Mark Stewart | Locked down, dropped, and feeling better than ever
03/05/21 • 59 min
We’re really pleased to bring you what is perhaps the most fascinating podcast interview we’ve done so far.
It’s a conversation with 25-year-old Scottish cyclist Mark Stewart. Mark has ridden for the Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling team since 2019 and, until last year, had been a long-term member of Great Britain’s track squad.
Over the years he has proven himself to be one of the finest endurance track cyclists around, winning national titles, World Cup golds, and a Commonwealth Games gold in the points race.
After the track world championships in 2020, Mark flew out to New Zealand to visit his girlfriend, fellow track cyclist Emma Cumming. Just days later, the borders closed around him, effectively locking him. And then, just a week after that, British Cycling told him he was dropped from the track programme. That might seem like a pretty tough hand to be dealt in what was then an Olympic year.
As Mark explains though, he’s actually never been happier. He’s landed on his feet, being warmly welcomed into the cycling community in New Zealand, enjoying a new sense of freedom and raring to race his bike again. This newfound perspective has paid dividends for him on the track and road. Thanks to the generosity of the New Zealand cycling federation, he’s been allowed to ride the country’s national championships and he’s taken full advantage, winning the New Zealand omnium championships, finishing second in the road race championships behind George Bennett and then, just after we spoke, finishing second in the individual pursuit.
In the interview, Mark recounts his incredible year, from the shock of being dropped by GB to finding a new, happy balance in life. He explains why leaving the GB track programme has been a blessing in disguise, contrasts the approaches of the GB and New Zealand track programmes, tells us about the amazing community he’s found himself in and talks us through his incredible ride to finish second in the New Zealand road race championships.
Mark was an eloquent, thoughtful and candid interviewee, so we really hope you enjoy this one as much as we did.
Rapha presents The British Continental.
We’re really pleased to bring you what is perhaps the most fascinating podcast interview we’ve done so far.
It’s a conversation with 25-year-old Scottish cyclist Mark Stewart. Mark has ridden for the Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling team since 2019 and, until last year, had been a long-term member of Great Britain’s track squad.
Over the years he has proven himself to be one of the finest endurance track cyclists around, winning national titles, World Cup golds, and a Commonwealth Games gold in the points race.
After the track world championships in 2020, Mark flew out to New Zealand to visit his girlfriend, fellow track cyclist Emma Cumming. Just days later, the borders closed around him, effectively locking him. And then, just a week after that, British Cycling told him he was dropped from the track programme. That might seem like a pretty tough hand to be dealt in what was then an Olympic year.
As Mark explains though, he’s actually never been happier. He’s landed on his feet, being warmly welcomed into the cycling community in New Zealand, enjoying a new sense of freedom and raring to race his bike again. This newfound perspective has paid dividends for him on the track and road. Thanks to the generosity of the New Zealand cycling federation, he’s been allowed to ride the country’s national championships and he’s taken full advantage, winning the New Zealand omnium championships, finishing second in the road race championships behind George Bennett and then, just after we spoke, finishing second in the individual pursuit.
In the interview, Mark recounts his incredible year, from the shock of being dropped by GB to finding a new, happy balance in life. He explains why leaving the GB track programme has been a blessing in disguise, contrasts the approaches of the GB and New Zealand track programmes, tells us about the amazing community he’s found himself in and talks us through his incredible ride to finish second in the New Zealand road race championships.
Mark was an eloquent, thoughtful and candid interviewee, so we really hope you enjoy this one as much as we did.
Rapha presents The British Continental.
Previous Episode
Lewis Askey | My season | Part 1
Our latest episode is with former junior Paris-Roubaix winner Lewis Askey.
In our opinion, Lewis is one of the brightest under-23 prospects around. Just 19 years old, and now into his second year at under-23 level, Lewis rides for the Continental-level Groupama-FDJ development team, along with new signing Joe Pidcock, younger brother of Tom. The team is only in its third year, but has already proven to be a centre of excellence for developing young riders, having been home to Lewis’ fellow Brit Jake Stewart before he stepped up to the WorldTour parent team this season. It’s a path we think Lewis has the potential to follow.
