Tofauti Everyone Active – the junior cycling team supported by ACTIV Cycles – is having its best season ever, with some very impressive wins in both the boys and girls teams. We caught up with Team Principal Ian Mansel-Thomas to find out more.
“This season has been a bit of a game-changer,” says Ian Mansel-Thomas as he prepares the Tofauti Everyone Active boys team for an evening race in Belgium.
“We’ve had really good results in different things before but in terms of it all coming together in one season, this is the best.”
Ian is talking a matter of days since 17-year-old Amelia Cebak became British National Junior Road Race Champion after winning by 35 seconds on an epic course up and down the hills around Clitheroe, Lancashire. Impressive, given that she is competing in her first year of the 16 to 18-year-old category.
What’s even more remarkable is that Amelia’s win came a week after fellow Tofauti girls rider Lucy Bénézet Minns became both road and time trial champion in the National Road Championships in Ireland.
“We haven’t had a national road champion before,” says Ian. “So obviously this has been a standout season so far.”
Other highlights in 2023 have included victory in March for Izzy Sharp in the Ghent Wevelgem spring classic in Belgium.
Also in Belgium, boys rider Tomos Pattinson won the Liège-Bastogne-Liège, a junior version of the professional race which follows roughly the same route, keeping all the challenging hills and removing some of the flatter sections.
That was followed by Tomos signing with the under-23 development squad of Team Jumbo-Visma, one of the top pro cycling outfits, which he will join next year.
These performances are already having an impact on perception of the team within the competitive cycling community.
“We can see that in the way people in Europe look at the team has changed in just a few months,” says Ian. “We have had more race invites and we have actually had to turn some down because our schedule is packed.
“We’re getting calls from rider agents in the UK, France and Italy. We’re also in talks with a couple of the pro teams about developing closer links.”
At Activ Cycles, we’re huge fans of racing and developing young riders, and really passionate about supporting the local scene and youth riding in particular.
We first partnered with Tofauti Everyone Active in 2022 and – along with Trek – have helped equip all the riders with a Trek Emonda, as well as supporting some with upgrades.
After racing in Belgium this week, next up for the boys team is the Junioren Rundfahrt in Austria, while the girls are heading to Spain for the Bizkaikoloreak, a stage road race in the Basque country.
We’ll catch up with Tofauti Everyone Active very soon. Watch this space.
