Winning without the programme: Will Perrett interview, part one
British Cycling may have closed the door, but Will Perrett has never waited for permission. His National Madison triumph, achieved alongside fellow non-GB rider Logan MacLean, was a pointed statement from an athlete still operating at the highest level. In this first part of a two-part interview, Perrett discusses belief, rejection and carving out his own space in the sport.
When Will Perrett stepped onto the podium at December’s National Madison Championships, the casual onlooker may have been forgiven for not looking twice. The National Cycling Centre had been Perrett’s home for much of the past three years, the duration of his time on the Olympic Podium Programme, and, now in receipt of his eighth national title, he was as familiar with the flower ceremony as he was with the changing facilities at Manchester’s historic velodrome.
However, aside from the honour of Perrett once again donning the famous blue and red bands, the result was a significant one. His and Logan MacLean’s victory was something of an away win for David in the heart of Goliath’s lair.
It was only months before that Perrett was told he was surplus to requirements by British Cycling. “Booted out”, as he puts it, his place on the Olympic Podium Programme, the pinnacle of the British Cycling system, was gone; his dreams, and employment, attached to it.
Two non-GB riders turning up and winning the Madison by 30 points against all the GB programme riders, it was a mental performance
“To turn up with Logan MacLean, who’s also not a GB rider, you know, two non-GB riders turning up and winning the Madison by 30 points against all the GB programme riders, it was a mental performance,” Perrett reflects over a month later, his immense pride in his and his One Life Cycle teammate’s achievement having barely settled, such was the level of competition on display that night.
Perrett (DAS Richardsons) at the 2025 Lloyds National Track Championships. Image: Olly Hassell/SWpix.com
“Credit to Logan, he’s a bit inexperienced, but such a good athlete. I was able to more or less pull the strings and we were so good, we were head and shoulders above everyone else,” he continues, the title bringing back shades of his 2022 victory with Mark Stewart, a result which turned heads again, neither of them contracted to the national squad at the time.
It’s a big motivation to turn up to something like that, because I feel a bit hard done by what happened last year
“I guess you’re always out to prove a point,” Perrett responds when asked if that was his aim. “A lot of my motivation comes from within and just trying to be the best I can be.
“But of course, it’s a big motivation to turn up to something like that, because I feel a bit hard done by [what happened] last year.”
Perrett’s story in the sport is one of determination and perseverance, luck and misfortune, extreme highs and lows. Riding for various clubs and trade teams over the last decade, the East Midlands rider’s story does not fit the mould of many who have been a part of British Cycling’s ‘medal factory’, the programme that has seen unparalleled success for Great Britain in track cycling since the turn of the millennium. His entrance, and exit, through the side door rather than the conveyor belt.
As he enters the next chapter of his career, the 29-year-old spoke at length with The British Continental from the south of Spain as he prepares for the upcoming season, discussing his rise through the sport, his time as a rider on the Great Britain Cycling Team, and what the future holds for him as he looks ahead to this month’s National Track Championships, where he will aim for a historic fourth Points Race title in as many years.
Image: Mathew Wells/SWpix.com
In an interview split into two parts, the first sees the East Midlands rider reflect on the early part of his career, from causing waves at the National Track Championships, experiencing elite sport with home city upstarts HUUB-Wattbike, and achieving his ambition to race for England at the Commonwealth Games, revealing his plans for the 2026 Games in Glasgow later on this year.
“As a junior I did the Junior National Road Series and the local track leagues. I loved racing but it never occurred to me it could be some sort of career I could go into,” Perrett admits, detailing his teenage years with his local Heanor Clarion club. “I never trained for it, I just raced at the weekend and in the week, it never occurred to me that other riders could be training for ten hours a week,” he continues, his introduction into the sport a far cry from the meticulous preparation he would later describe as he made his way into the elite ranks.
However, Perrett’s dedication to the sport came alive when he began studying at the nearby University of Derby, the city’s new velodrome, and the student lifestyle offering the perfect conditions for Perrett to thrive.
