Up-and-coming English rider plays down Tour of Britain promise, writes Matt Westby
Friday 14 November 2014 12:56, UK
It’s a measure of Tao Geoghegan Hart’s lofty standards and dedication to improvement that he regards 15th place in only his third elite stage race as not quite up to scratch.
“It wasn’t an amazing week for me,” the 19-year-old Londoner says of September’s Tour of Britain. “My form certainly didn’t feel like it was at its peak.”
Only Hart himself knows how much more he might have eked out of his still-developing body, but at face value, this assessment seems a harsh one.
Still an amateur, he was the second-youngest rider in the race and was suffering from a long-standing leg injury, yet he finished only 1min 30sec down on third-placed Sir Bradley Wiggins and 1min 42sec adrift of runner-up Michal Kwiatkowski, the prodigiously talented Pole who was in such fine form that he would go on to win the world road race title a fortnight later.
Then there’s the fact that of the under-23s taking part, Hart, representing the Great Britain team, finished third, with the two above him both three years older and riding for UCI WorldTour outfits.
He is mature and wise well beyond his years so it seems ill-advised to challenge him on the matter, but he then voluntarily clarifies his point. “If I had said top 20 or top 15 going into the race, I would have been reasonably happy with that,” he adds. “So to have achieved that is a good marker to progress from.”
Progress is the key word here. Hart is not one to dwell on results, even though wins at last year's Tour of Istria and Giro Internazionale della Lunigiana, plus third places at the junior versions of the one-day classics Paris-Roubaix and Liege-Bastogne-Liege in the past two seasons, have singled him out as one of Britain's most promising young talents.
The first time I raced against those guys, especially Sir Bradley, was at the Tour of California and, at the time, I felt like they were a million miles away.
His focus instead rests on the experiences and lessons of every race he enters. And no detail escapes him. Take his personal blog, for example, which offers a microscopic dissection of bike racing and picks up on nuances almost invisible to the layman.
In a brief moment of self-recognition, he acknowledges that he is moving along the learning curve at an encouraging rate. He has just finished his first year with the American squad Bissell Development Team and says the contrast between his first elite race, May’s Tour of California, and the Tour of Britain four months later was stark.
“Riding alongside big names like Sir Bradley Wiggins has been super-interesting,” he explains. “The first time I raced against those guys, especially Sir Bradley, was at the Tour of California and, at the time, I felt like they were a million miles away. I was just in awe and thinking, ‘I’m never ever going to reach that level’.
“But in the Tour of Britain, I felt like I was a little bit more competitive and more a part of the race. Obviously we didn’t have the heat or long climbs of California, but it didn’t feel like a crazy speed and I certainly felt I was more involved.”
Another impressive performance and self-proclaimed eye-opener for Hart was August’s Tour de l‘Avenir, the prestigious and mountainous under-23 race in France whose past champions include Nairo Quintana, Bauke Mollema and Warren Barguil, all of whom have gone on to win Grand Tour stages.
The standard in under-23s is really, really high. The guys who are winning could step into pro races and do very well.
Hart finished tenth in his debut appearance, almost nine minutes adrift of the winner, Colombia’s Miguel Angel Lopez, but close enough to suggest he could challenge for the podium in future editions.
“It was definitely an interesting race,” he says. “The standard in under-23s is really, really high. The guys who are winning could step into pro races and do very well, as we saw with the Belgian rider Dylan Teuns at the Tour of Britain [Teuns won a stage of the Tour de l’Avenir and then finished tenth at the Tour of Britain].
“It was a race that I really enjoyed and I will look forward to trying to go back to it next year and hopefully have a bit more of a crack at it. It’s a race that lends to my skillset and my physiology. It’s the type of race I would really like to go full gas for.”
But as ever, it is his shortcomings at the Tour de l’Avenir, rather than the result, which occupy his mind.
“There was very clear room for improvement,” he adds. “The feeling I had wasn’t the feeling I have when I’m on my top climbing form, so it was very clear for me where I need to improve. I would like to think that with a few tweaks and a more consistent season that I could be up there.”
So what else is Hart targeting next year? Podiums? Race wins? Maybe even a pro contract at the end of it? Not directly. He will be back with Bissell for the season and, as ever, working on his weaknesses will be his first and foremost priority, with anything else that comes on top treated as a bonus.
“Next year is going to be more inward-looking than looking outwardly at goals,” Hart adds. “I’m just looking for areas of improvement personally and then that brings you to the level you need to be at for those goals.
“There are areas that I am really pinpointing to work on this winter and develop in time for next season. I want to improve my climbing and also bring my time-trialling level up a bit. In terms of races, I will be hoping to line up at the Tour of California again with the team and I would love to race at the Tour of Britain again.”
Whatever 2015 holds in store for Hart, rest assured that any success he enjoys will not go to his head.
