After the jersey: former junior national champion Oliver Dawson on reset and return
After winning the British junior road race title in 2024, Oliver Dawson’s pathway did not follow the expected script. Speaking at the JAKROO Handsling launch, he reflects on Italy, the U23 bottleneck and the value of recalibration.
There is a quiet honesty to the way Oliver Dawson talks about his last two seasons. No bitterness. No bravado. Just an unvarnished account of how easily momentum can slip – and how hard it is to rebuild once it does.
We speak to Dawson at the London launch of JAKROO Handsling, where the south-west London–based squad is unveiling its riders and programme for the year ahead.
Still only 19, Dawson is already several steps removed from the version of himself who won the British junior road race title in the middle of 2024. His return to British racing, after a season spent largely in Italy, is not framed as a backward step, nor a failure of ambition. Instead, it reflects a deliberate decision to regain clarity at a point in a career where momentum is often assumed to be linear – but rarely is.
I feel that coming back to the UK is definitely a good next step for me
“I feel that coming back to the UK is definitely a good next step for me,” he says, reflecting on why he decided to return. “And yeah, we’ll see where it goes, really.”
That sense of recalibration runs through the conversation. This is not a rider searching for excuses or validation, but one taking stock of what the last two seasons have revealed – about the level, the pathway, and himself.
Dawson (centre). Image: Mark James
Dawson’s route into cycling followed a well-worn familial path. “It was mainly through my dad,” he says. “He used to race, and he’d take me out on rides when I was little. He took me out on a couple of rides, started building me up when I was quite small.”
Rides turned into racing when he reached his teens. “I got to about under 14s and started doing a little bit of cyclocross,” he explains. “And then I wanted to do a bit more like what my dad was doing, so asked if I could do some road races. Did a couple of road races and then, yeah, it just built from there, really.”
By the time he was 16, Dawson found himself in a more structured environment with Fensham Howes – MAS Design, a junior programme long associated with preparing riders for the demands of elite racing. Managed by Giles Pidcock, the team built a reputation not just for producing results, but for helping riders progress to the professional ranks.
Several of Dawson’s former team-mates from Fensham Howes have since secured places on WorldTour development squads: Elliot Rowe at Team Visma | Lease a Bike Development, Max Hinds with the INEOS Grenadiers Racing Academy, and Seb Grindley joining Lidl–Trek Future Racing. His 2023 team-mate Matthew Brennan has since developed into one of the hottest talents in the peloton.
“That team is known for getting riders onto WorldTour development teams,” Dawson says. “So there’s always that expectation around you.”
It really felt like a breakthrough moment – like it helped build the stepping stones for what I wanted to achieve
That expectation crystallised in June 2024. At the British Junior National Road Race, Dawson spearheaded a late breakaway to take the national title – a breakthrough moment in his junior career. “I couldn’t even believe it when it happened,” he says. “It really felt like a breakthrough moment – like it helped build the stepping stones for what I wanted to achieve.”
Dawson wins the 2024 nationals in Wales. Image: Graffika Photography
The result did more than deliver a jersey. It appeared to confirm a trajectory. Later that summer, Dawson won a stage at the Junior Tour of Wales, finished fifth overall, and added another stage victory at the Junior Tour of the Mendips. The results arrived in quick succession, reinforcing the sense that he was moving decisively towards the next rung of the ladder.
The difficulty, Dawson says, was not form but timing. His strongest results came as the junior season wore on, and by then the mechanics of recruitment had already begun to close in.
“My first year wasn’t as good as I needed really,” he says. “I had quite a few crashes which set me back quite a lot, broke my confidence a bit. And then I came into the second season, I had a crash quite early on which almost like knocked my confidence back again. And then, yeah, as soon as I won national champs, it almost like I got like the winning mentality back again and I was able to win a few more races, but it was just a little bit too late for me really to get what I wanted.”
All teams were already full, so I think I was scraping around quite a bit for a team
It is a familiar bottleneck, particularly at the junior-to-U23 transition. Development teams commit early, and once those places are filled, late-season success can struggle to find an outlet. Dawson felt that compression keenly. “So all teams were already full,” he says. “So I think I was scraping around quite a bit for a team.”
The next move, then, was not the hoped-for progression to a WorldTour development squad. Instead, Dawson moved to the Italian amateur outfit Team Hopplà. “It was definitely a small step back,” he says, describing the team as “a decent team in Italy.”
