If you’re in the leading group with one lap to go and there are people out watching, ringing bells and shouting your name, you could be racing the Tour or a 1.12b Kermesse, it all still feels amazing and makes everything worthwhile
Dan Gardner is a bike racer through and through. Faced with a choice between university and cycling after completing his A-Levels, 18-year-old Gardner packed his bags and headed to the USA, supported by the Dave Rayner Foundation, to chase his dream. Over the next 9 seasons, Gardner has seen the sport he loves take him across the world, racing as far afield as Thailand and New Zealand, spending four years living and racing in Belgium and even competing in the UCI Road World Championships.
“In a strange sense it feels like I’m just getting started,” says the now 27-year-old Gardner when asked about what he wants to achieve in cycling now he’s back racing in the UK. “I took some time off after the pandemic and it feels like I have a good work-life balance. In terms of on the bike, I feel like in each race I’m getting stronger, so I want to keep that momentum.
“Right now, I just want to win and compete at a high level, I definitely think there’s more in me.”
Gardner is currently plying his trade for the Embark Spirit BSS team, which he joined this year. It is only Gardner’s second year in the UK since the junior ranks, having returned to race with Project 51 in 2022, the team of his coach Alan Denman, which supported him through his junior years.
Gardner’s return to the UK has been impressive, with a series of quality results in his first year spearheaded by 7th place at the Stockton GP. Under the tutelage of Russell Rowles and his Embark Spirit BSS team, Gardner has shone so far this season, taking the win in the South East Road Race Championships and claiming an excellent 18th place at the National Road Race Championships on a brutal course in the North East, among the first finishers not on a UCI team.
I was happy to finish, but it leaves me wanting to come back and be part of that front selection
“If I’m honest, I would have loved to have been up the road in the action, but the first few laps were just fierce and I wasn’t in the right place,” Gardner reflects on his National Road Championships ride. “I knew I had good legs and the course suited me, so I just kept chipping away and found myself in a group still racing for a result. I was happy to finish, but it leaves me wanting to come back and be part of that front selection.”
Ras Tailteann Stage 2, Ennis- Castlebar 19/5/2023 Dan Gardner of the Embark Spirit team leads the race on the way to Castlebar. Image: Lorraine O’Sullivan
Although no longer a UCI race, Gardner’s performance in the Rás Tailteann in May brought him international recognition, coming within a whisker of taking the race lead on the first stage and claiming 4th place overall.
“We just threw everything at it,” chuckles Gardener, telling the story of a crazy five days of racing. Gardner bridged to lone leader Conor McGoldrick with Joe Laverick on the opening stage with a handful of kilometres remaining, beaten to the line by McGoldrick in the three-up sprint for stage glory. “I didn’t know who Conor McGoldrick was before that, but he’s just a great bike rider. He really defended his lead well. We threw all sorts at him. It was just a battle on wheels for five days.
“All credit to the Irish teams too. It felt we like loosened the jam jar over the week, for them to pop up on the final stage and very cannily sneak away, while we were looking at Conor!”
Gardner looks back on the week fondly, the wheel-to-wheel attacking race the sort he loves. “I wouldn’t change any of it. As a team we rode so well that week and we all came away smiling. I wasn’t too disappointed at all.”
Racing the Rás Tailteann was a form of redemption for Gardner after he was forced miss out on his team’s ‘home’ race when he signed for the An Post-Chain Reaction squad for 2017. It was a season ravaged by injury for Gardner, his first racing in Europe.
“[Moving to An Post] was exactly the trajectory I was looking for, but ultimately it didn’t work out. I ended up crashing at the beginning of the year and struggling to get through a knee injury.” Gardner explained about his time on Sean Kelly’s team.
Dan Gardner when at An Post. Image: Sirotti
Living in Belgium after spending the latter half of 2016 there, Gardner was able to immerse himself in the cycling culture of Flanders and fall in love with the country. “It was all about the racing and bikes. It was the perfect place for me – great calendar, great support, great bikes, great management. It just didn’t fall into place and that was a real shame.”
