Come Rayner or shine

All images reproduced courtesy of SW Pix

Cast your eye over the image above. Take in the names. All these riders are British pro cyclists who have ridden at the top level of the sport within the past thirty years. Without the support of one very special organisation, it’s possible that they may never have been able to achieve the successful careers and even victories that as fans of the sport, we have shared and enjoyed with them over the years. They may perhaps never even have made it, as an elite rider.

That organisation is the Rayner Foundation – formerly known as the Dave Rayner Fund – and while it’s a household name for cycling families in the Yorkshire area, and indeed for devoted fans of British cycling, for cycling fans from further afield, it may be unfamiliar. Yet the significance of this volunteer-led organisation to the British cycling scene cannot be underestimated. Here’s everything you need to know about the driving force behind supporting British riders to achieve their dreams of riding in Europe.

The Beginnings

"Let's raise some money. Let's choose some riders. Let's give them a little bit of a boost."

Established in 1995, the Rayner Foundation will celebrate its 30^th anniversary in 2025. Since David Millar, the first rider ever to be sponsored by the fund, 656 riders have been awarded with grants. Millar was one of just four riders to be sponsored in the first year, all the way through to this year’s cohort, one of the largest ever at 35 - eight of whom have already secured pro contracts. In fact, over the course of the Foundation’s history, 99 riders have secured contracts, meaning that 15% of the scheme’s graduates have gone on to achieve their dream of riding their bike professionally. No small feat.

Committee member Joscelin Ryan talks me through the beginnings of the Fund.

“It was started after the passing away of a friend of a lot of professional cyclists from the UK called Dave Rayner. He passed away in tragic circumstances, and a group of his friends got together and said, you know, this was a guy who was so popular, and we feel so devastated about what's happened that we want to do something to perpetuate his name and his memory. What can we do now?

“Dave, when he was a junior, he'd gone to Italy to live and to race and join an Italian team. This was really young, especially in those days. He was so successful that he became professional off the back of that. For that reason, the group of friends said, ‘What can we do? Let's do what Dave did. Let's get some riders to go abroad and to experience a different side of racing that could open up some opportunities that they might not get if they stay in the UK. And that's been the theory ever since. Let's raise some money. Let's choose some riders. Let's give them a little bit of a boost, some spending money. We don't say that we pay for everything for them, but to just give them a little bit of a helping hand; let's encourage them to go abroad, let them go and experience this fantastic thing, and let's see what they can make of themselves.

“And so we still go on, and I think we're getting more and more successful as time goes by. Each year we seem to have more success. More riders turn professional. Which is one way of measuring it, although it's not the only way. We've also produced riders that have gone on to not become professional cyclists, but have worked at the highest level in cycling. You know, we've got all sorts of riders as DSS’s, as soigneurs, as coaches, as physios, journalists even.”

The next generation

From a group who wanted to do something to commemorate their friend, to now, and the Rayner Foundation master spreadsheet – it’s a who’s who of British cycling talent, and as you scroll through the list you begin to grasp the impact that this support must have had, not just on the individuals whose names appear on the list, but in a wider sense; the ripple effect on the British domestic scene as a whole, as the grants offered by the fund allowed the younger generation to see riders a few years ahead of them making a real go of a career in pro cycling on the continent, and achieving their dreams. That ray of hope offered to all those following in their footsteps.

I ask Jos to explain the process whereby talents are identified and decisions made, each year.

“It's not so much that we find the riders. The riders find us. We're quite well known. Most of the riders that are on the circuit as juniors know who we are and what we do, and so they will apply to us once they have arranged everything for their stint abroad. They've got to find themselves a team. They've got to find themselves somewhere to live, which hopefully the team will help them with. And they've got to sort out their visa situation, if that's what they need, which a lot of them do these days.

“They apply to us around October, and we go through all the resumes, see what they've done. We have to look at the talent, obviously. We have to then look at their circumstances and their results, and we make a selection. So yes – some riders will be hoping to hear from us in a positive way in a week or so.”

