British cycling is on the cusp of a new golden era in 2026… But will anyone in the UK care?

You’ve all heard the classic philosophical question about the tree falling in the woods, right? Well, here’s another one for you. If a British cyclist wins a big bike race, and barely anyone’s paying to watch it on TV, and it fails to produce even the faintest ripple in the national press, did it actually happen?

Obviously, within the British cycling community, the answer is a resounding yes. But, whether we like it or not, and despite the groundbreaking success of the past two decades, we’re still a niche speck in the UK’s wider sporting landscape.

And right now, as we enter 2026, there exists the very real threat that, to the median British sporting enthusiast – the FA Cup final, Grand National, and Wimbledon watcher – professional cycling could soon become an irrelevance in the UK.

Which would be a real shame. Especially when you consider that British cycling is on the cusp of its next golden era.

With Lizzie Deignan and Geraint Thomas retiring this year, the 2012 generation is all but gone. But the kids who were inspired by the exploits of Cavendish, Thomas, Deignan, and Wiggins – who watched by the roadside during the Tour de France’s 2014 visit to Yorkshire – are currently busy making waves in the peloton.

2025, after a few relatively lean years, felt like the start of something new. And something very exciting. In the men’s WorldTour, British riders took 16 victories, the biggest haul since 2018, when Thomas, Chris Froome, and Simon Yates secured a GB clean sweep of the grand tours.

Overall, British men won 52 pro races in 2025, making it Albion’s winningest year ever. In the women’s peloton, British riders nabbed 18 pro wins, the most since 2010, the height of the Deignan-Pooley-Cooke era.

Matthew Brennan (just a few weeks shy of his seventh birthday when Wiggo drew the raffle numbers on the Champs-Élysées) was arguably the revelation of the year. In his debut season as a pro, the 20-year-old won a staggering 14 times. Just four male riders managed more this year: Tim Merlier, Isaac Del Toro, Paul Magnier, and, of course, Tadej Pogačar.

Zoe Bäckstedt cemented her position as one of the most exciting multi-disciplinary talents in the world in 2025, winning U23 cyclocross and time trial world titles, bringing her total haul of rainbow jerseys to nine. The 21-year-old also put together her best season on the road yet, winning six times at elite level, including the GC at the Baloise Ladies Tour and a dominant performance on home roads in Wales at the national time trial championships.

At the Tour de France, Oscar Onley proved the race’s surprise package with a brilliantly consistent ride to secure fourth overall in Paris, the Kelso man’s emergence as a grand tour contender earning him an early big money move to the Ineos Grenadiers this winter.

Cat Ferguson’s status as one of the sport’s next big things was also solidified in 2025, the 19-year-old winning a stage and finishing an agonisingly close second overall at the Tour of Britain. Tom Pidcock looked revitalised on the road with new team Q36.5, winning five times and battling to a breakthrough overall podium place at the Vuelta, where Ben Turner also won a stage.

Elsewhere, Anna Henderson won a stage and led for two days at the Giro, Jake Stewart’s biggest win yet came at the Dauphiné, and Josh Tarling bagged his first career grand tour stage victory in the Giro’s early time trial.

And Simon Yates – the rider whose career bridges the gap between the 2012 generation and the current crop of youngsters – pulled off the biggest victory of that decade-plus stint in the peloton, winning the Giro d’Italia with his breathtaking ‘don’t call it a redemption’ ride on the Colle delle Finestre (the 33-year-old then followed his Maglia Rosa triumph up with a stage win at the Tour).

Even the Ineos Grenadiers, half a decade into their awkward, moody transitional phase, seem to have a pep in their step these days, aided by Onley’s imminent arrival and the smart, if somewhat inevitable, decision to move Geraint Thomas into a management role.

The dawning of this bright new era for British cycling couldn’t have been timed much better, following the news earlier this year that the Tour de France, in both its Hommes and Femmes iterations, will be crossing the Channel for the first time in 13 years in 2027.

Just like Yorkshire’s 2014 Grand Départ (2012’s triumphant afterparty), Edinburgh ’27 has the potential to usher in Britain’s return to cycling’s top table. Picture the scene: Onley and Pidcock lining up at the start, ready to target the podium, Ferguson, Bäckstedt, and Brennan hunting stages on home roads.

