Interviews – Roger Hammond & Tom Scully

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Talking to Kiwi Tom Scully (2nd) and Madison Genesis Team manager Roger Hammond about their CICLE Classic last weekend

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Interviews – Roger Hammond & Tom Scully

The New Zealand rider had a great year in 2013 with Raleigh and was promptly signed by Madison Genesis for 2014. Over the winter, he’s been on the boards racing for the Kiwi team and landed in the UK on midnight Wednesday, shifted into his flat on Thursday, spent Friday night in the flat and was then off to the race on Saturday.

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It was a very busy week ahead of such an important race but Tom took it in his stride. His manager Roger Hammond explained, “it (his second place) shows he’s being doing his homework. I’m really pleased for him. I think he was worried coming into a 1.2 race especially as the pressure is on with the team this year.”

“We have such a strong team and there is pressure to come into the team and perform well especially when I have left the likes of Alex (Peters) at home despite his win at Reservoir. Tom stepped up though and he’s a down to earth level headed bike rider.”

Tom is also one of the those riders that has the power and endurance to force a move away as he explained. “When the break went, I timed it pretty well” Tom said afterwards. “It had been strung out a while and my teammate Ian Bibby and I worked together to get to the front. I then put it in the gutter and gave it some and found us away.”

“I thought here we go again in the CiCLE Classic, in the break again, second year in a row. At that point I just hoped my legs were going to make it this time”.

Roger Hammond explained how “we came into the race not wanting to chase the race around because there is nowhere to get together as a team and ride to close gaps. We saw the GB lads try to do that today and they are a strong group, and the lads in our team said they rode really well, but they never caught the break”.

“Then at the end, you get nothing at the end of it because you get hit by the other teams who have sat on all day, so it was always the strategy to be at the front and race from there. If you have a good bike rider in the front, you can sit in the car a little more relaxed than normal until the last 20k”.

The rider Roger had in front was Tom Scully, who admits “It was a pretty good break with one from each team. It was pretty smooth and we had the right numbers. A few times, there were some questionable moves that went on mid way through but the four of us managed to pull it back together and keep it rolling.”

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“Then we were joined by two Dutch guys and then late in the piece, a small group came across at the finish and at that point I was like ‘I have been out here all day, I can’t leave my chances with the 15 odd guys, I have to go’ and it paid off at the end.”

“I jumped the group just before the tailwind section and closed up to Mark (McNally) reasonably fast and thought we might get Tom (Moses) but he’d pinned his ears back and we didn’t see him ‘til the end.”

“It is always nice to come through with a result but it’s a well set up team and everything is professional. They have been very supportive of me the whole time like the track programme, so it’s nice to pay them back and get the results they are chasing as well”.

Tom explained how this winter (his summer) he changed programmes and raced on the track, like the World Cup in Mexico and then a month later, the Track Worlds as well as racing a few stage races in between, one in Australia and one in New Zealand as well as doing two training camps. So while he hasn’t been seen in Britain, he has had a pretty full on winter.

Prior to his first race, the CiCLE Classic, Tom went off to Majorca. “I needed a bit of challenge to get some training under my belt and I went down to Majorca for that. I put some good long road rides in over the hills and in sunny weather.” Now that he has had that first race, a podium, he explained his first goal was to get his feet on the ground and cook some meals!

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Tom admits he and the team haven’t talked about the race programme yet but one thing is for sure, his manager Roger Hammond has a strong squad to rotate in and out of races. “I am in a completely different situation this year” Roger told VeloUK. “Last year was about working how to make the most out of the team whereas this year, it’s about selecting a team of riders who can potentially win a race”.

“I felt like I was leaving at home two or three who were potential race winners (at CiCLE) which is really really hard to do, and it took me four days to make that decision”.

“It is a nice place to be in certain respects but hard in others. Hopefully the ball is rolling though and the guys are confident. The motivation is good in the team because they all know they can rely on their teammates and that is such an important thing, having confidence in a teammate’s ability”.

The team’s next race in Britain is the Cycle Wiltshire GP on Sunday.

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