FEATURE — Q&A WITH JAMES BEAGLEY (Prologue Junior Team)

As the Prologue Junior Racing Team enters their third season (the senior squad is in its 9th year), they have their most ambitious race program yet lined up for 2025, and part the team is James Beagley who we do a Q&A with ….

FEATURE — Q&A WITH JAMES BEAGLEY (Prologue Junior Team)
As the Prologue Junior Racing Team enters their third season (the senior squad is in its 9th year), they have their most ambitious race program yet lined up for 2025, with an extensive programme of European UCI events with invites already confirmed for races in Spain, France, Italy, and Luxembourg.

The team kicks off the season in Alicante at the 2-day Gran Premio San Vicente – Costa Blanca Júnior Challenge UCI J1.1 with a TT on 1 March and a road race on 2 March. The following weekend, they are back in Spain near Barcelona for the Gran Premi Les Franqueses KH7 UCI J1.1 on March 9. In April, they return to the Basque region of Spain on the 5th to 6th for Gipuzko Klasikoa and on Easter Monday, 21 April they are heading to Italy for Gran Premio Perdono UCi J1.1 held near Milan. The team will also be at the BC National Junior Series and another seven European UCI races! It’s going to be a busy, but exciting year for the team.

In this Q&A, 2nd year Junior, James Beagley, who stood out for me at last years Bath Road Clubs Junior National Series race at Cublington (Buckinghamshire), has looked back at 2024, his first year of competing at Junior level racing. Pictures of James are from the Bath RC Road Race and one from the CAMS Yorkshire Classic that VeloUK was at in 2024.

Q&A with James Beagley from Yorkshire based Prologue Junior Race Team looking back over his first season of junior racing.

Q: How did you find the step up from youth to your first season of junior racing?
James: From a fitness point of view, it wasn’t too bad as I’d been working with my coach all winter to prepare for the longer races. But it was definitely still a shock to the system turning up to Nokere Koerse in Belgium for the first Junior race of the year. The European races are on a different scale, there was so much more to think about, such as taking on enough nutrition whilst racing in a much larger and more aggressive peloton that you just didn’t get in the youth races.
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Q: What were your racing highlights of 2024?
James: The highlights were definitely picking up 4th at both the Bath RC Road Race after a long solo break, and at the Isle of Man BC National series round, as well as 20th at Classic Région Sud in France as getting a top 20 in a UCI race had been a big goal for the season.


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Q: Any low points from racing last season?
James: I had a pretty slow start to the season results wise, it took three attempts to finish a UCI race, and I didn’t feel I had much form until late April. Another one was going over the handlebars, due to a mechanical failure on my TT bike, and having to walk the final 200m up the Tumble at the Tour of Wales prologue, but other than that I had a pretty good season.
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Q: With a full race calendar, how do you juggle the training and races alongside studying for A levels?
James: I do my best to stay on top of my school work and not let it pile up so I’m not under too much pressure trying to fit in my training in around school. I did my GCSEs in the summer and got some good results so hopefully I can continue to strike a good balance this season.
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Q: What races are you particularly looking forward to in 2025?
James: We’ve got an even better race programme lined up this season, with 10 European races and the BC National Series. We’re kicking off with four UCI races in March & April out in Spain and Italy so that should be a great start to the year, with hopefully some decent weather. Closer to home, I’m also looking forward to riding the Otley GP which is my local race which unfortunately I’ve had to miss the last two seasons.
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Good luck to James and we hope to see you at some domestic races in between all those UCI races!

 

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