I couldn’t put it down. I just enjoyed cycling and racing too much to put it to bed
Gardner was faced with a crossroads at the end of the season. The An Post – Chain Reaction team would close and still only 21, he was injured and without a team. “I couldn’t put it down. I just enjoyed cycling and racing too much to put it to bed,” he says. He decided to embark upon an engineering degree with the Open University and work part-time while racing with the amateur Baguet-MIBA Poorten-Indulek team for the next two years in Belgium.
“I went back to basics and got through the injury at my own pace, uncovering why it was taking so long. I’m pleased I did that because I feel like I know a lot more about my body and biomechanics. It’s made training and racing a breeze now.”
Racing in Belgium is a tough and competitive environment, the amateur scene among the most competitive in the world. A pure climber at only 64kg, Gardner admits the racing didn’t always suit him. “I’d love to get the opportunity to do some races with more elevation but what [Belgium] did is taught me about bike racing – how to read a race and be on the front foot, race well tactically. I’m hoping with a slightly higher level calendar I can bring the two things together. I’d love to race more on the continent, things like hillier stage races.”
Gardner impressed during his two years with the team, racing a packed calendar of elite kermesses and Clubkampioenschap races, the equivalent of the National Road Series, often attracting stars of the sport. It earned him a coveted place on Tarteletto-Isorex for 2020, Belgium’s premier UCI Continental Team and one of the biggest in the world at that level.
Gardner at the 2023 National Road Championships. Image: Gary Main
“I was really excited. I’d just got going with some good momentum. It’s such a well-respected team across Europe.
“Going on training camps with the likes of Maxime Vantomme and Elias Van Breussegem, they took me under their wing and I’d spent a lot of time over the past few years learning Flemish skills, so when I joined the team I was able to converse with those guys who understand bike races like no one else. Just being able to absorb all their information, it wasn’t only useful but it was a lot of fun as well. Cycling is part of their DNA in Belgium and they can talk about it for hours on end over dinner. That was one of the best things about that season, just being able to ride and chat with those guys.”
Unfortunately, the biggest year of Gardner’s career coincided with the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in Europe, putting a halt on racing in the country and obliterating the team’s calendar. The rearranged one-day races in late summer the extent of the race days available to Gardner that season.
We ended up turning out against WorldTour riders who had come straight from stage races. We had a much more limited calendar and we just couldn’t get going
“We ended up turning out against WorldTour riders who had come straight from stage races. We had a much more limited calendar and we just couldn’t get going. I couldn’t find my groove because of the limited calendar,” he concedes.
The love that Gardner has for Belgium shines through as we speak. Despite no longer riding for a team in the region, he visited Flanders at the end of May this year for a number of kermesse races, clocking up a win in Oosterzele, sharing the podium with his former Tarteletto-Isorex teammate Elias Van Breussegem. A fitting image for the trajectory of Gardner’s career, past and present.
“I really found a home from home out here [in Belgium] with the teams which were looking after me and the families that would come out and help with feeds and bottles. It did start to feel like my home.
“I guess I learned to deal with the setbacks and take the positives. The fact I’m still out here says a lot about how much I love cycling.” Said Gardner, summing up his time in his adopted home country.
Gardner racing at Goodwood this year. Image: John Maynard
It would be easy to dwell on what could have been for the 27-year-old, who by the end of 2020 had found himself out of contract and without the prospect of a ride through no real fault of his own. Gardner looks upon his Belgian experience with no thoughts of what could have been, admitting he loved almost every minute of his time racing his bike.
I wouldn’t change anything, it’s made me who I am. You learn quite quickly that life isn’t fair
“I wouldn’t change anything, it’s made me who I am. You learn quite quickly that life isn’t fair. I like to think that things are clicking now and at 27 I may be quite old, but I’ve got a good number of years ahead of me where I can make it to a higher level, especially after a few years now where cycling has become almost a side hustle with work and university.”