“That’s where it really took off,” he declares. “I had the time to train and commit, and it was just like a snowball effect. I won the local track league and the University’s big aim was the BUCS competition so I trained hard for that, and once you pick up your first BUCS medal you think ‘can I win one?’
“By the end of my final year at university I think I had won 20 BUCS medals across the board – track, time trial and road race,” he says, bigger, more prestigious competitions soon catching his eye.
I turned up at the National Championships and won my first National medals – third in the Madison and second in the Omnium. I beat the likes of Fred Wright, Will Tidball, Ethan Vernon
“I turned up at the National Championships [in 2018] and won my first National medals – third in the Madison and second in the Omnium. I beat the likes of Fred Wright, Will Tidball, Ethan Vernon.
“I guess I was just a complete unknown,” he reminisces, his former Great Britain teammate Tidball and him still sharing jokes about their sudden introduction on the track to this day.
ill Perrett (left) with Matt Walls and Will Tidball at the 2018 HSBC UK National Omnium Championships. Image: Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com
“I was just this random guy in bright orange University of Derby kit and I saw these GB Academy guys, well they’re the best in each year group, right? So for me to turn up and beat them, that’s one of the best results I’ve ever had.”
With Perrett having made his mark, his next move was a case of him being in the right place at the right time; hours spent on the boards in Derby coming at a time when the velodrome’s most notorious residents were the HUUB-Wattbike team, a group of upstarts making the city famous across the globe as they took the Team Pursuit scene by storm.
They were really inspirational for me, seeing what they were going and doing
“They were really inspirational for me, seeing what they were going and doing,” Perrett says, Dan Bigham inviting him onto the squad during the final year of his master’s degree in Environmental Science.
“It was a dream to ride a bike full time for a year with good support and funding. I wasn’t paid, but everything was paid for, and we lived and breathed track cycling. It was amazing, and a real eye-opener for me about what it actually takes to be a full-time cyclist. John Archibald, he was just perfect as an athlete, like a robot in the way he trained and lived. Dan was doing incredible things, both as an athlete and with the aerodynamics.
“I was very much catching up to those guys. I was taking it all in, like a sponge in that environment.”
Perrett at the 2020 HSBC UK National Track Championships. Image: Isabel Pearce/SWpix.com
Having taken his first National title in the Team Pursuit, Perrett entered a crash course in international competition with World Cup experience coming in Minsk, Glasgow, and Brisbane; a training camp atop Tenerife’s volcanic landscape being the destination when the news broke that would change Perrett’s life.
“It was such a cool time in my life, but the lockdowns started and that essentially put a stop to the HUUB-Wattbike journey and team.”
I went into lockdown and I didn’t have a job, didn’t have a team. I managed to get a job with Royal Mail lugging sacks of mail onto planes at East Midlands Airport
“It was very much the rug had been pulled from under my feet,” he reflects. “I went into lockdown and I didn’t have a job, didn’t have a team. I managed to get a job with Royal Mail lugging sacks of mail onto planes at East Midlands Airport, but eventually I found a job as an environmental consultant. I did that part time but I didn’t want to stop cycling now I’d had my first taste of World Cups and that high level. I didn’t think I was out of my depth.”
Determined, hungry, and ultimately alone, Perrett made himself a two-year plan with lofty ambitions – the climax a ride in the Commonwealth Games for Team England.
“At the time the England squad was more or less the GB squad. And they’d never send you to the Commonwealth Games if you weren’t on the GB squad,” Perrett explains, as he embarked on his new life as an independent athlete.
“I set out trying to find a UCI track team that would allow me to then race in the Nations Cups, and thankfully an Irish team, Spellman Dublin Port, gave me a ride. It was quite a small set-up, an inexperienced set-up. But it was just what I needed to open the door,” he says.
“I’d fly away, just me and my bike box, to all the C1 and C2 events, picking up UCI points to enable me to then ride at the [Nations] Cups,” he explains, a fifth place in the Omnium at a Nations Cup meet in Glasgow opening the eyes of the GB coaches for the first time. “I had beaten the Olympic Champion and some pretty top bike riders. I was this guy going to all these events on my own and I guess doing better than a lot of the GB riders,” he notes.
