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  5. Episode 61: “Task Force Progress Report”

Brother UK Cycling Podcast – Episode 61

Episode Description

Co-hosts Timothy John and Phil Jones, Brother UK's Managing Director, consider British Cycling's recently published progress report on its implementation of recommendations made

by the Elite Road Racing Task Force, the independent panel on which Phil served last year. 

Additionally, the pair reflect on DAS-Hutchinson-Brother UK's coronation as National Road Series champions, the team's domination of the Ras na mBan, an exhilarating edition of the Tour of Britain Men, and British success at the World Championships in Zurich.

Expert witnesses include Ras winner Mia Griffin, Irish U23 road champion Caoimhe O'Brien, DAS-Hutchinson-Brother UK co-manager Ian Watson, and rising star Louis Sutton, a Rayner Foundation-supported rider who caught the eye of seasoned observers at the Tour of Britain Men. 

 
 

 

 
 
 
 
The Brother UK Cycling Podcast

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Episode contents

  • 00.05 – Introduction
  • 06.32 – Part One: Zurich Calling
  • 16.55 – Part Two: National News
  • 26.12 – Part Three: Local Hero 
  • 34.50 – Part Four: Tour de Force
  • 43.23 – Part Five: Red lines and quick wins
  • 24.47 – Part Six: Outro

Episode contents

  • 00.05 – Introduction
  • 06.32 – Part One: Zurich Calling
  • 16.55 – Part Two: National News
  • 26.12 – Part Three: Local Hero 
  • 34.50 – Part Four: Tour de Force
  • 43.23 – Part Five: Red lines and quick wins
  • 24.47 – Part Six: Outro

Transcript

Introduction

Timothy John

“Hello and welcome to this new edition of the Brother UK Cycling Podcast with me Timothy John and my co-host, Phil Jones, the Managing Director of Brother UK. Phil, thanks very

much indeed for joining me.”

Phil Jones

“Hey, great to be here, Tim.” 

Timothy John 

“Phil, plenty to get through in this episode. Lots and lots has happened since we last spoke. We’ve had a world championships in Zurich. We’ve had a National Road Series come to its conclusion in the favour of DAS-Hutchinson-Brother UK.

“We’ve had the Ras na mBan, Ireland’s leading stage race for women, dominated by DAS-Hutchinson-Brother UK. We’ve had a brilliant, exceptional I would say, edition of the Tour of Britain Men. We’ll be hearing from Team GB’s Louis Sutton. 

“And, on a more serious note, we’ve had an update from British Cycling on their implementation of recommendations from the Elite Road Racing Task Force. But before we get into any

of that, Phil, yesterday was the Monsal Hill Climb, won on the men’s side ny Andy Nicholls and on the women’s by Rachel Galler. 

“Now, last week, I put a post on our social channels, a ‘Throwback Thursday’, with a picture of Rebecca Richardson winning the Monsal Hill Climb in 2019, and the shocking news I can reveal to us all now is that Rebecca is preparing to return to the hill climb scene next year. 

“Could we see another Monsal Hill Climb victory for Rebecca Richardson?”

Phil Jones 

“Well, I’d be absolutely delighted for her if that was to happen. We sponsored Rebecca as a hill climber for some seasons, and she’s a very determined individual. Once she sets goals, she really goes for it. 

“I know she’s had some health problems, which have meant she’s not been around quite as much as we used to see her, but, yeah, a formidable competitor. I think if she gets the bit between her teeth vis-a-vis a comeback, that would be an amazing thing for her.” 

Timothy John 

“Yeah, she certainly won’t be coming back to ease herself in gently. We know that much about Rebecca. If she’s coming back, it will be to win. 

“Well, look, having dealt with a major event in world cycling, let’s move onto smaller matters, such as the UCI Cycling World Championships, eight days of competition for rainbow jerseys in Zurich. 

“Very sadly, the later events were largely overshadowed by the tragic death of Switzerland’s Muriel Furrer in the junior women’s road race. We won’t comment or speculate on that,

there is a police investigation ongoing, only to share our sincere condolences with anyone who knew Muriel Furrer, notably her family and friends. 

“More positively, it was a very successful world championships for Great Britain: 22 medals in total, across the able-bodied and para disciplines, including a double gold medal for Cat Ferguson who arrived hot from the domestic scene. 

“She opened her season by winning the East Cleveland Classic in the National Road Series and has ended it with two gold medals at a world championships - not bad going. 

“The championships climaxed with the elite women’s road race last Saturday. and the elite men’s road race last Sunday. The women’s race was won by Lotte Kopecky of Belgium: a

second title, added to the one she won last year in Glasgow. Second was Chloe Dygert and third, Elisa Longo-Borghini. 

“The men’s race was won by a certain Tadej Pogacar of Slovenia. Second [was] Ben O’Connor of Australia and third, Mathieu van der Poel, the defending champion, of The Netherlands. 

“Simple question, Phil: is Tadej Pogacar the best rider of all time? He’s the first to win this Triple Crown - the Giro, the Tour and the Worlds in the same season since Stephen Roche in 1987 and before Roche, it was Eddy Merckx in 1974. 

“People are openly saying now, Pogacar is better than Merckx. How do you read that?”

Phil Jones

“Oh, I absolutely think he is in that same quadrant of rider. I don’t think you can ever compare them side-by-side, because they have different technology, access to different equipment, different training techniques; all of these things. You could argue, could Tadej have been as good back in the day racing against Merckx, for example.

“However, when you consider where he is right now and what his capability is, I would definitely say, he’s absolutely the best rider of his generation, without a doubt. 

“You only have to listen to some of the riders when you saw the interviews, post race. I remember Remco saying, ‘It was a suicide move, and nobody thought he would be able to sustain it.’

