The Best and The Worst Kits at The Tour

There's only four days to go until the best 198 riders in the world set off for their 3 week schlep around France. We've talked about who will be riding and where they will be riding but we've yet to mention what they will be wearing. Cycling kits exist in a perfectly balanced vacuum, there has to be an equal amount of rubbish kits for the brilliant ones to exist and today we're calling out the bad ones and praising the stylish gems that our favourite riders will don for July.

Abbie Saunders is Bike Route Hub's resident fashionista. With her sharp tongue and sharp style she's perfectly happy tearing chunks out of the kit designers who have punished 25 poor riders by making them wear their hideous creations for a year. When she isn't doing this she also writes on figsandfootprints.blogspot.com which focuses on healthy living and exercise. Maybe finish that burger and pint whilst reading this blog.......

Five Worst

Trek Factory Racing ~ 3.5/10

Despite the futuristic appeal of the silver space-age gloves and ankle contour moon boots, Team Trek’s kit seems a little, well, effeminate. The slick body contour fit and bizarre reverse plunge neckline not only looks like a leotard design more suited to a performance gymnast, but also strikes me as an immediate sunstroke hazard. In the mid-Summer heat of Tour De France, I wouldn’t fancy myself with those tan lines…

Europcar ~ 3/10

If you’re Irish, green may well be your lucky colour. But otherwise motor folklore dictates that green is a veritable car crash. Type ‘green cars crashing’ into Google and you will be met with images of Andy Warhol’s famous painting ‘Green Car Crash’ and headlines such as ‘Green Party leader delivers “car crash” performance’. Would you trust anything green on the roads based on this correlation? Sorry Europcar…

Lotto NL-Jumbo ~ 2/10

If, like me, you find yourself asking what your own chances are of winning the lottery, you may also, like me, find yourself asking what the chances are of Team Lotto NL winning the Tour De France… Needless to say, the team’s official sponsor emblazoned across the front does not instil me with a huge amount of confidence.

Team AG2R-La Mondiale ~ 1.5/10

In essence, there is very little wrong with Team Ag2r’s kit. It is well streamlined, with good coverage and neat brand representation. However if you are inclined toward the immature, you may want to question the colour scheme. I can’t help but think that turquoise shorts may have been a little more fresh and eye-catching than these ‘I soiled myself on the Tour De France’ meggings.

Tinkoff-Saxo ~ 1/10

Poor Team Tinkoff… The very misguided decision to photoshop the team mates in against a black background does nothing for the fact that a black crotch patch already draws attention to the area. Add this to the fact that their team name is ‘Tinkoff' and you may begin to find yourself wondering if there’s a crotch there at all…

Five Best

Cannondale-Garmin ~ 7.5/10

The new Garmin kit is reminiscent of a Softmints branding colour scheme. Who doesn’t like a Softmint? The pattern also seems to be inviting its wearer for a languid game of golf rather than an invigorating incline cycle. Who knows? Maybe the Softmint serene Garmin team have coined a 

relaxing new cycling style too…

Orica-GreenEDGE ~ 8/10

In case you didn’t know, mesh is in. It appears that Team Orica have taken their new season look straight out of New York Fashion Week’s Spring / Summer 2015 catalogue. With on-trend fishnet look sleeves and uppers, who cares if the kit is practical? It’s fashion, dahling…

Etixx-Quick-Step ~ 8.5/10

Team Etixx have taken Team Trek’s kit and injected it with some alpha male. The black body, high neckline, long sleeves and even ‘quick step’ mantra stapled down the side give Team Etixx the edge. If their performance is anywhere near as ‘panther’ as their look, we can expect strength and agility from the team in this year’s Tour.

Astana ~ 9/10

Potentially one of the most polarising kits of the competition is Team Astana’s. As a fan of controversial colour schemes, I am instantly drawn to this head-to-toe turquoise ensemble. Team Astana won’t be missed by cyclists or onlookers in this hue, and its summer sky-inspired feel should keep Team Astana in high spirits. They may not look like the dark horses of the competition, but let’s face it, the future is bright.

Movistar ~ 10/10

Well, this guy just looks like a winner. That latex shine seems to give this kit a Marvel Comics Superhero appeal with the streamlined stripe detail on the sleeves emphasising those superhuman muscles. The Movistar branding also seems to play into the subliminal suggestion that it could be Brad Pitt or Orlando Bloom riding the bike. Superhero, movie star, and cyclist rolled into one. Who wouldn’t want them to win?!

The 5 Key Stages of the 2015 Tour de France

We're now just 5 days away from the biggest day in the cycling calendar and we continue our build-up with a look at the 5 key stages in this year's race.

Stage 2 - Utrecht - Zeeland 166km

Expect to see some serious echelons today.

We're starting early with the second stage but with the second half of the stage being run along the Northern Coast of the Netherlands this will be an exposed stage and I expect to see at least one team leader getting caught out. The stage couldn't be flatter if it was drawn with a ruler but with the peloton splitting, forming and repeating don't expect this to be an easy day.
If the wind is strong enough then we should see a Belgian team, maybe Etixx, come to the front and blow the whole race apart. Cavendish has excellent pedigree when racing in echelons so he will be the favourite here.

"Interesting" Fact - The Netherlands are often incorrectly named Holland. Holland is just a region of the Netherlands but for 100km today we will be racing in that region.

Stage 4 - Seraing - Cambrai 218km

Will Nibali again be able to prevail?

We're back on the cobbles of Northern France after last year's escapades. In 2014 Nibali looked at home on the rough terrain and put huge chunks of time into his rivals as Froome abandoned after numerous crashes before the first sector of cobbles. The Italian will need to build a cushion after this stage to stand a chance of winning overall I suspect.
Although he isn't at home on this terrain, Nairo Quintana spent a week earlier in the season racing in some of the Northern semi classics and he will be hoping this proves vital in the first week. As long as the main contenders stay within 2 minutes of Nibali they should be able to make that deficit back in the mountains.

"Interesting" Fact - Cambrai will host a stage for the third time in the Tour de France. Remarkably this will also be the third time that it has hosted Stage 4.

Stage 12 - Lannemezan - Plateau de Beille 195km
The final day in the Pyrenees is by far the hardest. It features 4 climbs, each one harder than the previous one until we reach the desperately difficult finish of the Plateau de Beille. It's the third consecutive day of climbing so expect to see some seriously tired legs slogging up to the ski resort finish.
There's quite a lot of flat between the climbs so don't expect an overall contender to go early. The route also features the memorial to the tragic death of Fabio Casartelli who died on the descent of the Col de Portet-d'Aspet 20 years earlier, the peloton will most likely stay together until this point to pay their respects.
The final climb may not had the prestige of Alpe d'Huez but it's significantly harder, the gradient doesn't drop below 6% until the final kilometer. That means there will be 15km of unrelenting, punishing climbing. This should be a day for Quintana, Contador and Froome to fly away.

