Matt Holmes interview: the comeback trail from Lincoln to Los Angeles

A surprise entry for the Rapha Lincoln Grand Prix, former National Road Series winner Matt Holmes is back. Having retired at the end of 2022, the WorldTour stage winner returned to competition with the Great Britain team pursuit squad over the winter, the start of an exciting 2024 on a number of levels. Speaking to The British Continental, the Lancastrian discussed taking on Saint Piran at home, racing the emerging gravel scene abroad, and his ambitions to earn a place on the Great Britain team pursuit squad at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics…

I almost think I should do a speech on the start line and say ‘it’s not 8 riders against me, it’s 120 riders against 8. We can win this!’

Perhaps the most intriguing name among the 150 starters for Sunday’s Lincoln Grand Prix, Holmes is unsure about his prospects of lifting the famous cobblestone trophy for the first time, a dominant Saint Piran squad, who filled the podium last year, one of the many obstacles to overcome. “I don’t know really, it’s hard to tell,” he answers honestly when asked of his expectations.

Still only 30, and with recent experience of the sport’s highest level, it is difficult to make the case against Holmes being in the mix, especially given his performances across his last domestic season, winning the National Road Series with Madison Genesis five years ago. However, five years is a long time in cycling, something he is very aware of. “I don’t know what the standard is like, everyone is super aerodynamic now. The standard of equipment is high, but I don’t know about the standard of riders,” he explains.

“Obviously, I’m on my own. It’s going to be a difficult one against Saint Piran. I almost think I should do a speech on the start line when they do the pre-race briefing. I should do my own and say ‘it’s not 8 riders against me, it’s 120 riders against 8. We can win this!’”

Holmes will be riding a select number of races in the UK, including the Lancaster and Ryedale GPs. “I’m just doing the ones my mum likes to come and watch,” he jokes. “I’m not doing all the races because not all of them excite me, but Lincoln does, Lancaster does.”

We watched the three [Saint Piran riders] come across the line, and he said to me, ‘would you have won this?’ and I was like ‘yeah, probably’

The Lancaster GP is a race close to Holmes’ heart, with his father organising the event. “Last year I drove a Porsche around with VIPs, and I was with the marketing guy from Porsche South Lakes, so we watched the three [Saint Piran riders] come across the line, and he said to me, ‘would you have won this?’ and I was like ‘yeah, probably’, so it would be nice to prove me right!” he laughs.

Holmes is in good spirits as we talk, excited about his comeback and what the future holds. “I’ve got it good right now,” he says, as he explains his plans for 2024 and his journey to this point.

I’m probably the most supported rider in the UK … Essentially, I’ve become a proper privateer

“I’m probably the most supported rider in the UK, just through a huge amount of networking and asking people, just trying to get sponsorship and stuff. Essentially, I’ve become a proper privateer,” he muses, pointing out his role now is markedly different to his previous as a rider on a team. “Now I’m not on a team, I have to market myself and become a bit of an influencer. We’ve got the budget to make videos around training and racing, so that’s taking shape bit by bit.

Supported by a range of sponsors, Holmes’ main partner was one he found whilst at the Blanca Bikes cafe in Spain, a chance meeting with the director of OGT, makers of the world’s first wrapper free snack bar bringing them on board. Closer to home, Holmes has received support from some of the most committed sponsors of domestic racing over the years, Matt Hallam from Crimson Performance giving him the inspiration to start this journey.

“He went, ‘right, you’d get so much support if you came back and raced’, so that was sort of the start of it. He put me in touch with his friend Chris at Orientation Marketing, so he’s supporting me with money and also marketing as well.” On top of this, Holmes will be onboard a Trek, after agreeing a deal with the Trek Store at Bramhall, and will race in Castelli kit with Saddleback supporting his gravel calendar, which begins in Scotland and includes a race in Finland organised by F1 star Valteri Bottas.

As well as domestic road races in the UK, there is the potential for Holmes to ride the Tour of Britain as part of the national squad, his road season punctuated by an exciting international foray into the emerging gravel racing scene. He has also set his sights set on riding the team pursuit with Team GB in the Olympic Games, a lofty ambition which he came remarkably close to achieving in Paris this summer, despite never riding a track bike until June last year.