“Even Pogacar himself said, ’It was a stupid move. It was stupid, but I did it.’ No other rider, really, would be as daring as Tadej Pogacar is, which is why I think he’s so popular. 

“This is one of those races, isn’t it, where the normal dynamics of how teams race just totally change. There are no race radios, no team orders, in terms of how the riders are going to race. They have to work it out on the road, and so that really lends itself well to a daring rider like Pogacar who rides on instinct and takes big gambles. Those gambles either pay off,  or

they don’t, and here were are: he’s now won the Triple Crown.

“I think he met Stephen Roche before the race, which I thought was lovely. For that to happen and for him to secure that victory. I think is truly tremendous, and he’s absolutely the greatest rider of the current generation." 

Timothy John 

“Yeah, absolutely no argument on that. Where he stands among the best of all time is a debate we could have for hours and hours but there is no question that he’s the best of the current set. 

“I mean, they talk about the curse of the rainbow jersey. He won two days ago in his first time out in the rainbow bands at the Giro dell Emilia, where he attacked a mere 38km from the

finish. We are dealing with a very, very special talent.”

Phil Jones

“I’d also say, probably, Ernesto Colnago is going to run out of bikes to make for this guy in the future, isn’t he? Almost every big race that he wins, Colnago rock up with another beautiful bike, celebrating the victory. 

“I think we’re probably going to see a Triple Crown edition Colnago coming out in the very near future.” 

INTERLUDE

Part One: Zurich Calling

Timothy John

“Well, one rider who can take us right inside the race is Caoimhe O’Brien. Caoimhe is the Irish under0=-23 road race champion. She’s enjoyed a brilliant season. She’s made Women’s WorldTour debuts at RideLondon and the Tour of Britain Women. She won a stage of the Ras. She’s won Belgian kermesses. 

“She got the call up from Cycling Ireland less than four weeks before the race. She road in the elite women’s race against Kopecky, Vollering, Vos, you name it. This is the last world

championships in which the under-23 women will race against the elites. She told me it was the biggest event of her career so far.

“Let’s have a listen to Caoimhe.”

Caoimhe O'Brien

“The course was pretty brutal. We started off on an opening circuit in a town called Uster. That was fine. It was quite flat, but just a lot of road furniture, so between all the roundabouts and the road furniture and the rain, it was a little bit chaotic, but I like that environment in a race, because you just need to get on with it. 

“Being from Ireland, we’re fairly used to the rain! It very much changed the dynamic of the race. Even watching the juniors and the under-23 men, the race was really decided on the descents because the course was quite technical on some parts. Gaps opened up really quickly. Hills influenced the race too, but with the weather, everyone was a bit more on edge with the rain.

“We did that lap, and then around 27km in, we went up a hill that connected to the circuit. I think that was about a 4km climb, and it was quite steep at the beginning. The race really got

going there. 

“Then we got onto the circuit. It was kind of a relentless circuit. You went through the city and the finish line, and then you went up a ‘wall’, I keep calling it, because it was 18, 20 per cent at one point. Then you descend a bit, and then you’re on another 3km or 4km climb.  The course was really relentless. A great course for a worlds, but, yeah, it was hard.

“The crowds were amazing. I’d never really experienced anything like it, especially on ‘the wall’. It was something else. I was by myself at one point, but when you were going up, you

would have thought you were at the front of the race because of the enthusiasm. Everyone was class. 

“You really get so much more out of yourself when you’ve got all of these people cheering for you like crazy. It was something I’d never experienced before, which I think added to the whole ‘worlds’. 

“I couldn’t have predicted the year that I’ve had. This has been my first year of properly racing at UCI level. Last year, I only raced half of the season with a Belgian club team. I got a

little flavour of UCI races but nothing compared to this year. 

“I said to myself at the start of the year that I just want to take this opportunity and race as many races as possible and just throw myself into whatever opportunities I get, and with the team this year, it’s been unbelievable, getting all of the UCI races. 

“The WorldTour races: getting to do RideLondon and the Tour of Britain was like, oh, it was just class. Getting to experience racing at WorldTour level is just like a different feeling to racing in .1s and stuff. Getting exposed to that level really helped my development this year. I just gained so much from it. 

“The racing scene in Ireland at the minute, if you compare it to a couple of years ago, has improved a lot. We’ve got a really good national road series. There are a load of clubs who put

in so much work to keep the races going at weekends.

“Year on year, it’s improving. Keep focussing on the grassroots and keeping girls especially in the sport. When I was a youth and junior, there were a load of girls racing, and then, unfortunately, a lot of them kind of stopped because of going to college, and life, and stuff happening. The pathway is improving. I think we need to keep working on it.” 

Timothy John 

“So wonderful to hear there, Phil, from Caoimhe O'Brien. 

“It was a very strange championships in a way, following the tragic loss of Muriel Furrer. Let’s try and focus on the positives, and, I guess, the biggest from a Team GB perspective is this incredible success of Cat Ferguson. 

“The last rider I can bring to mind who won the junior double, the junior road race and the junior time-trial, was a certain Remco Evenepoel, which I guess makes Cat Ferguson the new

Remco. Would that be fair?”

Phil Jones

“Well, she’s an absolutely incredible talent. Eighteen-years-old and if you look at how she has evolved ,she’s one of those riders who is cross discipline: road, cyclo-cross, track. She grew up on mountain bikes. I think it’s her versatility. She’s a really versatile rider. You could almost compare her to some degree to where Tom Pidcock came from; only from a perspective of having those bike handling skills. When you’ve done all of those multi-discipline events in your life, it tends to lead you to be a very capable rider, as well. All credit to her. Eighteen years old: to be achieving what she’s achieving is truly magnificent.”