As for how many riders the Foundation can afford to support, and how much each will receive, Jos tells me that “it varies year on year, according to the quality of the riders that apply, the number of riders, sometimes we get a lot less riders applying. So it just varies. There's no set figure. We see what we can do.”

I'm keen to understand how far the Foundation's reach goes - do they have any links with particular teams or any sway when it comes to who ultimately achieves the dream contract. Jos clarifies that it's all down to the riders themselves.

"The teams have got their own scouts out there to look for these riders. So as long as they're there and they're doing well, they'll be noticed. If they stay in the UK and do well, they're unlikely to be noticed. That's the reason for going abroad. So we don't have much hand in getting these riders into bigger teams. They have to do it themselves, and they do it through their results.

"It places the onus on the rider, then, to be good. It's not identifying talent and giving them the money just based on that, and nothing else. They come to you and explain who they are and why they believe that they're the ones that have got the drive, have got what it takes to go out and because it's a hard life, isn't it? A couple of speeches at the dinner alluded to how tough it is being so young, completely moving country especially in this recent environment with Brexit and all the other additional complications that are thrown in their way and having to be independent."

The annual cohort of riders obtain more than simply financial assistance; they offer something of a home away from home. While the Foundation encourages independence and isn't there to hand-hold, there is a sense that they provide a kind of support network and a community. With other British riders in the same boat, comes a camaraderie.

Jos agrees, that the riders have something in common, and that many have met friends through their links with the Foundation. "We try and encourage this community amongst them all. They're all in different teams, spread all over France and Spain and Italy. But they do often meet up at races, obviously, with their respective teams, because they're riding at quite a high level.”

It's all about the money

Fundraising activities throughout the year are key to the Foundation securing the funds they need to support as many riders as they can each year.

“We have various fundraising activities. We have the dinner. We have a sportive called the Etape de Dales, which has been going for years. Lot of people make donations. We are a charity - that's something that's happened in the last five years, actually. Prior to that, we were a non-profit organization. Now we're a full charity.”

This change in status resulted in a valuable boost from the US-based Rapha Foundation, which Jos admits saw the organisation through the COVID years and since, but that has now ended, so it’s important for the fund to find a replacement for those funds.

The dinner itself is vital not only to the fundraising effort, but also to bringing together the local cycling community. Cycling is Big in Yorkshire, and both Sheffield and Barnsley Road Clubs attended the dinner in place of their own club dinners. I asked Jos about the significance of the dinner, and the foundation, to the local cycling community, specifically, and how she felt the night had gone.

“We're very pleased with the outcome. The atmosphere was amazing. A lot of people have said to us, it was one of the best. It is an amazing venue. We had about 300 people, obviously, a lot of people from Yorkshire there, because it's local. But there are a lot of cyclists in Yorkshire. There’s a thriving scene there. And there were a lot of juniors, which is heartening, actually. We've got a scheme that we started three years ago, where we give a little bit of help to junior teams to go abroad. Obviously, juniors don't go and live abroad. Most of them are still in school, but the top juniors, the ones who are really on the pathway, they want to go and ride the big UCI races abroad, so they dash over for the weekend, ride a race or two, and come back and we can help with that as well. So they repaid us by all coming to the dinner in great numbers. So it was really good to see all those youngsters all dressed up.”

Though the total funds raised on the night are still being tallied and weighed against costs, on the whole, it was notable how the night generated such good will, even more importantly, raised awareness. Jos agrees that this is an important element to the dinner.

“That's really important. We want to get the name out there. We want everyone to have a good time. We want that atmosphere of an old-fashioned club dinner: there are youngsters, juniors, and there are old people like me! And that's cycling. It's open to everybody, so the young and the old can mix. That's how it used to be in the old days. And we can recreate that. A lot of clubs now are not really clubs in the old-fashioned sense. They don't have club dinners or club meetings or things like that. So we can provide that."