Gardner’s passion for cycling hasn’t wavered over the past decade and he admits cycling is everything to him. “Multiple times I’ve picked up work in Belgium and New Zealand but nothing has ever really got my attention like a bike race and I don’t think that’s ever going to change.”
When pressed on where he sees himself in the future Gardner offers a response indicative of the racer he is. “I don’t really think of where I’d like to be in terms of teams or levels, I’d just love to be competing for the win in big races.”
Belgium has influenced Gardner’s life perhaps more than any other place, meeting his girlfriend in his time racing there, then moving to her native New Zealand after the first Covid-19 lockdown when her French visa expired. “I had to make a choice to go back with her or be apart from her for a while. I left without a plan but quite quickly found a good job working as a bike fitter in Auckland. I found I really started to like the culture and lifestyle there. I stayed put and now have residency.”
Naturally, Gardner sunk his teeth into the Auckland cycling scene, first gaining a taste on a trip there in late 2019 that included the Tour of Chiangrai in Thailand.
“The racing in New Zealand is a really high level for such a small population. The races themselves are on really challenging courses, the main difference is the depth and size of the field compared to Europe.
“Physically the racing can be very tough. The Tour of Southland is eight stages long and traverses some of the mountain ranges in the South Island.
“It’s a really fun environment and everyone was super welcoming to this Brit who came to infiltrate some of the races!”
Gardner has found success in his adopted home, winning a stage of the Tour of Southland last November and claiming 7th place in the NZ Cycle Classic, a five-day UCI 2.2 stage race.
It means that for the past two seasons, Gardner has eschewed the traditional month long layoff and warm weather training camp in favour of a high-intensity, year-round, race-led approach; another thing Gardner embraces with enthusiasm.
I think these days riders are proving they don’t need the traditional four-week off-season and slow build throughout the winter
“I think these days riders are proving they don’t need the traditional four-week off-season and slow build throughout the winter. I’ve found it’s really helped me having those targets throughout the winter [the New Zealand summer[. I came into this European season primed and ready instead of coming out of a cold winter where it takes about a month to get the engine going.”
At the 2022 Tour of Southland. Image: James Jubb
Gardner may now be plying his winter trade in New Zealand, but his career started on another continent, the then 18-year-old joining Astellas, a UCI Continental outfit in the USA.
Following an impressive 5th place in the Junior Tour of Wales, the biggest junior race in Britain, Project 51 coach Alan Denman informed both Gardner and fellow Haywards Heath rider Matt Green of an opportunity to race with a UCI Continental Team in the USA, with funding from the Dave Rayner Foundation making it a reality.
“I had just finished my A-Levels and was deciding whether to go to uni or not,” recalls Gardner. “I picked two years with that team and it was really a school of racing for me.”
The experience taught Gardner a lot of life skills as well, something he believes set in him good stead when he made the move to Belgium permanently in 2017. “An 18-year-old turning up at LA Airport and having to get myself around and learn how to live independently. It was great!
“The first year I was living with Matt Green in Milwaukee where the Astellas team was based, then the second year I was staying in teammate Jake Sitler’s basement.”
The US cycling scene is small and close knit, a travelling circus as Gardner describes it. “Starting in Florida, you work your way up through California, cross to the east coast and into Canada” he recalls with the precision of a travel agent selling his two year experience.
It was pretty incredible for an 18-year-old to see all these different places and cultures. At times it was overwhelming but I learned a lot about myself in those two years and got myself out of some tricky situations
“It was pretty incredible for an 18-year-old to see all these different places and cultures. At times it was overwhelming but I learned a lot about myself in those two years and got myself out of some tricky situations.”
Racing wise Gardner had a baptism of fire racing the competitive criteriums which make up the bulk of the US calendar, where he quickly honed in on essential skills such as cornering and positioning.