Timothy John 

“Absolutely amazing. She’s won pro races. She’s still a stagiaire with Movistar Team, but she’s got two pro wins from three starts, which shows that this is not a rider who is the best of her age group, she is a serious talent by any standard. 

“Now, while we’re dealing with youthful talent, one of the less enjoyable aspects, I guess, of the world championships was the post time-trial interview with Great Britain’s Josh Tarling. 

“To put it into perspective, Josh had finished fourth in the elite men’s time-trial. The only people who beat him were the defending champion Remco Evenepoel, double world champion

Filippo Ganna and the newly-crowned European champion Edoardo Affini.

“A brilliant ride by any standard for a 20-year-old to finish fourth against such illustrious opposition, and yet, he looked anything but happy. He looked in a pretty bad way. 

“This is the third time on the bounce that we’ve seen this. He was, understandably, distraught at the Olympic Games, where he was fourth despite having had a puncture. 

“He had a sub-par performance at La Vuelta. Again, we should stress how good his sub-par performances are: he was sixth there, in the opening stage time-trial. And now we’re seeing him in a really distressed state after having finished fourth in an elite world championships. 

“How do you read that, Phil? Is it time that he took a break? Is it time for the people around him to pay attention and help to take the pressure  off? This is a young man with big

pressure on his shoulders.” 

Phil Jones

“Hmm. Absolutely. I saw that interview, and you really do feel for these riders because the pressure to perform, some of which is self-induced, Tim, we have to acknowledge that. If you’ve done anything around performance sport, you’ll understand things like ‘the pressure curve’, which means too much pressure leads to underperformance and too little leads to underperformance, and it’s about finding that pressure sweet spot to get that optimum performance out of any athlete, whatever they do: finding that flow moment where they just perform at the very highest level of their capability to process. You can only imagine that when that doesn’t happen, your ability to be resilient in that moment is something that you have to keep developing. 

“And I think there are two things that I want to add to this. There’s an author called Brad Stulberg, who I really rate. I’ve read a lot of his books. He said something, a one-liner: ‘Happiness is equal to your expectations minus your reality.’ And I guess, therefore, if that’s the case, it’s about the expectations you set, and when your reality is not meeting those

expectations, it begins to establish a gap between those two things. 

“It could be that Josh was absolutely focussed on winning, rather than delivering the best performance, if that makes sense. Coaches will tell you there’s a difference between those two things, and sports performance psychologists will tell you that you’re more favoured to delivering your best performance, focussing on your performance, rather than winning outright, if that makes sense. So maybe he just needs some people around him. 

“The second point I wanted to make was that we’ve seen now, in the past five years in professional cycling, the timeline for a younger person to make it to the very top has really been shortened, and we’ve discussed this on many of the podcasts before. You used to go through a stepped process. We’ve talked about this so much. Ultimately, it might have taken years to get to the WorldTour teams. You’d have to go through that process of lots of defeats, learning from mistakes and all of these sorts of things. 

“Now what we’re seeing is professional riders becoming younger and younger and younger, and that could well be a link between their individual resilience at that particular point and

their age, in terms of maturity. So while I haven’t seen any scientific correlation between those things right now, it does make me wonder, is there something there within that? 

“Obviously, nobody, no fan ever wants to see riders psychologically suffering. No one wants to see that, so I really, really do hope that whoever those riders are, whether it be Anna Henderson, who talked after her race about keeping perspective, having to be kind to yourself. Nowadays, if you don’t fulfil the expectations of the fan base, it’s very easy to have lots of in-bound negative messaging coming towards you, and so, that ability to be self-kind is something generally that maturity tends to bring to you much, much more.

“I think the ability to wrap more professional support around some of these younger riders I think is a very, very key thing for the future of the sport.” 

INTERLUDE

Part Two: National News

Timothy John

“Let’s move on now to talk about the National Road Series, another success for our DAS-Hutchinson-Brother UK squad, who were crowned champions in Northumberland. Robyn Clay’s victory at the Curlew Cu increased the team’s lead at the top of the standings from 90 to 107 points. 

“The Alba Development Team, another UCI squad, finished second, and their leader Eilidh Shaw was crowned individual champion. Shibden Apex, Cat Ferguson’s team, was third.

Esther Wong finished third in the Curlew Cup, and she was third in the series. 

“And our own Brother UK-OnForm team, well they were sixth overall out of 17 teams; a very impressive campaign again from Mark Botteley’s squad. Grace Reynolds was 11th on the day and 11th in the series. 

“The men’s National Road Series concluded at the same event. The Beaumont Trophy was won by OIiver Rees of Sabgal/Anicolour. William Truelove of Thriva-Secret was second, and Thomas Armstrong of Wheelbase-Cabtech-Castelli was third. 

“George Kimber of Spirit TBW Stuart Hall Cycling was crowned champion of the men’s National Road Series. Saint Piran’s James McKay was second overall, while Ollie Rees, again,

of Sabgal- Anicolour, was third. 

“Saint Piran successfully defended their National Road Series team title with an impressive 513 points. Wheelbase-Cabtech-Castelli finished as runners up with 435 points, while Spirit TBW Stuart Hall Cycling finished their championship challenge in third place with 274 points.

“Ian Watson, one of three co-managers of DAS-Hutchinson-Brother UK, I caught up with him, Phil, and he told me, it’s not over til it's over.”

Ian Watson

“It feels fantastic. We went into it with a fairly commanding lead, but we can never take anything for granted, and we didn’t. You don’t know you’ve got it until everybody’s crossed the line. 

