Our regular Day in the Life feature shines a light on the life of an Olympic medal winner...
It’s funny because I wasn’t really sporty at school. I mainly started cycling because my brother got into it, and I started going to training and races with him. My dad bought me a bike and said, ‘Give it a go,’ and I quickly became quite good at it. Then people started telling me that I could be really good at it. I was lucky because a national coach lived in the region, and he came up to me and said I could go on to be successful, and offered to help me. From there I eventually got to the national championships and finished in a high enough position to be selected for the national team. The rest is history.
In my first Olympics in Barcelona, I shared a room with Chris Boardman, which was the first time I realised these elite athletes are also human beings, and in a way that showed me it was possible for me to go on and achieve great things. It took me eight years after that to pick up my first Olympic medal, but it was worth it - winning Olympic medals is obviously the highlight of my career!
I enjoy the process of trying to push the boundaries of cycling and expand your limits. The end result often doesn’t matter to me, I like focusing on how to get the best out of my bike, out of myself, out of the team. I always knew that, if I did that, I was always going to achieve results. It was really exciting to question things and push things, and figure out how we can go faster and do better. That’s always the driving factor for me.
One thing that surprised me is the travelling involved. Within a single year, I once had to travel to Australia three times, and I would sometimes do sixty or seventy flights within twelve months
Sponsorship and sorting finances is the hardest part of the job. I was lucky because my parents were really supportive, but early on in my career today’s National Lottery funding wasn’t around, which made it more difficult. Once that avenue came in, everything changed, but by that point I’d already done two Olympics and about eight World Championships, and there were definitely financial challenges in those days. It always felt like we were underperforming before we received proper financing, but once it came in we realised we’d actually been punching above our weight and doing top stuff.
Cycling is a tough sport, a very competitive sport. It’s obviously really physical, but I think a lot of people don’t really appreciate how technical it is too - there are so many tactics involved. It’s not all about who’s the strongest, but also who’s the smartest. Honestly, I was surprised by how hard it was becoming a professional cyclist. From the outside, you only see the glory moments, but there’s a lot of hard work going on behind the scenes. Another thing that surprised me more and more as time went on is the travelling involved. Within a single year, I once had to travel to Australia three times, and I would sometimes do sixty or seventy flights within twelve months. So that’s one thing I didn’t really expect before I started on this career path. A lot of people think that you get to see the world, but more often than not you literally fly there, do what you need to do and go away again. You think you’ll travel and see all these new places, but you don’t, unfortunately - you mostly just see your hotel room, a bit of countryside or the inside of a velodrome, and then you’re back on a plane home.
Training does often involve doing the same thing over and over again. You have to work with your coach to make sure you’re identifying when things get a little boring, and come up with ways to mix things up. My coach always explained what we were doing and why we were doing it, which helps to give you some extra motivation. The great thing about cycling, though, is that you can go outside and change routes to provide some fresh scenery. We’re luckier than in other sports - like swimming, for example, where you have no choice but to go up and down the same lane every time. We can vary things more to stay engaged.
From the outside, you only see the glory moments, but there’s a lot of hard work going on behind the scenes
I listen to a lot of music and read a lot of books to relax. When you’re away with the team, it’s hard to switch off because you’re always with people - in your bedroom there’s always a teammate, and then when you leave your bedroom there’s support staff and other competitors. When you’re competing, you can go away for anything from three days right up to ten weeks at a time, so it’s really important to find time and space for yourself, as tough as it is to do that.
Going to an Olympic Games is a strange experience. Everybody thinks the Olympic Village is an amazing thing, but it’s a huge, quite overwhelming place. There are all these people in one space. You’d have good times and bad times together as a team, and we’d look after each other and have a lot of laughs, but we also knew when it was time to get serious. Having such a close-knit group made the travelling and new experiences easier to navigate.
I feel fortunate, because I don’t think I’d change anything about my career. I believe I’ve been able to maximise my ability to go as fast as I can. The only thing that sticks out is wondering, had I been a bit younger when the National Lottery funding came in, if I could have achieved more? But I’m a big believer in making mistakes, and I made thousands of mistakes along the way - I wouldn’t be the person I am now without them. I’m happy with where I ended up and what I’ve achieved, which feels really nice to say.
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