At Halesowen thanks to our ownership of our own velodrome and our broad coaching programme we have a long history of producing talented young bike riders on road and track, many of whom have gone on to race at national and international level. Our academy is now in its 12th year, catering for young riders from under-16 up to 23
Founded in 2015, the Halesowen Academy aims to support young riders who come up through our coaching system with two things: a structure which will enable them to pursue their ambitions to become the best they can be, coupled with the wider support and sense of community that only an old-school cycling club can provide. We also welcome applications from riders outside the club.
The academy provides its riders with a limited support package - mainly nutrition and clothing - and aims to provide racing opportunities to further our riders’ development while giving them enjoyable shared peer group experiences. We have been proud to have GB road racing coach and JLT-Condor directeur sportif John Herety as our patron since 2019.
We also offer links to a range of coaches with professional cycling experience who can advise our riders and we have links with cycling specialists in areas such as nutrition, physiotherapy and injury rehab. The academy also supports individual team riders who make a convincing case for backing which will further their career racing goals.
For 2027 the academy would welcome applications from both Halesowen members and riders outside the club. We are particularly interested in expanding the women’s arm of the academy. Riders must demonstrate strong racing credentials (examples available on request) and a coherent written plan for the next stage of their cycling career. The criteria for joining the academy are listed below.
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For more information contact:
William Fotheringham
william.fotheringham@guardian.co.uk
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Academy selection criteria
1/ Members of HACC are guaranteed academy places, however, applications from riders outside the club will also be considered.
2/ Proven commitment to racing over the long-term. Stated commitment to racing in the year ahead. Riders who do not meet these criteria (who may have had time out for some reason) may be asked to go through a probationary period until they have ridden a set number of events. Potential riders will be assessed not merely through results but through improvement curve, proven commitment to the club, “teamship” etc, also parents’ commitment to the club.
3/ Riders will be under-16 to final year under-23. Riders outside these age groups may be invited to join in exceptional circumstances, for example if the academy is strengthening a section targeted at certain categories or disciplines, or if a rider displays truly exceptional talent.
5/ The academy may draft in riders as guests for stage races, to ensure a team meets the necessary complement.
6/ Those involved in the decisions regarding academy membership will be the academy coaches, patron, HACC Cycling Section chair.
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Key dates for 2026:
15th March Halesowen Academy RR, Welland
2nd-4th May Marches 3-day, Shropshire & Herefordshire & Powys
10th May Halesowen A & CC road race, Astley
13th September Nick Clayton Memorial RR, Leighton
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Halesowen Academy Team – juniors and under-23s for 2026
Ben Arey – a first year under-23 from Yorkshire who raced exceptionally well in 2025, taking numerous podium places and ending the season as a first category.
Dan Ascroft – Dan joined us midway through 2024 as a novice first year u23, and shone immediately with a top 10 finish in support of Piers Mahn at the Newry 3-day, backing up with a solid finish at Ras Mumhan in 2025.
Malakhi Bailey – a product of the Halesowen coaching system, Malakhi is a versatile rider equally at home in cyclo cross or circuit racing.
Xander Brandon-Higgs – a time trial specialist from mid-Wales, Xan is looking forward to turning his attention to the road as a first year junior in 2026.
Joe Egan – Joe is a second-year junior who has come through the Halesowen coaching system, and excels at cross, circuit and track, with circuit race wins to his name in 2024 and 2025.
Wilfred Franklin – Wilf is a first year junior who has raced strongly at mountain bikes and cross and is now looking to shine on the road.
Ben Freeman – Ben is a first-year under-23 from Melton, another versatile rider, who joined midway through 2025.
Ben Harrington – a climber from North Yorkshire, Ben is another of our first year juniors for 2026.
Luke Harris – one of the best young riders Halesowen has produced, Luke took a break from racing and returned to us for 2023 as a second year junior. He has a wealth of experience at cross, circuit and track behind him, and put that to good use in 2023 taking fifth at a stage of the Junior Tour of Ireland and winning the national junior gravel championship – a stripy jumper!
Kaleb Herbert – Kaleb joined us from Wyre Forest as a first year junior in 2023; he is now a second category rider in under-23, and rode strongly at Newry 3-day in 2026.
Harry Howlett – Harry is a second year U23, who combines mountain bike and road with some success, placing in the top 10 in MTB national series and taking our first road race win of 2025 in Wales!
Luke Mannings – another long-standing Halesowen member, Luke is a versatile first year under-23 who shone at the junior Tour of Ireland in 2024 and took a top 15 finish in the time trial at Boucles de l’Oise juniors, not far behind riders who are now lighting up the World Tour.