“Outside of the racing what I found was really unique to the States was their host housing culture. The whole community would really get behind a stage race and foreign riders like myself would often get put up with host families who would take us in and show us around on return for a few good stories about the race! That was a really good way to get to know the locals.
“The whole two years were quite a holistic approach to bike racing; travelling, racing, getting to know people and your teammates.”
The UK scene and its National Road Series may not be as adventurous or as exciting as Gardner’s time racing abroad, but Gardner paints a picture of a rider excited about the future. With no solid plans past a winter in New Zealand for 2023, Gardner remains focused on cycling, winning races, and above all, chasing his dream – racing bikes.
Dan Gardner is a bike racer through and through. Faced with a choice between university and cycling after completing his A-Levels, 18-year-old Gardner packed his bags and headed to the USA, supported by the Dave Rayner Foundation, to chase his dream. Over the next 9 seasons, Gardner has seen the sport he loves take him across the world, racing as far afield as Thailand and New Zealand, spending four years living and racing in Belgium and even competing in the UCI Road World Championships.
“In a strange sense it feels like I’m just getting started,” says the now 27-year-old Gardner when asked about what he wants to achieve in cycling now he’s back racing in the UK. “I took some time off after the pandemic and it feels like I have a good work-life balance. In terms of on the bike, I feel like in each race I’m getting stronger, so I want to keep that momentum.
“Right now, I just want to win and compete at a high level, I definitely think there’s more in me.”
Gardner is currently plying his trade for the Embark Spirit BSS team, which he joined this year. It is only Gardner’s second year in the UK since the junior ranks, having returned to race with Project 51 in 2022, the team of his coach Alan Denman, which supported him through his junior years.
Gardner’s return to the UK has been impressive, with a series of quality results in his first year spearheaded by 7th place at the Stockton GP. Under the tutelage of Russell Rowles and his Embark Spirit BSS team, Gardner has shone so far this season, taking the win in the South East Road Race Championships and claiming an excellent 18th place at the National Road Race Championships on a brutal course in the North East, among the first finishers not on a UCI team.
“If I’m honest, I would have loved to have been up the road in the action, but the first few laps were just fierce and I wasn’t in the right place,” Gardner reflects on his National Road Championships ride. “I knew I had good legs and the course suited me, so I just kept chipping away and found myself in a group still racing for a result. I was happy to finish, but it leaves me wanting to come back and be part of that front selection.”
Although no longer a UCI race, Gardner’s performance in the Rás Tailteann in May brought him international recognition, coming within a whisker of taking the race lead on the first stage and claiming 4th place overall.
“We just threw everything at it,” chuckles Gardener, telling the story of a crazy five days of racing. Gardner bridged to lone leader Conor McGoldrick with Joe Laverick on the opening stage with a handful of kilometres remaining, beaten to the line by McGoldrick in the three-up sprint for stage glory. “I didn’t know who Conor McGoldrick was before that, but he’s just a great bike rider. He really defended his lead well. We threw all sorts at him. It was just a battle on wheels for five days.
“All credit to the Irish teams too. It felt we like loosened the jam jar over the week, for them to pop up on the final stage and very cannily sneak away, while we were looking at Conor!”
Gardner looks back on the week fondly, the wheel-to-wheel attacking race the sort he loves. “I wouldn’t change any of it. As a team we rode so well that week and we all came away smiling. I wasn’t too disappointed at all.”
Racing the Rás Tailteann was a form of redemption for Gardner after he was forced miss out on his team’s ‘home’ race when he signed for the An Post-Chain Reaction squad for 2017. It was a season ravaged by injury for Gardner, his first racing in Europe.
“[Moving to An Post] was exactly the trajectory I was looking for, but ultimately it didn’t work out. I ended up crashing at the beginning of the year and struggling to get through a knee injury.” Gardner explained about his time on Sean Kelly’s team.