Image: Graffika Photography
The move was brokered in part by Simon Watts, INEOS Grenadiers’ performance pathway manager, and an INEOS coach, both keen to help the young national champion find a platform to continue progressing. “They helped me a lot trying to get a team since I was struggling as it got quite late in the season,” Dawson says appreciatively.
On paper, it was a logical step: deeper fields, more racing, and exposure to a culture that treats U23 competition as a proving ground rather than a holding pen. In reality, the adjustment proved harder than anticipated. “I didn’t really enjoy it as much as I thought I would do,” he reflects.
Part of the challenge was cultural, Dawson feeling a sense of isolation and loneliness in what was an unfamiliar environment. “Being the only British rider, it was quite hard,” he says. “It was just the new environment. Being in Italy on my own, not speaking Italian, all the teammates all speak Italian, not much English. So it was very lonely, almost like I was almost like fending for myself.”
Every team briefing was in Italian. I was sat there not having a clue what was going on
That lack of understanding had direct consequences once the racing began. “Every team briefing was in Italian. I was sat there not having a clue what was going on. Even race tactics, I didn’t have a clue what was going on,” he explains. “So sometimes I would attack early in the race, which I like to do. In one race I was in the break and the team brought the break back because that was the team plan. But I didn’t have a clue what was going off because I just wasn’t told. So it was very frustrating year for me.”
Dawson (Great Britain) at the 2024 UCI Road and Para-cycling Road World Championships, Zurich, Switzerland. Image: Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com
What Dawson describes is not hostility or neglect, but misalignment. Without language or context, he struggled to race with intention. “You can’t really ride for yourself if you don’t understand what the team is trying to do,” he says. “It makes it hard to get anything out of races.”
The challenges off the bike compounded those on it. “I was still doing my A-levels at the start of the season,” Dawson says. “So I’d go over to Italy for three to five weeks, race as much as I could, then come back to the UK to study and race here as well. It was a lot to manage.”
For all the disruption, Dawson still found himself on one of the biggest start lines in under-23 racing. The Giro Next Gen – long regarded as an important shop window for young talent – offered a stark measure of the level.
I’d go over to Italy for three to five weeks, race as much as I could, then come back to the UK to study and race here as well. It was a lot to manage
“It was unbelievable,” Dawson says. “The level of talent there is crazy.”
From the opening stages, the difference was clear. “The racing there was almost like WorldTour level,” he explains. Dawson’s own race, however, was curtailed early by a crash that left him with a broken shoulder. “After that, I was just trying to get round,” he says. “There wasn’t really any chance of racing properly.”
Viewed from the outside, the result sheet records only an abandonment. Dawson’s takeaway is more nuanced. “Even being there, you learn so much,” he says. “You watch how the best riders position themselves, when they move, how they save energy. You try to take bits of that and apply it to your own racing.”
It was also a reminder of how unforgiving the pathway can be. “Half the guys in that race have gone WorldTour since,” Dawson says. “So you realise how small the margins are.”
By the end of the season, Dawson knew that something needed to change – not his ambition, but the conditions around it.
“I was almost weighing up my options. Like, I had a few teams, but I feel like this was my better option for this year,” he says of his move to JAKROO Handsling. Managed by David Streule and Tony Poole, the London-based team is arguably the most ambitious men’s outfit in the domestic peloton, aiming to provide structure and continuity alongside selective international racing – a combination Dawson felt he needed at this stage.
Image: Mark James
This season, Dawson will be surrounded by English speakers and will also have former Fensham Howes team-mate Harrison Dainty for company.
I’m going to be trying to build up my results from the start of the season, which I’ve learned from juniors, you really have to do to get noticed
Alongside his return to a more familiar environment, Dawson has also changed his approach to building form and fitness, with the aim of securing results earlier in the season. “I’m going to be trying to build up my results from the start of the season,” he says, “Which I’ve learned from juniors, you really have to do to get noticed.”
The shift in emphasis has meant a more focused off-season. “I usually get better form as we go through the season, but this year I’ve definitely been focusing on trying to go into the season on brilliant form and then sustain it for the whole season, really,” he explains. So far, he feels the change is paying off. “I’m feeling good and ready for it,” he asserts.
Ultimately, Dawson wants 2026 to be a winning year. “A good season? Win as much as possible, really. Podiums, maybe some good results in UCIs.”
