INTERVIEW: TAO GEOGHEGAN HART
“I think we could never in our wildest dreams have imagined what was going to happen”
Tao Geoghegan Hart is the Giro d’Italia winner no one expected last autumn. He wants to use his ever growing platform to revolutionise Britain’s cycling scene. Procycling speaks to the proud Londoner to find out how
Typically, in the weeks and months after a rider wins their first grand tour, they’ll be revelling in the celebrations that come with their newfound fame, making the most of the press, media exposure and opportunities. It’s understandable: winning a grand tour is one of the hardest feats in cycling, and only 12 riders in the current peloton have ever done it. All at the same time as sorting a race programme for the next year.
But Tao Geoghegan Hart, in the two and a half months since he won the Giro d’Italia in October, has been thinking less about what he’s going to do next on the road and more about something a bit different: how to revolutionise the cycling scene in the UK, to encourage more young people to take up the sport.
“I think cycling, and within that cycling in the UK, has a big problem,” he tells Procycling. We’ve been speaking about the Giro victory, how he won pink and how his life and outlook has - or rather, hasn’t - changed since. (When I ask if it’s sunk in yet that he’s a Giro d’Italia winner, he replies: “It’s one of those things, really.”)
Yet this is the subject that clearly matters most, and he talks about it at length. “It’s a difficult sport to access,” he says. “It’s not available to everyone and it’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot recently and still developing how I’m going to work out the way I’m going to try and be a protagonist, and lower those barriers to entry, if you want to put it really economically and unromantically.
“For me, I think it’s a big thing to focus on British cycling with a small c, and I think there are some small changes that can be made by British Cycling with a big C that can completely change the sport for everyone in the UK, for bringing more people in, especially at a young age, that will no doubt be cyclists and fans of the sport and racers and participants for the rest of their lives.
“Without wanting to put too much on the table I would love to see a big event back in London. A real event that resonates with the public and young people especially. That’s something I’m working on at the moment.”
It’s refreshing to hear a rider, and one still so early in his career, talking so passionately about a cause beyond their own performances. In a world dominated by soundbites, clickbait and tweets, riders today are trained to smooth out any rough edges. To have an opinion or speak loudly opens you up to controversy and for most, it’s not worth the hassle. Usually, athletes gain this kind of confidence with success; confidence to speak out more or the confidence to not care as much for the consequences if
they do. But in the case of Geoghegan Hart, his success at the Giro doesn’t appear to have been the trigger. His ability to cut through has always made him unique.
I remember interviewing him four years ago, almost exactly to the day, at a pre-season training camp. Back then we were in Mallorca and he was a neo pro, having just joined Sky, and we were sitting in the restaurant of the team’s hotel rather than on a phone, but I was equally struck by how assured he was and by the courage of his convictions. This was a rider who turned down Sky in 2016 when the team came knocking, and asked them to come back in a year so he could do one more year of racing at under-23 level.
You only need to be following Geoghegan Hart’s Twitter feed over the years to see as much. It’s filled by tweets about his beloved Arsenal football club but also questioning the inequality between men and women in sport, and championing social and environmental issues.
He credits his upbringing and the diversity of East London with instilling this confidence and worldview. The people he grew up with remain friends to this day and, he says, exposed him to a multitude of perspectives. “It’s an incredible place and it’s somewhere I love more than ever and I love going back when I’m able to. I really feel not only at peace, but my off-season one of the things I enjoy most is walking not only around Hackney and East London, but London, enjoying it for what it is,” he says. “You always find something new around a different corner. I think there’s so much to be said for that side of city living and the diversity and everything always going on. I love that.”
The memories of riding around the city as a teenager are seared in his head, too; getting on his bike after school, travelling across the bridges of the Thames from Redbridge to go south to Herne Hill Velodrome or Crystal Palace for the crit races, then riding home in the sunset. “Amazing memories,” he says.
There’s a tinge of regret about the party Geoghegan Hart would have held to celebrate his Giro win, had circumstances been different this winter and the UK not plunged into another covid-enforced lockdown. But he feels equally disappointed that the rules meant he wasn’t able to visit local schools in his borough, to speak to children who might be inspired to take up cycling.
Does he feel that with his success comes a platform, and it’s one he wants to do something with? “Oh, 100 per cent. Unequivocally. Without doubt. Otherwise you have to wonder why, really,” Geoghegan Hart says, without missing a beat. “Of course, I can also respect people that just want to do nothing. At the end of the day they chose to become a cyclist to win races; as any young athlete they choose that. But I think at some point you have to recognise that you can try to have some further influence or interest in the world, or you can equally try and choose not to, such is your right.”