Ross Lamb returned to racing after an 18 month absence following a major operation, uncertain about his performance due to the layoff, but determined to achieve success.
Last month’s Danum Trophy in South Yorkshire may be remembered for the savage crosswinds and Damien Clayton’s win from a two up sprint, but further down the field, Mansfield’s Ross Lamb was recording his own, personal, victory: the 28-year-old returned to the sport 18 months after his last race, a diagnosis of external iliac artery endofibrosis early last year and a major operation to rectify it, forcing him to miss the entire 2023 season.
“It’s a fresh start.” Lamb explained, speaking to The British Continental on the eve of his comeback. After such a long lay off and surgery, he was unsure of how he would fare returning to the sport, a 21st place on the windswept roads surrounding Doncaster a positive starting point for the former Ribble Weldtite rider.
The only proof that the operation has been a success, I mean it’s been a success in my eyes already because I’m back riding a bike, is in the results
Addressing the season as a whole, Lamb admits he is entering the unknown, having only been back training a matter of months. “I don’t know where to put my expectations,” he says. “The only proof that the operation has been a success, I mean it’s been a success in my eyes already because I’m back riding a bike, is in the results.
2022 AJ Bell Tour of Britain – Stage 5 – West Bridgford to Mansfield, England – Ross Lamb, Ribble Weldtite. Image: Zac Williams/SWpix.com
“It’s been quite a sharp uprise since getting back on the road bike in January,” he continues, as the conversation turns to his preparations for returning to competitive cycling. Working with coach Martin Rigby, whom he met through his first club, Mansfield RC, the pair have plotted a route back into the sport, starting with the very basics. “First, as you can imagine, it was just pootling along, and I mean pootling, because it’s a major operation. I’ve just been taking it day by day and analysing how I’m feeling.
Realistically, I’m not going to be going well until late summer. I’ve done a lot of workload since January, but, you know, these guys have been training since November or whenever
“[After the first few races] we’ll be able to have a chat then. See where I’m at. See if I need to train differently. Put some circles around races on the calendar and start targeting things. But realistically, I’m not going to be going well until late summer. I’ve done a lot of workload since January, but, you know, these guys have been training since November or whenever, after they’ve had their winter breaks. So that’s the biggest thing as well – I didn’t race last year – I’ve got to come back from the operation on top of that time off.”
Lamb has signed for the new North Macedonian Continental Team, Novapor-Speedbike, an outfit featuring fellow Brit Oliver Robinson, as well as a number of riders from North Macedonia, Greece, and Belgium. The move came about after he was approached by DS Luc Schuddinck, after initially agreeing to join a different project he was involved in before his diagnosis in early 2023. “Whenever I’ve been over and done races abroad, he’s always been one of the DSs that would come and introduce himself to me and have a good chat,” he says of the colourful Flandrian.
“I actually committed last year to race for a new team that he started up – Benediction Kitei Pro. Basically, they were going to be getting a lot of funding from the UCI because they’re supposed to be running the World Championships in Rwanda in 2025, and setting up a Continental team was their idea of investing in the future of Rwandan cycling. Half the team was Rwandan, and then there were a few Brits and basically the rest of it was a cohort from Belgium, and it was basically Belgian managed.”
However, the team would never come to fruition due to issues in the background, something which ultimately would not affect Lamb, given his diagnosis in the January of 2023 forcing him off the bike.
It’s hoping to put cycling on the map there as the first North Macedonian Continental team
“It’s pretty much a progression of that team,” explains Lamb, turning to Novapor-Speedbike. “It’s still sort of two halves of the management team coming together. So Luc has his ‘consortium’, and then there’s the North Macedonian side, which is backed by the president of cycling in North Macedonia. It’s hoping to put cycling on the map there as the first North Macedonian Continental team.”
Schuddink seems to have formed a close bond with Lamb, who will be aboard his own Handsling bike this season, having signed a deal with the British firm separate to the rest of the team. The veteran DS messaged the 28-year-old his support through last year and told him about another rider he knows to have come through the other side of the condition to remain in the WorldTour.