“Once they did that yesterday, it was a nice feeling because this team prize has been particularly good, I think, because we’ve won three of the five rounds of the national series, but they’ve always been different riders. It’s not like we just had one dominant rider. It’s been shared around, and we’ve had a couple of podiums with other riders. 

“That meant we didn’t finish as high in the individual standings as we’d like, but we did have a convincing win in the team [competition], and that reflects, I think, how the team performed this year; how they performed for each other, how they supported each other; how they sacrificed sometimes their own rides for other people, and when they did that, the

other person finished the job off as well. 

“There’s been a really strong bond within the team this year, which I think has massively contributed to our success. Once it was all over yesterday, and they crossed the line, it was really satisfying for the riders, more than anything else, because they deserved it, and they worked hard for it.

“For me, Lancaster is probably the race that sticks in my mind because that’s when we turned it around. Ryedale was fantastic, the way they rode in that, and yesterday was great as well, but I remember pitching the idea in Lancaster of, let’s go from the gun and just attack it all day long. 

“That was met with a lot of blank stares. I had to remind them that we’d just been doing all of these races abroad that were faster than the national series [races] are run, and they’re longer than the national series [races’ are run, and they could really do this. After a little bit of thought, they said, yeah, and that’s what they did, and that resulted in coming first, third

and fourth, I think, didn’t we, in that’s when it all turned around, and we’ve won every round since.

“That’s not a boast. That’s to say that it took that first half of the year to get the team together, so rather than just having one outstanding rider who can win it, they’ve all learned how to ride together and work together, which meant one round was won by Frankie, one round was won by Lucy, and another round was won by Robyn. Everybody else is in there. We’ve got other people who are capable of [winning] as well. It’s been a work in progress, and it’s all down to the riders and how they’ve gone into the races and the mindset and those sorts of things. I think, out of all of them, Lancaster sticks in my mind because that’s where it all turned around, and, since then, both home and abroad, we’ve not looked back since that race. 

“That’s the season over for us now. There are things that carry on, but I think where we were with putting the two teams together and the big programme that we’ve ended up having because of it, which was the whole idea, yeah, I think everyone’s tired now, which is understandable, both riders and staff, so we’re going to say this is the end of the season now after Curlew. 

“The riders will have a little bit of a break. There is some track racing coming up. Quite a few of the team are in the London 3 Day, and there are some other bits and bobs, track-wise, but road is finished. It’s nice for the riders. The riders all get a nice break and a nice few weeks off before they start their winter training, but, to be fair, for the management side of the

team, this is by far the busiest [time of the] year, and I won’t have any rest until the Christmas break, probably, because it’s mental. Now, we’re dealing with new riders’ contracts, sponsorship, putting it all together, race calendars for next year. It’s a really, really busy time, and it’s non-stop.” 

Timothy John 

“So that was Ian Watson, Phil, one of three managers of our DAS-Hutchinson-Brother UK squad, along with Simon Howes and Andrew Paine, and, well, they’ve got a lot to be proud of, I think. 

“Is this the best sponsored team that we’ve had, do you think? They’re the National Circuit Series champions, the National Road Series champions, they won the Ras, they were third

overall in the Volta a Portugal Feminina. 

“Everything would point to them topping our unofficial scorecard of sponsored teams, until you consider their squad in 2019, when it was then called Brother UK-Tifosi p/b OnForm, where they won the National Road Series and the Tour Series. Becks Durrell was the individual winner that year, and she won the British circuit race title to boot. Anna Henderson was in the same squad that year. Coincidentally, in 2019, the Brother UK-FusionRT team won the British Women’s Team Cup and the Ras na mBan with Claire Steels, who now rides for Movistar Team. 

“So what do you reckon, Phil? Where does this DAS-Hutchinson-Brother UK team fit in the all-time rankings of Brother-sponsored squads?”

Phil Jones

“Ooh, again another really difficult question to give a straight answer to, I think, Tim. Again, the reason is because of context. Each team had different budgets at the time, and we have to remember that the DAS-Hutchinson-Brother UK team is formed from a merger of two teams, so they were able to bring the strongest riders into one team, effectively. 

“And back in the day, of course, Brother UK-Tifosi, presented by OnForm was a fabulous team of its time, and, likewise, when Claire Steels rode for what was the Brother UK-FusionRT team, managed by Terry [Williamson], that also was a strong squad, but they were competing against each other. 

“So I think all we conclude at the moment team is that we seem to have got some reasonable form in picking teams who tend to have some amazing riders on them, who go onto really

fantastic things, and, without a doubt, what you’re seeing within the squad of DAS-Hutchinson-Brother UK is some really strong individual riders. 

“I spoke to Ian on the phone a couple of weeks ago, actually, and I was just asking him for his reflections on the season and all of those sorts of things, and what he did say was that it takes a little time for a team to gel, and I know this from my day job: when you do reorganisations and things like that, teams don’t just come together on day one and work perfectly. They have to work out how to function as a team, and that can take some time. 

“It’s very, very interesting that I think we saw a very, very different team in the second half of the season than perhaps we did in the first, and that was because time had begun to elapse. Everybody had to work out how to communicate with each other, what each other’s styles were, how the culture came to bond, how the team began to strengthen. Now, without a doubt, when you look at their results, you can say, based on results alone, absolutely they’re one of the most successful teams we’ve ever been behind.”

Timothy John

“Yeah, very much so. I don’t know if Ian gave you any steer on whether any of his riders might be moving on up for next season? I mean, so much success. 

“Frankie Hall, I know, has placed everything on this season, up to and including suspending her PhD studies. She’s 29 now. Lucy's 26. She’s had victories all over the place, in the Ras,

in the National Road Series. She’s performed strongly overseas. 

