Racing top tier downhill professionally is the career aim for both Ryan Brannen and Douglas Goodwill.  There are only two ways to race UCI World Cups as a Junior (U18) – one is with a national GB jersey and the other within a UCI registered Mountain Bike team.  Getting into a UCI MTB Team is nigh on impossible – in 2021 there were only 41 UCI Teams in the World (including ours) – less than 150 riders world wide!  Racing with a GB jersey is fraught with uncertainty.  So the obvious solution was to set-up our own UCI MTB Team, a bold and challenging move but it gives the boys a stable platform to train and race.  This was completed in January 2021 and 555 Gravity Racing was born with a team of four, Douglas and Ryan, both Juniors and two Elites, Luke Williamson and Calum Mcbain.  Luke had previously ridden for two UCI Teams and gave us a valuable insight and help at the World Cup venues, the rest of us had never competed at a World Cup……. 

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Our first season was good, we raced the four European rounds (Austria, France, Slovenia and Switzerland) but did not have the funds to race the two rounds in the USA.  Travelling from the UK to Europe in the middle of the pandemic was both difficult and expensive with on average a COVID test every 72 hours. But we succeeded, learnt a huge amount and we are ready to race all 8 World Cup rounds next year – France, our home track in Scotland, Austria, Switzerland, Andorra, USA, Canada, Italy and hopefully World Champs in France.  A very demanding but exciting schedule! 

 

For 2022, we have added British National Champion, KJ Sharp to our rosta and genuinely believe we will be challenging for our first Palmerés this season.  

 

Teaming up with passionate downhill focused engineers and founders of RAAW bikes this year.  It’s an exciting time for all associated with Team 555 RAAW Gravity Racing for 2022 and beyond.  

 

Watch. This. Space.