A night to remember

Rewind to the previous Saturday. The Royal Armouries in Leeds is the venue, and the great and the good of British cycling gather together for an evening of entertainment and celebration. For many of us, it's the first opportunity we've had in a long time to get really dressed up, and everyone looks amazing. Faces you're used to seeing beneath a branded helmet atop a lycra-clad body scrub up very well indeed for the occasion, including the likes of Lizzie Deignan, Alex Dowsett and a host of former Rayner riders, as well as plenty from this year's cohort. Hannah Walker is the evening's compere and she keeps things moving along despite an increasingly rowdy crowd. The food is good, the wine is flowing, and new friendships are quickly forged over a shared passion. Oh, and there's the small matter of the need to generate funds - which leads me to the following...

Question: what do you get if you cross some free wine, a selection of exclusive cycling memorabilia and a mobile phone?

Answer: vital funds for the Rayner Foundation – secured during the silent auction, whereby you were invited to make your highest bid to a specified text number, then await the results. There was a handy app (and a screen showing the latest bids) where you could track whether you remained the highest bidder, and of course, the more wine that was consumed, the lower the inhibitions about casually typing in a higher sum of money, that didn’t really feel like real money anyway, given that it was just numbers on a screen, and a fun game to play that would eventually result in a plump sum of money being raised for a great cause.

That’s how I found myself the proud owner of a Groupama-FDJ jersey signed by the former rider for the French team (now with INEOS) and Rayner alumnus, Sam Watson. But more on that later.

Yes, the silent auction was one effective fundraising method employed on the night, alongside an envelope on the table to put cash in, a raffle, and a live auction, where the biggest prizes garnered attention – a Tour de France green jersey signed by this year’s winner Biniam Girmay, and a Champs-Elysee Tour de France experience with INEOS Grenadiers were two of the big ticket items offered at the live auction (the latter going for a cool £2,400), and after the dinner had been consumed, along with a fair glut of wine (soft drinks were available), it was time for the speeches.

First, a word from the Rayner Foundation committee members who worked so hard to bring the event to life, as well as working year-round to support the organisation.

The youngest committee member Josh Cutler acknowledged that there are many different routes to becoming a pro rider, and inevitably many young talents are missed, and part of the remit of the Foundation is to pick them up before they slip through the net. He appealed for support, noting that times are getting harder for charities, but to give to Rayner is the chance to help support the development of the next big name in cycling.

Joscelin Ryan noted that an astonishing £600,000 had been raised since the Foundation began, and reminded the assembly that it’s a team of volunteers who run the organisation for the love of the sport. “When the riders get pro contracts fills you with warmth. There’s no greater feeling,” she said, and it was difficult not to get on board with the sentiment.

"Don't be a t**t", and other excellent advice

Guests of honour Ed Clancy and Alex Dowsett were up next. They were invited up together to talk about how cycling shaped their young lives. Clancy called it the “best misspent youth ever” and Dowsett acknowledged that “it’s tougher now. It’s easy to say ‘it was much harder in my day,’ but it’s harder now.” He expressed a level of disappointment at how professional young riders are forced to be in the current era, while admitting he was in awe of their professionalism. 

“No-one gave a shit about what I did as a junior,” he said. “They do now. They’re arguably more professional than some World Tour pros I know. World Tour teams recognise the strength of juniors, [and they become] very hot property.”

Asked to give advice to the current cohort of Rayner riders the swathe of juniors present at the dinner, Clancy said: ‘Be your own boss - who's in and who's out of your team? It’s quite hard when you're used to being dependent, and being spoon-fed information.

"Just enjoy it. You will look back and won't be that worried about what you won and lost, but more about the friendships you made along the way.”

Clancy’s wistful positivity was met with Dowsett’s deadpan pragmatism. “Another piece of advice is 'don't be a twat',” said the former hour-record holder. Again, a solid piece of advice for life.

Clancy went on to reflect about the hard times he suffered out on the European roads, that made him stronger. “Liège-Bastogne-Liège 2007 was the worst day of my life. One thing way out of my ability was long races with hills. I wanted to be the next Alex Dowsett and ride both road and track, so I was really out of my depth. I ran out of water and food with about 50km ago, the bus was leaving. The Belgian fans were giving me beer, and telling me off for not being good enough.