"Interesting" Fact - The Tour has visited the Plateau de Beille 5 times. The winner on this climb has only failed to go on and win in Paris once, Jelle Vanendert in 2011.

Stage 17 - Digne-Les-Bains - Pra-Loup 161km
It's not the hardest Alpine stage and it's certainly not a long stage, however, we do have the descent of the Col d'Allos which might do more damage than any climbs today. This exact parcours was used in June during the Dauphine Libere and Romain Bardet won that day by escaping over the top of the d'Allos and free falling to the base of Pra-Loup. It's unlikely that Bardet will be allowed to do this again in July but the blue-print should be used. Alberto Contador rode away from Quintana on the descent of the Port de Bales in the recent Route du Sud but the Columbian has proven he can descend so he won't be caught out again. The most worried riders will be Chris Froome and Thibault Pinot. Froome does not class bike handling in his list of strengths and Pinot has had a well publicised struggle with going downhill - both will need to ensure that they aren't isolated at the summit.
We're nearing the end of the Tour but this stage is just the first of four brutal Alpine stages and the main contenders will want to expand as little energy as possible whilst still making sure that they don't lose any time.

"Interesting" Fact - The start town of Digne-Les-Bains is also where Victor Hugo's novel Les Miserables begins, it is the home of Jean Valjean.

Stage 20 - Modane - Alpe d'Huez 110.5km

The Croix de Fer will be used again today.

It's the last day in the Alps and the last day of the Tour where the overall standings will change. Due to a landslide we're not going over the Galibier, instead we will be heading back over the Croix de Fer for the 2nd time this Tour. This shouldn't change the race too much though, the 2011 plan remains which is to attack early and hard and see who can follow. If anyone has been hanging on for the last few days then they will find themselves jettisoned immediately and handing over vast wedges of time.
It's always a big occasion when the Tour visits Alpe d'Huez and if the time gaps at the top are minimal then we might be in for an epic stage. It's a pure climber's day today so we should be seeing Quintana and Froome going clear as Nibali tries to limit his losses. Where will Contador be though?

"Interesting" Fact - The ONERA wind tunnel in Modane is the largest in the World and is used to test civil and military aircraft.

Follow the British National Champs with live updates on @SamLStandsUp

5 Tips for coming between 10th and 20th in the Tour

With 7 days to go until the Tour begins, we continue our daily build up with an important question. Every year there will a rider who is ignored by the TV cameras every single day yet manages to come between 10th and 20th overall. It's important to note that the guys who can do that are excellent cyclists but they broadly fall into 5 categories and if you follow these tips then you could become a 10th-20th cyclist!

5. Have a Great First Week
As done by - Michal Kwiatkowski

You can have a few off days and still finish in these positions, in 2014 10th was 23 minutes back and 20th was 52 minutes in arrears. It's easier to be in a strong position before the mountains and then lose time than it is to be trying to catch up when the race is in the high mountains. The key to this is build a time buffer in an early time trial over the mountain goats and then make sure you only lose handfuls rather than buckets of time when the road heads uphill. You can also supplement your performance by getting into a transitional stage breakaway in the final week.

4. Be Team Leader of a Mediocre Team
As done by - Nicholas Roche
Nico Roche is the master of finishing 10th-20th, he's raced 13 Grand Tours in total, finishing them all, and he has finished in those positions 5 times! For almost all of those races he was either team leader or co-leader for Ag2r which means he was given the support of his team despite the knowledge that he was never going to get a top 10 let alone a top 5. In this scenario you need to make sure you don't lose any time on the flat and then make sure you're in the top 20 in the mountains. Leave the stage wins and glory to your other team mates, you're purely there for the decent GC result.

3. Be a Domestique for a Better Rider

As done by - Daniel Moreno
Dani Moreno has finished in the golden 10th-20th places 7 times but he's only been the best rider on his team once, 2007 Vuelta. It's a fine balance to strike if you choose to get your top 20 this way, you need to provide support for you team leader but if you stay with him for too long then you risk coming in the top 10 instead. However, if you sit up too early then you'll hand over too much time and you won't be close to the top 20. One good tip is to stick around in the mountains as well as you can and then take the time trials really easy, that way you should be able to lose just enough time to drop down the standings.

2. Be a Great Rider on Terrible Form
As done by - Andy Schleck
Pages of newspapers and magazines have been dedicated to you and how likely it is that you will win. Unfortunately, you and your team know that the chances of you winning are identical to the chances of 20 of the best cyclists in the World all crashing or getting ill in the month of July. You have to deal with the indignity of the cameras watching you as you unhitch from the back of the peloton on the bridge leading up to the first climb of the day. As soon as they lose interest, you job begins. Make sure that you unhitch slightly later each day and go on the attack in the final week, the media will talk about what could have been but you will have gained enough time to slip back into the top 20.

1. Be French
As done by - Sandy Casar
This is your biggest race of the year and as a French rider you can do one of two things; ludicrous long range attacks that will work out incredibly infrequently or go for the overall safe in the knowledge that as soon as you come 12th overall your career will change forever as the French press laud you as the next Hinault. To be fair to French cycling, in Bardet and Pinot they do now have genuine overall contenders but there's still a residual tendency to pile pressure on talented young riders. The key to coming between 10th and 20th in the Tour if you're French is to lose a bit of time in the first week and then get in the mega-break on a transitional stage in the second week and, as everyone forgets about you, just ease yourself down the standings and claim that mega contract for the next season.

A Worker's Guide to Watching the Tour de France

There's just 8 days to go until the Tour starts in Utrecht and we're carrying on with our daily build up to the biggest race on the calendar. If you're a cycling fan then it's an incredibly exciting time because you can watch live cycling every single day, unfortunately, if you do work then you can also miss a huge amount of live cycling each day. However, if you follow these tips then you can watch live cycling every single day without losing your job.

Career Choice
This advice is not all that helpful really. Basically, do a job where you work in an office. There's an incredible amount to hate about working in an office but one thing it does allow is easy access to a computer. I used to work as a teacher and if you do that then there's no chance that you can really nip away from work to watch some cycling. I now work in an office though which means that I can, sneakily, watch live cycling. If you also work in an office/near a computer then you can use the following tips and become an undercover cycling watcher.

Watching at work

Staring at spreadsheets or sitting with a cold beer watching
cycling?

