Feature Interview – Jon Mould

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Winner of three rounds of the Pearl Izumi Tour Series in 2014, Jon Mould has a new team for the coming season, One Pro Cycling

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Feature Interview – Jon Mould

In 2014, racing for NFTO, a former GB rider with plenty of good results behind him really stepped it up by making the headlines winning three rounds of the Pearl Izumi Tour Series. That rider was Jon Mould.

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His first win was in Round 1 at Stoke –  which was a solo victory and then in Durham he outsprinted Graham Briggs  before in Edinburgh, he won again, winning solo in the grandest of settings.

Jon is the second rider to win three rounds in a series after Ed Clancy did the same in 2013. Rob Hayles went close in 2009, winning two rounds and ‘winning’ a third only to be relegated for deviating off his racing line in the very first round of the Tour Series in Milton Keynes.

It was the manner of Jon’s wins that was seriously impressive; two of them solo and the other outsprinting Graham Briggs with the rest of the contenders spread out along the finish straight in Durham.

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In the years before that impressive show in the Tour Series, Jon has been British Madison champion on the track several times (with George Atkins & Mark Christian) and won the Tour of Jamtland (Sweden) and the East Yorkshire Classic.

The 23 year old is now out in Majorca with his One Pro Cycling team for a ten day training camp which follows his own spell in Majorca doing some steady miles before the get together for the new British UCI team.

Talking about how it feels to be part of this new team, Jon replies “it’s been really good. You kind of expect a few things to be missing or not thought of from a new team but to be honest, everything has been covered from the bike to the training with Steve (Benton).”

“That makes it a lot easier for the riders. It’s been nice to just not worry about anything and focus on training to get ready for the year ahead”.

Whilst the team maybe new, most of the people involved with it, Matt Prior excepted, are not new to the sport here. Becky was with Jon at NFTO in 2014 and Steve Benton was his coach. “Rider wise, we all know each from other teams and Steve was one of the main reasons I came here because I wanted to carry on working with him”.

“It does make it easier that we all know each other, all get on well, and it’s not completely new surroundings. We have only been here for two days but it’s already a good atmosphere and we’re having a good laugh out training”.

Before looking ahead to 2015, I asked Jon about 2014 and was surprised that it was disappointing despite all the victories. “It was a really good year Tour Series wise. The early season went well, I trained hard and got stuck in and overall, it was probably my best season to date”.

“The Commonwealth Games was a major let down though as I was ill two weeks out. I would have swapped a Games medal for every result I got in 2014. So while 2014 was a success, I am gutted about the Games and I now have to wait another four years for the Games on the Gold Coast Queensland, Australia) and redeem myself”.

“It still bugs me because it was the main aim for 2014 and to miss out and not to perform the way I should have is very disappointing”.

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British Champion with George Atkins in the Madison Championship, a title Jon has won twice.

“There were quite a few highlights though. The Edinburgh round of the Tour Series was really good and probably my favourite win. Then the break in the national road race champs was good when I was away with Luke as we both knew where to attack and I was on home roads.”

“The Leicester Classic win was a good one too coming straight after Glasgow; to win it and realise that my form was alright”.

Asked if the 2014 season gives him confidence for 2015, Jon replies “I have stepped up a bit but I think it will be harder to win rounds of the Tour Series in 2015. When your team is not high up in the overall, you have got more leeway and people don’t chase you because they are marking the teams that are high up.”

“Like Madison (Genesis) and Rapha were marking each other so it did help me when attacking that there was that little hesitation when they are thinking, ‘no, we don’t need to chase Mouldy’. It will be a different ball game in 2015. I will keep cracking on though and hopefully win some more races”.

Jon is being a little modest there as his first Pearl Izumi Tour Series win came in round 1in 2014 and there are always other teams all chasing podium spots even if they are out of the race for the team prize. So the round wins were very significant indeed and should he transfer that winning form into the longer road races, ‘Mouldy’ as he’s called, will certainly be a major player in 2015.

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Caution, Welsh boys at work! Luke Rowe leads Jon Mould in the early break at the British RR Championships in 2014.

As a former GB rider, and with many other GB riders, past and present, looking to try and make Rio 2016, I asked Jon did he have the same ambitions? “I went back on the track with the GB Team Pursuit squad in October and kind of realised that realistically I wasn’t going to make the Team Pursuit for Rio 2016”.

“It was a hard decision to turn down after getting that opportunity to go for a spot at the Olympic Games, and just to be asked was an honour in itself. But to put so much in and then not make the team … You look at the riders they have already and then there’s Wiggins, Swifty, Pete and Luke could also come back in.”

“So I’m not going to ride the track especially as the UCI have taken out all the non Olympic events from the World Cups. With no Scratch or Points races at the World Cups, it made it an easier decision to have a winter off the track. It is such a shame to only have two events (Team Pursuit & Omnium) for male endurance riders at a World cup; a bit of joke really”.

Away from GB, Jon says the Pearl Izumi Tour Series is a goal and he also wants to have to have a good crack at some of the British UCI road races. “Hopefully we’ll get a ride in the Tour of Yorkshire and the others and I can get some results and show progression. I haven’t one main aim for 2015. I just want another good year building towards moving up a level”.

Jon says he expects to start his racing in March at races like the Jock Wadley. “I think I’ll ride that and then we have a training camp in March too. The main starting point is the Chorley Grand Prix on the 4th of April, my birthday!”

“Josh Hunt is quite local to it and we were talking about it and it looks like being a pretty hard race and definitely should open the legs up being the first major race of the year”.

The first training camp which is on going in Majorca at the moment, is said Jon, more relaxed than he expects the next one to be. “We’re doing some good work now, getting used to each other and working well and then in March, there will be more leg kicking”.

Was he nervous before the training camp not knowing how each other would be going? “Yes and no”, he replied. “Being coached by Steve (Benton) makes a massive difference. I went to Australia in December and didn’t do a massive amount of training and took a more relaxed approach to it whilst I was with Hannah (Walker) and her family”.

“It was a good break but I was a bit worried that the other lads would be coming into the camp and kicking my head in but Steve put me in a good place and it turns out we’ve all come into it at quite an equal level”.

“We’re all at a good level where we can train well. No one has come in flying or really low. We’re all fresh though and ready for a good ten days”.

The camp gives the team time to get used to working with a new DS as well, Matt Winston, who has come from GB and coaching the Juniors in the Development Programme. Of all the members of the team, he is the newest to the ‘British pro racing circus’ and has said Jon, not shown any nerves and been good with them.

It’s a far cry from last season when Jon had in his corner probably one of the most experienced DS’s in the world of pro cycling, Sean Yates who is now with Tinkoff Saxo. But what Winston lacks in experience in this type of environment, the team more than makes up with thanks to the likes of Yanto Barker who expects to have an even bigger road captain role in 2015.

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2009 – European Junior Road Championships

Having ridden with Jon in UK Youth, that partnership between Yanto and Jon in the peloton will be a dangerous one for the other teams for sure. As always though, we can speculate and continue to do so until the final sprint for the line starts to unfold in the major races, but it’s what happens when they cross the line that matters.

On February 8, some of the One Pro Cycling team are entered for the Perfs Pedal but the other UCI teams have given it a miss. The other early season classics will see the other British UCI teams racing too but it’s not expected to be April 4 and the Chorley GP when the teams put out their A squads in a race they are all ‘obliged’ to ride by British Cycling.

Good luck to Jon making the One Pro Cycling team for the Chorley Grand Prix and as its birthday, go easy him on lads ;-)

Thanks to Jon for his time and good luck in 2015. See you on the road.

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