'The gap between second and first is humongous, and I've crossed that now' – Cameron Mason reflects on his breakthrough victory and that next piece of the puzzle

On Wednesday, Cameron Mason found what he'd been looking for over a number of years: victory in a major international cyclo-cross race. Raising his arms in Niel, the 27-year-old Scot became the first British rider since Tom Pidcock in 2022 to win a round of the Superprestige series.

Mason has racked up plenty of top-fives since graduating from the U23s to the elites in 2022-2023, along with the odd podium, but in the biggest series like the World Cup or Superprestige, victory has eluded him. Until now.

In muddy conditions that suited his technical prowess, the 777tv CX Team rider got rid of Michael Vanthourenhout and Joran Wyseure on the final lap to solo to a victory that will go down as a breakthrough moment.

But where does he go from here? And what doors might this victory now open?

Cyclingnews caught up with Mason the day after the race to hear about his sense of relief and satisfaction, how he channeled his frustrations from the European Championships, and how he's trying to be a more complete rider than ever this season.

CN: You said after the race in Niel that it maybe hadn't sunk in yet. With a night to sleep on it, has it done so?

CM: Yeah, when I spoke after the race, I had spent the last hour kind of just doing it. Since Euros, I was just wanting to do the ride I knew I could do, or knew I could have done on Sunday. Then there wasn't much more to say because I felt like I'd just shown exactly what I wanted to do. So that was a nice feeling of 'no excuses', and I didn't need to dress anything up. It was just exactly what you saw, which was an hour of being in control and being strong enough and smart enough to be first across the line.

And it still feels pretty fresh. I haven't really got a plan for what's next, which is fine. So I'm just enjoying it for what it is now. But there wasn't much of a big celebration because there's also that little bit of like... it's annoying that it was coming for so long. It wasn't a surprise, basically. There wasn't that shock or anything. It was more like 'finally', and like 'there you go' – showing everyone that's what I thought I could do years ago, and I've done it now. So that was a very satisfying feeling.

CN: Is there a bit of relief in there as well, or a sort of pressure lifted?

CM: Yeah, there's a bit of relief. I think. I mean, I could have spent the next five years chasing that, and that would have been fine. Every year, I really enjoy the puzzle, and putting all the puzzle pieces together in pursuit of that next thing. The next thing happened to be winning a bike race, but three years ago, the next thing was getting on the podium, and before that, it was getting a professional contract. The goalposts just moved and so now, clearly the next thing is to win again, but that feels less daunting than it did.

The gap between getting second and first is humongous, it’s vast. Mentally and physically, the difference between being second best and being the best is huge, and I've crossed that now. I'm not sure what I've learned yet, but I think when I turn up at the start line the next few races, I'll realise, 'OK, that's that's what changed'.

CN: You've mentioned the European Championships on Sunday, and we've seen your slightly cryptic, slightly emotional Instagram post. How down did you feel after that race, and how big a moment was it for you in terms of bouncing back?

CM: If I read that post, I still agree with it because I’ve had enough results to not be happy with some results, and that was a result I wasn't happy with. And it doesn't matter what other people say or how I got the result. It does get to a point where, if you keep getting a result despite an adversity it’s all well and good, but at the end of the day, I also just wanted a result where it was more simple. And Sunday wasn't really simple, you know. I messed up my start I had these massive gaps to bridge, and then I didn't play the final quite right, even for a medal after all of that.

I was probably being a bit… not optimistic, but I was kind of fantasising about the idea that ‘oh, on Sunday I maybe could have won’, which was probably still a bit ambitious, but I think just fantasising that meant that I could arrive on Wednesday, going, ‘right, well, maybe I can win this one’. No one will know if I could have won or not at Euros. But actually I can decide now. I can try and show everyone that I can win today. It was good timing.

CN: How are you feeling about this season in general? How has it been going and how good have you felt compared to previous seasons?

CM: I feel about the same. At the start, it felt… not harder than ever, but like it felt as fast as ever. And the summer is very long. From my last race in February all the way to my first race again in October, there's a lot that goes on. You just spend all summer going ‘was that the right thing to do?’

The cyclo-cross season such a hard one to periodise because there's always a race, and they're all quite important, and it's just that constant revolving cast of guys on form, guys with problems, Thibau [Nys] coming in, Van der Poel maybe coming in later. It’s just constantly moving, and to pick a goal is really tricky.

What's similar to last year is that I didn't really decide to be this good at this moment. It just kind of happened. But when when that form comes, then you deal with it in a smart way. And I think we've done a really good job of that the last few weeks. We really aimed for Koppenbergcross, and that didn't quite work out physically but when you aim for something, you know that work is going to come through at some point, and it has done in the last couple weeks. And since Middelkerke, I've known that physically I'm there, technically I'm there, tactically there are things to work on, and then you just wait – well, for me it was just waiting until it rained a bit.

CN: The muddy stuff is where you feel you have a big advantage…?

CM: It helps. Once the speeds come down a bit, and once every corner is a little bit more technical, then things just go a bit more in my favour. But the cool thing about this season has been I've been way more competitive on way more different types of courses. When I'm in good shape, it doesn't matter what the course is – if it's fast, if it's sandy or whatever – I’ll be there or thereabouts, but it means that when there's a course that really suits me, then then I've got that extra little edge.

But I'm trying to get away from the obsession with certain courses, because you might be sacrificing an opportunity on a course that you maybe wouldn't have thought you'd be that good at. Last year at the Euros it was a full sand course, bone dry, super fast, 30kph, but I was fighting for a medal. This year, I’m trying to think about it in a different way.

CN: Looking ahead, what what else would you like to get out of the season now?

CM: I mean, there's loads of other races, so that's cool. I want to keep the consistency going. Yesterday was a bit of an outlier in my results – I've got quite a lot of fourths and fifths and sixths, and then I've got this one win – so just to be in in with a shot of winning again would be would be a like realistic goal, and hopefully I can keep this form for as long as I can.

CN: You hinted at it earlier, but is there anything you can tap into now in terms of that winning mindset? You hear of athletes in other sports that have that breakthrough win and something clicks and it sort of opens the floodgates.

CM: Mentally, a bit of the pressure is off because I've proven to everyone and to myself that it's possible, and then yeah, I can turn that into confidence as well. Like, I know how to win, I've worked out how to win on this one specific race, parcours, day… then the puzzle is to do that on another day with different competition, different conditions, with different legs.

As I was saying, it's just another puzzle piece – now there's this piece of the puzzle that says I can win, so how do I do that again? It took like five years to do it, but how do I do it again? I was chatting to my coach this morning, and probably the best thing to do is do nothing. Just do exactly the same and carry on as if I didn't win. Logistically, the training, sleeping, eating, all that stuff needs to be just as good as it was for the last however many years. But the mindset thing, I feel more confident and that can't be a bad thing.

CN: What does the rest of the season hold in terms of your calendar?

CM: need to work out if I'm going to do all the Superprestige races. That wasn't on my calendar, but now I'm leading the series overall, so I need to work out if I focus a bit more on that. I’m probably going to do all of the World Cups. Everyone's got the same puzzle. You can't do everything, so you’ve got to kind of pick and choose. I'll have a better idea after this weekend.

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