“There’s a younger cohort. Caoimhe, we heard from earlier. Robyn Clay, who won the last round, the Curlew Cup, she’s only twenty. Morven Yeoman had a very strong start to the season; she’s twenty, too; sorry, twenty as well, I should say.

“Did Ian give you any hints, any steers? Could we have another graduate going up to the Women’s WorldTour?”

Phil Jones

“Well, sorry to say, he didn’t cover that with me, and I wouldn’t expect him to. The managers have to play their cards close to their chest at this particular point, and that’s totally understandable. 

“However, we’ve always seen that the difficulty of the British race scene is that many people have to have a full-time career, or a part-time career, or be a student, funded through a student loan or something, in order to pursue the passion that they love. 

“But they all get to this point where they’re going to have to make a decision about whether to try and make it. I think we’ve seen her, with, as you say, Frankie, Lucy and Robyn, they’re all at that point where they’re just trying to fully commit, and say, ‘Right, this is it. I’ve got to really give it everything this season,' with a view to seeing whether that pathway can open up

to a WorldTour team, so let’s hope it does, for one or all of them.”

INTERLUDE

Part Three: Local Hero

Timothy John

“We saw DAS-Hutchinson-Brother UK really at full throttle at the Ras na mBan, Ireland’s leading stage race for women. It was absolutely dominated by our squad. 

“Mia Griffin won the General Classification, she won the points classification, she won the best Irish rider classification, she won stages one and three. She could not have achieved any

more. 

“Caoimhe O’Brien, who we spoke to earlier, she won the best young rider classification, having won stage two. DAS-Hutchinson-Brother UK took home the team prize having won four stages of the six, and with three different riders; with Mia, with Caoimhe, and Lucy Lee, who took the final stage. 

“Let’s have a listen now to Mia.” 

Mia Griffin

“There couldn’t really be a more local race for me, and just to win in Kilkenny was insane. The were so many people I knew around, so it was so nice in that sense, that I got to really share it with my family, as well. It’s not often [you can]. My two grandparents can’t really travel all over the world, so the fact that they get to see me racing for a few days and share the high of winning was so nice. 

“I think Ronan who runs the race really wanted to have an Irish winner. It’s been 11 years since Olivia Dillon won the Ras, so it was a long time before they had an Irish winner. They were all so delighted as well. It was so nice. Some of them were nearly in tears as well, which was so nice. 

“Coming into the race, I didn’t have an expectation to go for the GC. Coming from the track, I was quite punchy, but I didn’t know how my endurance was going to hold, so it was a bit

like, ‘Ooh, I’ve not trained for stage racing, so there might be a point where the doors blow off and that’s it.'

But three days in, I thought, ‘I’d better keep this jersey now,’ because before that I had thought, ‘Ok, I’ll go in. I’ll race hard. I’ll go for stages and so what happens.’ 

“My coach, Tommy, is a really chilled guy, and he [said], ‘Ok, just go for the stages and chill on the hilly days. Get dropped and that’s fine.’ I think he almost does a little bit of reverse psychology in that sense of, like, it’s ok for this to happen, but if you out-do yourself, then good as well. 

“The photo that Lorraine O’Sullivan took of me and my granny and my nanny, everyone loved because it’s so nice and so rare to get a photo of a sportsperson with their two grandparents, and I think that kind of resonates with people as well and draws more people in to a sport that would go a little bit under the radar in Ireland. 

“It’s a small community in Ireland as well, I would say. We have some really, really good talent coming up, like, shockingly good, but I think the scene is so small. It’s different to the UK where you have a bunch of 90 girls turning up for national series races; maybe in Ireland you might have 30 or 40 turning up for national series races, so it’s a completely other world,

really, I'd say. 

“In Ireland, if you’re just doing national series races, you don’t learn how to be in a bunch or anything, so I think that the girls have to go abroad to learn how to race to be able to race in Europe and everything, so we definitely are a little bit behind were the UK is. 

“That was my first national series race in the UK, and I was actually blown away by the fact that you have a full bunch. Even the standard of the physical abilities of the girls was really impressive because it wasn’t just ten girls who were strong. There was a group of 30 who were really strong, so I found that very impressive as well.”

Timothy John 

“So there was Mia Griffin, Phil, of DAS-Hutchinson-Brother UK, who’d spent most of the year training in a velodrome on Mallorca for the Olympic  Games in Paris, and who returned to the road in emphatic style: a home winner, of course. The race is in Kilkenny. Mia is from Kilkenny. That’s got to be good box office, hasn’t it, for the race organisers?”

Phil Jones

“Oh, absolutely amazing. That’s the fairytale story, isn’t it, coming to life: Kilkenny girl wins the Ras. Just brilliant. She was dominant, to have won two stages, as well as the points jersey and the GC. Just fabulous. 

“It’s also known as a hard race. The Ras is no easy race whatsoever. The parcours, the profile. The weather is normally a deciding factor, too. It really shines a spotlight on Mia to say, you’ve got to be a very capable rider to win that race. 

“But to win your home race on your home turf, Kilkenny girl does it, just wonderful.” 

Timothy John

“Yeah, that writes its own headline, doesn’t it? I bet the organisers were delighted, as she said.  It obviously gave a huge boost in confidence to DAS-Hutchinson-Brother UK, who, in their very next race sealed overall victory in the National Road Series. 

“I guess there’s something in this success breeding success, isn’t there? Robyn went and won the Curlew Cup. Lucy, who'd won the final stage at the Ras, finished fourth in the UCI 1.2 Pionera race in Valencia next time out. Momentum is everything, I guess."

Phil Jones

“It is. We talked earlier about sports psychology and performance. Success is a very, very important factor when it comes to a team’s confidence, regardless of a your sport, and if you’re a winning team it can bring that extra one per cent or two per cent that sometimes a team needs. 

