Would I do a road team again?
Yes.
There’s the quick answer.
It’s the week after Unbound as I’m finishing the edit on this. It’s my mid-season break, and I’m chilling out in Boulder. I’m watching Tulsa Tough, and I’ve just seen one of my friends, Michael Garrison, pull for one of my former Rebellion teammates, Matt Bostock.
I’m scheming. To any of you who read this, it’ll be no surprise that I love road racing. Yes, gravel is what has given me everything, and it will always be a discipline that I want to race, but road - well, that’s my first love.
Joe
This was originally written in April 2025 and placed into my private diary. After watching Tulsa Tonight, I decided I’d just hit publish.
If I had a dollar for every time in the past two weeks that I’ve been asked about Rebellion, or if I’d be starting another road team, then I’d probably have enough money to fund it.
Ribble Rebellion was a British licensed cycling team that took on the US in 2024. We were big, we were bold, and we were colourful. We came out to the US at the start of the season as the underdogs. Then we won, and won, and won.
Rebellion was my baby. It was a team that was never really meant to exist. A team that won more than anyone expected, and a team that promised to do things differently. We ignored the traditional trend of heading over to race in the European big leagues and instead headed to the lights of America.
It burned bright and then burned out just as fast.
Rebellion v2?
Since being back in California, at the races where Rebellion first made its mark, the question keeps popping up: Will you do it again?
It’s difficult. Rebellion was a project that spun wildly out of control and grew bigger than expected. And selfishly, it clashed with my own goal of being the best athlete I can be.
I kicked the can on starting a new team countless times after being told Rebellion would fold. Eventually, I decided to kick that can away. This season was to be one where I focused on my performances. A year I try to get the most out of myself as an athlete.
I love being that athlete, but I can’t help thinking something is missing.
I’ll admit, the grass is very much greener on the other side, and while I am enjoying not having the stress of managing a full team, I miss the thrill. I relish the challenge.
What Would it Take?
Money, and enough of it to do it properly. I’d never make a team without enough money. The hardest part of running a cycling team isn’t running a team, it’s finding the funding.
If there’s enough funding, then the rest of the parts become a balancing act of hiring correctly, marketing well and choosing the right races. I also learned the hard way the art of delegation.
It’s like a puzzle; once you have all of the pieces, it might take time, but you can put them all together.
I’m bullish that I could do a team well again, but it’d take a lot of coin.
How Would it Look?
I’d use the US scene to build the team’s brand, with a British-American core of talent and the dream of taking it to the big leagues.
There’s an appetite for it at the moment.
We’d be big, we’d be bold. We’d win bike races, but appeal to communities. There would have to be some sort of online content presence, but the number one goal would not be on creating content, it’d be on the real world.
The goal would be to create a team that was a brand, a team that could stand on its own two feet. We’d be multi-disciplinary: road racing, crits, and a touch of gravel too. We’d focus on the bigger picture rather than just the podiums. Bike racing has to be fun.
There’s no way that it could be funded from within the cycling industry. It’s been proven one too many times that endemic sponsorship is shaky at best, and I don’t think the industry is in a place to afford it either.
Selfishly, I’d also want to be the one calling the shots this time. The one in control of the budget. I’d also be the CFO - Chief Fashion Officer - white shorts for all.
The Case Study.
Bas Tietema is an inspiration. Bas is a former Dutch professional racer who couldn’t make the step up to the World Tour. He then switched to a career in media, namely building a large following on YouTube.
With the following he’d built on YouTube, Bas built up enough momentum to start his own team. This past week, that team raced Paris-Roubaix. That’s my dream.
I still have my own goals in cycling, I still want to race and perform and tick off the results that keep me putting my blood, sweat and tears into this sport. But, I’ve been thinking bigger picture a lot recently. What does the next step look like in however many years?
Bas is the model.
What’s Reality?
I’m writing this on a cool April evening, after one too many glasses of red in California wine country.
I’m in the countryside after Levi’s Fondo, staying with Neil and Jean, a South African couple who have taken me into their home for a week. My old friend, housemate, and teammate, Ruben Apers, is also at the table.
The conversation comes onto Rebellion, as it so often does these days. I tell Neil and Jean about the project that became bigger than I imagined. About those days at Speedweek, the rides we did in Stanley Park and the impact that we had in such a short space of time.
I’m nostalgic. Not for the first time since I came to the road in the past two weeks, I find myself getting excited. I tell them the plans I had to take the team to the next level, what 2025 could have looked like, and what my vision was.
Neil asks me the question that I’ve asked myself probably a hundred times in the last six months.
“Why don’t you try again?”
I don’t have a good answer. My answer is I’m focusing on myself, on my own performances. Running a team looks great from the outside, but it means sacrifices to my own performance. And, above all, I am still a bike racer. There is still a list of races I want to win.
Would it be better doing a hybrid set-up of riding for Good Guys Racing and riding privateer? Does my idea of a mini ‘hit squad’ of privateers that form together for certain races under one banner actually make sense? I don’t know,
Also, nobody is going to come knocking on my door to give me the six-figure sum that I’d need to do a team properly. I’d have to go out and search for it.
If you asked me six months ago if I’d do a road team again, then I’d have answered:
No, maybe after my career, but no.
If you ask me today if I’d do a road team again, then I’d stop and think about it:
Well, if nobody else is going to bring it to the table, then maybe I do have to build it myself.
While you’re here…
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Let’s do it
Man wrote a whole article after Tulsa