Living in Belgium after spending the latter half of 2016 there, Gardner was able to immerse himself in the cycling culture of Flanders and fall in love with the country. “It was all about the racing and bikes. It was the perfect place for me – great calendar, great support, great bikes, great management. It just didn’t fall into place and that was a real shame.”
Gardner was faced with a crossroads at the end of the season. The An Post – Chain Reaction team would close and still only 21, he was injured and without a team. “I couldn’t put it down. I just enjoyed cycling and racing too much to put it to bed,” he says. He decided to embark upon an engineering degree with the Open University and work part-time while racing with the amateur Baguet-MIBA Poorten-Indulek team for the next two years in Belgium.
“I went back to basics and got through the injury at my own pace, uncovering why it was taking so long. I’m pleased I did that because I feel like I know a lot more about my body and biomechanics. It’s made training and racing a breeze now.”
Racing in Belgium is a tough and competitive environment, the amateur scene among the most competitive in the world. A pure climber at only 64kg, Gardner admits the racing didn’t always suit him. “I’d love to get the opportunity to do some races with more elevation but what [Belgium] did is taught me about bike racing – how to read a race and be on the front foot, race well tactically. I’m hoping with a slightly higher level calendar I can bring the two things together. I’d love to race more on the continent, things like hillier stage races.”
Gardner impressed during his two years with the team, racing a packed calendar of elite kermesses and Clubkampioenschap races, the equivalent of the National Road Series, often attracting stars of the sport. It earned him a coveted place on Tarteletto-Isorex for 2020, Belgium’s premier UCI Continental Team and one of the biggest in the world at that level.
“I was really excited. I’d just got going with some good momentum. It’s such a well-respected team across Europe.
“Going on training camps with the likes of Maxime Vantomme and Elias Van Breussegem, they took me under their wing and I’d spent a lot of time over the past few years learning Flemish skills, so when I joined the team I was able to converse with those guys who understand bike races like no one else. Just being able to absorb all their information, it wasn’t only useful but it was a lot of fun as well. Cycling is part of their DNA in Belgium and they can talk about it for hours on end over dinner. That was one of the best things about that season, just being able to ride and chat with those guys.”
Unfortunately, the biggest year of Gardner’s career coincided with the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in Europe, putting a halt on racing in the country and obliterating the team’s calendar. The rearranged one-day races in late summer the extent of the race days available to Gardner that season.
“We ended up turning out against WorldTour riders who had come straight from stage races. We had a much more limited calendar and we just couldn’t get going. I couldn’t find my groove because of the limited calendar,” he concedes.
The love that Gardner has for Belgium shines through as we speak. Despite no longer riding for a team in the region, he visited Flanders at the end of May this year for a number of kermesse races, clocking up a win in Oosterzele, sharing the podium with his former Tarteletto-Isorex teammate Elias Van Breussegem. A fitting image for the trajectory of Gardner’s career, past and present.
“I really found a home from home out here [in Belgium] with the teams which were looking after me and the families that would come out and help with feeds and bottles. It did start to feel like my home.
“I guess I learned to deal with the setbacks and take the positives. The fact I’m still out here says a lot about how much I love cycling.” Said Gardner, summing up his time in his adopted home country.
It would be easy to dwell on what could have been for the 27-year-old, who by the end of 2020 had found himself out of contract and without the prospect of a ride through no real fault of his own. Gardner looks upon his Belgian experience with no thoughts of what could have been, admitting he loved almost every minute of his time racing his bike.
“I wouldn’t change anything, it’s made me who I am. You learn quite quickly that life isn’t fair. I like to think that things are clicking now and at 27 I may be quite old, but I’ve got a good number of years ahead of me where I can make it to a higher level, especially after a few years now where cycling has become almost a side hustle with work and university.”
Gardner’s passion for cycling hasn’t wavered over the past decade and he admits cycling is everything to him. “Multiple times I’ve picked up work in Belgium and New Zealand but nothing has ever really got my attention like a bike race and I don’t think that’s ever going to change.”
