Junior spotlight: Tomos Pattinson Q&A

Tomos Pattinson became the second junior to win a National B road race this year when he took a commanding win at the Betty Pharoah Memorial road race earlier this month.

Pattinson’s win, defeating a quality field of senior domestic riders in the process, reaffirmed the 17-year-old Welshman’s status as one of the most promising British junior road racing talents today.

If I could choose any race at all, it would have to be a win at the Tour

Last season, riding for Halesowen A & CC, his accolades included a stage victory in the Junior Tour of Ireland and 6th overall at the Phillips Gilbert Juniors. His outstanding achievement, though, was undoubtedly finishing 4th overall at the Junior Tour of Wales – the best-placed first-year junior. The only riders to beat him were Ineos Grenadiers-bound Josh Tarling, and the pairing of Noah Hobbs and Josh Golliker, who both now rider for the Groupama-FDJ Continental development team. An outstanding achievement for a rider so early in their development.

This year, riding in the green of the Tofauti Everyone Active team, Pattinson already has a 6th overall at the Guido Reybrouck Juniors stage race to add to his Betty Pharaoh win. And as we write, he lies second overall at the Gipuzkoa Klasikoa race in Spain. A promising future beckons, it seems, if he can continue his fine progress.

Keen to find out more about the impressive Welshman, we had a brief catch-up with him after his Betty Pharoah win. Here is what he had to say.

The Betty Pharoah was your first win in a senior-level race. What were your expectations before the race, did you think a win could be on the cards?

I wasn’t really sure what to expect, we drove round the course and I thought that to do well I would have to get away, which I did … about halfway around the first lap I saw the break of a few strong riders in good teams get a gap and thought that it would be a good move to be in.

In particular, how did things unfold in the final lap to the finish? How did you seal the win?

We were still working in the front group up until about 1 mile to go, I wasn’t quite sure how the others were feeling, so when the sprint started. I just launched before the bridge.

It felt really good to take the win as it’s quite a special one, being as it is in Wales.

What’s the set-up like at Tofauti Everyone Active?

The setup is really good and organised, we get a lot of help from Dexter and Ian Mansel-Thomas.

We are planning to do a lot of European junior races this year with Tofauti, so the move did make sense. I was a bit gutted to leave Halesowen though, as I was there for so long and really enjoyed it.

How would you sum up how the season has been going? It looks like a good set of results on paper?

I am happy with my start to the season, with the win at the Betty Pharaoh and a good result at Guido Reybrouck 2.1 but there are a lot of races to go yet.

How do you plan to juggle training and racing alongside your studies this year?

I try to do all college work during the time I’m in college and on rest days, so I get time to focus on training without having to worry about completing work afterwards.

What would success look like for you this season? Do you have any particular targets?

I would like to get some solid results in junior races this year really, both national and in Europe.

I would say I prefer a race to be hilly as I think that suits me over it being flat.

What kind of rider would you say are? Or at least, what kind of rider do you aspire to be?

I would say I prefer a race to be hilly as I think that suits me over it being flat.

And if you could win any race in the future, what would it be and why?

If I could choose any race at all, it would have to be a win at the Tour.