Mikey Ratcliffe - joined from Sheffield Youth CC; a second year junior who races track, road and cross, he managed to win both a cross and a circuit race in 2024 and joins our strong junior squad led by Ryan Oldfield after taking some notable scalps in a win at Darley Moor in 2025.
James Saunders – another versatile rider, James hails from Tenbury Wells and was a winner on circuit and track before joining us as a first year junior.
Six under-16 riders will also race for us in 2026 – our biggest cohort in this category to date. Welcome to Cody Bassett, Jaime Downing, Oli Howard, Phoebe Langlands, Ambrose Mapp, and Rosie Ratcliffe!​
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Halesowen Academy Sponsors
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While our main sponsor Mapei need no introduction, we have several other important supporters, with valued relationships going back more than 10 years in one case.
We welcome for a fourth season Fleur au Soleil gite, which is owned by racer Mark Northover, once a regular at Halesowen Track League, while new to the jersey in 2025 was Nicofe Materials, a Devon-based company supplying specialist minerals to the aeronautics and defence industries. ProVision clothing return for a 12th season – they have been with us since year one for which we would like to express our thanks, while nutrition is again supplied by Secret Training; there is additional support from Colmore Partners financial planners. We enter a 5th year of being backed by Swinnerton Cycles, one of the country’s oldest and most dynamic bike shops, family owned for over a century. These companies’ stalwart backing should enable us to offer our riders an enhanced programme on and off their bikes, and we would like to give them our since thanks. Our juniors have also enjoyed the support of the Dave Rayner Foundation through their gateway programme.
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www.fleurausoleilgiteholidays.com
https://www.secret-training.com
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Halesowen Academy History
In year one, 2015, the academy had just four riders and in 2016 we expanded to eight, who won 19 races between them, with six of them managing to cross the line first. The stand-out performance was Charles Walker’s overall win in the five-day Ras de Cymru, with Jack Stanton-Warren and Tom Swingler eighth and ninth.
For 2017, Charles moved up to Catford CC Banks, while Jack took on a leadership role, gaining his elite licence, with two wins in National B races - in successive days on the same weekend - and finishing in 8th overall in the Tour of the North 3-Day in Northern Ireland. He moved up to Wheelbase Castelli at the end of the season.
In 2018 the team landed nine wins in road races and criterium with five of the seven members crossing the line first, highlighted by Cam Biddle taking a very narrow victory in our own Halesowen road race. The stand-out race was the Giro del Mon where Matt Clarke and Charles Walker (riding as a guest) finished 1-2 on stage four, with Charlie winning the points jersey overall and wearing the yellow jersey on the final stage. Clarkie and Cam Biddle both moved up to bigger teams, joining Wheelbase-Castelli and Morvelo Basso respectively.
In 2019 the team became younger than ever, and also bigger than ever, with 12 riders including seven juniors and one under-16. The juniors included national under-16 cyclocross champion Wyllie, and there were three women on the squad including Great Britain team apprentice Kinga Ingram, and promising first-year senior Hannah Lancaster. Highlights of the season were wins for Kinga at the national U16 scratch championship and Patrick Fotheringham at the first stage of the Newry 3-Day, earning the yellow jersey for a day, while we took six riders to the Junior Tour of Ireland and most importantly finished all six, with Josh Field best placed in 24th. At the West Midlands Region championship, Henry Lloyd-Langston took the junior title; Hannah Lancaster rode strongly in the women’s team series, and at the end of the year, both Kinga and Hannah moved up to elite teams.
There was a major development in 2020 when iconic World Tour sponsor Mapei proposed sponsorship of the Halesowen club, and the upshot was the current academy jersey which reflects the Italian company’s strong cycling heritage, featuring its dramatic “cube” design. The jersey earned us national and international coverage, with newspapers in Belgium and Italy excited at the prospect of the “cubes” returning to cycling. Unfortunately, a global pandemic turned up, and the jersey was rarely seen in action.
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We ran our own road race in 2019 and this returned in 2021, a round of the West Midlands Road Race League. The race was named the Nick Clayton Memorial Grand Prix, in honour of Nick, an academy member from 2016-17 who sadly passed away on 10 May that year following complications from blood cancer. Since then, the Nick Clayton Memorial has become an annual event, with a unique trophy won by Travis Bramley in 2021, Daniel Barnes in 2022, Matt Clarke in 2023, Lewis Tinsley in 2024, and Wan Lau in 2025.
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Nick Clayton, R.I.P.
