'It's going to be wild' - Ribble launches new gravel team with ex-WorldTour pros

Between them, Harry Tanfield and Sophie Wright had ridden one gravel race before signing up to their latest venture, but the former WorldTour duo are now set to take part in a lot more, as part of Ribble’s new gravel team.

Launched today, Ribble Outliers is a six-rider team made up of seasoned gravel pros and WorldTour novices. The squad will compete in the calendar’s biggest events, including the UCI Gravel Series and the Life Time Grand Prix series, which counts the marquee Unbound Gravel.

All six riders – Tanfield, Wright, Metheven Bond, Hayley Simmonds, Ben Thomas and Jenson Young – were present at a launch event in London on Thursday evening, where they chatted with sponsors and ate margherita pizza, a stone’s throw from Buckingham Palace.

“I came on board in December,” Wright, a former Fenix-Deceuninck road pro, told Cycling Weekly. Between her and Tanfield, it was the 25-year-old who boasted the one gravel race on her palmarès, an eighth-place finish on a borrowed bike at an event in Girona, Spain last September. Around that time, she explained, she was planning to sign with another team, before the idea of Ribble Outliers was put to her.

“It just sounded really appealing, and I signed the contract. Everything happened really fast and smoothly,” Wright said. “I’ve done six years on the WorldTour and it’s definitely going to be different. In road racing, you’re working together as a team. Gravel is individual racing, and that’s kind of how I started racing years and years ago, with cyclo-cross and mountain bike.

“Now, I just feel like I’m ready for a change. I want to try something pretty different, and also go back to my off-road roots.”

Tanfield’s commitment to the team has steadied a period of instability for the former WorldTour pro. After his previous road team, Saint Piran, folded at the end of last year, the 30-year-old scrambled to put together his squad, a bid that left him feeling “burnt out”.

“I was still keen to race, obviously,” he said. “At that moment, I was thinking, ‘This is killing me [trying to start a team]’. I had the option to start something fresh, and that option was Ribble.”

How much experience does Tanfield have of gravel racing? “Zero,” he grinned, dressed in a fresh-out-the-packet Ribble Outliers t-shirt. “I’ve always loved doing road races with gravel in them, and I thought, ‘Well, why not? Why not actually give it a try and see what it’s all about?’

“I’ve heard that for the Gralloch, you have to line up like one hour before the race – and it starts at a ridiculously early time as it is – and then you go down this really small track, and then everyone’s fighting for position for this 20-minute berg or something like that. It’s going to be wild.”

Ribble Outliers will race this year on unreleased carbon gravel bikes from Ribble. One of the prototype models was on display at the launch event, although the riders don’t expect to receive their bikes before May. Until then, they will compete on Ribble’s current, off-the-shelf gravel machines.

The team’s first race will come next Sunday at Turnhout Gravel, a UCI Gravel Series event in Belgium. “It’s going to be interesting,” said Tanfield excitedly. “We’re certainly going to be getting some looks in all the pink. We can’t really hide anyway.”

It’s that garish kit that the riders came to pick up in London, a brightly-coloured uniform for their newest adventure.

“I turned up with a humongous suitcase,” said Wright, primed for the swag. “I’ve got a Tesco carrier bag,” Tanfield laughed. “I couldn’t be bothered carrying the suitcase around, and I’m doing two flights tomorrow. It was a fortune to check it in. I’m just going to ship it to Belgium.”

Ribble Outliers' full 2025 programme can be found on the team's website.