8 | August 22, 2019 | Cycling Weekly
NEWSAt those kind of races he may well
run into U23 powerhouse Charlie
Quarterman. The British U23 time
trial champion is stagiairing with Trek-
Segafredo for the rest of 2019 and, while
Quarterman said he is unable to confirm
it, CW understands from separate sources
that he is poised to join the team full time
from 2020.
“Well, it came about after the Baby Giro
and National Championships, I came
fourth in the Giro prologue and then third
in one of the later stages in a breakaway
and in time trialling you can either do it or
you can’t — that’s why it got attention fairly
quickly,” said
Quarterman.
Got it he has. One
Trek team insider
said Quarterman’s
performance numbers
were in the upper third
of what you wouldgetting selected over other strong
candidates Ethan Hayter and Tom Pidcock
will not be easy.
“I want to be one of the best time
triallists around. I’d also like to have a go at
the Classics, as once I learn the trade, I
think I could do a good job there. I can
climb quite well but I’m probably 15kg too
heavy for the Tour de France,” he said.British
development
It’s notable that the three riders that
have so far made the step up in 2019
are all from teams that race a heavily
European calendar. It begs the
question: Is the British scene good at
developing riders?
“I think it does develop riders alright,
but it doesn’t put them in a place
where they’re going to get seen by
other teams and signed,” said Tim
Elverson, manager of Canyon-dhb.
“The British scene is very
competitive and anyone who comes
down gets a shock about how hard it
is,” he added. “James Shaw (Swift-
Carbon) got fourth in TdY, which is
great, but probably won’t go up
because it’s just one result. For
example, take Lotto-Soudal, Jumbo-
Visma, Corendon-Circus, Israel Cycling
Academy, Sport Vlaanderen and
Wanty-Gobert, we probably race them
every single week so my riders are
seen by those teams every week.”
Simon Cope, manager of Wiggins-
Le Col is broadly in agreement. “It’s
got its place for first and second years
and premier calendar races have a
place to learn how to race and suck up
100-mile races because they’re not
easy, but the problem is it’ll only be as
big as the riders on the island, the
competition never really changes,”
he said.
“In Europe you’ll get 50 per cent of
the teams from last week and 50 per
cent new teams. The British scene is a
different style to European racing and
that’s a lot to do with the number of
teams; it’s always been the same and I
don’t see it changing.”expect to see from WorldTour riders. That
explains why he had offers from two other
teams. “The good thing about Trek is they
have a lot of older riders and some of those
people who have been the best in the
world at various moments to learn from,”
the Leopard rider said. “And they have a lot
of investment in kit and TT performance.”
In what is surely a sign of confidence, he
said he was asked if he wanted to ride the
Tour of Utah but coming just two days
after the European Championships with
the travel, altitude and heat he felt he
would not be able to put in a good showing.
So he’s only riding a few races for the squad
in 2019.
“They’re mostly
helping me prepare
for the World
Championship time
trial, assuming I can get
in,” said Quarterman,
who is fully awareDonovan has a three-year
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