Once the 'bad boy' of British Cycling, and then the 'outcast', former Hour world record holder Dan Bigham is now looking to help propel Great Britain back to Olympic glory.
The 31-year-old has settled his differences with the national federation and is out to settle his scores with the team pursuit, with sights set on the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024.
In that respect, this week's UCI Track World Championships are a major milestone, with Bigham representing Britain at a major international track event for the first time since 2018, and looking to gain momentum as part of a new pursuit quartet.
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"The team pursuit is the final box that I really want to tick as a rider," Bigham, who also works as a performance engineer for Ineos Grenadiers, told Cyclingnews ahead of Worlds.
Bigham's unfinished business with the discipline stems from two sources, both rippled by tensions with British Cycling.
Firstly, he feels he has yet to fulfil his athletic potential - a missed opportunity that may be pinned down to the way Bigham never fitted in with the national set-up. Bigham, frustrated by what he saw as a 'cookie-cutter' system, clashed with management and ended up forging a separate path as part of the KGF/Huub-Wattbike trade team, who quickly gained success and often competed directly against GB at World Cup events.
Secondly, Bigham missed out on Olympic glory last year - not with Britain, but with Denmark. Having found his passion for engineering a stumbling block at British Cycling, Bigham has gone on to work as an aerodynamics consultant for various teams and brands, and was hired by the Danish federation in 2019 to fine-tune their pursuit team.
"In my head it's unfinished business, especially with the fact Denmark didn't win in Tokyo. That hurt, it really did," Bigham said.
"I feel like I've got unfinished business personally with the team pursuit. I feel like I could have been a better athlete than I was, so basically my sole focus as a rider now is towards Paris and the team pursuit."
Bigham is back in the fold at British Cycling and is due to make his first major international team pursuit appearance in Paris this week, in his second outing for GB at a Track World Championships.
Bigham's return started on the road thanks to the national selector Matt Brammeier, who gave him the nod for the individual time trial at the 2021 Road Worlds. A change in management on the track side then re-opened the door to the velodrome this winter, with the departure of Iain Dyer followed by the arrivals of John Norfolk as head coach and Ben Greenwood as men's endurance coach.
"There always seemed to be some sort of controversy everywhere I went," Bigham said of his relationship with British Cycling.
"There was a change in management and immediately the door was open. It's been really really good, and I'm not just saying that. I've thoroughly enjoyed it. The staff there are very open. They've recognised what's gone on previously and put all that to bed and just focused on going forward."
Bigham, who will also ride the individual pursuit at Worlds this week, will line up in the team pursuit alongside Ineos Grenadiers rider Ethan Hayter, Ethan Vernon, and Ollie Wood. Charlie Tanfield, who was part of the Huub-Wattbike set-up, is also in contention for the squad that will make it to Paris.
"We've been on some training camps recently and it's just a really nice group, I get on with the guys really well," Bigham said. "I work with Ethan Hayter anyway at Ineos. Charlie Tanfield, I lived with him for many years and we've been teammates. Ethan Vernon as well; we were teammates back in 2018. They're great guys.
"It's an exciting place to be. There are 22 months to the Olympics and hopefully we can take a big step forward and GB can be the team pursuit giant that they were a couple of Olympic cycles ago."
