6 | August 22, 2019 | Cycling Weekly
NEWSN
ext year could well be the
start of a second wave of a
British takeover of the
WorldTour ranks.
In 2020 more than half the WorldTour
teams will include British riders, following
a raft of signings over recent weeks — all
by teams that do not currently have any
Brits on their roster. There may be more
yet as other young Brits have stagiaire
contracts coming up, which could develop
into full-time rides.
The most recent Brit to land a ride was
Mark Donovan (Wiggins-LeCol), who has
signed for Sunweb for the next three years
— a year longer than the UCI’s minimum
neo-pro contract, a display of confidence in
the Cumbrian climber.
“I’ve been talking to them for a while,
even since last year,” said Donovan. “I went
on a training camp with them in January
and that was when I really got to know
them — they obviously liked what I did on
the training camp.”
“This time last year I was stagiering for
Sky. I was with them for most of the Italian
one-day races. It was definitely a learning
experience,” he recalls.
He would later go on to train with
Deceuninck-Quick Step later in the year
but eventually decided to join Sunweb.
“First off, it was a three-year contract; I
thought that I’m quite young and it just
gives that extra year with a bit more
security. It takes the pressure off a little bit
and allows you to develop a bit more
without the pressure to get [the next]
contract. I know a few of the younger lads
on the team and they spoke highly about
how the team treats the younger guys.”
Donovan, who was 11th at the Tour de
l’Avenir in 2018 and just off the podium at
the Baby Giro, broke his wrist in a crash at
the latter in June and suffered a haematoma
in his left leg that resulted in muscle
wastage. He said Sunweb’s continuedThe 2020 peloton will include more British riders than ever before
Young Brits take the
WorldTour by storm
interest in him was a factor in his decision
to sign.
“I am a climber so it's got to be the Grand
Tours like the Tour de France; I’d hope to
be up there competing for the win one day,”
he added.
Another rider in a similar situation to
Donovan is fellow Wiggins-Le Col rider
Gabriel Cullaigh. The Holmfirth-born
sprinter had a breakout season in 2018,
winning the CiCLE Classic, two stages at
the .2 ranked Volta ao Alentejo in Portugal
and narrowly missing out on a podium
finish on stage one of the Tour of Britain.
“I was set to stagiair with UAE-Emirates
and that came about through Allan Peiper
[sports manager]. I met him out in Belgium
and he said he’d had his eye on me since
the start of the year and was impressed
with my consistency, he was on BMC at
the time. But they were changing to CCC
and he decided to leave to join UAE, which
kind of messed all that up.”
“I still didn’t have anything late October
and in November he rang me up saying he
was going to UAE and they could use a
lead-out guy for all their sprinters and so IQuarterman’s impressive numbers
turned heads at Trek