Pro Gravel Team: Ribble Outliers

 Ribble Cycles, the leading British cycle manufacturer since 1897, is continuing its ongoing support for the British cycling scene with the launch of the UK’s first professional gravel racing team – the Ribble Outliers.

Pro Gravel Team: Ribble Outliers

March 14, 2025 – Preston, United Kingdom: Ribble Cycles, the leading British cycle manufacturer since 1897, is continuing its ongoing support for the British cycling scene with the launch of the UK’s first professional gravel racing team – the Ribble Outliers.

The unisex team has been formed to inspire the cycling community to join them on their adventure, showcasing the freedom, excitement and exhilaration that gravel racing brings. The six-strong squad comes from a diverse range of backgrounds – with MTBers, road riders and cyclocross stars joining forces with existing gravel talent to focus on this fast-rising discipline with the support of a professional and performance-driven support network behind them.

The roster is as follows:


Sophie Wright (25 years old): Sophie has extensive UCI Women’s World Tour experience, having ridden for Alé BTC Ljubljana, UAE Team ADQ, and most recently, Fenix-Deceuninck. Hailing from Norwich, she is also a former European MTB XC Champion and three-time national champion across multiple disciplines.

Sophie Wright said: “Having spent six years in the UCI WorldTour peloton, I’m excited by the new challenge of gravel racing. I’m delighted to join the Ribble Outliers squad and can’t wait to see what we can achieve together”


Harry Tanfield (30 years old): Harry is switching his focus to gravel, having enjoyed an incredible career to date on both the road and track. The Yorkshireman has not only competed on the UCI WorldTour for Katusha, AG2R and Qhubeka, he can also boast World Championships, World Cup and Commonwealth Games medals on his palmares as well as a national individual pursuit title.

Harry Tanfield said: “I’m really excited to be starting this new chapter of my career with the Ribble Outliers, and I am looking forward to competing in some of the world’s biggest and most diverse gravel races. Having not competed in this discipline before, I’m stoked for the adventure that’s in store.

“Coming from the north of England, Ribble is a revered and hugely respected brand and it will be awesome to race on their bikes, especially knowing the amount of work and dedication that’s gone into developing them.”

Hayley Simonds (36 years old): Hayley is one of the most decorated names in British time trialling having wrapped up back-to-back national titles in 2015 and 2016 as well as claiming bronze medals in both the European and Commonwealth Games. She also has a host of experience on the UCI Women’s WorldTour riding for the likes of UnitedHealthcare, Team WNT and BTC City Ljubljana.


Jenson Young (23 years old): Jenson marked himself out as a hot prospect by winning the U23 Cyclocross National Trophy series in 2023 and has enjoyed a host of additional triumphs at the Yorkshire U23 Classic, Yorkshire-6, Yorkshire-8 and Clonmel in Ireland since then, as well as only being denied victory in last year’s Three Peaks due to a poorly timed puncture.

Metheven Bond (32 years old): Having only taken up competitive cycling in 2021, in just over a year Metheven had earned himself a spot on the Great Britain team for 2022 UCI Gravel World Championships, where he went wheel to wheel with the likes of Mathieu van der Poel, Peter Sagan and Greg Van Avermaet. Not bad for someone who splits his time working for Ribble as a content creator!

Ben Thomas (36 years old): Ben is one of the UK’s most experienced offroad racers with four national mountain bike marathon titles under his belt, two Transalp wins, and a top-10 finish in the 2020 UCI MTB Marathon World Championships.
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The team is set to compete in the world’s biggest gravel races, having already secured spots at the Sea Otter Classic, Traka and UNBOUND Gravel, and their debut appearance is set to come at Turnhout Gravel in Belgium on Sunday 23rd March.

Sean Hastings, Ribble CEO, said: “With the Ribble Outliers, we’re bringing together an exciting group of riders from the UK scene to compete together on the global stage. It’s a squad we know will do us proud in some of the most demanding races on the planet.

While Ribble is best known on the road, we’ve been designing and building gravel bikes for almost a decade. More and more of our customers and staff are adding gravel into their riding mix, so there’s plenty of excitement to see the team getting out there this season.”

More: https://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/blog/the-outliers/

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