I started cycling through joining a local club after just messing about on the bike with my dad. I call it a club but there were just three of us. It was me, one other lad and another girl.
This old guy called Don ran the club. He was in his 70’s and showed us the ropes. How to go fast, how to take a corner – that kind of thing. Everyone had their corner in the local park where they’d crashed. There was a lad called Jeremiah who rode into a concrete post during training and that became Jeremiah’s post. Anna’s corner was a wooden pathway that got slippery in the rain. She went down there so that was Anna’s boards. Jess’s bridge… everyone had their corner.
There was nothing for kids back then in the form of organised cycling like there is now. Parents didn’t want us riding on the road and it got to the point where they couldn’t keep up with us, so Don looked after us in the park. He is a big joker and used to pull our legs all the time and that’s how we got the names of the crash spots. I really got into cycling because of him.
As I progressed and got older, there wasn’t really much in the way of young British riders getting out to Belgium to race. The one method I used, and the majority of riders used was a guy called John Barclay. We all used to meet him in a small town called Swanley. We’d jump in the back of this old Merc with our bikes on the roof. This was an early 90’s Merc that had done something like 280 000 miles. The speedo broke and it took 7 or 8 years before he got another speedo. In the meantime, he’d done another 200 000 miles. Proper old thing.
John would drive us out to Belgium for the races. We were only allowed to take a very small bag because on the way back he’d fill up the boot of his car with as much tobacco and alcohol from duty free. I think I did over 30 races with him over three years. There were a bunch of us over the years…Tao Geoghegan Hart, Chris Lawless, Ethan Hayter…all sat in the back on these long trips. We’d drive back after the races, get to the drop off in Swanley at
The list of guys who did Barclay trips over the years is incredible. Cavendish, Thomas, Stannard, Blythe. He really is an unsung cycling hero of the UK. He is a legend. When I won Kuurne Brussel Kuurne and Omloop Het Volk juniors, it was on a Barclay trip.
Those kinds of results got me noticed and put me on the Lotto Soudal U23 squad. My first couple of races in Belgium was a shock to the system. The first ten races or so I was thinking, what have I gotten myself into. Why did I choose to do this? It wasn’t until the end of 2015 after a year there I started finding my feet. I loved Belgium though. I know a lot of people find it hard but I loved every bit of it. I worked so hard because so many people on my path helped me get to where I wanted to be. My dad drove me there on 27 Jan 2015, stayed the weekend then went back home. I was 18 and it was my first proper time away from home and I had to give it a proper go.
Getting onto the Lotto Soudal World Tour team from 2017 was a dream. Racing in the company of Tim Wellens, Andre Greipel and co. To pull on the same jersey as those guys and walk off the bus was special. I thought I did well in my two years with the team so it’s a shame the way it ended. After two years I’d made such a progression. I was at a point where I was just getting the hang of pro cycling at the highest level and creeping my way up in the last 3-4 months. Sometimes I’d be the strongest in the team line up at the last races. I was hoping they were going to give me one more year and I could get stuck in a little bit as opposed to always being on the front for somebody else. After two years of doing that and putting my whole life and effort into helping the team and getting dropped into races to help the team, it really hurt when I got the letter to say they would not be renewing.
Right now, there’s good and bad days as I don’t know what the future holds but I’m staying motivated in search of a contract because there were so many people in my path that sacrificed to get me here. Cycling is definitely what I want to do. I’ve poured my life into it.
Last modified: Jan 20, 2020
