Report & Images: Courtesy of Larry Hickmott & British Cycling

After winning the World Points title in 2002, GB’s Chris Newton has consistently showed he is a contender for the Points race on his day and having won Olympic medals in the last two Games in Sydney and Athens, Chris is now embarking on his challenge to make the GB team for Beijing in 2008.

Above: 2007 Track World Championships -- Chris stepping in for Bradley Wiggins
during a training session with the GB Team Pursuit squad.

With many of the GB Endurance riders racing for pro teams in Europe, Chris is one of the few (Rob Hayles is the other) GB riders who is based in Britain riding a domestic programme of events on the road. For 2008, Chris will be riding for the newly formed Recycling/Rapha Condor team.

In 2007, he was one of the most successful British based riders, winning the British Cycling national road race series, the Premier Calendar and returning to the track at the Track Nationals and despite a big challenge from the Italian based Olympic Academy riders, he won the Points title.

Chris is now in Sydney and on Friday, he embarks on his World Track Cup challenge, racing in Heat 3 of the Points race, looking to make the final and score World Cup qualifying points. Earlier this year, Chris was also part of a six man squad prior to the 2007 Track World Championships in the Team Pursuit and is still looking to secure a place in a team which has as many as eight riders vying for four spots.

“The Sydney and Beijing World Track Cups are definitely important so I am looking forward to them” Chris told British Cycling before leaving for Australia. “I’ve been training hard although you can never tell where the form is at until the racing starts.”

With it being Olympic year, Chris and the riders in the Great Britain team can finally see the event they have worked hard for four years looming large in their sights. In between years though can be even harder as they strive to maintain their place in an ever competitive team.

“It is hard between Olympic years because once the Olympics are over and you have come away with a medal you think there will be less pressure but there is always something like the Worlds and Commonwealths. So the years in between have been tough but enjoyable” Chris explained.

“My goals for the next Olympics are still the Points and Team Pursuit. I have got aspirations in both events even though GB has more riders to pick from than in previous Olympic years. In the Team Pursuit especially, places are difficult to get hold of but I am happy that the fastest four riders will ride. That’s good for the team for us to keep pushing forward and to aim for that Gold medal in Beijing.”

Points Scoring
After a decisive win in 2002 in the Points race, Chris found an event that suited his style of racing and since then, it has become his niche event. “In the Points race, I like to get my teeth stuck in and my only downfall has been when it isn’t going my way but I think that is what makes me good at what I do. I like to get stuck in and I do like to try to make things happen. You have to work to your strengths and I am one of those endurance sprinters who doesn’t have a massive one off sprint but has a lot of smaller sprints that I can keep producing during the race.”

Talking about the new level that the GB Team Pursuit team now has to ride at to challenge the other teams like Australia, Chris explained “there is nothing between the riders in the team competing for spots. Something that goes against me in that event is that I am a sprinter rider that puts in a little to much straight away as opposed to pacing the effort so that is something I have to work on.”

“I have changed my winter programme a little bit working with a new coach (Matt Parker, GB Endurance Coach) and things seem to be going really well. He has fresh ideas coming from a non-cycling background. I have almost gone back to my roots on how I used to train and now its not training unless its hurting so every session is a hard session at the moment.”

Asked how he has found achieving the form required to compete with riders racing on the road in Europe, Chris explained “its down to hard work. I use the racing to bring me on but I like riding my bike, and that’s the thing that I don’t think you always get riding a continental programme. The racing is different and you’re confined to the peloton and if you’re not really enjoying it …. I put up with it when I have to and I do relish it and have enjoyed winning events over there but I find it frustrating it as I like to get my teeth into races.”

“So I enjoy the domestic programme. With the team size we had this season, we couldn’t do that many international races but next year will be different and will be great for me as it will give me a bit more strength for the Olympics.”

In the latter part of the 2007 season, Chris had a distraction from his racing with the addition of another child to the family. It is the reason he has remained in the UK training at the Manchester base instead of heading to Australia with a lot of the team. “Working with Matt, he knows how I put in the work so I have just had to grin and bear the bad weather! We have been fortunate though and it has certainly been worthwhile being here for the birth of my daughter.”

“We had a little scare at the Tour of Britain (Chris had to go to the hospital during the race to be with his wife) but our daughter finally arrived and mother and daughter are fine and healthy. My wife is so understanding of what I do that she lets me sleep in the spare bed until the World Cups are out of the way!”

Speaking about the Beijing World Track Cup, Chris says it will be good to see the venue even though he hasn’t given it a great deal of thought. “It will help us to get our bearings but I’m more thinking about the competition and trying to stay relaxed. Sometimes its out of your hands so I’ll go in and do my best and see where it gets me.”

In the World Cup season before the last Olympics, Chris went out to try and win the Points World Cup title but was just beaten into second place. “Last time I think it was top four in the World Cup Points race or top eight in the Madison and then World’s places as well and we didn’t want to leave qualifying for the World Championships. So we did the World Cups. This year I think its top eight in the World Cups so we have few different routes to get there”.

“I’ll do the first two and probably Copenhagen too. We’d like to miss out LA so we can do some stage races and get a foundation for the World Championships but if we have to do LA, we have do it.”

Comparing the build-up to the Nationals to the build up for the World Track Cups, Chris says “it has gone really well. I had a few sleepless nights but I have trained really hard and the numbers are looking good which gives you a little bit of confidence and re-assurance.”

Finally, we talked about the new team he has for next year where the Recycling and Rapha teams have merged.

“It is quite an exciting time and I am looking forward to next year. It is good to get some of the other guys back in it. I think John (Herety, Team Manager) knows that for a sponsor to continue to sponsoring a team you need to be winning races and it was coming down to me quite a lot. I like to win races but it will be good that it will be shared around a bit.”

“Some of the younger riders too are a year on and should do really well. The bigger team will give me more time to concentrate on the Olympics as well. There are the World Cups at the start of the season where there will be training camps and track blocks so I am not going to be around for the whole road season so its good the team will have other riders to give it the exposure it needs.”

“Plus, when we go into stage races, I can play a team role and get in some real good work.”

British Cycling wishes Chris and the team lots of luck in Sydney and Beijing.