I have the privilege of having two screens at work and, it's commonly accepted that the smaller laptop screen is solely for personal use; BBC, Cyclingnews, Facebook.....Daily Mail. Why not use it as your dedicated cycling laptop? If you do do this then there's a couple of things that you need to be careful of:

• Can your boss see your screen? If they can then turn down the brightness and tilt your screen so that they will have difficulty seeing it. You could also consider moving your laptop so it's directly in front of you and then wear very loose fitting clothes/incredibly wide shouldered clothes.
• How much does it matter if you're caught? Recently at work a colleague had to take his apprentice to one side to tell him off for playing championship manager during work time. Apparently he had been doing this for a few weeks. The moral of the story is that it's often more embarrassing to take someone to one side and tell them off than it is to just let them keep doing whatever it is that they're doing.
• How easy is it to get another job? You work in an office so your skills are probably pretty interchangeable....
• Would you rather be watching the Tour or in a job put not watching the Tour? Obviously you'd rather watch the Tour!?!?

Watching from home

You can work all year but the Tour only happens once!

It can be hard pulling a sicky in the summer but that doesn't mean you shouldn't try. Ask yourself this, does the work you do on a Thursday have an equal or greater value than you would personally get if you just stayed at home and watch the stage to Plateau de Beille or St Jean de Maurienne? I suspect not. Everyone knows that Thursday is basically a day off in the office.

If you're not a fan of a sicky or if you don't have the Del Boy like bullshitting skills then how about using one of the following:

•  Boiler Problems: Claim that your boiler has broken and you need to stay home to wait for the plumber. Then you can work from home and watch the race.
• Waiting for a package: Most offices will now let you work from home if you're waiting for a delivery. Why not order yourself some French wine and make sure the delivery coincides with stage 4, on the cobbles, and enjoy both at the same time?
• Medical appointments: People wouldn't dare question what your particular ailment is. Ask your boss for the afternoon off 3 Thursdays from now, Pau-Cauterets, work through your lunch then leave at 1. You should get home in time to see the riders on the later part of the Col d'Aspin then the Tourmalet and the finishing climb.
• Business Meeting: This one is an elite level move. It can be easy for your work to check with the person you supposedly met. However are the 1 hour highlights in the evening enough to get the full story from the stage to La Toussuire? No, of course not. Create a fake email account for the person you're meeting and send yourself some thank you emails afterwards. Alternatively, find someone in the office or another business who is a cycling fan and be each other's alibis. Then just go off and find yourself a nice pub or cafe to watch the stage in.

There endeth the lesson and I hope to see hordes of slightly nervous looking businessmen and women in cycling friendly pubs each sharing a look with the other and they will know that they've made a greater revolutionary statement than anything Russell Brand could ever do.

Good Luck! 

5 Big Questions for the Tour de France

Watching cycling has a habit of making even the most optimistic of person very cynical. It can be hard to fully invest in incredible performances when you know what might come out a week, months or even years later. However, in the build up to the Tour, when the weather is bronzing even the most pasty of cycling fans skin, it's impossible not to feel a huge sense of optimism about the upcoming three weeks of racing that will be broadcast all day and then pawed over all evening across the cycling websites. With just 9 days to go until the start in Utrecht we kick off our Tour de France build up by asking 5 big questions for the Tour de France.

5. What kind of support can BMC offer Van Garderen in the mountains?

Will Van Garderen be left alone again?

Van Garderen's performances in the Dauphine suggest that he can beat his previous best of 5th at the Tour, but, can his team provide him with enough support to be able to crack the podium? At first glance it seems unlikely, the team are lacking any serious mountain support for Tejay and he will probably end up isolated on a lot of the more mountainous stages. BMC are taking Samuel Sanchez and Damiano Caruso, which sounds strong from the outside but Sanchez is 37 and hasn't finished the Tour since 2011 and Caruso has already raced 44 days including the Giro before he lines up for the Tour. Behind those two there's just a succession of decent strong domestiques and hard men for the flat but they won't be able to offer much help when the road tilts upwards.
Tejay will be hoping that Sanchez and Caruso do turn up fresh enough to be able to hang with him deep into the end game of the stage. If not then Van Garderen will be wasting a lot of energy compared to his better equipped rivals.

4. Who will be the biggest surprise at the Tour?
Every year we see someone turn up at the Tour and smash up everyone's expectations and this year won't be any different. I think the biggest surprise will come from the MTN Qhubeka team. Louis Meintjes has a real chance of getting a top 10 at the Tour or potentially winning the king of the mountains jersey if he turns his hand to that. He will be supported by a very strong team featuring 4 other African riders. Daniel Teklehaimanot looked remarkable at the Dauphine Libere when he won the KoM jersey and he will be hoping to get in plenty of breaks, especially in the mountains.

How big can Teklehaimanot's impact be a the Tour?

I think the other surprise will come from the Bora-Argon 18 team and Sam Bennett. Bizarrely they have publicly stated that they will be backing the German Dominik Nerz at the Tour for the overall. He's a perfectly adequate rider but the top 10 is well out of his reach and, to be honest, top 20 might be a stretch as well. However, in Sam Bennett they have a rider who has a serious chance to win at least one stage. It will be the first Grand Tour for the young Irish rider but that means that the pressure is off and he's able to pick off stages with no expectation.
Also don't discount the other wildcard team, Bretagne-Seche, and their Argentinian rider Eduardo Sepulveda. He's had an excellent season so far, 2nd in the Tour of Turkey was a highlight, and he recently came 5th overall in the Tour's third warm-up race the Route du Sud. A top 10 would be stunning but a podium in the white jersey competition is probably more realistic.

3. How much was Nibali sandbagging at the Dauphine?
Nibali does have a habit of being able to look rubbish in the build up to the Tour and then produce a result. He did exactly the same last year before winning 4 stages and the overall but his performances were better in 2014. So far this year he has a stage race overall best of 10th, in the Tour of Romandie and he's only worn a yellow jersey once all season, at the Dauphine. It's also true that Nibali was helped massively by the absence of Quintana and the crashes of Contador and Froome last year. This year he won't be so lucky but this could help him, it's very easy to look at his form and dismiss him but he's got an unbelievably strong team and he might just be able to peak at exactly the right time.

2. Can Saxo-Tinkoff put together a team that will be able to help Contador?
Although Contador dominated the Giro, he did so in spite of his team who were worryingly weak. At the Giro the second highest placed Tinkoff-Saxo rider was Roman Kreuziger who came 28th almost 2 hours down and the 3rd highest placed Tinkoff rider was Michael Rodgers who came 31st - those 3 were the only riders in the top 50 for the team. It's likely that they will bring Kiserlovski into the team, he didn't race the Giro, and he has shown enough this season to suggest that he might be able to hang around with Contador until the end of the toughest stages. Contador will suffer however with the inclusion of Sagan and one other rider to support the Slovakian, probably Maciej Bodnar.
He managed to win the Giro by being clearly the better rider but at the Tour that won't be the case and if he's constantly left isolated then he will suffer towards the end of the Tour.