He knows a rider, Jonas Rickaert, who rides for Alpecin-Deceuninck. He had the same operation, and he said it comes back quick, the fitness
“Luc, he kept in contact with me all the way through last year. He knows a rider, Jonas Rickaert, who rides for Alpecin-Deceuninck. He had the same operation, and he said it comes back quick, the fitness, if you treat the condition with a bit of respect – the lay off and the rehab. He made sure I was comfortable knowing he was keeping a space open for me on this project.”
No stranger to injury, after taking up cycling as rehabilitation during his time as a trainee with Mansfield Town Football Club, Lamb was faced with the biggest challenge of his career when he started to struggle with a pain around his left hip and thigh in 2018. After various misdiagnoses, including a weak glute muscle, Lamb managed the condition until he was eventually diagnosed with external iliac artery endofibrosis at the beginning of 2023.
“So, basically, the artery that comes down from the heart, down into the abdomen and splits off to your legs. Basically, one of these arteries was not allowing all the blood to flow to my left leg,” he explains, opening up about the struggles he went through, both physically and mentally. “It was affecting me daily in the end. I got very good at riding around it without knowing what the issue was. But it got to the point where it was affecting me trying to sleep, sit down, or bend over. To get diagnosed was quite a process. I think I was referred five different times to different people, having different scans and all sorts.
“It’s been quite hard mentally. The hardest thing was waiting when they told me I’ve got this, and then getting it diagnosed, and then waiting for the operation and all the faffing about actually going down the route seeing the right person, it was very difficult.”
My potential is more than what I was doing in 2018 because I’ve been riding with only a quarter of my left leg working
Having managed the condition for so long, the potential for Lamb to improve on his results is clear, having been affected by it during some of his prime years. “The last month, my numbers have been getting better. They’re not what they were pre-operation, but there’s a lot of potential to go further and see where I was limited in the past,” he muses. “I didn’t use a power meter when this started back in 2018, I only started using one when I moved to Swift halfway through 2019, but what my coach has let slide a couple of times, is that he thinks my potential is more than what I was doing in 2018 because I’ve been riding with only a quarter of my left leg working. I can actually train and recover from efforts with it [now].”
Lamb’s results during his time with the condition are remarkable, often riding with severe pain around his left hip and thigh, becoming one of the most consistent riders in the UK. His breakthrough National A result, a 4th place in the 2021 Beaumont Trophy, achieved just a matter of days before a battling ride to 18th at the National Road Race Championships on the famous Lincoln GP circuit, came at one of the most difficult times. “My leg was really bad from the Tour of Portugal, [which was] the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. Then, into the Tour of Britain, it flared up again, but in a strange way, where it was in my hip and back. I was twisting on the bike to try and avoid using my left leg. So that was probably one of the worst periods around then.
“I guess if you take out the WorldTour and Pro Conti riders I’d have got what looks like a very good result [at the National Road Race Championships]. I’ve only raced Lincoln twice, 2016 and the Nationals, but it’s a race I’d love to win,” he admits, shrugging off the suggestion that he entered the race with an outside chance of victory.
Lamb’s final race prior to his diagnosis, and forced hiatus, was an impressive third place in the season ending Beaumont Trophy in 2022, where he was on the podium with two riders who have raced at the sport’s highest level in Alex Richardson and Jack Rootkin-Gray. After impressing during his time in Belgium, and Britain, with Continental squads, riding for a Pro or WorldTour team is an opportunity Lamb has perhaps been unfortunate not to have, and one he would still grab with both hands.
How long do I do it for? I don’t know. But at the same time, getting back on my bike is a successful thing in my eyes anyway
“Obviously, I’d like to do it [turn professional]. It’s like, this week, for the first time, I said to my coach, ‘I am good enough, it’s just I’ve had this issue in the background without knowing about it’. The first few weeks after I got diagnosed, I was like, ‘you know what? If I was to stop riding it right now, this is a good way to go out – on the podium with like two guys that have been WorldTour, basically’. So, you know, I was content.
