Who is Thomas Gloag? The British youngster joining Jumbo-Visma

With Tom Pidcock, Ben Healy, and Ben Turner making their name in the WorldTour in the last two seasons and three more neo-pros ascending to cycling's top level for 2023, Trinity Racing has emerged as a top provider of talent to the professional ranks.

The British Continental level squad, set up to support Pidcock back in 2020, provides talented young riders with the opportunities to race around Europe though the season.

Next year, Thomas Gloag will become one of the latest alumni to make the WorldTour, signing up for three years with Jumbo-Visma. The 21-year-old won a stage at the Tour de l'Avenir this year in addition to fourth at the U23 Giro last summer and  third at the Ronde de l'Isard. 

This season he has taken on races such as the Arctic Race of Norway and Tour of Britain with his trade team. As a stagiaire, he makes his Jumbo-Visma debut at Saturday's Giro dell'Emilia.

Cyclingnews and Wielerfits caught up with Gloag in Norway back in August to find out more about his life and career, his cycling dreams, and his move to Jumbo-Visma. 

Cyclingnews: To start at the beginning, how did you get into cycling?

Thomas Gloag: I'm from London, near Herne Hill velodrome which is actually where Ethan and Leo Hayter, Fred Wright, and quite a few other cyclists are from. I live a kilometre also from their house and basically, I started cycling because it was the cheapest childcare in the holidays when I was eight and we went down - it was five pounds for five hours which is fantastic.

My parents shifted me off there for five days a week. I was about eight years old. It was just summer camp with a with a load of other kids and I did that for four years before I even thought about racing a bike. It was just kind of a fun hobby.

I really enjoyed the competitive side of it. Like this camp would basically race just race constantly for four hours on the track – just all the time and mountain bike stuff as well. I'm a bit of a sore loser so when I lost it's a good experience but I always like to try and compete and that was a good chance to compete. 

CN: Did you come from a cycling background at home?

TG: My dad was doing a few triathlons but he was never a competitive cyclist. But just as a just as fun when he was in his 30s but not really a specific cycling background, no.

The only kind of sporting background in my family is my grandma who was an Olympic sprinter actually which is a bit different to what I am - in 100-200 metres on the track.

CN: And then you joined a proper team and raced in Europe?

TG: British Cycling South-east junior team – it's more like a GB second team but no-one actually rides for it full-time. They race in Belgium and it's run by a guy called John Barkley. Bradley Wiggins and Geraint Thomas did the same. Most of the guys who have come through the British system have ridden for the BC South-east team at one point or another. 

So I was lucky enough I could ride for my club in the UK and then race for this BC South-east team in Belgium a lot as a junior, which was good. But to be honest, the real turning point when I started to think about racing beyond a junior was when I went to Spain and raced some climbs and that kind of changed everything for me when I was a junior.

That was like July of 2018, I think, because before that, I'd never really won a race. Second year junior. I got my head kicked in in Belgium so I decided to go for the sun which was a bit more fun.

CN: You studied alongside racing, too?

TG: It was good fun and a good way to learn but at that time I was just kind of doing it on the side. School was always the priority for me until I finished in 2020.

So it was like obviously I loved racing my bike and I wanted to win but it wasn't the main priority. I only trained ten or so hours a week and if I had homework due for the next day that would take precedence over a training session.

I had good grades. I'm very mathematical. I'm studying a maths degree just for something to do. Now it's more that cycling's the main thing and I just do this when I come home and I'm bored after training so I don't lose my mind. I struggle a lot and it's not very good but it's something to do.

CN: So, after junior racing and the British Cycling team, how did you join Trinity?

TG: That was a real surprise. I actually didn't have any team interest until August of that year when I was a second-year junior. I was actually planning to go to university and had applied and that was kind of all set.

I didn't really have any results and I hadn't proved to myself that I was worth really investing in and then I went to Spain and I think I won four or five races in a row and that kind of changed the my whole perspective on cycling because I never really won a race before that. 