Perrett and Mark Stewart win Gold in the Men’s Madison race at the 2022 British National Madison Championships. Image: Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com
With his results gaining traction, Perrett leaned on the contacts he had made to gain some track time with the GB Academy, his first taste of life on the National squad. “Derby [velodrome] had become a vaccination centre, and they were kind enough to let me train with the academy [in Manchester]. From there I was able to guest on the programme – it was no problem to them, just one extra rider on the academy track sessions. If anything they probably thought I raised the level of the sessions, having another good rider in there. I was able to put my foot in the door.”
Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would put on a GB jersey
Perrett’s foot in the door was keeping it firmly open by the time he was selected for the European Championships, his first ever competition as part of a Great Britain squad. “Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would put on a GB jersey,” he says, looking back with pride. And perspective.
“I went there to do the Team Pursuit, but in the end I was the Team Pursuit sub and did the Elimination and Points Race, which was a bit of a shock. I don’t think I’d ridden my bunch bike in a long time, but still had a pretty decent ride,” he says, referring to his eighth place in the Points Race in particular. “I think they were happy with what they saw and how I coped in that kind of environment.”
Now a vastly more experienced athlete than the one who partnered Tom Ward to a bronze medal four years earlier, Perrett put what he had learned into practice, winning his first National Madison title at a raucous Derby Velodrome in the spring of 2022, sending a strong message to the selectors ahead of the Commonwealth Games despite his status as a guest with the Great Britain set-up.
“It wasn’t enough to get me selected. But I was selected as a reserve, and was actually put down as first reserve,” he explains, a turn of fortune making his ambition become reality.
“Amazingly, last minute I was training on the track in Derby and I got a call saying can you drive down to London because you’re going to ride in the Commonwealth Games, we need you.
“It was mental.” He beams. “I packed up the car, drove down and I was probably the happiest athlete in that village because I set that target.”
2022 Tissot UCI Track World Championships – Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome, France – Men’s Points Race Final – Perrett of Great Britain. Image: Alex Broadway/SWpix.com
There is little missing from Perrett’s glittering palmarès as we speak almost four years on from his Commonwealth Games bow. “A World Championship medal, which I fully believe I’m capable of,” he notes, having missed out on selection the past three years, a Commonwealth Games medal the other which eludes him after he raced in the Points Race and Individual Pursuit back in 2022.
“To be honest, at the time they weren’t my best performances,” he concedes, looking back. “At the time a lot of athletes were having problems with Covid, and I had had Covid pretty bad in the run-in towards the Commonwealth Games.”
However, Perrett remains determined that his chance of a medal has not yet passed, his passion for the Games, which have shaped his journey like no other, shining through as he sets out another ambition centred around selection for the quadrennial event.
“I’d like to get selected for the Commonwealth Games this year,” he declares, in many ways a more challenging goal than that of four years ago, despite his vastly increased stature in the sport.
I believe I’m one of the best track riders, bunch riders, in the Commonwealth, and I think it’s only fair really that I should be given that opportunity
“How it works for Team England, it’s effectively Team GB. It’s the same coaches, the Team GB coaches effectively become the Team England coaches. It would be incredibly difficult for me to get selected for England, or nigh on impossible because the same coaches who didn’t rate me and booted me off the programme do the selection,” Perrett states bluntly, his recent National Madison crown, or even a fourth straight Points Race title later this month, unlikely to change the status quo.
“So I’ve made the decision I’d like to ride for Team Wales at the Commonwealth Games, which I’m fortunate I can do, make that switch, because I have Welsh family,” he reveals.
“I believe I’m one of the best track riders, bunch riders, in the Commonwealth, and I think it’s only fair really that I should be given that opportunity. I’d hate to not get a ride due to politics or just being out of favour.
“That’s my aim and being part of these [upcoming] British National Championships are a good way of showing my level to get selected.”