“I’ve got no goals returning, it’s like, sort of just enjoy it, and realistically, I’m 28 now, and although experience counts for something in this game, especially in the UK scene because I mean, there’s not many that are experienced on the Conti scene now, realistically can you make a living out of it? No. So, how long do I do it for? I don’t know. But at the same time, getting back on my bike is a successful thing in my eyes anyway.”
Last month’s Danum Trophy in South Yorkshire may be remembered for the savage crosswinds and Damien Clayton’s win from a two up sprint, but further down the field, Mansfield’s Ross Lamb was recording his own, personal, victory: the 28-year-old returned to the sport 18 months after his last race, a diagnosis of external iliac artery endofibrosis early last year and a major operation to rectify it, forcing him to miss the entire 2023 season.
“It’s a fresh start.” Lamb explained, speaking to The British Continental on the eve of his comeback. After such a long lay off and surgery, he was unsure of how he would fare returning to the sport, a 21st place on the windswept roads surrounding Doncaster a positive starting point for the former Ribble Weldtite rider.
Addressing the season as a whole, Lamb admits he is entering the unknown, having only been back training a matter of months. “I don’t know where to put my expectations,” he says. “The only proof that the operation has been a success, I mean it’s been a success in my eyes already because I’m back riding a bike, is in the results.
“It’s been quite a sharp uprise since getting back on the road bike in January,” he continues, as the conversation turns to his preparations for returning to competitive cycling. Working with coach Martin Rigby, whom he met through his first club, Mansfield RC, the pair have plotted a route back into the sport, starting with the very basics. “First, as you can imagine, it was just pootling along, and I mean pootling, because it’s a major operation. I’ve just been taking it day by day and analysing how I’m feeling.
“[After the first few races] we’ll be able to have a chat then. See where I’m at. See if I need to train differently. Put some circles around races on the calendar and start targeting things. But realistically, I’m not going to be going well until late summer. I’ve done a lot of workload since January, but, you know, these guys have been training since November or whenever, after they’ve had their winter breaks. So that’s the biggest thing as well – I didn’t race last year – I’ve got to come back from the operation on top of that time off.”
Lamb has signed for the new North Macedonian Continental Team, Novapor-Speedbike, an outfit featuring fellow Brit Oliver Robinson, as well as a number of riders from North Macedonia, Greece, and Belgium. The move came about after he was approached by DS Luc Schuddinck, after initially agreeing to join a different project he was involved in before his diagnosis in early 2023. “Whenever I’ve been over and done races abroad, he’s always been one of the DSs that would come and introduce himself to me and have a good chat,” he says of the colourful Flandrian.
“I actually committed last year to race for a new team that he started up – Benediction Kitei Pro. Basically, they were going to be getting a lot of funding from the UCI because they’re supposed to be running the World Championships in Rwanda in 2025, and setting up a Continental team was their idea of investing in the future of Rwandan cycling. Half the team was Rwandan, and then there were a few Brits and basically the rest of it was a cohort from Belgium, and it was basically Belgian managed.”
However, the team would never come to fruition due to issues in the background, something which ultimately would not affect Lamb, given his diagnosis in the January of 2023 forcing him off the bike.
“It’s pretty much a progression of that team,” explains Lamb, turning to Novapor-Speedbike. “It’s still sort of two halves of the management team coming together. So Luc has his ‘consortium’, and then there’s the North Macedonian side, which is backed by the president of cycling in North Macedonia. It’s hoping to put cycling on the map there as the first North Macedonian Continental team.”
Schuddink seems to have formed a close bond with Lamb, who will be aboard his own Handsling bike this season, having signed a deal with the British firm separate to the rest of the team. The veteran DS messaged the 28-year-old his support through last year and told him about another rider he knows to have come through the other side of the condition to remain in the WorldTour.
