Why are Great Britain only sending three riders to the 2025 European Road Championships?

Anna Henderson, Josh Tarling and Ethan Hayter will be the only riders representing Great Britain at the UEC Road European Championships next week.

The event, scheduled for 1-5 October and taking place in the southeast of France, will crown the Continental champions across the junior, under-23 and elite ranks in road race and time trial disciplines.

GB’s trio will only compete in the elite time trials, with no riders fielded in any of the other events, despite the country qualifying a full eight-rider team for the men's road race, and six riders for the women's road race.

The decision comes due to the event’s proximity in the calendar to the ongoing UCI Road World Championships in Rwanda, said squad performance director Stephen Park.

“With the Euros falling so closely on from the world championships this year, we will be focusing our efforts on the time-trial events specifically and are pleased we’re able to field three strong contenders across the elite categories,” Park said.

The Road European Championships begin in France’s Drôme department next Wednesday, three days after the Worlds conclude this Sunday in Rwanda.

Henderson is the only rider of the GB trio who competed in Kigali, placing eighth in the women's elite time trial. Tarling only returned to racing this month after breaking multiple vertebrae in his back in a crash at May’s Giro d’Italia, while Hayter rejoins the national squad fresh from time trial victory at the Skoda Tour de Luxembourg last week.

In recent years, British Cycling has taken a targeted approach to squad selection, prioritising events in which they have medal prospects. The governing body’s budget for the Great Britain Cycling Team comes as part of its Olympic cycle funding, which must be managed across the four years leading up to Los Angeles 2028.

Last year, Great Britain did not take any riders to the European Championships, then held in Belgium, marking the third edition in four years without British representation.

This Saturday in Rwanda, there will be no British riders in the elite women’s road race at the World Championships for the first time since 1994, the squad selectors choosing instead to focus on the inaugural women’s under-23 event. There were also no British riders fielded in the men’s elite time trial, and no British squad entered into the mixed relay time trial.

The women’s and men’s individual time trials at the European Championships will take place on the same day, Wednesday 1 October, on the same 24km course between Loriol-sur-Drôme and Étoile-sur-Rhône.

Speaking about the chances of Tarling, Henderson and Hayter, performance director Park said: “All three have proven results in the discipline, with one Olympic, three world and two European medals between them and I look forward to seeing how they take on the course and the rest of the field at this event.”

The newly minted time trial world champions Remco Evenepoel (Belgium) and Marlen Reusser (Switzerland) are also on the start lists.