When pressed on where he sees himself in the future Gardner offers a response indicative of the racer he is. “I don’t really think of where I’d like to be in terms of teams or levels, I’d just love to be competing for the win in big races.”
Belgium has influenced Gardner’s life perhaps more than any other place, meeting his girlfriend in his time racing there, then moving to her native New Zealand after the first Covid-19 lockdown when her French visa expired. “I had to make a choice to go back with her or be apart from her for a while. I left without a plan but quite quickly found a good job working as a bike fitter in Auckland. I found I really started to like the culture and lifestyle there. I stayed put and now have residency.”
Naturally, Gardner sunk his teeth into the Auckland cycling scene, first gaining a taste on a trip there in late 2019 that included the Tour of Chiangrai in Thailand.
“The racing in New Zealand is a really high level for such a small population. The races themselves are on really challenging courses, the main difference is the depth and size of the field compared to Europe.
“Physically the racing can be very tough. The Tour of Southland is eight stages long and traverses some of the mountain ranges in the South Island.
“It’s a really fun environment and everyone was super welcoming to this Brit who came to infiltrate some of the races!”
Gardner has found success in his adopted home, winning a stage of the Tour of Southland last November and claiming 7th place in the NZ Cycle Classic, a five-day UCI 2.2 stage race.
It means that for the past two seasons, Gardner has eschewed the traditional month long layoff and warm weather training camp in favour of a high-intensity, year-round, race-led approach; another thing Gardner embraces with enthusiasm.
“I think these days riders are proving they don’t need the traditional four-week off-season and slow build throughout the winter. I’ve found it’s really helped me having those targets throughout the winter [the New Zealand summer[. I came into this European season primed and ready instead of coming out of a cold winter where it takes about a month to get the engine going.”
Gardner may now be plying his winter trade in New Zealand, but his career started on another continent, the then 18-year-old joining Astellas, a UCI Continental outfit in the USA.
Following an impressive 5th place in the Junior Tour of Wales, the biggest junior race in Britain, Project 51 coach Alan Denman informed both Gardner and fellow Haywards Heath rider Matt Green of an opportunity to race with a UCI Continental Team in the USA, with funding from the Dave Rayner Foundation making it a reality.
“I had just finished my A-Levels and was deciding whether to go to uni or not,” recalls Gardner. “I picked two years with that team and it was really a school of racing for me.”
The experience taught Gardner a lot of life skills as well, something he believes set in him good stead when he made the move to Belgium permanently in 2017. “An 18-year-old turning up at LA Airport and having to get myself around and learn how to live independently. It was great!
“The first year I was living with Matt Green in Milwaukee where the Astellas team was based, then the second year I was staying in teammate Jake Sitler’s basement.”
The US cycling scene is small and close knit, a travelling circus as Gardner describes it. “Starting in Florida, you work your way up through California, cross to the east coast and into Canada” he recalls with the precision of a travel agent selling his two year experience.
“It was pretty incredible for an 18-year-old to see all these different places and cultures. At times it was overwhelming but I learned a lot about myself in those two years and got myself out of some tricky situations.”
Racing wise Gardner had a baptism of fire racing the competitive criteriums which make up the bulk of the US calendar, where he quickly honed in on essential skills such as cornering and positioning.
“Outside of the racing what I found was really unique to the States was their host housing culture. The whole community would really get behind a stage race and foreign riders like myself would often get put up with host families who would take us in and show us around on return for a few good stories about the race! That was a really good way to get to know the locals.
“The whole two years were quite a holistic approach to bike racing; travelling, racing, getting to know people and your teammates.”
The UK scene and its National Road Series may not be as adventurous or as exciting as Gardner’s time racing abroad, but Gardner paints a picture of a rider excited about the future. With no solid plans past a winter in New Zealand for 2023, Gardner remains focused on cycling, winning races, and above all, chasing his dream – racing bikes.
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