Brother UK Cycling Podcast

With a ground-breaking world championships and a rejuvenated National Circuit Series to reflect upon, and the Ryedale Grand Prix and Tour of Britain to look forward to, co-hosts Timothy John and Phil Jones, the Managing Director of Brother UK, have much to talk about in this packed episode of the Brother UK Cycling Podcast.  Highly-qualified sources offer additional insights. Who better than Perfo...

One for the ages? The 2023 National Road Championships delivered attritional road races, exhilarating circuit races and blisteringly fast time-trials. Ten new champions were crowned over the five-day championships in Redcar and Cleveland: a celebration of elite British road racing that ended in spectacular style.  Co-hosts Timothy John and Phil Jones, the Managing Director of Brother UK, reflect o...

The 2023 National Road Championships in Redcar and Cleveland could be one for the ages. Stacked fields in the three disciplines, a relentlessly hilly road course, a fast and flat time-trial course, and a circuit that takes in town centre and seafront, it promises excitement and intrigue, challenge and reward. In this episode, co-hosts Timothy John and Phil Jones, the Managing Director of Brother U...

Leader meets leader in this special edition of the Brother UK Cycling Podcast, where co-host Phil Jones MBE, the Managing Director of Brother UK, heads across town from our headquarters in Tameside to interview Jon Dutton, British Cycling’s new Chief Executive, at Manchester’s National Cycling Centre. A fascinating conversation follows.  Phil presents the questions that matter to road cyclists on...

Deb John is the co-founder of Cold Dark North and a race organiser with many cherished events on her palmares, including the Proper Northern Road Race Series and the national masters championships for men and women. This year, Cold Dark North will also support the National Hill Climb Championships. In this in-depth interview, Deb discusses her motivations for becoming a race organiser and, later,...

The 2023 season has offered action and intrigue. In this latest episode of the Brother UK Cycling Podcast, co-hosts Timothy John and Phil Jones, the Managing Director of Brother UK, are joined by rider Sian Botteley (Hutchinson - Brother UK) to consider developments ranging from Jon Dutton’s appointment as the new CEO of British Cycling to the postponement of the Women’s Tour.  Phil offers insight...

Domestic cycling’s winter of discontent and the green shoots of recovery represented by a thriving National B scene fall under the microscope of co-hosts Timothy John and Phil Jones MBE in an episode to preview the 2023 National Road Series. Promoter Deb John and rider Sian Botteley offer additional insights. Phil and Tim discuss the setbacks endured by elite British road racing, from the cancella...

Oliver Knight seems destined to be among the next cohort of young British riders to enter the elite UCI WorldTour. He ended last season by racing as an apprentice with the UAE Team Emirates squad led by two-time Tour de France winner Tadej Pogacar and now seeks a professional contract. We caught up with Knight in January 2023 on the day he returned to Aix, the Provencal town he has called home for...

Oliver Knight seems certain to be among the next cohort of young British riders to enter the elite UCI WorldTour. He ended last season by racing as an apprentice with the UAE Team Emirates squad led by two-time Tour de France winner Tadej Pogacar and now seeks a professional contract. We caught up with Knight in January 2023 on the day he returned to Aix, the Provencal town he has called home for...

Sam Watson is one of British cycle sport's most exciting young talents. The 21-year-old will begin 2023 with the UCI WorldTour team, Groupama-FDJ. His graduation from its development squad completes the first stage of a rapidly advancing career that even a global pandemic has been unable to slow. Sam's rise might be described as meteoric, but there is no sign of him crashing to earth. Instead, his...

Harrison Wood might be described as a living, breathing definition of resilience. As such, he is a defining example of the qualities inspired by The Rayner Foundation, a charity funding young British riders to race abroad. Phil Jones MBE, Brother UK’s Managing Director, cycled the entire route of the Tour of Britain in 2018, one day ahead of the race, to raise funds for the foundation’s excellent...

The Rayner Foundation must be among the most successful charities in all of sport. Established in 1995, it has issued £1m in support via 521 grants and helped 84 young British riders to become professional cyclists. Its most successful graduates have won some of the biggest prizes in professional cycling.  The Rayner Foundation occupies a special place in the affections of the Brother UK Cycling P...

Oscar Onley, a 19-year-old from Kelso, is a dazzling cycling talent and a rider supported by The Rayner Foundation.  Riding for Team DSM’s WorldTour squad, he lit up the Brother UK-sponsored Tour of Britain before heading to Croatia and racing wheel-to-wheel with Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard.  He concluded his season at Paris-Tours Espoirs, a fitting finale for a young rider who has mi...

