Founded in 2012.

The Full Story.

Members of the original Fossa Racing team standing together with bikes in the pits after a muddy cyclocross race. Matt Crouch, Andrew Naylor and Tim Elsmore.

Our Mission.

Cyclocross has always been our first love, and our mission has always been to give back to the sport and enrich the cyclocross journey for all, from first-time racers to elite-level athletes.

The Early Days.

Cycling is a sport where having the best equipment can give you an edge. The cost soon adds up, especially when it’s a family endeavour. Local cyclocross leagues are full of families with parents and teenage kids all wanting a pair of nice bikes, and not all of them can afford the big-name brands.

Our plan was to import high-quality carbon frames and wheels with simple but classy paint jobs at an affordable price point for local riders. We weren’t in it to make big bucks - we both had day jobs - but we wanted to make quality accessible.

We started selling Fossa frames (mainly cyclocross, but also some road and MTB) and Ronde wheels, initially locally, but eventually to national and international customers, from local-level to elites.

Sarah Naylor racing cyclocross for Fossa Racing team. There are trees in the background. She looks focused and has tape applied to her knee and thigh.

Gavin Hardwicke racing cyclocross for Fossa Racing team in a grassy field. He looks focussed and is leaning into the corner. He has red, white and blue stripes on his sleeves denoting a former national cycling champion.

The Team.

To show people what was possible with our products, we started our own cyclocross team: Fossa Racing. Five senior riders (including us) to start with, all racing nationally, all serious about being the best we could be. We weren’t big budget but we always helped riders with kit and equipment where we could, and ran cyclocross skills training sessions to nail the basics.

We continued to expand, including a veteran man in 2015, a veteran woman in 2017, a U23M in 2018 and a third woman in 2019. Between us we won several league titles, team competitions, races and overall podium places at local league level.

Beyond this, our riders consistently achieved top-20 placings in national races, and we were also noticed for our professional pit operation: we took our teamwork as seriously as our racing.

Plus we were closely involved in volunteering for the NDCXL, taking on several committee positions, organising races, and putting on the end-of-season awards evening.

Youth Development.

Once established, Fossa Racing turned its attention to sharing its experience with younger riders. We’ve only ever supported small numbers of young riders as we want to be able to give each of them as much time and effort as they need to achieve their goals.

In 2014 we decided to work with two youth girls, one of whom became a regular on the podium in the cyclocross National Series. She was later selected for the GB Track Olympic Development Squad and went on to become a national champion.

After the girls left us in 2017/18, we were joined first by one junior man, and then a further two in 2019. These all showed promise, with a junior league title and podiums, but things were broken up by university applications - and then the pandemic came along.

We loved working with younger riders - not least because it made us raise the standard of our Christmas get-together to include a team competition treasure hunt on mountain bikes!

The junior women's podium at a National Cyclocross series event in York in November 2018. The riders are being announced by the commentator. On the left is Lara Gillespie in second place, the winner is Harriet Harnden in the centre wearing a British national champion's jersey, and on the right in third place is Ellie Smith of Fossa Racing. There are multiple people taking photographs of the presentation.

Andrew Naylor riding in a cyclocross race for Fossa Racing. He is traversing a grassy camber and looks focussed.

Pandemic Pitfalls

Like many things, Fossa was affected by the pandemic and Brexit.

Even though we weren’t importing from the EU, both of these issues combined to make imports much slower, more difficult, unreliable and expensive. Plus the pandemic impacted training, riding and local leagues.

We decided to close down Fossa as a business, and Fossa Racing fell by the wayside for a while, with few of our adult members racing anymore due to changing personal circumstances.

Back To The Future.

In 2023, we met Rebecca Woodvine on an EvoDevo trip.

She made an immediate impact on us, and as we got to know her better, we saw not just a talented rider, but one who seizes every opportunity and bit of knowledge that comes her way and works hard to benefit from it.

We decided it was time to revamp Fossa Racing to support her, and we can’t wait to see what she can achieve in the coming season.

Rebecca Woodvine practising dismounting her cyclocross bicycle during a training session in a grassy field. She is wearing Fossa Racing kit and riding a pink Specialized bike.