martinique and Guadeloupe don’t have huge cycling cultures, nor are they cycling destinations, but in both of their national tours there were thousands of fans on the road; it was deafening at times.
"I’ve spent a lot of time racing in Asia. At the Tour of Singkarak in 2019 – in a region of Indonesia where tourists typically don’t visit – thousands of people were outside our buses wanting autographs and selfies. I’ve done two different Tours of Thailand, and each has been at the opposite end of the country to the popular tourist part. It’s common to have a meal that costs 50p at the side of the road, made with eggs from a local garden and rice from a mile away. It costs nothing and tastes amazing.
"It’s not all fun, though. It was often chaotic riding for teams registered in Brunei and Kuwait. At times, we’d be booking flights on our way to the airport, and we literally missed some, owing to not having arranged the right Covid documents in time.
"China is up-and-coming, and more foreigners are racing there. Money is definitely part of the appeal [non-national riders earn up to €4k a month.], but the standard is also high, with a lot of UCI races and a strong domestic calendar. The language is definitely the biggest challenge – massive respect for anyone who learns Mandarin. Google Translate is essential, and on the WeChat group chat there is an auto-translate feature, which saves the day. We all have dinner together around a table – typically six or seven different dishes are ordered and then everyone takes what they want. It’s very rice- and noodle-orientated, and it all tastes great.
"My motivation to continue is that I love the sport, love competing and love the challenge of it. My racing complements my coaching business, and I don’t want to stop until I’ve mastered the skill of racing. I want to win a few races next year and I’m confident I can do that in China."
Max Stedman: ‘The team was funded by the mayor – till he lost the election’
Age: 29
Years racing: 9
Team: Retired
Division: Continental
Biggest result: 1st – Tour of Albania (2023)
Climber Stedman will be a familiar name to many: he raced for the various guises of the British Continental team Canyon DHB SunGod from 2015 and 2021, and in 2020 set the male British Everesting record at seven hours and 32 minutes. In 2023 and 2024, he raced in Turkey for third-tier team Istanbul Büyüksehir Belediye Spor Türkiye.
"It was never my plan to race in Turkey. In 2022 I raced in Italy but had a terrible time. In 2023 I signed for my old team [AT85 Pro Cycling] in the UK again, but then the team shut down in March. I had a few mates riding for the club team Velo Schils Interbike, and they asked me if I wanted to ride the Tours of Albania, Mauritius and Martinique. I was up for it, trained hard and planned to finish my cycling career with those guys.
"I ended up winning the Tour of Albania and afterwards a Turkish team messaged me asking if I’d like to ride for them. They had a good calendar, including the Tour of Turkey, and were paying me, so I thought let’s give it a go.
"Wages were €15-20k a year, similar to what I was on in the UK. A lot of the Turkish lads could live off that. There was also a team house in Istanbul that I could use. It was like a university halls on a sports complex. There were two of us in a room and two chefs cooking every meal for all the athletes from various sports on campus. The night before races, as a team, we’d all go for a posh sit-down kebab. That’s just what they ate.
"The team was mostly funded by the mayor of Beykoz, an area of Istanbul, and by Turkey’s biggest washing-up liquid company, Asperox – basically their version of Fairy Liquid. But the mayor didn’t want the company’s name on the jersey, so instead the team covered the top-of-the-range BMC bikes in a yellow wrap, and put the name Asperox on the frame. It caused many strange looks around Bristol when I was training.
"Unfortunately the team fell apart due to elections, with the mayor being voted out. I remember the team telling me he was really popular so not to worry – but it turns out he wasn’t. The new mayor pulled the funding, and the team was cash-strapped within weeks. I learned while I was there that Turkey’s cycling scene is really political; a lot of teams are named after local governments, and each race is designated left- or right-leaning. The Tours of Antalya and Istanbul are left-wing and they’re not allowed to advertise as much as the Presidential Tour of Turkey that everyone knows about. I wasn’t expecting Turkey to be good, but the 12 months I had there ended up being some of my funnest times as a bike rider. I now work as a coach."
Amalie Cooper: ‘I was world-level in skeleton, then I tried cycling’
Cooper pictured on the left
Age: 20
Years racing: 6
Team: Union Raiffeisen Radteam Tirol
Division: Austrian club
Biggest result: 1st - U23 Austrian national league overall title (2025)
Born in Kettering, Northamptonshire, Cooper and her family moved to Innsbruck, Austria when she was seven years old. Her parents are both triathletes, and Cooper dabbled in many sports before settling on cycling. She rides for Union Raiffeisen Radteam Tirol, which from next season will be a UCI team. She won the overall U23 title in the Austrian national league in 2025, and came second in the elite category.