1. Can Thibault Pinot win the Tour?

Pinot; the new face of French cycling

Well, no, probably not. To be honest, he's in the second level of overall contenders. Behind Froome, Contador, Quintana and Nibali, and alongside Bardet, Van Garderen and Rui Costa. He came 3rd last year but it's important to note that most of the best riders abandoned and Quintana wasn't there and he was still 8:15 behind Nibali. I suspect that the gap between them both will be a little narrower this time and Pinot did look very impressive when he won the Queen Stage of the Tour de Suisse but I can't see him getting onto the podium. I would love to be proven wrong though because he's an incredibly exciting rider and he represents all that is good about cycling, of all the predictions I've made this is the one that I'm keenest to have messed up on.

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In the Words of Yanto Barker

This is a new format for Bike Route Hub and it will be more sporadic than our other interviews. In these interviews I will talk to an experienced member of the peloton and discuss how cycling has changed, the future and their own personal story.

Yanto has been consistently at the top of the British scene since for the past
decade.

Although Yanto Barker and his exploits will be known to most British cycling fans, they are of specific interest to me. I started watching cycling in 1997 at the age of 5 but the first race I saw in the flesh was the 2004 Tour of Britain. By that stage I was fully signed up as a cycling nerd and was aware of most of the teams in the race however, as a Welsh boy, I naturally gravitated towards the Welsh national team of which Yanto was team leader. Now, 11 years later and at the age of 35, Yanto is still winning races and so I started by asking him how his year has gone on the new ONE pro cycling team, a year where he has failed to finish lower than 10th in any Elite Series event; "It's gone very well, as a new team you can never tell before it's started how it's going to go. I think I was one of the lucky ones though because I knew from quite early on in the project who was going to be involved and what positions they would have and that gave me a lot of reassurance. It's gone exceptionally well but part of me isn't surprised at all because they are all very good at their jobs".

Although the ONE pro cycling team are a continental team racing predominantly in British races they appear to be run with the same attention to detail as a pro continental or even World Tour team, something that Yanto can attest to; "that's exactly how I would describe it. We're very focused on the detail and I would describe it like this, if you took a World Tour budget and put it into this team then we operate and run at that level and you would receive the kind of performance and return that you would expect on that investment". Although this sounds perfect there is a huge amount of competition within the team and a lot of expectation from outside as Yanto explains, "sometimes we turn up to some of the smaller races and they're almost harder because everybody is looking at us and we have some big names in the team and that does come with a level of expectation that can be challenging". On a personal level Yanto is currently sitting 3rd in the Elite series rankings, however there's a very good reason why he isn't aiming for overall success; "I tried not to get up there in the Elite Series overall rankings, I won it last year and I've always been a consistent rider and a calculating rider and at 35 I'm able to better make decisions during a race, but, I'm actually getting married this year and the weekend we've chosen for the wedding falls on the weekend of an event so I won't be able to attend it. I did jokingly tell my wife to be that the day after our wedding I'd be up early and gone for a couple of hours, I was just able to avoid the slap".

Very few people could run a successful business or become a pro cyclist, let
alone do both.

Having begun cycling when he was 14, 21 years ago, Yanto has ridden as a pro throughout the British circuit and on a number of teams in France as an amateur. I asked him what the main changes are that he's seen during his career; "it's changed a lot, most significantly the amount of people who participate in cycling. The other thing is that the amount of people who are attracted to cycling has brought with it a huge increase in money and it's like a pyramid which is getting bigger at every level. At the top you have us, the professionals, then the sportives then the recreational cyclists who spend money in the sport and then sponsors will spend more because there are more people to advertise too. I was thinking about it today, I can't really see it slowing down or stopping. If you look around London you see the number of people who are cycling to work and the infrastructure simply can't cope if all those people decide not to cycle and use public transport." Yanto also believes that as the number of people take up cycling for practical reasons, getting to work, saving money, fitness, that interest in cycling at the elite level will also grow. This belief is also backed up by ONE pro cycling's ambition to engage more with their fans, "if you have teams investing into their fan's and member's experiences at races where they can get inspired then that is a good thing and it is central to this team".

His early career was significantly different to that of a modern day British cyclist, he didn't join a British cycling academy and instead served his cycling apprenticeship on the continent, I asked Yanto whether he thinks modern riders, with some exceptions, are missing out by not going to the continent to ride, "no, I don't think they're missing anything. The reason why I say that they're not missing anything is because generally on foreign teams, unless you're exceptional, they would favour the local riders - French pro teams would favour a French rider. Also, 10 years ago, you couldn't earn a living wage riding your bike in this country, you could maybe if you wheeled and dealed a little bit but it was very tricky. The situation now is that you can earn a good living wage, maybe 35/40 riders in this country have mortgages and families that they are fully financing with their pro contracts". On the question of whether there was a hesitancy amongst pro teams to sign British riders, towards the beginning of this century, Yanto has a very interesting answer, "I think it was more just a trend or a fashion. Aussie riders were much more prominent at that time than Brits and that was purely because a couple of them did well and teams thought, 'Aussie riders are doing well we better get some of them in'. Then Bradley or Cavendish come along and do a good job and the trend changes and I think now with Blyth, Swift, Stannard etc we are showing that we are not a sub-standard cycling nation we just hadn't had the opportunities and now we do".

Yanto was involved in ex-cricketer Matt Prior's cycling dream from the very
start.

Regarding the issue of races in Britain, I am of the opinion that British Cycling has been slow in capitalising on the popularity of cycling by providing more UCI ranked races, however Yanto is quick to challenge this assertion; "I think it would be really easy to point the finger and criticise but I wouldn't do that. Ultimately the success of cycling and the reason why it's booming now is down to riders like Bradley Wiggins and Geraint Thomas in the Worlds and the Olympics and that is largely down to Dave Brailsford and that is an enormous achievement. To say that they are slow I don't think is fair I just think that there is a lot to do. We're now seeing the trickle down of that investment in road and track cycling and winning the Tour de France can't hurt". But, there is a caveat to this as Yanto explains that if a team such as his were to increase their status from Continental to Pro Continental then they would eliminate themselves from 90% of the British calendar, "that's pointless if you're a British team with a British sponsor looking to do well in British races. There has been a glass ceiling on what team can expect to achieve but, thanks to SweetSpot, thanks to ASO for bringing the Tour de Yorkshire there are now more, and it's ever growing, events that would justify the sponsorship investment at a pro conti level. Also, as a pro conti team you would have a genuine chance at a spot at a Grand Tour which is massive".