Fred Wright is a leading member of a group of young British riders already being hailed as a new golden generation to succeed, and perhaps even surpass, the likes of Wiggins, Cavendish, Thomas et al.  This year, Wright, 23, lit up both the Tour de France and La Vuelta a Espana with relentlessly combative displays, earning 11 top-10 finishes and three podiums across the two Grand Tours. For much of...

Adam Kenway, a Brother UK-sponsored athlete, joins co-hosts Timothy John and Phil Jones, the Managing Director of Brother UK, to look ahead to the 2022 hill climb season.  Adam, a former national hill climb champion, offers insights into the pain and pleasures of cycling’s most demanding discipline: one that routinely pushes competitors to collapse.  This light-hearted but informative conversation...

Dan Martin is among Ireland’s most successful cyclists. A winner of five Grand Tour stages, two Monument classics, two WorldTour stage races and numerous other accolades, he enjoyed a brilliant career by any standard.  Newly retired, Dan is enjoying life to the full, spending time with his young family in Andorra and on the Isle of Wight. He’ll attend this year’s Brother UK-sponsored Tour of Brita...

Episode 24 of the Brother UK Cycling Podcast sets the scene for the 18th edition of the modern Tour of Britain.  Co-hosts Timothy John and Phil Jones, the Managing Director of Brother UK, are joined by Brother UK-sponsored athlete Adam Kenway, the former national hill climb champion, and Tony Barry, the manager of Neutral Service p/b Brother UK.  The group discusses topics beyond the traditional p...

Grace Lister is a young rider in a hurry. Already this year, she’s represented Team England at the Commonwealth Games, pulled on a Team GB jersey for the junior European track championships, and won four British titles in the colours of Team Brother UK - Orientation Marketing. We caught up with Grace during a rare week at home in Shrewsbury as she prepared to fly to Israel for the world junior tra...

Episode 22 of the Brother UK Cycling Podcast reflects on the National Road and Time-Trial Championships, the exponential growth of women's racing, Brother UK's comprehensive sponsorship of elite domestic road racing, and the 2022 National Road Series. Co-hosts Timothy John and Phil Jones, the Managing Director of Brother UK, are joined by experts from the Brother UK Cycling family to discuss the b...

No one is closer to Brother UK-sponsored Tour of Britain than its Route Director, Andy Hawes. We caught up recently with Andy  in Ferndown, which will host the finish of stage seven of this year's race on Saturday September 10, as he neared the end of his second full route recce. Listen to Andy share insights from a drive of nearly 2000km, begun six days earlier in Aberdeen, where this year’s Tour...

Episode 20 of the Brother UK Cycling Podcast finds Phil Jones MBE, Brother UK’s Managing Director and this podcast’s co-host, in conversation with the writer Sophie Smith.  Phil seizes the coincidence of a visit to central London to interview Sophie, who is passing through the city en route to the Tour de France, about her new book, Pain and Privilege: Inside Le Tour. In a wide ranging conversatio...

June represents peak season on the elite British road racing calendar: a fact reflected in this packed edition of the Brother UK Cycling Podcast.  Co-hosts Timothy John and Phil Jones MBE, the Managing Director of Brother UK, are joined by VeloUK editor Larry Hickmott to look back on the Women’s Tour and look ahead to the Women’s CiCLE Classic and National Road and Time-Trial Championships.  Furth...

Co-hosts Timothy John and Phil Jones, the Managing Director of Brother UK, use episode 18 of the Brother UK Cycling Podcast to look back on the recent Tour Series, look ahead to the 2022 Women’s Tour, share more information on Brother UK’s Green Zone sponsorship at the Women’s Tour and Tour of Britain, and celebrate a second national title in three months for Brother UK - Orientation Marketing. Ad...

In episode 17 of the Brother UK Cycling Podcast, co-hosts Timothy John and Phil Jones, the Managing Director of Brother UK, look ahead to the 2022 season, paying particular attention to the Tour Series, the Lincoln Grand Prix and the Women's Tour.  In 2022, Brother UK will again be at the side of elite British road racing, maintaining its vital financial support in the form of sponsorships for the...

This special edition of the Brother UK Cycling Podcast previews the 2021 National Hill Climb Championships. Winnats Pass, a savagely beautiful climb at the heart of the Derbyshire Peak District, will host the championships for the first time in 40 years. This year, a female athlete will be crowned national champion on its slopes for the first time. Brother UK will proudly serve #Winnats21 as an ev...