“When they’re rolling up to a line as winners of previous races, that breeds confidence, and confidence can really take you somewhere when you need to dig in. I think it’s absolutely

brilliant, and success really does…that old saying: success breeds success'.” 

Timothy John 

“Yeah, that’s certainly the case for DAS-Hutchinson-Brother UK. 

“It was interesting to hear Mia talk about the disparity at the moment between the Irish women’s road scene and the British women’s road scene. We heard earlier in the season, didn’t we, from Paul Smith at Brother UK-OnForm, Mia and Stella’s father, who is the assistant manager of that team, and he was saying this is why he brings his daughters across to the UK because the Irish scene, unfortunately, just isn’t on the same level at the moment, but he’s confident that it will improve. Caoimhe made a very similar comment when I discussed her performance at the world championships. 

“We almost take for granted, don’t we, the thriving success of the women’s road scene. We know that there are problems with the men’s road scene in the UK. We’ll come on to discuss those later, but could the British scene inspire the Irish?”

Phil Jones

“Well, I’m sure there are many riders in Ireland who are wanting to race in Ireland and have their own scene, but we’re back to these practicalities, aren’t we, of how the federation works, of sponsorship, of the economic environment, managers starting up teams and trying to raise sponsorship; all of these sorts of things. 

“Whether we are going to see a revolution in cycling in Ireland, probably not, in the same way we are saying we’re probably not going to see a revolution in British cycling. What we’ve got is a very good base which has dwindled in some respects but at least the base has been there, and it’s now back to evolution again, whereas in Ireland, I think, they don't quite have the same amount of resources, whether that be races, teams with decent budgets etc., so I can understand why a rider would want to come over to the UK as a pathway to developing a professional career.”

INTERLUDE

Part Four: Tour de Force

Timothy John

“Let’s move on now to talk about the Tour of Britain Men; my goodness, what an edition. I mean, for a race that was facing extinction this time last year, what a way to bounce back. 

"It was won overall by Stevie Williams of Israel-Premier Tech, the Welsh rider. He won two stages and the overall. It was a brilliant race, an exhilarating race; even the flat stages were lit

up with constant attacks. 

“My favourite take on it, Phil, was from Ben Wiggins, who described it on Instagram as a Nat B, and I think that was a compliment. I think that was how he intended that comment to be received. 

“It was just brilliant racing every single day, and the superstars, the headline acts, Remco Evenepoel and Julian Alaphilippe of Soudal-Quick-Step, they  were the instigators. They were at the heart of the action on almost every stage. 

“Tom Pidcock of INEOS Grenadiers, he joined the party on the final stage but unfortunately crashed out in an incident involving the red jersey, Paul Magnier, the points leader and

another Soudal-Quick-Step rider. He’d already won three stages but both, sadly, had to abandon.

“It was everything that we had hoped to see from this resurrected Tour of Britain: big crowds and strong performances from all the young British riders. It was a race that Britain’s latest golden generation stamped themselves all over. Let’s hear from one of them now. That's Louis Sutton. He’s a Rayner rider. He rolled out in the colours of Team GB and won a combativity award.

"Let's hear now from Louis."

Louis Sutton

“The Tour of Britain was a last-minute call-up for me. On the Sunday night of the Tour de l’Avenir, I messaged Matt Brammeier, the DS and the head of all of our Team GB performance, saying, ‘I don’t have many races left this year. Do you have any reserve spots for the Tour of Britain?’

“He said, ‘Ok. I’ll put you in as first reserve,’ and then I think someone fell ill or something. Two days before the race, I was in France and I got the call-up, and I was buzzing. I just

jumped at that opportunity straight away. 

“It was my first ever pro race. Not many people watch amateur racing, even U23 UCI, so just being able to race against the likes of Remco, Alaphilippe, Stevie Williams, was a massive opportunity, and you’ve got to grasp it because that might be your only opportunity. 

“I guess, [riding for] Great Britain has helped a lot, and if I was with a British team, it would be even bigger because it’s one of the only races where you would get people looking at you through the camera. 

“It was constant, every day. I remember the third day, third stage, Alaphilippe attacking on the first climb, and he’s away with one minute with an INEOS rider for the first 30km, and that’s normally unheard of, for one of the best riders in the race to be in an early breakaway. It just made it really exciting, which I love, really. It makes it a lot less boring and

predictable. 

“I'd always planned that day to get in the early breakaway. I’d planned to try my best in the first 20 minutes. It must have been one of the hardest parts of the race, really, to make sure I got in the breakaway. I had to follow every move. Once I got in that, it was ok. I tried to rest as much as possible before I knew eventually that Remco and everyone else would come towards [me]. From there, it was just survive, to be honest, and hang on. 

“I would say the conditions played a part in it. With stage three, the weather was a bit rainy. I guess that caused people to want to go early and get warm, or the fact that stage two had wind as well and narrow roads, but I guess the Tour of Britain always has narrow roads, but with the short climbs and everything.

"I guess the fact that these best riders are using it to prepare for a world championships, so they want to make it a harder race. You see Remco and Alaphilippe attacking 10km in. Yeah, they want to make it as hard as possible. 

“I would say don’t be scared of going early and attacking. Don’t just let the big teams, the WorldTour teams, predict and control the race. You get involved as well and not just be a

puppet, to be honest, yeah.

“My long-term goal is stepping up to the professional peloton and doing races like the Tour of Britain most weekends. Nothing is set in stone yet, but we’ll wait and see. Hopefully, after the world championships, I’ll be able to say I’m in a professional team.”

Timothy John 

“So there we go. That was Louis Sutton, Phil, of Team GB. What a race he had: everything from combativity awards to concussion. An experience he’ll never forget. 