“It's about losing,” Clancy summarises. “It's about learning to overcome adversity on a daily basis. Littered with heartbreak, suffering defeat.” But on the flip side, he highlighted the transferable skills that will be learned along the way. “Teamwork, camaraderie, performing under pressure – you can apply that in any walk of life in one way or another.”

Dowsett concluded by sharing his admiration for the Rayner Foundation for supporting riders who weren’t lucky enough to be on a Great British Cycling plan, and it was a salient point, given the disparity between support offered to track riders and to those on the road by the national governing body.

Six riders of the current cohort have secured a pro contract this season, and their names were read out by Hannah Walker. She went on to outline the 46 victories secured by Rayner riders in the 2024 season, highlighting the achievements of Cat Ferguson, Adam Mitchell and Ben Chilton among others.

After that, all the funded riders present were asked to come up to the dance floor, and a couple of them were invited to share some thoughts on their experiences. My notes get a little sketchy here as the only quote I’ve written down is Adam Mitchell – currently riding for French continental team Vendee U, who said: “It would be good if I could get paid,” a sentiment which I’m sure all the riders share. Ben Chilton spoke about the experience of the Rayner Foundation as a community of riders, who are able to catch up at races, speak English and have a piece of home to help them feel less alone during their time abroad.

Oliver Stockwell was absent but he was awarded the Lewis Barry award for a rider who has stood out throughout the year. The award was collected on his behalf by Lewis’ Mum, who gave a heartfelt speech, and acknowledged the hardships that young riders have to face as they head out to the continent.

The future of the Foundation

"We need to have a scene in the UK for riders that don't want to make their home permanently abroad, that want to come back, but to carry on racing, and have got something to offer."

And that concluded the business end of the evening. In an exciting turn of events, I discovered I’d won the Groupama-FDJ shirt and dutifully headed to the collection desk, where I met a Brazilian lecturer from Leeds university who had made the area his home and was another example of the reach of the cycling community, and its welcoming nature. We collected our prizes and paid, and some guests headed off while others bought more drinks and headed to the dancefloor.

The goodwill and good news stories from the evening had transformed me from the person who agonised over the cost of a new dress earlier in the week, to someone willing to throw money in the general direction of these promising young athletes, in the hope that one day in the near future, the investment would result in a new favourite rider to cheer on, another gem in the crown of British riders who’ve gone out and succeeded on the continent, just as Dave Rayner did thirty years previously. And I wasn't alone. Others gave far more generously, and hopefully the proceeds will see the Foundation live to fight another season, and beyond.

The following week brought yet more grim news on the domestic scene, as the final remaining British men’s continental team Saint Piran announced they were closing their doors. It brought into startling clarity the situation in which we find ourselves as a nation vis-à-vis our presence on the international stage of this sport. A nation that, despite the niche status of the sport, consistently produces incredible talent in cycling, and a nation that loves the sport despite its relative marginalisation in mainstream sports media. Despite all these obstacles, people will get on their bikes, and people want to race their bikes. I asked Jos to reflect on this in light of the news.

“It is important to send riders abroad, because that's where the major scene is," she said. "That's where they're going to be riding, to become professionals. To get into that world, they've got to start earlier and earlier these days.

“Another factor that used to be quite important was riders that didn't quite make the World Tour level, but were still good riders, used to be able to come back to the UK and there would be teams that they could join; there would be races they could ride, and they could earn themselves a living. That's gone now, hasn't it? So we also do need to have a scene in the UK for riders that don't want to make their home permanently abroad, that want to come back, but to carry on racing, and have got something to offer.

"A few years ago, it was fantastic. We had lots of our returning riders coming back to ride at the time when we had five continental teams, full of riders that had done a couple of years over in France and could come back and earn a living, and that's gone, which is a damn shame. So if we had that back as well, it could provide an income, a life, a job, a career for a lot more people.”

It's a rallying call for a better future for British cycling and I think we can all get on board with that.

Thanks to the Rayner Foundation for their time and for inviting me to the dinner. You can find more information about the Rayner Foundation at their website. They are on social media @RaynerFoundation and are always open to donations, collaborations and funding, so if this piece has inspired you to support this worthy cause in these difficult times, don’t hesitate to reach out to them.