He won the Lincoln GP on the British National Championship course last
year. Can he repeat that feat in the Nationals?

The reason why Yanto is such an interesting interviewee is because he approaches the sport from a number of different angles; firstly as an elite level rider but also as a businessman and, more recently, as a pundit. Many riders begin to turn to punditry towards the end of their careers but very few have been able to run a successful business alongside their racing, as Yanto has been able to with Le Col (lecol.net). "I hadn't got to a level that I was satisfied with by the age of 25 and I decide I didn't want to be a professional cyclist anymore if I wasn't going to be at the Tour de France or those races so I quit cycling and I didn't ride my bike for 18 months and I stopped competing for 3 years in total. During that time I was looking for other things and not having any qualifications at all I was trying to find stuff to do with cycling. I researched a number of different things and clothing was something that interested me". Although he started Le Col as something that he could do instead of cycling it has become an integral part of his cycling life, he provides, and races in, Le Col kit for the ONE pro cycling team and he personally tests all new products during his training time, "I truly believe that what we've designed isn't really out there yet and it started with me drawing designs on my kitchen table and then researching product development. Now, I go out training in the morning and testing the kit and then come home have something to eat and have a shower then I head into the office and spend the afternoon looking at spreadsheets and marketing plans which I enjoy". It's undeniable that the demographics of cyclists has changed and that has facilitated the creation of high end cycling equipment suppliers, "In the old days a cyclist was maybe a bit of a geek or a nerd and they liked to make their own components in the shed and they liked to save a couple of pence by patching up their inner tube rather than buying a new one but in general the demographics of cycling has changed and there are now a lot of people who have disposable income and are driven in their jobs and they bring that to cycling and want the best bike and the best kit and that is the market we cater too".

The Tour of Britain has been ever present in Yanto's calendar since 2004 but there's a note of caution when asked if he will be there this year, "If I get selected! This team is special in a number of ways and I have a story about just how competitive it is. In the Tour Series in Aberystwyth there was a 4 minute hill climb effort and we all went out at 30 second intervals and out of 5 of us I did a 4.06 and a personal all time power PB and I came last in the team". It seems that no matter the number of Elite Series victories and extraordinary rides in the Tour of Britain you might have, the ONE pro cycling team and the other British teams are nurturing a new class of Elite British riders that are stronger and faster than we have seen before.

Although that's the end of our time with Yanto Barker it wouldn't be a Bike Route Hub interview without the traditional 3 question cycling quiz to finish .

BRH: When you won the Perfs pedal race this year there were 4 team mates in the top 10, can you name them all?
YB: Yes, George Harper, Martin Bialoblocki, Chris Opie and........George Atkins (1-0 Yanto)

BRH: Who was the last man, other than Wiggins or Dowsett, to win the British National Time Trial championships?
YB: Ermm, is it Hutchinson? (2-0 Yanto!)

BRH: I'll give you a few either way on this one, by pro wins 2013 was Peter Sagan's best year, but how many did he have?
YB: I don't know the number but I'm going to say.....16? (2-1 Unfortunately it was 21 - still, the joint highest ever score though)

BRH: Thanks a lot for your time Yanto.
YB: Thank you!

Scott Thwaites - "If I'd Gone Down the Track Route I Might Not be Here Now"

Scott Thwaites is now firmly established in the British cycling elite but it hasn't always been that way. His climb up the greasy pole of cycling has included stints in mountain biking and cyclo-cross and an apprenticeship on the British domestic scene before he finally found his way into the biggest bike races on the planet. In this interview we discuss luck in the classics, the British cycling system and how to win a National Championships.

BikeRouteHub: Thanks for talking to us Scott. You've had a good classics season, you finished all the Northern Classics and you strung a run of top 5's together before Ghent Wevelgem. How happy have you been with the season so far?
Scott Thwaites: I think it's been a solid classics season and each season I've got better. It looks good for the future and I'm learning the races a bit more now having ridden the big ones a couple of times. It was a shame though I had a couple more crashes and mechanicals during the races which affected my chances but the form was definitely there and I could've got some results. That's the way the classics go though everyone has a bit of bad luck at times. I was pretty happy to pull it round after a bad start and get a podium and a couple of top 5's like you said. The showing in Ghent-Wevelgem was a good day for me, especially in those conditions. I felt like I was getting closer to the big boys.

BRH: I saw you mention in your blog that you punctured three times in Roubaix. When that happens do you take confidence from the fact that you were so close despite all that bad luck?
ST: Yeah definitely. I didn't know how I would go because I was sort of getting a bit tired towards the end of the classics season. The legs were really good on the day though and I rode a good race tactically, I was always where I needed to be and I managed to avoid the carnage. It was just a shame that it came down to the fact that I punctured so many times really.

Looking at home on the cobbles.

BRH: It was your first Roubaix but people were a bit surprised at how together the race was at the finish. There was a tailwind but how different was it to ride a race like that compared to say, Ghent Wevelgem where it all blew apart?
ST: I think obviously you could say that Roubaix was easier. The wind was favourable to keeping the race together with the tailwind pushing the peloton. But in the end it was a tough race and it still split up towards the end when it really mattered. Ghent-Wevelgem was a totally different race though because you had to have the legs, there's no hiding with the conditions and it's a tough parcour anyway. So I was happy to be in what was left of the peloton and get a top 20 out of that. I really showed that I am capable of riding those races in the typical classic's weather and over the longer distances.

BRH: As you've said you are getting closer to that first pro victory, are all those 2nd's and 3rd's building confidence or building frustration?
ST: It's a bit of both really. It's always nice to get some good results and get on the podium - at the end of the season you can use it in contract talks. Of course I would like a win though, that would be a good start. You have that decision though where you can either go and try and get a win in the smaller races or you can focus more on the bigger ones and try and build for years in the future and not really worry about how you're doing each year. I've kind of got caught in the middle really, it's always difficult to get a contract without any results so I've got to take the small races and make sure I'm getting results each year and focus on the bigger races because that's ultimately what I want to do well in.

BRH: How have you ranked your time in the pro peloton? Has it been what you expected?

ST: I don't really know what I expected to be honest. Obviously I knew it would be hard but you only get out what you put in and all those phrases that get thrown around but it's definitely true. It's certainly hard though and you notice it more when you get to the races that don't suit you like the Dauphine last year and that just showed the difference between me and the top climbers. But it's doing things like that that make you stronger and wiser for the future. It's been tough but I've enjoyed it certainly and I can feel myself getting stronger and hopefully in a few years I'll get the big one.