“Is this a new golden generation? Am I getting carried away here? I mean, Oscar Onley won the white jersey and finished second overall. Callum Thornley of Trinity won the KOM competition. Joe Blackmore, who, in his previous race, had become the first British rider to win the Tour de l’Avenir, he was all over it.

“I mean, it’s hard to keep up, isn’t it? These young British riders just keep coming.”

Phil Jones

“It’s terrific to see not only the big names - people like Alaphilippe up the road, or Remco up the road. That’s what we as fans want to see are these huge names racing on British roads is wonderful, but also lighting it up. You just love it. You just know what’s coming. 

“But equally, you just saw these names emerging: people whose names were unfamiliar, just getting up there, getting in the breaks. Just brilliant. As usual, credit to foundations like The Rayner Foundation, helping to bring these young riders through; Trinity, still offering that bridge over onto the WorldTour.
 
"The Tour of Britain and the Women’s Tour are probably the most important shop window for some of these riders to be seen in a race of this standing; a stage race. It’s important that

they show what they can do. 

“I thought it was also great to see Matt Holmes in GB kit. That was great. That was another wonderful thing. So, yeah, all looks good in terms of the talent pipeline that the UK is still pulling together.”

Timothy John

“And what about the long-term future of the race? Did we see enough in this six-stage edition to guarantee its future? Goodness knows it was exciting. 

“Do you think the WorldTour teams might be looking for a longer race again next year? Of course, traditionally it was eight stages. Or do you think it’s proved its viability? This year,

there were big crowds, there was lots of media interest and brilliant racing every day.”

Phil Jones

“Yeah, for sure, whether it’s six stages or eight stages, I know that BC will be very, very keen to keep the Tour of Britain, both versions, in the portfolio and in the UCI’s calendar. We’ve talked before about [the fact that] once you drop out of that calendar, it’s very difficult to get back in again. 

“I’m sure given the very, very short timescales that British Cycling had to pull everything together after all that went on with SweetSpot, they’ll be very satisfied with what was delivered. 

“We, as fans, also just have to be satisfied for now. I think we talked about that a few episodes ago. BC will do everything to get the best race on that they can, given time, resources,

sponsorship and all of those things, and I think they did.

"We’re going to talk about some of the Task Force stuff in a moment, Tim, but one of the things that we did say was that it was critically important to keep these very high-profile races in the international calendar, otherwise it would be very, very easy for the UK to be almost jettisoned off of the entire European racing calendar, which would have been a disaster, I think, for all concerned.” 

INTERLUDE

Part Five: Red Lines and Quick Wins

Timothy John

“Well, that gives us a very nice springboard into the main business of the day which is a progress report from British Cycling on its implementation of recommendations from the Elite Road Racing Task Force. 

“A quick recap for listeners who haven’t yet heard about the Task Force. I can’t believe there’s anybody out there, any of our listeners, at least, who haven’t. This was a panel of experts convened last year by British Cycling’s CEO Jon Dutton to generate ideas to revitalise top-level domestic racing, both road and circuit. It was an independent panel of experts, including riders, managers, commercial and marketing experts, including, of course, Phil Jones. 

“In January, British Cycling published 16 broad recommendations from 42 detailed recommendations made by the Task Force, and in this progress report British Cycling highlights successes in accordance with those recommendations, notably the delivery of the Tours of Britain for men and women; a huge achievement. 

“But, in certain areas, there doesn’t seem to be the alignment that we might want to see between the recommendations of the Task Force and BC’s progress report, notably a

recommendation that the National Road Series and National Circuit Series should be allowed to target its own sponsors. Instead, they seem to have been wrapped into the Lloyds deal. 

“Phil, a broad, general response: are you disappointed or are you encouraged by what we’ve heard from British Cycling in this progress report?”

Phil Jones

“Oh, that’s a big question. Obviously, we spent a lot of time trying to generate this report, and what we always have to remember is, this is an advisory piece of work. It’s not mandatory to implement it all. You might implement none of it. You might ignore the report in its entirety. But I know that Jon, with the right intention, wanted us to do this work to try and steer him, as the new CEO, about what the direction should be moving forwards. 

“I think BC have always done the right thing in trying to set expectations, and probably the Task Force did, too: not everything can be done quickly. It’s going to take some years to establish some of the outcomes that we’ve recommended would probably revitalise the scene. 

“One of those was, cutting up the portfolio, in fact in all of British Cycling. That was the real recommendation: don’t allow one sponsor to do everything because it might be better that you separate everything: BMX, cyclo-cross, mountain bike, road, track, into various disciplines where you might get more interest from specific sector sponsors wanting to achieve more

specific sector aims for the genre of the sport. That was our recommendation. 

“Now, back to my earlier point, even though we recommended it, it does’ mean they’re going to have to do it. Obviously, we saw the announcement that Lloyds had come along, and, clearly, British Cycling has a board of directors whose job it is to look at the bigger picture, and that will include the wider commercials for British Cycling as a whole, not just road cycling, and clearly they’ve made the decision to adopt that major commercial sponsorship. 

“Having done that now, of course, that makes that recommendation redundant, unless, within that contract that they negotiated with Lloyds, there is capacity for other sponsors to be involved. That was the issue we were trying to address: previous large sponsors had had all-encompassing clauses that shut out all competition from the sector that they were in, which then made it more difficult for race organisers to raise individual sponsorships from, perhaps, local competitors where they were trying to organise a race. 

“Whether that is going to be addressed or not, I don’t know. My generalised response or feeling might be that the new sponsor, because, if it was me, I’d be trying to lock out everybody else in the same way. You’ve got to look at that one and say, ‘Well, BC have decided it. The board has decided it, and that’s what has happened, so let’s put a line through that

recommendation.' 

