Rider Chat: Ian Taylor (former Masters World Champion)

We chat to former World Masters champion Ian Taylor about the Worlds experience after he returned to defend his title and was third to Tour de France stage winner, Erik Dekker

The Video of the Interview with Ian Taylor on Channel VeloUK

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Rider Chat: Ian Taylor (former Masters World Champion)

We chat to former World Masters champion Ian Taylor about the Worlds Masters experience after he returned to defend his cyclo-cross title (45-49) and was third to Tour de France stage winner, Erik Dekker

We caught up with Ian who over the last two CX seasons has racked up at least seven wins in each and started by asking how he got on in Mol at the 2017 World Masters Championships.

“I finished four seconds behind first place this year. I really enjoyed it last year and (winning) was a big surprise. I’m just a normal rider, I have never been a professional and to come away with the worlds jersey was fantastic and to go back again and still get a medal against a guy who has won Tour de France stages, you’re talking a different world, so to still be in there and in the mix of that, was great.”

Asked what the course was like for the 2017 Master’s Worlds, he replied “there was a lot of sand and I found in that sand, most of the Belgian riders couldn’t run. We set off down a good start straight on the tarmac, and into some woods and luckily I was gridded well because the gridding is random. It doesn’t matter where you came the year before, so fortunately I was on the first row but the guy who was second to me last year was gridded eleven rows back. So you have to go with an open mind knowing you could be at the front or back and go there and do your best”.

Back to the course where Ian had spent the week in a chalet, he continued to explain “after the tarmac and into some woods, you got to the sand. You could ride parts of it, and I was just running as hard as I could through the sand before getting back on. If you tried to ride the sand, just trying to stay upright was hard because we haven’t grown up racing through sand”.

“The two guys I was riding with from Holland and Belgium had ridden through sand all their lives where as we haven’t done that …” I then said to Ian we do get the odd sand pit to which Ian replied “exactly and I struggle with those!”

There was plenty of support for the Brits too. “Last year and this year, the cheering from the Brits and even those who were not British all helped. It is certainly well worth going especially as its not far. If it was in America, it is a big effort with so much that could go wrong; you could crash on the first lap for instance. But it was good to see so many Brits out in Mol competing.”

Asked about wearing the stripes, he says “it is fantastic. Last year, in the race, the fear of losing when there were two us away, was a fear I have never felt before. Never felt it in a national trophy and at the worlds, I was telling myself, I can do this and when I did, I had the world champions kit to wear and the stripes to wear forever which is amazing.”

I then said to Ian the last time I saw him in the stripes was having a dice with Nick Craig to which he replied “and you couldn’t have a better person to dice with. I beat him at Shrewsbury for the first time ever and I have raced him since I was 15 or 16.”

To finish, I asked what now for Ian Taylor “I need to do Ipswich National Trophy to maintain my second place in the series. Nick has the series in the bag though. Then, it will be the National Championships and that is a good course at Hetton, I am looking forward to that …”

Thanks Ian and see you at Ipswich ….

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