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Yanto Barker among big-name Raleigh signings as strong 2014 team announced

Welshman joins former team mate Ian Wilkinson and rising star Joe Perrett at Nottingham-based team

Yanto Barker, the top-ranked British rider in 2013, will ride for Raleigh next year after the team unveiled a strong roster for 2014.

The experienced Welshman, 33, had been without a contract since Nigel Mansell’s Team UK Youth announced they were to fold last month.

Yanto Barker, who ended 2013 ranked as the number one British rider thanks to victories like this one at the Stoke-on-Trent Tour Series event, will ride for Raleigh next season (pic: Sweetspot)

Barker won two Pearl Izumi Tour Series events this year, in Kirkcaldy and Stoke-on-Trent, as Team UK Youth stormed to the overall prize.

He also claimed victory at the inaugural Ipswich and Coastal GP to finish top of the British Cycling elite rankings, ahead of the likes of Ed Clancy (Rapha Condor-JLT), and will now add experience to the Nottingham-based team’s 2014 campaign.

Barker will be joined at Raleigh by former team-mate Ian Wilkinson, who alongside Barker led Team UK Youth to overall victory in the Tour Series.

The 34-year-old former national circuit series winner was ranked eighth overall in the British Cycling rankings this year and also impressed at the Tour of Britain joining breakaways in stages four and six.

Also joining Raleigh next year will be Ryedale Grand Prix winner Joe Perrett, formerly of IG Sigma Sport.

The 22-year-old, who represented Great Britain at the World Championships in the under-23 road race, finished fourth in this year’s Tour de l’Avenir time trial.

Former British Olympic Academy rider and national madison champion George Atkins has also signed, as has former MG MaxiFuel rider Liam Stones.

French duo Morgan Kneisky, a multiple track world champion, and Matthieu Boulo, who impressed at this year’s Four Days of Dunkirk complete the list of new signings for 2014.

George Atkins, left, and former IG Sigma Sport star Joe Perrett, right, celebrate on the national under-23 time trial podium – both will ride for Raleigh next season (Pic: Alex Whitehead/SWPix.com)

Raleigh have also confirmed they will be retaining Evan Oliphant – the overall premier calendar winner last year, after victory in the Tour of the Reservoir – Alexandre Blain and Manx ace Mark Christian.

Among the riders leaving are New Zealand star Tom Scully, and Rapha Condor JLT-bound Graham Briggs.

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