Interview – Tom Scully of Madison Genesis

2014_ContinentalGenericBanner

One of the favourites for the Chorley GP this Saturday is Kiwi Tom Scully who had a fantastic ride in the Tour of Normandy last week

RST Cycle Clothing & Trigon Bikes

Interview – Tom Scully of Madison Genesis

In his first season in Britain (2013), Tom Scully was one of the stand out riders of the season racing for Raleigh and was quickly snapped up by Madison Genesis for the 2014 season.

NORMANDYPODIUM

Solid start to the season and Tom (left) was third overall in the Tour of Normandy

Having had such success in 2013, Tom found himself a marked man on the road in 2014 but still managed three second places in major UK events including the CiCLE Classic and that epic Pearl Izumi Tour Series round in Edinburgh.

And he won the Points race at the Commonwealth Games which was a pretty awesome performance. “It feels pretty bloody good” he told website Stuff.co.nz at the time. “It was awesome out there, we had three guys that could have won the race tonight and those other two are good mates off the bike, as well as on the bike”.

In his first races of 2015, in France at the Tour of Normandy, Tom has continued to show that same awesome form and on what is said to be a tough course at Chorley for the first Prem, those six days of racing there should hold him in good stead.

The winter for Tom started with a summer down under as Tom returned home to his native New Zealand after the Tour of Britain. “I invited a few of my teammates out there, Tom Stewart and Matt Holmes for them to see New Zealand” Tom explained. “Whilst out there, I had some time off the bike over Christmas and then in the New Year, got things underway again”.

2015_VISION_MetronMidStory

Ahead of his third road season in Britain, I asked Tom whether he has changed any of his preparation for the year ahead?

“I have changed it a bit this year. I have delayed my start as long as possible. Normally, I’m riding on the track and that means preparing for that in November with training camps and then travelling around the world in December, flat outracing in Australia in January and then onto the track worlds which is February/March time.”

“So there were three months this year there that I haven’t been racing my bike flat out and have had more downtime. I spent the summer (NZ) off the track and building my form with a road focus . So I am really looking forward to what the year brings me.”

“Last year with Madison, I was more known and it was hard to sneak away but it was a good year and an environment I enjoyed being part of. They (Madison Genesis) give you all the tools that you need to perform on the bike and a platform for doing that. When you have that behind you and you are enjoying the racing with your teammates, it’s always a good time.”

Talking of season goals in 2014, the Points winner at the Commonwealth Games explained, “the event definitely developed into a season goal once I knew I had the support from Madison. They said to me ‘if that is what I want to do, we’ll be behind you 100 per cent’ and so I focused on that.”

“To have that support from them gave me the confidence to go and tick all the boxes I needed to do that”.

2014_CiCLEClassicRace_23

Tom with Mark McNally chasing Tom Moses in the closing stages of the CiCLE Classic.

2015

After that success which helped bring him to the attention of the New Zealand public, Tom has moved away from the track and now looking forward to a 2015 road season in Britain.

“The UK has a really intense racing scene from the crits to the road races. I enjoy the road races as well as the crits which I have always raced. So I am just looking forward to having a good solid road season and getting stuck into the road races as well as the crits”.

Asked, after having had success on the track, whether Rio 2016 was a goal, Tom replied “I think the boys over the last week at the World Championships (track) have put their claim down for the team in Rio (they won the Team Pursuit World title). The average age for those boys is something crazy so to be senior world team pursuit champion at 18 is awesome. Give them another 12 months and who knows where they will be.”

2015_FSA_MidstoryBanner

“I have ridden the Worlds a number of times and had some average performances and been in places I didn’t want to be and also had great performances as well which have been career highlights. So whilst I haven’t hung up the track bike, I am concentrating on the road. At some stage I will return to the track but when that will be and how intensely that will be, I’m not sure.”

Asked if his goal is to follow in the foot steps of another rider who came out of the British road scene and made it in the WorldTour, Jack Bauer, Tom replied “Jack’s a great role model and it would be a dream come true for sure to do that”.

“He came here and performed strongly and has gone on to be one of the stronger riders in the World Tour peloton. If I could follow in half those footsteps I’d be pretty proud.”

2014_Edinburgh_TS_05

Tom is second in the Edinburgh round of the Pearl Izumi Tour Series in 2014

Tom on former teammate Steele Von Hoff
Both Steele Von Hoff and Tom rode in the same team in the USA, a development team for Garmin and whilst Steele went on to spend two seasons with them, Tom came to Britain to race. Asked what advice he’d give Steele on the British scene, Tom replied “Steele has a huge stack of results to his name and the only advice I’d give is don’t ever have a get down as they say here!”

“He is a very fast all round rider and a nice bloke and I’m looking forward to racing with him during the year.”

Both Steele and Tom ride the Chorley Grand Prix this Saturday and are also both two of the hot favourites!

Thanks to Tom for the chat.

Send your results as well as club, team & event news here

Other Results on VeloUK (including reports containing results)

Other News on VeloUK

Tags: ,