BRH: You didn't come through the standard British Cycling conveyor belt of track squad, academy and then on to Team Sky. You've done cyclo-cross and mountain biking, why was that and how do you think it's affected your career?
ST: Well, it's a difficult one really. I was never really interested in the track and it's always difficult to get yourself to do something that doesn't interest you but obviously the chances were better if you did that. I did the mountain biking and the cyclo-cross and quite enjoyed that and started doing quite well at that but obviously the road is where more money is being pumped into the sport. I was also pretty keen on getting a good education because I went to a good school and I did well in exams and I didn't want to throw that all away. I didn't want to go down one route either I wanted to try and keep my options open. I went to university as well and I think that kind of stalled me in those years and I'm now playing catch up to those guys that are my age who I was competing with as a kid. I took the path that I took because it suited me the best and if I'd have gone down the route of the track then I think I might've fallen out of love with the sport and I might not be here at all. Although it's been a bit harder going this way and I'm still a bit behind I've still got plenty of years left to keep chipping away.

BRH: Do you think guys like yourselves and Dan Mclay, who haven't gone through the British Cycling regime, are viewed differently?

It's been a long road to the top for the
Yorkshire man.

ST: I don't think so. I think the British Cycling guys know that their system isn't for everyone. It's a great system and it's brought out some great champions and some amazing bike riders. It's like everything though, people take different paths. I've had support from the British system for the last few years and I've been in contact with them, they've put me on long lists for the Worlds and stuff like that. They've kept me involved and I really appreciate that they've not just forgotten about me because I haven't gone down their path and they're still interested in me. I think it's great that the British cycling system do keep all their riders in check and supports them all not just the ones that have gone through their system.

BRH: How do you see your role at Bora-Argon 18 evolving over the next few years?
ST: I think obviously I'm in the Classics part of the team so I think they've given me free role in the smaller races to try and get some results which is obviously important for this team and they want me to keep learning in the bigger races in more of a supporting role. But I also have that role that if I do make it to the last part of those races in the front then I can ride for myself and that's been good for me so far.

BRH: Do you think that British Cycling have been slow to pick up on the love of cycling in Britain? Until this year we only had 1 UCI ranked stage race in Britain.
ST: I think obviously the Tour came to Yorkshire, I'm not sure how much of that was British Cycling, it seemed to be the Welcome to Yorkshire who did a fantastic job and they've obviously been the ones again who brought the Tour de Yorkshire which is good to see. I think British Cycling are doing small bits though, they've had the Velothon Wales which has just gone on. Obviously they support the sport as best they can but they have to be fair across all the categories. Like you say though it would be nice to have more, you see with the Tour de France last year and the Tour de Yorkshire just what massive crowds come out and how big cycling is now and it would be nice to race more on home roads.

BRH: What are your ambitions for the upcoming British Road Race Championships?
ST: I'd like to get a good result and the ultimate goal is to win it although I appreciate it's going to be very difficult with the full teams stacked up against me, being on my own. Sky are always strong and they ride really well as a team so it's tough to try and shake all of them off and then you have a lot of other guys like Cav and the Yates brothers. It's a really difficult line up, there's some top guys but I'm definitely going for it and I just hope I have the form to do a good ride and I just want to give the best account of myself and if I end up on the podium or not I'll be happy as long as I've been in the race.

BRH: What are those races actually like? Are they similar to youth races where everyone is riding for themselves?
ST: A little bit yeah but obviously the British domestic teams have become a lot more professional over the years and they will be riding for a certain guy. A lot of the continental pros will be riding for themselves and will be trying to be their own team mates. But the British teams will have a few guys that they know can do well and they will be riding for them and it makes it difficult because it you do get in the breakaway there's no guarantee that it will actually stay away because the domestic teams have got a lot of firepower. But you have to just keep going and keep going and try and pick that split that will stay away and just make the best of it when you're in there.

Despite being on his own, Scott is hoping for a good result
at the Nationals.

BRH: Where will we see you racing after the ZLM Tour?
ST: Not till August and then I'm not sure, I haven't got my programme yet. I'll be training in between though and then we have a team training camp as well. I have to be prepared because it gets quite busy in August and September and I want to give it a really good crack to get into the World's squad.

BRH: So I like to end all my interviews with a quiz to test just how much of a cycling nerd the interviewee is, first question; who am I? I've been a team mate of yours since 2013, my best result for this year was 12th in the final stage of the Four days of Dunkerque, I'm German as well.
ST: Ermmm, right.....I'll go for Schwartzmann (It was actually Ralf Matzka 0-1 BRH)

BRH: Who is the current Canadian national champion in both the road race and the time trial?
ST: It's the guy from Orica isn't it? Svein Tuft? (That is correct 1-1)

BRH: Last one, from which country does the Dauphine Libere King of the Mountains winner come from?
ST: King of the Mountains aye? I've got to take a guess at this haven't I? Ermm, I don't know. (It was Daniel Teklehaimanot from Eritrea 2-1 BRH wins)

BRH: Thanks a lot for your time Scott.
ST: My pleasure, thanks.

2020 Vision - World Championship Road Race

Introduction
Predicting future success is difficult but it's even harder if you don't know the route that they'll be racing on. At the moment it seems to be a two horse race between Drenthe in the Netherlands and Vicenze in Italy. Given that Italy have a habit of getting the World Championships every 5 or so years I would expect them to win out, given that it will have been 7 years since they last had the World Champs in 2020. There are plenty of hills around Vicenze so I would expect the winner to be a mix of overall contender in Grand Tours and hilly classics rider.

Sven Erik Bystrøm
Age in 2020: 28
Current Team: Team Katusha
Best World Champs result: 1st 2014 U23 

Sven is a proven winner in the World Championships

Bystrøm launched onto the pro scene in 2011 at the age of 19 when he came 6th in the senior Norwegian championship. He followed that promising start in 2012 with a win in the Rund um den Finanzplatz U23 race, 4th in the senior National Championships and 4th in the opening stage of the Tour de l'Avenir. He finished the season with a promising 21st in the U23 World Championships which suggested he would be capable of hanging with the best riders over the longer distances.
2013 didn't produce any wins but he did grind out some high quality results including a 3rd in the Norwegian U23 champs and 13th overall in the Tour des Fjords. 2014 was his last year at Team Oster Hus - Ridley and he only managed one win, the U23 World Championships - when he was a trainee at Katusha. He also grabbed a number of high placings riding against World Tour pros at the Tour des Fjords where he came 10th overall.
It's been a decent year for the Norwegian as a professional, he has shown potential in the hilly races and he's held his own even in the longest races - two of the ingredients required to win the World Championships. Bystrøm is clearly a hugely talented rider but there's one thing standing in this way, no one has ever won the U23 World Championships and gone on to take the senior championship as well. That has to end at some point though.....