It's funny because I'm from Herne Hill with all those great riders and of course, I just got absolutely destroyed by them. So, back then I'd never be much of a track rider or on the flat. When I was 10 to around 16-17 it was all the time on the track. With the British Cycling programme as well everyone in the UK rides on the track. I wasn't very good unfortunately. I wish I was. I was scrappy but I just didn't have the legs for it.

Riding every week with the Ethan and Fred and Leo and Oscar who's just won the under-23 European Championship on the Omnium. I was getting my head kicked in. So, I couldn't even beat the guys a kilometre from my house. It was quite hard to believe I could be anyone further than a kilometre away but it just turned out they were very talented. So, when I actually won a few races that gave me some confidence and I had some interest from Trinity.

CN: Last year you broke through with fourth place at the U23 Giro. Was that a surprise?

TG: I didn't think anyone had any idea. I remember when it was the first mountain day at the Baby Giro, and I got like 20th or something.

I was on the front for Pidcock for a while and I just remember my DS came back and was like what the hell's going on?  I don't know. But racing up a mountain is always quite nice because it's pretty honest racing. You've either got it or you don't. So yeah, I guess I was lucky to have it.

I can go uphill OK. Downhill I'm getting there, but not so good. I'm either up there or crashing so touch wood I won't do so much more of that. But I remember my first Baby Giro I did - I'd never done any mountains descents before and my heart rate was higher on the descent than it was on the climbs.

So, it was a jump for me. But it was quite a nice step up, actually, because in the juniors, it's a lot of classics racing. I raced a lot on the flat and crosswinds which was great, but it was actually quite an easy transition because obviously the racing got a lot more hilly. 

CN: We see most talented young British riders take the step up to Ineos Grenadiers but you're taking a different route?

TG: I went on two training camps for Ineos which was a great experience. I never wore Ineos kit but I had a great experience at the camps and it was a real eye-opener. I don't think I'd ever gonna training camp before going with them so I was a bit I was a bit starstruck with all the guys around and it was a good experience. 

I had interest from from quite a few WorldTour teams, luckily. Ineos too. But, as you as you guys know, nothing in cycling is that simple, so I'm really looking forward to ride for Jumbo-Visma.  I just think it's a funny one. They're both amazing and great teams but I think it's always a hard decision but I'm really looking forward to ride for Jumbo. I did some testing for them. So I visited their service course and did a day of testing.

I mean, there's nothing bad you can say about [Jumbo]. They clearly have a very good development strategy and to see even the best guys – Primož Roglič, Jonas Vingegaard, Wout van Aert - to a certain extent have all been developed within the team. 

That was a big attraction to me, to be able to take a rider and and improve him which is what I'd like to do. So that really fits with where I want to go in the sport and that's that's why I ended up. 

It didn't take much convincing. I had to convince them to take me! It's a very competitive team to get on. I didn't even realise I'd really have a chance to to ride for them, but when I did it was very hard to say no to. 

CN: You're looking ahead to a big move in the future but how would you rate your 2022 season?

TG: It's been a pretty poor year. I've just had several health issues and whatnot. COVID-19, tonsillitis, I had a bit of a lower back injury. I had 10 stitches in my knee in May. All kind of little setbacks.

I haven't really been able to string together a consistent block of training until recently – June and July – so hopefully I'll be going a little better now than I was before. 

It's a funny world because I've had interest but to be honest I've really been focused on riding my bike and improving rather than going around and and nitpicking at every team so I'm really looking forward to riding for Jumbo-Visma and that's definitely the right choice.

CN: To round things off, do you have a favourite rider or a favourite race?

TG: Oh good question. Probably Bradley Wiggins just because he's in London. He actually rode a lot at Herne Hill velodrome back in the early 2000s and he was the guy that really changed British Cycling massively.  I kind of came up - really started racing when he won the Olympics and Tour double in 2012 and that kind of changed the whole British landscape.

Obviously, it's the Tour de France, but that's got a long way to go and we'll see. For me it's all about trying to become the best ridere that I can be. At this stage it's very hard to say what that will be but I'm looking forward to trying to find out.

Check out Gloag's palmarès below, powered by FirstCycling