“Luc, he kept in contact with me all the way through last year. He knows a rider, Jonas Rickaert, who rides for Alpecin-Deceuninck. He had the same operation, and he said it comes back quick, the fitness, if you treat the condition with a bit of respect – the lay off and the rehab. He made sure I was comfortable knowing he was keeping a space open for me on this project.”
No stranger to injury, after taking up cycling as rehabilitation during his time as a trainee with Mansfield Town Football Club, Lamb was faced with the biggest challenge of his career when he started to struggle with a pain around his left hip and thigh in 2018. After various misdiagnoses, including a weak glute muscle, Lamb managed the condition until he was eventually diagnosed with external iliac artery endofibrosis at the beginning of 2023.
“So, basically, the artery that comes down from the heart, down into the abdomen and splits off to your legs. Basically, one of these arteries was not allowing all the blood to flow to my left leg,” he explains, opening up about the struggles he went through, both physically and mentally. “It was affecting me daily in the end. I got very good at riding around it without knowing what the issue was. But it got to the point where it was affecting me trying to sleep, sit down, or bend over. To get diagnosed was quite a process. I think I was referred five different times to different people, having different scans and all sorts.
“It’s been quite hard mentally. The hardest thing was waiting when they told me I’ve got this, and then getting it diagnosed, and then waiting for the operation and all the faffing about actually going down the route seeing the right person, it was very difficult.”
Having managed the condition for so long, the potential for Lamb to improve on his results is clear, having been affected by it during some of his prime years. “The last month, my numbers have been getting better. They’re not what they were pre-operation, but there’s a lot of potential to go further and see where I was limited in the past,” he muses. “I didn’t use a power meter when this started back in 2018, I only started using one when I moved to Swift halfway through 2019, but what my coach has let slide a couple of times, is that he thinks my potential is more than what I was doing in 2018 because I’ve been riding with only a quarter of my left leg working. I can actually train and recover from efforts with it [now].”
Lamb’s results during his time with the condition are remarkable, often riding with severe pain around his left hip and thigh, becoming one of the most consistent riders in the UK. His breakthrough National A result, a 4th place in the 2021 Beaumont Trophy, achieved just a matter of days before a battling ride to 18th at the National Road Race Championships on the famous Lincoln GP circuit, came at one of the most difficult times. “My leg was really bad from the Tour of Portugal, [which was] the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. Then, into the Tour of Britain, it flared up again, but in a strange way, where it was in my hip and back. I was twisting on the bike to try and avoid using my left leg. So that was probably one of the worst periods around then.
“I guess if you take out the WorldTour and Pro Conti riders I’d have got what looks like a very good result [at the National Road Race Championships]. I’ve only raced Lincoln twice, 2016 and the Nationals, but it’s a race I’d love to win,” he admits, shrugging off the suggestion that he entered the race with an outside chance of victory.
Lamb’s final race prior to his diagnosis, and forced hiatus, was an impressive third place in the season ending Beaumont Trophy in 2022, where he was on the podium with two riders who have raced at the sport’s highest level in Alex Richardson and Jack Rootkin-Gray. After impressing during his time in Belgium, and Britain, with Continental squads, riding for a Pro or WorldTour team is an opportunity Lamb has perhaps been unfortunate not to have, and one he would still grab with both hands.
“Obviously, I’d like to do it [turn professional]. It’s like, this week, for the first time, I said to my coach, ‘I am good enough, it’s just I’ve had this issue in the background without knowing about it’. The first few weeks after I got diagnosed, I was like, ‘you know what? If I was to stop riding it right now, this is a good way to go out – on the podium with like two guys that have been WorldTour, basically’. So, you know, I was content.
“I’ve got no goals returning, it’s like, sort of just enjoy it, and realistically, I’m 28 now, and although experience counts for something in this game, especially in the UK scene because I mean, there’s not many that are experienced on the Conti scene now, realistically can you make a living out of it? No. So, how long do I do it for? I don’t know. But at the same time, getting back on my bike is a successful thing in my eyes anyway.”
Featured image: Joe Hudson
Share this:
Discover more from The British Continental
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.