“Once. you start going through all the others, if you begin to start seeing lines going through lots of recommendations i.e. a decision not to action or to inaction, then, of course, it’s for stakeholders in the sport to continue to hold BC to account. I know, for example, Denny at The British Continental has recently done what I think is a really great interview with Jon where he is pressing Jon for accountability on what’s going to be done by when. 

“In all of our recommendations, and you can take them all…We already did a lot of this work, which is taking each recommendation and putting it into a priority matrix to say, what’s easy to do, what’s difficult to do, what’s going to take a while to do and what can be done quickly. What are the quick wins that are easy to do? We prioritised all of those. For me, I guess what I’d like to see most is action around what we consider to be the quick wins that the Task Force recommended.

“We had, in the meantime, time-dependent things, which was the Tour of Britain and the Women’s Tour, which, again, if I was the CEO of BC, you’ve got to look at things and say, ‘Well, these are the immediate and pressing things that we’ve got to get done. We have to prioritise those.' And then we had all of the. other elements that they needed to be organising

around the Olympics, all those sort of things were going on. 

“So, I think now is a good time to see what progress can be made is over the autumn and winter period, where there’s a lot less pressure around the racing season and probably more time for strategic overseeing and delivery.” 

Timothy John

“Yeah, that’s a very fair assessment. I think there is some disappointment around the lack of progress, particularly on the recommendations for the National Road Series, but we cannot underestimate the scale of the wins in saving the two Tours of Britain, in bringing on a blue chip sponsor, regardless of the precise details of that contract and the effect that it might have, which is still to be seen, on smaller sponsors that National Road Series and National Circuit Series organisers might attract. 

“What would you like them to turn their attention to next, Phil? I mean, there’s so much detail, particularly in the 42 recommendations that were submitted to British Cycling. There was a

lot of good stuff in there that isn’t going to grab any headlines, like centralised procurement, for example, but which is going to move the dial. 

“What would you like them to turn their attention to next? Which of those quick wins should be next up?”

Phil Jones

“Well, again, if it were me, and I think for everybody we consulted with in the sport, because we did a major consolation piece with all of the team managers, race organisers, as well as BC members, so we’re not lacking information here about what people want to see, and some of the things that people wanted to see were things like, address the geography issue. ‘Can we please have some road racing in the south of England?’ For me, that would be try and get that done. Are there one, two or three races that you might be able to introduce to the calendar, working with existing organisers again to transfer knowledge as much as possible? And I know that there is goodwill there: that people are prepared to do that. 

“But then you’ve got to find those organisers, so you need some new organisers, and then you’ve just got to bring the winning pattern, which you can do, to some of those races in the

south. I think that would be quite a good signal to the sport that the federation has listened. 

“The other thing is, we spent a quite a lot of time looking at the circuit series, as being, really, the sort of gold ribband. Make that work, and you can make all of cycling. road cycling, road racing work. And so, what we talked about there was really moving to create these city centre spectacles, focussed around city centres in order that you can drive the economic agenda for the sport and make it a much more, well packaged sporting spectacle, which can be taken from city to city, and can begin to create its own brand. 

“We said, staying away from smaller venues and really making sure that it goes to larger venues, so I would like to see that really begin to have some more focus and perhaps the

announcement of one or two more big ticket cities hosting rounds of the circuit series. I think that would be really, really good.

“But we have to continually remember that because all of these issues around local authorities…Landing a local authority to say ‘yes’ is so difficult. It takes so much persuasion and work and influence with all of these stakeholders at a time when we’ve got a new government, with a new agenda. We’re going to have a budget fairly soon, and we’re going to understand the extent of whether local authorities are going to be further funded or subject to further cutbacks. 

“If local authorities are subject to further cutbacks, because we’ve all heard the mood music, haven’ t we, in the media that the coffers are as full even as they thought they would be walking into. They could be laying the foundation for further hard times, so we have to accept that this journey, this direction of travel is not going to be easy, but we definitely want to see a commitment to progress to at least report on progress  that things are happening and making some announcements when we’ve got, let’s say, a new city on board, and linking that back to the Task Force recommendations. ‘We’ve got this city because, and we plan to use organisers from ‘x’ and ‘y’ to bring the success model to that city,’ and if you can make it work, you sell to other cities using the same model. I think that’s all we want to see, really, is perhaps a bit more visible progress." 

Timothy John 

“Yeah, a very fair assessment. As fans, of course, we want it all immediately, don’t we, and we want it overnight. Perhaps that’s a fair aspiration given the dire state that the National Road Series particularly finds itself in. 

“I don’t think we can doubt Jon’s sincerity, and his success, let’s face it. In the time that he’s been in post, the federation really has gained a fresh impetus, and nothing embodies that more than the salvation of the two Tours of Britain. The Lloyds sponsorship, of course, is critical in a financial sense. 

“Let’s hope that these Task Force recommendations do not have lines drawn through them, and that there is a genuine sense of purpose into implementing as many of them as they feel

is within their gift to do so.

“There are good people working on that. There’s Marc Etches, there’s Heather Bamforth, admittedly, in a voluntary capacity in Marc and Heather’s case, but people who have the interests of the scene at heart.”

INTERLUDE

Part Six: Outro

Timothy John  

“Phil, thank-you very much indeed for joining me today. We’ve got through a fair bit. 

“We’ve got The Rayner Foundation dinner coming up soon. That’s on Saturday November 23, so anybody out there listening who wants to support the next generation of British superstars, and who indeed wants to rub shoulders with them at the Leeds Armouries, get your tickets now.

“Phil, thank-you very much again for joining me, and thank-you to everybody out there for listening.” 
 
 

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