Interview with Tom Stewart

After this third place in the Beaumont Trophy, we spoke to Tom Stewart about the race and his goals for the next block of races

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Interview with Tom Stewart

Third in the Beaumont Trophy and a winner a few weeks before in a UCI stage race in Poland (Stage 5 of Szlakiem Walk Majora Hubala), Tom Stewart is in fine form before the British Championships this week.

Tom outsprinting Matt Bostock for third in the Beaumont Trophy

Tom explained how he knows there are a lot of riders from WorldTour well up for the road race championship but as Tom’s sixth overall in Dubai showed earlier this year, he has the talent to compete with WorldTour riders. He is certainly one of the riders expected to do well in what will be a very competitive race on a very tough circuit with its three mile plus mountain climb.

As we waited for the podium presentation at the Beaumont Trophy, we started by talking about the victory in Poland (Stage 5 of Szlakiem Walk ). “That was a big relief and huge delight because while I have had a good year so far, like I got a good result in Bath (Tour Series 2nd) and we’ve had a good year, we needed that win. We’d had a victory in the Tour Series after being second in the time trial but needed that road win so it was good to finish the job.”

Tom relaxed in the break enough to glance across the road

Talking about his win in Poland, Tom explained “The way that stage unfolded was quite interesting. It was a bit of GC day and really kicked off at the start and I was working for the two Polish riders in the team. Then, I ended up slipping away in a move. The gap was getting bigger and bigger and I realised oh christ, I’m going to have to think about how to win this!”

Work out he did and Tom has shown he knows how to win races and win he did. The good form is certainly coming at a good time of the season for him. “Next week is important although I try to target a block of races rather than an individual one. So the championship and the races that follow are targets and I’ve been away training and only got back yesterday”.

“Today (Beaumont) was a good sign and hopefully there is more to come”.

Chatting about the Beaumont Trophy, his team One Pro were all over it with two in the break and a strong presence in the chase groups behind but Tom did at one stage get a little worried about Steve Lampier who had two minutes on his own out front.

Tom chatting with James Gullen post race at Beaumont Trophy

“I went round the riders to try and get some interest from other riders to ride and realised that the reason a lot of them weren’t riding wasn’t because of instructions but they were too tired.”

“So I thought we need to start catching Steve but even with two minutes and 15km to go, it was a tall order round here. Fair play to him he did well, but once we’d caught him, we (One Pro) were on the front foot so it was all about throwing some punches (attacks ;-) at Gullen really.”

“The race then split to pieces and when Pete was away with James, I had the armchair ride sat behind some really strong young riders and they deserve a lot of credit. I know Joey (Walker) really well (from the Yorkshire chaingang) and he’d been riding strong all day but the other two GB lads both rode strong and one of them is only 18.”

No doubt the same riders will be in the mix at the British Road Championships this Sunday as should Tom and we wish him lots of luck and thanks for the chat.

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