Mattie Dodd journal #16: hill-climb mayhem, Nationals carnage, Austrian ambition

Our longest-running journal contribitor, third-year under-23 Mattie Dodd rides for the UCI Continental Tirol-KTM development team, and is supported by the Rayner Foundation. Brass bands in Vorarlberg, Swiss switchbacks and a bruising Nationals leave Mattie with solid top-20s and a narrow escape from that Aberystwyth pile-up. Now back in Austria, he braces for the Tour of Austria’s shark-toothed parcours.

With the back of 2025 now officially broken, I thought I’d hop on here with another journal entry. My last one finished by mentioning my next race was to be the GP Vorarlberg 1.2, so in the absence of an idea for an eye-catching intro, I may as well start there.

That race fell on 1st May – what they call Labour Day over here (or a German equivalent that I definitely can’t spell). That meant I was woken up at 06:30 by a brass band marching around the town we were staying in. I went down to eat breakfast and later went out to see about twenty of them wearing traditional Austrian garb, still at it two hours later.

I remember being really lacking in confidence in a large group of riders – having spent most of the year racing with the “moving-up lane”

Vorarlberg was the first of a string of races in that German-speaking area of Europe, the next being Radsportfest Marwil 1.2 in Switzerland. My first ever UCI race as a junior was actually in Switzerland. Not entirely sure how that’s relevant, but there’s a random fact for you. One thing that I did note to myself was how much more able I am to move around a bunch than that first UCI outing in 2021. Having come from British junior racing, I remember being really lacking in confidence in a large group of riders – having spent most of the year racing with the “moving-up lane” (officially known as lane-with-cars, enter-at-your-peril…) open on the right. Four years later and I look back with slight embarrassment at how inept I was at saving energy and moving through the bunch back then.

Mattie Dodd (Tirol KTM Cycling Team). Image: Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com

The final of the Germanic triptyque was the Oberösterreich Rundfahrt 2.2 (or Tour of Upper Austria for those not wanting to mangle the German language). This was my first stage race in over 12 months, my last one coming in early 2024 before a write-off of the second half of that year. It started with what can only really be described as a “novel” idea – a 4.3-kilometre mass-start hill-climb. I was sceptical at first – starting in the middle of a city with 170 riders and twisting and turning on the flat before beginning what would be a chaotic climb didn’t seem the safest. Having raced it, though, I actually really like the idea from a spectator’s point of view. I think many cyclists forget what our sport is there for – entertainment. I think we often get caught up in the process of what is quite an internally focused lifestyle for much of the year. There’s some element of necessity in that, but it often means we can forget about our obligations to sponsors and fans – without which we wouldn’t be getting paid each month.

I think many cyclists forget what our sport is there for – entertainment

Anyway, back to this hill-climb madness. Though gridded in six starting blocks with one rider from each team, it was still chaos. I knew that type of effort was never one I’d be in the mix to win, so just stuck to my own rhythm and picked riders off once the climb started. Looking back at the livestream, though, it was a really exciting race. It’s a format that I think could really appeal to people who don’t want to watch the final three hours of a race in order to fully understand it.

The remaining three stages came and went without any major problems. The three races I’ve just mentioned saw me finishing 19th, 21st and 23rd (on GC) respectively. None of those are results that I am overwhelmingly proud of, but the consistency of them in decent-level fields with a variety of terrains and race situations shows me I’ve got the legs to win one of these; it just comes down to playing my cards right on the day.

Then it was back off to Blighty for National Champs. Held in deepest, darkest Wales, it’s always the only opportunity I now get to go to a race with my dad, which is a bit of a throwback to the U14 days. I’d had the TT in the back of my mind for a while, with the aim of improving on 5th from last year. A very lumpy course with a brutally steep climb at halfway made for a proper challenge when it came to pacing.

I felt I executed my ride in a way that I can be pleased with. I paced it well, I’m happy with the numbers I put out and I stayed upright (just – sorry for those in the following car that saw that…). So even if I missed my target of a better result than last year, there are no excuses on my end for that – I was just beaten by five riders who were better on the day.

A few days off for me, given I wasn’t riding the crit, and I was on the start line for the road race in Aberystwyth on Sunday. Nationals is always hard. Whereas most races have distinct phases, Nationals is raced like everyone has the pacing strategy of a toddler – it’s just hard all day.

I should probably address the elephant in the room – that crash. I was the last person through it, so I feel I’m probably qualified to have an opinion, unlike some armchair experts. People went down in front of me but somehow fell on the correct side, and I came through with only a grazed knuckle. I understand how many people were left really disappointed by it, and I hope those badly hurt are on the mend soon.

From a purely safety standpoint, it probably should have been neutralised to allow the ambulance back in place, should something else have happened

Look, I’ve got a few thoughts on this from a racing viewpoint and the effect on the outcome of the day, but safety should always be the first thought. Given the fact that a good few people were hurt badly, I think it would be tone-deaf to talk only about whether the race should or should not have been paused from a solely racing perspective. From a purely safety standpoint, it probably should have been neutralised to allow the ambulance back in place, should something else have happened. I can say that, at the front, there was definite looking around for a few minutes, confused as to what to do, before realising that it’s a race, so we should do exactly that – race. No indication was made to us that a neutralisation would occur, so we got on with it.

Back to the racing. Like I said, it was a brutal day out – numerically, probably the hardest race I’ve done. I ended up 17th overall and 8th in the U23s. It was a quintessentially British race: drizzle, but never a massive downpour; roads like 80-grit sandpaper – not exactly full of holes, just rough. Hard all day, but without any crazy power records. Then, of course, you can’t forget the odd disgruntled driver appalled by the “f*****g cyclists”, who is a token addition to this isle’s racing.

I’m now back in Austria, my next race being a big one – the Tour of Austria. With seven WorldTour teams and a shark’s-teeth parcours, it’ll be a big old five days. That said, we’re British – we’re built for hard days out, aren’t we?