Miguel Angel Lopez
Age in 2020: 26
Current Team: Astana Pro Team
Best World Champs result: 26th 2014 U23 

Angel Lopez is another hugely promising Columbian

There's a big caveat to this selection, Angel Lopez requires a seriously difficult course to be competitive at the World Championships. We haven't had a pure climber win the World Champs since the new millennium and you could argue that we've never had a pure climber win the race. It's debatable whether a course will be put together that would suit a climber in Vicenze but it's impossible to ignore a talent like Angel Lopez.
Unbelievably he's only been racing since 2014 but he's already built a palmares that most riders would be proud of at the end of their careers. In 2014 he won the Tour de l'Avenir and the king of the mountains jersey, this was built on an incredible run on the last four mountain stages where he failed to finish lower than 5th including a win on the stage to the ski resort of La Rosiere.
In his first year as a pro he had a mediocre start, racing the Colombian national champs in February and then the Vuelta Ciclista a Catalunya although he pulled out of the latter. He then headed over to Turkey where he finished 15th overall but his best result was a 2nd place on the second mountain stage to Selcuk. He finished the Tour of Switzerland in 7th overall, the highest ranked Astana rider, and he also came 4th in the Queen stage to Rettenbachgletscher alongside Geraint Thomas.
Astana might decide to ease him into pro cycling and not race him at the Tour de France, but if they do decide to start him in Utrecht then he could prove a valuable asset to Nibali in the mountains. As for his World Championship chances of success; if he continues to improve like he is at the moment then he won't even need a climber's course to succeed, he'll just need some hills and the buckets of talent that he already has.

Dylan Teuns
Age in 2020: 28
Current Team: BMC Racing
Best World Champs result: 29th 2014 U23

If Dylan can carry his U23 form into the pros then he will
dominate.

It's been a gradual improvement for the Belgian during his career. He's made steady progress as an amateur but it's his form as a pro that has really been impressive. He won the Junior Omloop Het Nieuwsblad in 2010 but it was another 4 years until he stood on the top step again. That may look like a disappointing return for a young rider and for a few years the results were severely lacking. However, in 2012 he began to deliver on early promise with 4th in the Ronde de l'Isard and 4th in the last stage of the Giro Valle d'Aosta but they were the exceptions in a year that, again, was generally disappointing.
2013 was more of the same for Teuns, he came 5th in the Liege-Bastogne-Liege U23 race and followed that up with another good result in the Ronde de l'Isard, this time finishing 3rd overall. 2014 was the year that his undeniable talent was finally realised. He raced in eight stage races and only finished one without a top 10 on a stage, and won a stage in 3 of the races. It wasn't just the U23 races where Teuns showed promise either, as a stagiare at BMC he came 10th overall at the Tour of Britain with 3 top 10's on stages. In addition to his obvious stage race success he also performed well in the one day races, coming second in both the U23 Liege-Bastogne-Liege and Giro di Lombardia.
So far this year BMC have eased him into racing but he's managed 4th overall at the Tour of Belgium, 3rd in the Volta Limburg and 13th in the Fleche Wallonne which is arguably his best result of the season. There's no indication of what Teuns will race next but he's clearly a talented rider in the mountains and BMC will appreciate all the help they can muster for Van Garderen in the Tour so maybe he will be heading there. If not then he can keep ticking along at this level for the year and get as many high placings as possible, he certainly has all the skills required to be World Champion in 5 years.

Adam Yates
Age in 2020: 27
Current Team: Orica GreenEDGE
Best World Champs result: 19th 2013 U23

Is there anything more assured in cycling than the success
of the Yates' twins?

Picking a Yates brother for future success is the closest thing to a sure bet in cycling. After picking his brother in the 2020 Vision - Liege-Bastogne-Liege article I've turned to Adam now. Clearly he's an extremely talented rider but it wasn't until 2013 when this talent started to come out. That year he came 12th in the U23 Liege-Bastogne-Liege, 16th in the Ride London Classic and 2nd overall in the Tour de l'Avenir, including 3 podium places on stages.
He turned pro in 2014 and I think the general consensus was that he would be able to reach the heights of professional cycling but not immediately. Instead, he turned up on the 1st of January as a complete pro cyclist and proceeded to destroy the peloton. He won the overall at the Tour of Turkey and the Queen stage, 5th Overall in the Tour of California and 6th overall in the Dauphine Libere he backed those results up with strong performances in the one day races by winning the GP Industria in late July - he also finished the Vuelta as a first year pro which showed remarkable stamina.
This year hasn't really lived up to his first year as a pro but he has still had a best result of 9th overall in the Tirreno-Adriatico and 20th in the Dauphine. He's heading to the Tour at the start of July and I would expect that he will be riding in support of his brother. He should also be part of the British team for the Worlds in Richmond and again he will probably be riding in support for Geraint or his brother but he will be hoping for a top 20 placing which will represent a massive result for the young Brit.

Tom Moses - "Even Now I'm Still Disappointed"

Tom Moses is young and he's a product of the British academy, two of the ingredients required for future success. The main ingredient though is talent and that is something that the Yorkshireman has in buckets as he's shown by his scintillating breakaway success and his heart-breaking near misses. In this interview we talked about breakthrough years, changes in British cycling and charity.

Winning alone is a habit that Moses is developing.

BikeRouteHub: You're only 23 but you've been performing at the top end since you were 19 when you took 16th in the Senior National Championships and also a number of high placings on the British Circuit. How do you feel your career has progressed since then?
Tom Moses: I think when I was a junior I was getting good results week in week out in Britain and in Belgium. Once I turned senior though I struggled with the speed and the distance although I did have some good results like that 16th in the Nationals. It took me a couple of years to progress and then last year was a significant step up with some breakthrough results.

BRH: Yeah so last year you won the Rutland-Melton and took a stage of the Tour of Normandie, was that the best season of your career so far?
TM: Yeah easily by far the best wins I've ever had. But it wasn't just the wins it was also the performances in the rides which was better than anything I could've expected. I took massive confidence from both those wins. In the Rutland I was looking around the group and you could tell that everyone was hurting but I just wasn't hurting that much and that gives you massive confidence.

BRH: You took both those wins alone in a breakaway, is that your forte?
TM: Yeah, I mean I can sprint from a small group but the problem is that it really reduces the number of races you can win. If you race 50 days a year and 20 are bunch sprints and 10 are hill top finishes it narrows it down to the race where you can get away in a breakaway which means your opportunities are limited compared, to say, a sprinter.