But on the road is where the optimism ends. Because, by the time the peloton rolls down the Royal Mile in July 2027, enthusiasm for professional cycling in the UK could be at its lowest ebb yet.

The 2026 Tour de France will be the first edition of the race in four decades not to be broadcast on free-to-air TV in the UK. Ask almost any member of Britain’s latest generation of pros and they’ll tell you the same thing. ITV’s coverage of the Tour was their gateway into the sport, that tantalising first glimpse of a mesmerising, evocative world. It was the same for me, and probably for you too.

But in July, the Tour – and every other major bike race, apart from the Tours of Britain and the world championships – will be behind a £30.99 a month paywall, nestled alongside football, rugby, and cricket (which experienced its own stark drop in viewing figures after leaving free-to-air TV) on TNT Sports.

> “I’d rather not watch than pay £31 for 21 days”: Just 18% of road.cc readers to watch Tour de France on TNT Sports, as UK fans say farewell to ITV’s free-to-air coverage

There have been murmurings that the opening British stages of the 2027 Tour will, in fact, be broadcast on terrestrial TV, with ASO working to secure a deal to beam the Grand Départ to as many homes as possible. But if the rest of the race is a free-to-air blackout, what’s the point?

The number of eyes watching cycling in the UK will inevitably drop dramatically in the next few years. Invisibility will lead to apathy, and then to irrelevance.

This week, Norwegian pro Jonas Abrahamsen summed up cycling’s reliance on visibility by describing the decision to cancel next year’s Tour of Norway as “so shit”.

“If you do not have a professional race on TV, small children cannot see the stars,” the Uno-X rider said. “It is maybe one million euros. It is nothing for Norway. It is so important for the sport. I do not know what they are doing.”

Swap out Norway for Britain there, and it sounds fairly ominous.

However, paywalls aside, it’s also fair to say that – after the Wiggo-mania of 2012 – apathy towards professional cycling has already crept in across the UK.

In 2018, Geraint Thomas was the last cyclist to be awarded the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year gong, the fourth rider in ten years to receive the prize, voted for by the public, after Chris Hoy, Cavendish, and Wiggins.

No cyclist has cracked the top three since. Giro winner Yates wasn’t even nominated this year. Which makes sense, I suppose, the Giro not holding the same stature in the eyes of the general sporting public as the Tour or the Olympics (although it’s worth asking if a British Roland Garros winner would be ignored in the same way).

What’s more baffling, however, is the BBC’s decision to consistently snub Tadej Pogačar for its World Sport Star category – the world champion and four-time Tour winner has never even been nominated for the award, despite rewriting cycling’s history books throughout the 2020s. Has cycling dropped that far off the British public’s radar?

But we can’t just lay the blame at Johnny Mainstream’s door. In the 13 years since Wiggins’ historic Tour win, the elite domestic scene in the UK has withered away to almost nothing. Grassroots race organisers are under constant pressure to keep their events on the road.

For whatever reason, there was a distinct failure to capitalise on the 2010s golden era and create a healthy, sustainable sport across the board. World-class talent, inspired by Wiggo, Lizzie, and Cav, can still emerge, of course – Onley, Ferguson, and Brennan are proof of that.

But British racing is now top-heavy, all Tour de France starts and grand tour contenders, but lacking stable infrastructure, and liable to collapse in the long term with a few wrong moves (like taking the Tour off terrestrial TV, for example).

In December, British Cycling’s annual financial report revealed that its membership had dropped by over 20,000, from 137,968 to 117,475, since 2023, shortly after BC’s controversial sponsorship deal with Shell was announced. Hardly a sign of a flourishing, healthy sport.

Nevertheless, recent developments, such as the governing body’s establishment of an elite road racing taskforce, would indicate that the lessons of the 2010s are being learnt, and that the domestic bike racing scene is at least being prepped to capitalise on the achievements of this latest golden generation on the continent.

The ongoing apathy of the general British public will prove a much harder nut to crack, however.

Britain’s new generation of cycling talent is certainly making a lot of noise. Let’s just hope that they won’t simply be shouting into the void.