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In 2021 racing returned in the second half of the season, with three standout academy performers: Simon Wyllie, David Hird and Tomos Pattinson. Simon raced strongly on the road and in circuit races and snagged himself a deal to ride with the Spectra-Wiggle team by August. David was unstoppable from April through to October, winning one race and placing in virtually everything else, earning his first-category licence by July. He went on to place 25th in the Beaumont Trophy Premier Calendar race and 37th in the National championships at Lincoln, the only club rider among a finishing echelon composed entirely of WorldTour, Conti or Conti Development riders. David has since moved through a few teams and is now racing in Division One in France.
Tom, meanwhile, rode strongly in the U16 National Series, winning the Scarborough round, and added medals at the national championships in Madison, points race and circuit. The highlight, probably, was his victory in the Junior category at the national hill-climb championship, a stunning performance for a rider who was still technically an under-16!
Tom went on to a stellar first year as a junior in 2022, winning a stage of the Junior Tour of Ireland and placing fourth at junior Liège-Bastogne-Liège. He moved to the Tofauti team in 2023 and after a fantastic year there including winning Liège and riding the world championships in Glasgow, he signed for Visma-Lease a Bike under-23 team; he is now racing for EF Education.
2022 was also a breakthrough year for Joe Brookes, who joined up in late 2021. Joe posted one of the most rapid improvement trajectories seen in recent UK cycling over the next two seasons, going from novice road racer to top 10 in a National Elite series race by September 2023. Joe’s first win was the Two Counties 3/4 race in April 2022, and he went on to place second on a stage at the Junior Tour of Ireland before closing his junior career with 3rd on stage one and 10th overall at the Philippe Gilbert Juniors UCI race in Belgium, with Tom placing sixth on stage two and 6th overall.
2023 saw Joe continue to progress dramatically, winning the Halesowen Academy road race in March, placing 15th at the tough Ras Mumhan in Ireland and returning from A levels to snaffle 3 of four stages at the BikeStow 3-day. He followed that with a win at the Andrews Trophy Nat B in Essex and travelled to France to win an Elite Nationale race at Fougerolles du Plessis.
His debut in the National Series at Ryedale saw him get in the break and finish 11th – still a few days shy of his 19th birthday - and he went even better at Beaumont, taking eighth, after again making the winning break. Since 2024 he has been riding for the AVC Aix team in Southern France
Another headline result was Luke Harris’s national junior gravel racing title, while other highlights included getting all five starters round the Ras Tailteann, with guest rider Ben Chilton 14th overall; similarly finishing all five riders at the Junior Tour of Ireland, with Luke Harris’s fifth on stage one the highlight, and a successful return to the Philippe Gilbert with guest rider Ollie Boarer taking eighth on stage two and three riders finishing.
In 2024 the junior programme expanded to include the Gorey 3-day in Ireland, where we won two stages with Ryan Oldfield and Luke Mannings, who finished third and fifth overall, and Boucles de l’Oise Juniors, where Luke placed 14th in the time trial.
The U23 riders were led by Piers Mahn and Charlie Genner, with Charlie gaining his first cat licence and winning the Radnorshire RR, before going on to take 7th at the Volta Galicia – riding for his previous Spanish club – and earning a place at the Telkom Clima Oses team in Pamplona. At the Ras Mumhan, he rode strongly for seventh places on both the final two stages. Piers meanwhile took our second overall win at the Newry 3-day, overturning a 2-30 deficit on the final stage.
2025 was another stellar year, with Ryan Oldfield and Rose Lewis taking multiple national championship medals on the track while Rose took gold in the Madison, and also medalled in the national cyclo-cross and circuit. Both moved on in 2026, with Rose joining the cams-majaco junior team. Elsewhere Piers Mahn landed a stunning win in the Marches 3-day – transferring to Richardsons-Trek at the end of the season – while Luke Mannings won stage one of the Newry 3-day and took the points jersey. The juniors made numerous trips to Belgium, with Ryan winning a kermesse, and at the Junior Tour both Ryan and Ben Arey landed fine 2nd places on stages, with both riders making the winning break on the final stage. At Ras Mumhan, we placed four riders in the top 30, with Piers Mahn, Harry Howlett and guest Will Truelove winning the team prize on the race’s toughest stage.
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Some of the HACC members who have gone on to race at national and international level
Jacob Tipper – UCI race winner + national team pursuit champion, now coach at EF Education
Emily Kay and Emily Nelson – junior world champions in 2013
Tomos Pattinson – winner Junior Liege-Bastogne-Liege, national under-23 time trial champion, currently racing with EF Education
Joseph Brookes – multiple winner and top 10 finisher in National Series in 2023, now in second year with AVC Aix en Provence
Rose Lewis – multiple medallist at under-16 and GB track academy member, now riding for cams-majaco
Ryan Oldfield – multiple track medallist at junior level, now riding with GB under-23 track academy
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