James McKay and James Hawkins hoping to take Cycling Sheffield to the next level

Truth is he’s from London and rode for a team in France pre-Covid, but has called Sheffield his home since 2000, when he moved up north to race for a squad that carries the name of the Steel City on its jersey.

McKay, 25, enters his third full season with Cycling Sheffield, a British Under-23s development team that enters its 10th year of existence and one they hope to be more prosperous than any that have gone before.

They certainly have as strong a squad as they have ever had, more sponsors than before and a busier, more adventurous race calendar around Europe in 2023.

And in former cyclist and team principal Dave Coulson, they have the glue that brings it all together.

“I’m a bit of a fake Yorkshireman," laughs McKay, who in his mid-20s, defies the age barrier of the development rider.

"There’s a few reasons why I came up here – the size of the team being small means the level of support is quite high, it’s more concentrated on a smaller group of riders. And the team manager Dave is a legend, he puts so much time and energy into the team. In sport, most managers and staff are passionate, but I feel like Dave’s a complete professional, he puts a lot in and it shows. As a rider that makes a massive difference."

Coulson started the team a decade ago but shifted focus at the start of 2017 to draw more closely on the local community as Brexit forced sponsors away.

Sheffield-based financiers have grown each year, and at their season-launch party yesterday at the Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre on the Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park, there were upwards of 10 local companies on the blue team jerseys the eight riders wore.

It is a source of great pride for Coulson, as is the fact that McKay – his road captain – is almost unique in that he is not a local lad.

"There won’t be another team at this level in the UK with more than half its riders from the same city,” says Coulson, who also runs Sheffield Youth Cycling Club, which despite having no direct link to the team, offers a natural progression. "It’s important for young cyclists to see an obvious pathway. And the best thing we can do is help them on their way to the senior teams. Adam Mitchell who rode for the team last year has moved up to a French team.

"The best move these guys can make after us is to move into Europe where there are more opportunities to race."

One rider who epitomises the journey is James Hawkins, a 19-year-old from the Sheffield suburb of Fulwood, whose first year with the team last year was disrupted by Covid and injury.

"As many of the boys will tell you the ultimate goal is to make it to the top, but as in any professional sport there’s so much that has to go right," says Hawkins, who like all his fellow riders, juggles a semi-professional race calendar with a part-time job.

"For me, I just want to take it as far as I can. If that doesn’t mean making it to the very top, that’s fine.

"The great thing about Cycling Sheffield is it’s a team that’s designed to help riders do that. We’ve seen the likes of Connor Swift whose just signed for Ineos, who was developed by Dave. That’s the aim of the team, that nurturing environment to help riders progress into the pro ranks.

“I’ve been racing my bike under Dave’s supervision for a long time. I always aimed to get on this team, so every time I put the kit on it’s really special."