For all the recalibration of the past two seasons, Dawson’s long-term ambition has not changed. “It’s always been a dream to go pro,” he says. “Being able to ride your bike for a living – that’s the main motivation.”
What has changed is his understanding of how that ambition is pursued. There is no talk of deadlines or guarantees, no sense of urgency masquerading as confidence. Instead, Dawson speaks about patience as a skill in its own right.
“I don’t feel like I’m behind,” he says. “I just feel like I’m on a slightly different timeline.”
There is a quiet honesty to the way Oliver Dawson talks about his last two seasons. No bitterness. No bravado. Just an unvarnished account of how easily momentum can slip – and how hard it is to rebuild once it does.
We speak to Dawson at the London launch of JAKROO Handsling, where the south-west London–based squad is unveiling its riders and programme for the year ahead.
Still only 19, Dawson is already several steps removed from the version of himself who won the British junior road race title in the middle of 2024. His return to British racing, after a season spent largely in Italy, is not framed as a backward step, nor a failure of ambition. Instead, it reflects a deliberate decision to regain clarity at a point in a career where momentum is often assumed to be linear – but rarely is.
“I feel that coming back to the UK is definitely a good next step for me,” he says, reflecting on why he decided to return. “And yeah, we’ll see where it goes, really.”
That sense of recalibration runs through the conversation. This is not a rider searching for excuses or validation, but one taking stock of what the last two seasons have revealed – about the level, the pathway, and himself.
Dawson’s route into cycling followed a well-worn familial path. “It was mainly through my dad,” he says. “He used to race, and he’d take me out on rides when I was little. He took me out on a couple of rides, started building me up when I was quite small.”
Rides turned into racing when he reached his teens. “I got to about under 14s and started doing a little bit of cyclocross,” he explains. “And then I wanted to do a bit more like what my dad was doing, so asked if I could do some road races. Did a couple of road races and then, yeah, it just built from there, really.”
By the time he was 16, Dawson found himself in a more structured environment with Fensham Howes – MAS Design, a junior programme long associated with preparing riders for the demands of elite racing. Managed by Giles Pidcock, the team built a reputation not just for producing results, but for helping riders progress to the professional ranks.
Several of Dawson’s former team-mates from Fensham Howes have since secured places on WorldTour development squads: Elliot Rowe at Team Visma | Lease a Bike Development, Max Hinds with the INEOS Grenadiers Racing Academy, and Seb Grindley joining Lidl–Trek Future Racing. His 2023 team-mate Matthew Brennan has since developed into one of the hottest talents in the peloton.
“That team is known for getting riders onto WorldTour development teams,” Dawson says. “So there’s always that expectation around you.”
That expectation crystallised in June 2024. At the British Junior National Road Race, Dawson spearheaded a late breakaway to take the national title – a breakthrough moment in his junior career. “I couldn’t even believe it when it happened,” he says. “It really felt like a breakthrough moment – like it helped build the stepping stones for what I wanted to achieve.”
The result did more than deliver a jersey. It appeared to confirm a trajectory. Later that summer, Dawson won a stage at the Junior Tour of Wales, finished fifth overall, and added another stage victory at the Junior Tour of the Mendips. The results arrived in quick succession, reinforcing the sense that he was moving decisively towards the next rung of the ladder.
The difficulty, Dawson says, was not form but timing. His strongest results came as the junior season wore on, and by then the mechanics of recruitment had already begun to close in.
“My first year wasn’t as good as I needed really,” he says. “I had quite a few crashes which set me back quite a lot, broke my confidence a bit. And then I came into the second season, I had a crash quite early on which almost like knocked my confidence back again. And then, yeah, as soon as I won national champs, it almost like I got like the winning mentality back again and I was able to win a few more races, but it was just a little bit too late for me really to get what I wanted.”
It is a familiar bottleneck, particularly at the junior-to-U23 transition. Development teams commit early, and once those places are filled, late-season success can struggle to find an outlet. Dawson felt that compression keenly. “So all teams were already full,” he says. “So I think I was scraping around quite a bit for a team.”
The next move, then, was not the hoped-for progression to a WorldTour development squad. Instead, Dawson moved to the Italian amateur outfit Team Hopplà. “It was definitely a small step back,” he says, describing the team as “a decent team in Italy.”