BRH: You found some form recently at the Tour of Korea. What is that like as a race?
TM: It's a really good race. It was a lot different to last year, last year GreenEDGE didn't ride so it was a lot less controlled. Obviously they had Caleb Ewan there this year. They knew that if they could get him to the finish in a good position then he could win the stage so it was a lot more controlled than last year. It was also a much flatter route so it was a sprinter's race, it was won on time bonuses really. I was finishing in the same group as Caleb every day but I was 51 seconds down by the end of the race. It was a pretty tough to win, Rich Handley got 5th for us, he got himself into a break and got a mid stage time bonus and that really moved him right up.

Tom has thrived in the hard British racing scene.

BRH: Do you find it easier to race those races where it is so controlled because of the presence of a World Tour team?
TM: I think it's a completely different style of racing to over here where guys just start racing straight from the gun. In the races like the Tour of Korea there's a bit of a lull in the middle but when they do go hard towards the end they go really really hard. I do like that as well because it does give you a chance to race the end well, I think in Britain you can find yourself slogging around a bit towards the finish because everyone's been racing flat out all day.

BRH: Do you think that's changing? I spoke to Scott Thwaites last night and he said that the National Champs would be really hard this year because the domestic teams are now so professional.
TM: Yeah definitely, I remember racing the Elite Series when I started and there would be a break of 15 that would go up the road and every team would have 2 or 3 riders in it and the race behind would just stop. I think you're seeing this year though that a break might go but then it'll be brought back and you'll be racing flat out until the end. Everyone is racing a lot more professionally and having more professional teams helps that as well.

BRH: When you were starting out you seemed to get some really good results on the track. Did you ever think about turning your attention fully to that?
TM: No not really. I've always liked the track and I was good but not like world class good so I always found it hard to be fully motivated to ride on the track. I always preferred racing and training on the road. It was always hard being on the academy and trying to slot yourself into the best pursuit team in the world. I preferred the Madison and the bunch races but unless you are in the top 5 or 6 riders then it's pretty hard to be a professional rider on the track.

BRH: On the team you have guys like Kristian House and Ed Clancy who have been pros for years, how much do you learn from those guys?
TM: Yeah, loads. They're all good guys who are willing to show you how to do it. It's not like they're the big established pros, everyone is on the same level and everyone is giving each other advice. It's good to have them on the team though because they've been pros since before I even began cycling so you can't complain.

BRH: How happy are you with the team?
TM: I think it's really good. I think it's one of the most organised and most professional set ups in the UK and the way John Heraty runs the team it's all about the riders, it's all about the results and it's all about what's best for the riders and with that brings the results. We're not messing around we're always getting home and getting ourselves looked after and recovered after races. He's run it for so long that he knows exactly what he's doing and exactly how to get the best out of people and I think I fit well with John's style of leadership.

BRH: You race both the international UCI races and the British Elite series races, how difficult do you finding switching between those two?
TM: I think they both compliment each other really nicely. Like you get a big workload over in Korea where you get a lot of racing all done at once and that gives you strength for the British races. At the same time the British races are so hard that they give you form to go well in the longer stuff. I think there's a good combination of each and a lot of races just seems to work perfectly.

BRH: One of your best results last year was 4th in the Lincoln GP where you went on a long range attack and were just caught on the climb to the finish. Can you talk us through that race?

Post Lincoln GP heartbreak.

TM: We only had four riders there because we had most of the team at the Mzanzi Tour in South Africa. So we all knew that we had to be aggressive and as it worked out a group of 16 went up the road and all four of us were in it. Graham Briggs was going really well and Ed Clancy knew that he wasn't going to get very far into the race so he was committed to driving that break and Richard Handley was just back from injury so he was fully committed to me and Briggsy. We had a pretty easy ride until we got to the cobbles and that's when it all kicked off. Every time up we always hit the front first and if you pick your line you can get a pretty easy ride up. Then it whittled down and Briggsy was unfortunate to hit a spectator, he would've been in the front group for sure if he hadn't fallen off there. I could tell I was one of the strongest riders there and I was just saving it and deciding when I was going to go. I went with a long way to go but it was unintentional really, I just looked back on the climb and I had such a big advantage that I just thought this is my chance to go and went for it. The last lap though I was tying up a bit and I could just see them behind and I knew that was it. I was pretty disappointed to be fair, if I'd played it a bit differently it could've been a lot different. I don't like talking about it even now....even now I'm still disappointed.

BRH: You've been promoting the Sue Ryder: Midnight or Bust event, can you tell us a little bit about that?
TM: It's a local charity hospice for people suffering from cancer and I know a couple of people working for them so I thought it would be a good opportunity to get involved for the first year and get some publicity for it. It's like a sportive but it's not a set route where you have to ride around, you set off and you have four hours to go out as far as you can and get back before midnight.
I rode it earlier this year and I went flat out for it and there was a headwind on the route out so I went out for 2 hours 10 and then started on the way back and I was really blowing towards the end. In the last 10 miles I had absolutely gone, I'd gone hard on the way out thinking this tailwind would carry me home but it wasn't as strong as I'd thought. There is a horrible climb up towards the finish and I was absolutely flat out but just going so slow but I knew I only had a few minutes to get there and I got in with a minute and a half to spare.
I think it's a great format though, it's so different to everything else. It's great for all abilities as well because it's not as if you need to go out and ride up these massive climbs or do this 100 mile course. Even if you just do 5 miles you're still part of it.

For more information on Midnight or Bust visit -http://www.sueryder.org/Get-involved/Events/All-events/2015/June/Midnight%20or%20Bust%20ride. Entry is still open.

BRH: As usual I will end the interview with the three question quiz. First question, in which year did your team mate Kristian House win the British National Championship road race?
TM: 2009 (1-0 Tom)

BRH: When you won the Tour of Normandie stage last year you finished ahead of a current World Track Pursuit champion. Who was it?
TM: Ahhh, nah not a clue....Hang on! Hang on! The Aussie.... (It was actually Stefan Kung 1-1)

BRH: Who is the current American national road race champion?
TM: I can't remember his name, he rides for Trek doesn't he? (He does, it's Matthew Busche 2-1 BRH wins)

TM: One out of three, it's not great.
BRH: It's not great but a lot of people have got zero. Will Bjergfelt is actually leading at the moment with 2.
TM: Not too far behind Bjergy then.
BRH: He's a bit older as well.
TM: Yeah, more knowledge!
BRH: Exactly! Thanks a lot for your time Tom.
TM: No problem.