"The first sport I ever did seriously was the winter sport of skeleton. There is a local track, called a bob run, in Innsbruck, and I raced from age seven to 13, attending training sessions three times a week. There are different levels you can start your run from, and I got to the highest level [1.2km long with a vertical difference of 115m] aged nine. From the top you reach 100kph – my highest speed was 114kph [71mph]. Also when I was nine I was the forerunner [person who goes ahead of the course to test conditions] for the British team at the World Championships.
"When I stopped skeleton, I continued playing rugby, did some weightlifting, and also picked up ski racing for a couple of years. I bought my first road bike in 2018, and in 2021 I was the fastest overall woman in a 120km Gran Fondo with over 2,000m of climbing. I realised I was half-decent and decided to focus on cycling.
"The national league races in Austria are a decent standard, similar to the domestic scene in the UK. What’s different is the types of races: most courses are around 70km and they include three or four laps of a course featuring a three- to five-minute climb. There are also lots of hill-climb races, but unlike in the UK where the climb is 700m long, here you climb 700m of vertical gain.
"I’m studying mechatronic engineering at the university in Innsbruck, but my ambition is fully on cycling. I’m aiming to become a pro, and my goal is to get to the Tour de France Femmes. My team is stepping up to a Conti licence next year and that should mean we get more international experience. I hope I can also get to the British Championships next year so that British Cycling becomes aware of me and I get an opportunity with the national team."
Theodor Obholzer: ‘When there’s prize money involved, riders threaten you’
Age: 26
Years racing: 8
Team: Anicolor-Tien21
Division: Continental
Biggest result: 3rd, Stage 3 – Volta ao Alentejo (2025)
For the past three years, Obholzer has been racing for American and Portuguese teams. He has signed a deal to ride for one of Portugal’s top Continental teams, Anicolor-Tien 21, in 2026.
"I started cycling in my gap year before uni, when I was working in Sweden. I raced for Durham University and then it progressed from there, joining Saint Piran in 2022. When that team collapsed, I felt really unfulfilled, as I was still improving as an athlete. I went to southern California to visit my girlfriend and did some racing while there and SoCalCycling.com invited me to race for them in spring 2023.
"There was a lot of prize money in the US. For the equivalent of winning a weekend crit at Hillingdon Circuit, you got $500, compared to £30. If you won their version of a Nat B, you got £2k. I finished second in a stage of the Tour of Gila and earned $800. The big crits pay $5-10k to the winner. But all the money has an effect on the racing style and culture: people come up to you in a race and say that they’ll crash you out. There’s much less collective responsibility and I didn’t really appreciate that.
"Portugal is very different. The infrastructure is amazing: teams have been around for 30 years, there’s a minimum wage for Conti riders, and everyone turns up to races with a team bus and a mechanics truck. Even domestic races get good crowds, and fans support teams from their region.
"I’ve wanted the chance to race for myself, and I’ve achieved podiums in UCI races in America, Asia and Europe. I think next year will be my last year, but I still feel like I’m improving and I’m excited about it."
The UCI ladder – divisions explained
The UCI Continental scene is cycling’s third division. It is a smorgasbord of lower-ranked UCI events – think Rutland-Melton CiCLE Classic in the UK – with a few higher-level races thrown in. Conti teams are not eligible to compete in WorldTour events.
Conti riders’ wages are dependent on the country they are from: in France and Belgium, riders are regarded as professionals, and their minimum salary is around €25,000. In other countries, average wages are even lower, between €11,000 and €22,000. Worse still, in some countries, including in the UK, wages are not mandatory, and often only expenses are paid.
Second-tier men’s UCI ProTeams have a current minimum wage of €40,045 for employed riders and €65,673 for self-employed riders. Women have had ProTeams since 2025, and their minimum wage is €22,000 employed and €36,080 self-employed. Each year a handful of the best Conti riders step up to ProTeam and WorldTour teams.
Below the Continental level exist club teams, which operate in the amateur ranks. They are allowed to race UCI 1.2 and 2.2 races – the lowest level of professional races. France and Belgium have the strongest and deepest amateur category, but riders are rarely paid.
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