He first came to our attention back in 2018 when he won the junior Paris-Roubaix as a first-year junior. The following year, he consolidated his position as one of the most exciting junior talents in the cycling world taking victory in the Junior Tour of Wales, the UK’s most prestigious junior stage race. The race is so often a marker for future success, with recent winners including Ben Tulett, Tom Pidcock, Fred Wright, Eddie Dunbar, and Hugh Carthy, to name but a few.
Last year, Lewis put together a really solid season, despite the interrupted race schedule, including an attacking display in Le Samyn early in the season, and 10th in the U23 Paris-Tours towards the end of the year. In between times, he rode two of the toughest U23 stage races around: the Baby Giro – where he put in a fine display of teamwork – and the Ronde de L’Isard. And yes, for those of you wondering where they are, we will finally be publishing Lewis’ diaries from that race soon!
Talking of diaries, Lewis will be keeping a diary of sorts on the podcast this year. We’ll be checking in with him throughout the season to see how his year progresses. So this episode is the first of a number that will feature Lewis this year.
This first catch-up with Lewis was recorded in the middle of February whilst he was on training camp with the team Italy. We take a look back at how things have gone for him over the last few months, his winter dabbling with cyclocross, what team camp has been like, his mad dash to get a Covid test before crossing the border, and look forward to his season goals.
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Rapha presents The British Continental.
Next Episode
Tom Gloag | Our man in Colombia
We’re really pleased to bring you what we believe is another very special episode. It’s an in-depth interview with Trinity Racing’s Tom Gloag, a rider who we have rated for some time now as one of the best under-23 British riders yet to turn pro.
Readers of our website will already know that we’ve long-lauded Tom’s potential. As a junior, for example, he took a stage win and finished second overall at the Kingdom Junior Classic, was third overall at the Sint-Martinusprijs Kontich Juniors stage race, and also took wins in the Spanish junior one-day races Zumarraga and Torneo Euskal Herria. He then capped the year off with a stage win in the Junior Tour of Wales.
Insiders at his club VC Londres – the club that has helped to produce talents including Ethan Hayter and Fred Wright – were also tipping him for a bright future. Our formal journal contributor George Jary, for example, told us that: “Tom is pure passion on a bike. A style reminiscent of Dan Martin, not scared to go long and a hunger to race. Never phased by setbacks Tom gets on with it and gets stuck in.” We duly included him on our list of first-year under-23s to watch.
Despite the hype, we weren’t expecting Tom to make the impact he last year. The transition to the espoirs ranks from junior level can be tough. And with few racing opportunities for Tom and his peers in 2020, our expectations for him were muted when he took to the start of the Baby Giro this year. Not least because he’d need to ride in the service of one of the pre-race favourites, and eventual winner, Tom Pidcock.
Despite this, he finished 14th overall, including two top 10 finishes on the toughest two stages of the race. He then topped his season off by finishing 7th on Spain’s biggest amateur one day race, the Memorial Valenciaga.
Since then, Tom has taken a rather different approach to his off-season training to most British riders, flying out to Colombia at the beginning of the year to train and race with the Chaves brothers, Bryan and his better known sibling Esteban. And it’s from his base in Tenjo, just north of Bogatá, that we caught up with him last month.
In this interview, we ask Tom tell’s us about what it was like growing up racing alongside Ethan Hayter, Fred Wright and others, why he’s only taken bike racing seriously until relatively recently, his Junior Tour of Wales TT cock-up, his Baby Giro exploits, his Colombia expedition, cheese donuts, the Chaves brothers, Twister ice lollies and much more besides. We think it’s a great listen, so we hope you enjoy.
Follow Tom's exploits in Columbia through vc.letsgetit on Instagram.
Rapha presents The British Continental.
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