Rider Chat: Ali Slater (Vitus Pro Cycling)

One of many riders to retire from racing at UCI level in 2020 will be Ali Slater (Vitus Pro Cycling p/b Brother UK) who will be mixing coaching and racing

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Rider Chat: Ali Slater (Vitus Pro Cycling)

One of many riders to retire from racing at UCI level in 2020 will be Ali Slater (Vitus Pro Cycling p/b Brother UK) who will be mixing coaching and racing in 2020.

With the season end getting ever closer, and for most, already finished, we have been talking to riders who will see a change in their careers in 2020. One of them is Ali Slater who was third at Bourne on Sunday in his home race showing yet again he was one of the top performers for his team in 2019. It was he says, a nice way to finish the season.

Ali has been racing for 14 or 15 years, at the top level from the time he was in the Junior ranks and then with teams like JLT Condor as a senior. He’s moving on to the ‘Clancy Briggs Cycling Academy’ but adds that he’ll still be racing a bit next season.

“I have enjoyed my racing. There are times when its hard work, and you start getting tired but on the whole, it’s been great.”

Whilst Ali has showed he has the potential to win races, as he did in France in 2018, he has spent a lot of his career working for others and was often referred to as Mr Dependable by his boss at JLT Condor, John Herety.

“I feel lucky to have been part of that team. I was working for others but that was a reflection of how strong that team was” Ali explained. “There were some brilliant riders on that team who were better than I was at certain things. I have been consistent and consistent on different types of terrain so I have been there to help out the specialists at their races”.

In 2019 at Vitus Pro Cycling p/b Brother UK, Ali was given the opportunity to also go for the wins which he says “working for yourself is certainly different, going into the race knowing you are the guy who has to be at the end and the pressure is on you. Equally, that has been great and I enjoyed the Prems and getting stuck into them and be there or there abouts.”

“Overall, the races I like I have been close in like Lincoln and next year, we’ll still be doing a bit of racing in some prems but less focused on it. Hopefully we can pull some form together for the odd one or two races like Lincoln”.

Asked for a career highlight, he says “the win in France was brilliant, to win a UCI race and also be second on the stage (stage 1 behind Harry Tanfield) in Tour de Yorkshire was brilliant. I rode the Tour of Britain which is a brilliant race and 2013 in particular when Wiggins won the Tour of Britain. I was on the GB Academy (32nd overall) and it was brilliant to see the crowds out on the road”.

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