what happens next?

Everyone keeps asking me: "Hey, what are you doing next year?", so I thought I'd finally answer.

It’s December, and I don’t have a signed contract for 2023. “What’s happening next year?” is everyone’s favourite question in cycling. So here’s my answer: I have no idea whatsoever.

I’m ageing out of the under-23 category, meaning that I have to leave my current team, Hagens Berman Axeon. Leaving the U23s is one of those big moments in your cycling career. There’s a large drop off in riders after the junior ranks aged 18 where you’re arguably faced with the decision between going to university or pursuing the pro dream. Once you leave U23s, there is an even bigger slimming down of riders and you’re no longer classed as a young, up and comer. 

When I joined HBAxeon, I publicly said that if you can’t go pro off this team, then you should take a long hard look at yourself in the mirror and question your place in the sport.

Oh hello mirror old friend…

I pretty quickly came to the conclusion that I want to carry on racing.

In fact, there’s no doubt in my mind that I owe myself at least one more year racing to the best of my ability. I believe I’m a much better athlete than my FirstCycling results page gives me credit for. But, at the end of the day a career in this sport is built on race results, and I haven’t had them.

I’ve come close, ever so close to signing a contract more than once over the past months. I’ve had who knows how many phone calls with potential teams, some good, some bad. I’ve negotiated with other teams, even had contracts in my email inbox. But, whenever it has come to signing that precious piece of paper, for one reason or another, it has fallen through. 

“Aren’t you scared”, asked my teammate Kasper Andersen while we were rooming together at the end of July at the Tour of Alsace. At the time, I wasn’t, “I’ll figure it out, that’s just what I do’, I replied. Well, sitting here four months later, I still haven’t figured it out and I can’t quite decide if I’m scared or not.

Bike racing took control of my life in 2017, and since then everything has revolved around me being as fast as I can. Six years might not seem like that long, but when you consider that I’ve only just turned 22, it’s a majority of my life that I can remember.

At some point or other, every athlete has to ask the “what’s next?” question. Whether you’re Mark Cavendish with 34 Tour de France stage wins, or Joe Laverick with 0 Tour de France stage starts. We all have that point in our careers where we begin to look to the future, it’s just some of us have bigger balances, whether in results or in the bank than others.

So, what is next? I honestly don’t know. In hindsight, my off-season was a mini soul-searching mission. I took almost five weeks off the bike, my longest off season to date. I partied a lot, I travelled, I had fun and I relaxed. It did make me realise that there is a lot more to life than racing a bike, something that Joe a few years ago wasn’t convinced about, but it also made me realise that I still want to be racing in the sport.

What the racing will look like, I don’t know.

Gravel?

I’m not the only rider that’ll be looking at the opportunity that the loose stuff represents. It’s an opportunity to race hard but still have fun, something it seems like the road can often lack. It’s an area that I’ll be looking into, I’m not going to lie. But, I’m a roadie at heart and even if I am racing off-road, I still want some sort of calendar on the road too. I know it’s not the coolest thing in the world, but I love riding and racing on the road. There are still a whole host of races that I want to compete in, races I want to win.

Luckily, motivation isn’t a problem. I’m still training like it’s any other year. I’m still doing my intervals, training well and getting the hours in. Yes, it’s slightly different that there’s no target on the horizon, or no training camp coming up, but somehow, I’ve still got a lot of morale.

Whether it’s a local Catalan criterium near my adopted home in Girona, or a Club 10 near my childhood home in Grimsby. If I can pin a number on and race competitvely then I’ll be happy. That’s why I pursued this all in the first place after all. I’ve still got unfinished business with the Lincoln GP and National 10 aswell, but that’s a conversation for another day…

When it comes to the all important money question, I’ve managed to bring together enough writing work that allows me to live. Cycling is a tough sport money wise when you’re not in the World Tour and it’s something I’ll write about one day. I’m proud to say that I haven’t had to rely on my parents to back my cycling career, and have instead been able to make a mini-career in the media to support myself. Yes, not having a contract means I’ll have to do more writing work, but that’s not something that stresses me out, more excites me.

Whatever happens, I’ll never regret choosing to pursue the pro dream as for the past four years I have lived that dream. I’ve raced all over Europe, met people from all over the world and lived in two foreign countries.  

There we have it, my plans for next year are that I don’t have any plans. Hope I didn’t waste your time. Oh, and the email address is jtlcycling@gmail.com if anyone fancies offering me a contract or a few hundred thousand euros to set my own team up.