The move was brokered in part by Simon Watts, INEOS Grenadiers’ performance pathway manager, and an INEOS coach, both keen to help the young national champion find a platform to continue progressing. “They helped me a lot trying to get a team since I was struggling as it got quite late in the season,” Dawson says appreciatively.
On paper, it was a logical step: deeper fields, more racing, and exposure to a culture that treats U23 competition as a proving ground rather than a holding pen. In reality, the adjustment proved harder than anticipated. “I didn’t really enjoy it as much as I thought I would do,” he reflects.
Part of the challenge was cultural, Dawson feeling a sense of isolation and loneliness in what was an unfamiliar environment. “Being the only British rider, it was quite hard,” he says. “It was just the new environment. Being in Italy on my own, not speaking Italian, all the teammates all speak Italian, not much English. So it was very lonely, almost like I was almost like fending for myself.”
That lack of understanding had direct consequences once the racing began. “Every team briefing was in Italian. I was sat there not having a clue what was going on. Even race tactics, I didn’t have a clue what was going on,” he explains. “So sometimes I would attack early in the race, which I like to do. In one race I was in the break and the team brought the break back because that was the team plan. But I didn’t have a clue what was going off because I just wasn’t told. So it was very frustrating year for me.”
What Dawson describes is not hostility or neglect, but misalignment. Without language or context, he struggled to race with intention. “You can’t really ride for yourself if you don’t understand what the team is trying to do,” he says. “It makes it hard to get anything out of races.”
The challenges off the bike compounded those on it. “I was still doing my A-levels at the start of the season,” Dawson says. “So I’d go over to Italy for three to five weeks, race as much as I could, then come back to the UK to study and race here as well. It was a lot to manage.”
For all the disruption, Dawson still found himself on one of the biggest start lines in under-23 racing. The Giro Next Gen – long regarded as an important shop window for young talent – offered a stark measure of the level.
“It was unbelievable,” Dawson says. “The level of talent there is crazy.”
From the opening stages, the difference was clear. “The racing there was almost like WorldTour level,” he explains. Dawson’s own race, however, was curtailed early by a crash that left him with a broken shoulder. “After that, I was just trying to get round,” he says. “There wasn’t really any chance of racing properly.”
Viewed from the outside, the result sheet records only an abandonment. Dawson’s takeaway is more nuanced. “Even being there, you learn so much,” he says. “You watch how the best riders position themselves, when they move, how they save energy. You try to take bits of that and apply it to your own racing.”
It was also a reminder of how unforgiving the pathway can be. “Half the guys in that race have gone WorldTour since,” Dawson says. “So you realise how small the margins are.”
By the end of the season, Dawson knew that something needed to change – not his ambition, but the conditions around it.
“I was almost weighing up my options. Like, I had a few teams, but I feel like this was my better option for this year,” he says of his move to JAKROO Handsling. Managed by David Streule and Tony Poole, the London-based team is arguably the most ambitious men’s outfit in the domestic peloton, aiming to provide structure and continuity alongside selective international racing – a combination Dawson felt he needed at this stage.
This season, Dawson will be surrounded by English speakers and will also have former Fensham Howes team-mate Harrison Dainty for company.
Alongside his return to a more familiar environment, Dawson has also changed his approach to building form and fitness, with the aim of securing results earlier in the season. “I’m going to be trying to build up my results from the start of the season,” he says, “Which I’ve learned from juniors, you really have to do to get noticed.”
The shift in emphasis has meant a more focused off-season. “I usually get better form as we go through the season, but this year I’ve definitely been focusing on trying to go into the season on brilliant form and then sustain it for the whole season, really,” he explains. So far, he feels the change is paying off. “I’m feeling good and ready for it,” he asserts.
Ultimately, Dawson wants 2026 to be a winning year. “A good season? Win as much as possible, really. Podiums, maybe some good results in UCIs.”
For all the recalibration of the past two seasons, Dawson’s long-term ambition has not changed. “It’s always been a dream to go pro,” he says. “Being able to ride your bike for a living – that’s the main motivation.”
What has changed is his understanding of how that ambition is pursued. There is no talk of deadlines or guarantees, no sense of urgency masquerading as confidence. Instead, Dawson speaks about patience as a skill in its own right.
“I don’t feel like I’m behind,” he says. “I just feel like I’m on a slightly different timeline.”
Featured image: Mark James
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