AS the only Scottish-born rider in the field, Mark Stewart ought to receive one of the warmest receptions when the Tour of Britain gets underway this morning from George Square in Glasgow. The blustery, autumnal conditions might also suit him better than most.
“I don’t mind it when the weather’s like this,” he says. “All the European guys come over and it makes it tougher for them! But we’re used to it. Tao Hart’s riding and I think he’s got some kind of Scottish heritage but I’m the only born and bred Scotsman as far as I know so that’s nice with the tour starting up here.”
Stewart is just 21 but his involvement in the eight-stage event – the first of which travels the 100 miles from Glasgow to Castle Douglas – is another sign of the Dundonian’s emergence as one of Scotland’s most talented young cyclists. As a member of British Cycling’s senior academy programme, Stewart has been based at the Montichiari velodrome near the Italian city of Brescia for most of this year, a setting that has allowed him to train in slightly more pleasant conditions than often found back home.
“It’s been tough as it’s the hardest amateur racing in the world,” he admits. “You have to step up and it’s physically very demanding. But it’s also really enjoyable. You’re over in Europe riding a bike and someone is paying you to do that. That definitely gives you a bit of perspective and makes you realise how lucky you are. Being in Italy the training is better, and the lifestyle is better for us bike riders. David Millar is here too helping and he’s been really good with us, giving us lots of advice. We’ve got plenty of coaches and staff but Dave is more of a mentor and friend. You can learn plenty from a guy like that.”
Stewart is already eyeing up the bigger picture. He hopes to advance to the next stage of the British Cycling programme this year, while a long-term goal is to represent Team GB at the Tokyo Olympics in four years’ time. Watching the medal-winning performances of the British team in Rio – including Scot Callum Skinner, a close friend of Stewart’s brother Kevin, an academy sprint coach – has served as additional inspiration.
“I don’t want to limit myself to track or road – I definitely want to do both,” he says. “But after seeing the success in Rio – and having experienced a small part of that journey with some of the guys who were out there – then I definitely want that for myself in Tokyo. I’m a motivated man for that. I’m hoping to progress to the podium squad this year – I’ll find out soon – and then this winter I’ll look to break into the A team with Bradley Wiggins and Owain Doull moving on from the team pursuit. That’s the plan anyway.”
The Commonwealth Games on Australia’s Gold Coast two years prior to Tokyo offers the chance of a dummy run, with Stewart, Skinner and Sunday Herald columnist Katie Archibald potentially forming the backbone of what could be a fairly formidable Scottish cycling team.
“I think we’ll be going there to be very competitive,” Stewart says. “We’ve got Grant Ferguson as well on the mountain bikes so we’ll be covering a lot of disciplines.”
For now, however, Stewart’s focus is on this week’s endeavours around the roads of Britain. It is shaping up to be a gruelling event with a stellar start list. Wiggins, the 2013 winner, will be there as part of his eponymous team in what will be his final home road race ahead of his planned retirement in November. He is one of eight Rio medallists scheduled to take part in the event that meanders via Carlisle, Wales, Bath and Devon before concluding in London next Sunday, with Doull lining up alongside him in his final road race before joining Team Sky.
Mark Cavendish will be back in Team Dimension Data colours after taking silver in the men's omnium on the track in Brazil while the man who beat him to gold, Italian Elia Viviani, will race for Sky. Holland's Olympic time trial silver medallist Tom Dumoulin will race for Giant-Alpecin while three members of Australia's silver-winning team pursuit squad - Jack Bobridge (Trek-Segafredo), Alex Edmondon and Michael Hepburn (both Orica-BikeExchange) - will also ride.
The world's top sprinters, preparing for October's pan-flat world championships in Qatar, have favoured this race over the mountainous Vuelta a Espana. Lotto-Soudal's German Andre Greipel and Orica-BikeExchange's Caleb Ewan will challenge Cavendish and Viviani, while Stewart’s team-mates include national champion Adam Blythe and Dan McLay after the latter's strong showing in the Tour de France.
The short time trial on stage seven in Bristol should also be hard-fought as Dumoulin will be challenged by three-time world champion Tony Martin of Etixx-QuickStep and Britain's Alex Dowsett of Movistar. The star names do not stop there. Team Sky's squad features Ben Swift, Ian Stannard and Nicolas Roche, while Wout Poels - a key man in helping Chris Froome to Tour glory in July - will also be on the start line.
In such illustrious company Stewart is reluctant to make too many bold claims about the British team’s chances but is looking forward to the experience. “It will be the biggest road race I’ve ever done and we’ve got a good few riders in the team so I’m looking forward to going and hopefully helping out. I’ve looked at the schedule and there doesn’t seem to be any easy days. The hills in Britain don’t just go up for 10km and then you descend – they never seem to stop. So it will be a hard eight days. If I can just be competitive in this field I’d be really happy with myself.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here