BRITAIN’S COOLEST TEAM

British team launches are usually a fairly dry, sedate affair. The standard format involves riders parading out awkwardly in their kit, often in the bland conference room of a hotel.

A presenter might ask them a few questions over a PA system. If you’re lucky there are some awkward jokes. The difference between a ProTour and a WorldTour outfit is often just the three-star or five-star hotel it takes place in.

For Tekkerz, however, a team launch is at a bar under the railway arches in London’s hip Bermondsey, with a live band, DJ and their own beer ‘Post Palace Ale’ – named in honour of the Crystal Palace crit races. In many ways the squad, the brainchild of London racer Alec Briggs, are relative minnows, but the launch is just one indicator of why the team, whose car is a vintage Mini Cooper, are comfortably the coolest in cycling.

That’s not a title CW bestows