MANAGER of Herefordshire based Epic Racing Phil Weaver believes his team can challenge for honours at the end of the current season.

The Wigmore based team have had a winning start to the national series season and Weaver’s daughter Molly is currently top of the class 1 National Female Road and Track.

Weaver said: “She’s doing really well, she’s had a few wins and on a personal level she’s enjoying being part of the team.

“We are the only team to publish our aims and objectives, one of which is to finish as high as we can in the UK domestic rankings – it's early days but we are on course to do that.”

He also said their objectives are to challenge on big city centre road races and to provide, if they can, a stepping stone for just one rider to the professional ranks.

At the elite level the team has three riders in the top 10 and one of the riders, Emma Kay, is riding for team GB in the women’s tour of Britain.

Kay, who is a reigning junior world team pursuit champion, is also one of seven riders heading to East Belgium to compete in a UCI world tour event.

The team are also competing in the Matrix Fitness Grand Prix Series which will be televised on ITV4.

This season, the team have been boosted by partnering up with Bengry Motors in Leominster who have provided them with a Mazda 6 Tourer to be their support vehicle at races.

Weaver said: “Our new Mazda 6 Tourer will be an asset to the team as we travel across the UK – making life much easier by transporting our essential equipment to each event.”

He also said Bengry’s input is “verging on crucial” if they are to have the successful season they would like.

Epic Cycling started three years ago out of a discussion about the future of women’s cycle racing.

Weaver said: “It started out as a discussion we had at the Halesowen Velodrome and there appeared to be a gap in the development of young female riders.

“Since the Olympics women’s cycling has exploded – it’s only going to get bigger in future years.”

He also said in the first two years they focused on developing junior riders for the higher level and this year they are concentrating on slightly older riders with the intention of creating a bridge between the junior and senior ranks.