I got raced to death, basically

The story behind his bid begins with his disillusionment with life as a WorldTour rider in 2022. “I got raced to death, basically,” he summarises, pointing out he had done the most race days of any rider in the world until the Tour de Suisse that year. “They always say, when you don’t enjoy it, that’s the time to stop. So I thought, right I’ll stop. I don’t know what I’m going to do, but I stopped anyway.

Holmes got a job in the following January, to much fanfare, as a tour guide in Spain with a sports travel agent. “I ended up floating about a bit. I did four days and thought, maybe not.” He says of his immediate experience out of the peloton, where, like a number of former professional athletes, he found retirement unfulfilling and difficult.

“I ended up still riding my bike, riding a lot with Jonny Wale,” explains Holmes. “One day, I said, ‘before I quit racing, I thought I’d always have a go at the track with the team pursuit.’ So, he said ‘right, let’s do it then.’”

Wale, a former National Champion on the track, and performance scientist with Ineos Grenadiers, invited Holmes to try his track bike and would be his mentor and coach on the boards.

“It was incredible the amount he did to help me, because, I think like a lot of people that quit a sport, I was quite low, not knowing what to do, so, yeah, that was the start of a project to do the team pursuit with GB.

We did an individual pursuit, just to set a time, and I did a 4.09, the third fastest British rider ever

“I knew going to the Paris Olympics was a very long shot, but that kept me going, gave me a purpose. [Starting in June], I did seven sessions on this pursuit bike, so we did an individual pursuit, just to set a time, and I did a 4.09, the third fastest British rider ever. The big aim was to try and go to the Olympics. So everyone was like, ‘ok, you can have a go’, but as things progressed, I think the people at BC thought ‘you know, you might be onto something!’”

With his first session with the Great Britain squad not until October, less than a year away from the Olympics, Holmes’ biggest immediate challenge was not athletic, but bureaucratic.  

“There were lots of obstacles in the way. Because I retired and got taken off whereabouts with WADA, you have to give them six months notice to return to competition. The first possible time I could have raced was the Milton Nations Cup, which is the last event before the Olympics, the dress rehearsal for them, so the ‘A’ team goes to that.

“It was a big problem solving mission for me. I have a friend who’s a lawyer, I just phoned him one day and said ‘err, can you help me with this?!’ So step one of returning to competition was filing an appeal to World Anti Doping, asking ‘please can I race?’”

Having gotten permission to race one month earlier, Holmes formed part of the team for the Hong Kong round of the Track Nations Cup in March. “That was an eye opener.” He says bluntly, the four minute event his only track race, in any form, to date.

“I wasn’t going well. I did track sessions before Christmas, but I was just sort of floating round, and in the run up to Hong Kong, I was not good. It was like a nightmare, really. You’re committed to this, you’re going to Hong Kong, and you cannot let them down. It was like a week long mental breakdown of ‘oh my god’, I can’t do it in training, but somehow I have to try and do it on race day.

I was so, so, so nervous on the startline. You’ve flown all the way to Hong Kong and I’m in P2, which is the hard one, and I have to finish. I can’t get dropped

“We did it, and it wasn’t a fantastic ride, but we still did 3.52, which is equivalent to a silver medal from the 2012 Olympics. I was so, so, so nervous on the startline. You’ve flown all the way to Hong Kong and I’m in P2, which is the hard one, and I have to finish. I can’t get dropped.”

The Hong Kong ride would spell the end of Holmes’ mission to Paris. “That was a bit demoralising,” he admits, having had his Olympic hopes dashed in 16 laps of the velodrome.

However, the Olympic Flame still burns brightly, metaphorically, inside Holmes, who looks ahead to the 2028 Games, ultimately his last chance at 34 years of age, with a burning ambition.

“I stopped, quit racing, and it went horribly wrong. So in my head, I am definitely going to go for four years and give the track 100%, and see how far I can take that,” he says enthusiastically. 

“Then I’ve also got four years to really work out exactly what I’m going to do when I stop racing. 2028 is probably the deadline for working my life out!”