Perrett (DAS Richardsons) Wins the Bronze Medal in the individual pursuit at the 2025 Lloyds National Track Championship. Image: Olly Hassell/SWpix.com
Straddled across July and August over just four days, the Glasgow track programme contains multiple opportunities for Perrett to claim the medal he so desperately desires, the obvious opportunity in the Points Race, where he excels, but also the Elimination race, where he won a highly competitive World Cup two years ago in the build-up to the Paris Olympics, the Scratch race, as well as the Individual and Team Pursuits.
I was third in the Individual Pursuit … then after that I was told I was being booted off the squad
“I was third in the Individual Pursuit [at the National Championships last year],” Perrett states, his bronze medal all the more impressive when the results sheet reveals his time was only bettered by Michael Gill and former World Record holder Josh Charlton.
“Then after that I was told I was being booted off the [Olympic Podium Programme] squad,” he says bluntly, the Commonwealth Games this time around providing more than an opportunity for success, but one for redemption. An international competition, and a chance to set the record straight.
“I’ve gone and won the National Madison by over 30 points and I haven’t been selected for the European Championships, which is mad,” Perrett argues as the conversation turns to his time with, and after, the Great Britain Cycling Team, a fascinating conversation about the highs and lows of being involved in one of cycling’s most storied national squads.
For now, Perrett is back where he has so often found clarity: training, racing, and setting his own agenda. The boards, the bunch, the stopwatch – the simple, unforgiving measures of form. Whatever comes next, his career has already been shaped as much by what he has had to build for himself as by what was ever offered to him.
This interview is the first part of a two-part conversation with Will Perrett. The second part, exploring his time inside the Great Britain Cycling Team and his plans for the years ahead, will be published later.
When Will Perrett stepped onto the podium at December’s National Madison Championships, the casual onlooker may have been forgiven for not looking twice. The National Cycling Centre had been Perrett’s home for much of the past three years, the duration of his time on the Olympic Podium Programme, and, now in receipt of his eighth national title, he was as familiar with the flower ceremony as he was with the changing facilities at Manchester’s historic velodrome.
However, aside from the honour of Perrett once again donning the famous blue and red bands, the result was a significant one. His and Logan MacLean’s victory was something of an away win for David in the heart of Goliath’s lair.
It was only months before that Perrett was told he was surplus to requirements by British Cycling. “Booted out”, as he puts it, his place on the Olympic Podium Programme, the pinnacle of the British Cycling system, was gone; his dreams, and employment, attached to it.
“To turn up with Logan MacLean, who’s also not a GB rider, you know, two non-GB riders turning up and winning the Madison by 30 points against all the GB programme riders, it was a mental performance,” Perrett reflects over a month later, his immense pride in his and his One Life Cycle teammate’s achievement having barely settled, such was the level of competition on display that night.
“Credit to Logan, he’s a bit inexperienced, but such a good athlete. I was able to more or less pull the strings and we were so good, we were head and shoulders above everyone else,” he continues, the title bringing back shades of his 2022 victory with Mark Stewart, a result which turned heads again, neither of them contracted to the national squad at the time.
“I guess you’re always out to prove a point,” Perrett responds when asked if that was his aim. “A lot of my motivation comes from within and just trying to be the best I can be.
“But of course, it’s a big motivation to turn up to something like that, because I feel a bit hard done by [what happened] last year.”
Perrett’s story in the sport is one of determination and perseverance, luck and misfortune, extreme highs and lows. Riding for various clubs and trade teams over the last decade, the East Midlands rider’s story does not fit the mould of many who have been a part of British Cycling’s ‘medal factory’, the programme that has seen unparalleled success for Great Britain in track cycling since the turn of the millennium. His entrance, and exit, through the side door rather than the conveyor belt.
As he enters the next chapter of his career, the 29-year-old spoke at length with The British Continental from the south of Spain as he prepares for the upcoming season, discussing his rise through the sport, his time as a rider on the Great Britain Cycling Team, and what the future holds for him as he looks ahead to this month’s National Track Championships, where he will aim for a historic fourth Points Race title in as many years.
In an interview split into two parts, the first sees the East Midlands rider reflect on the early part of his career, from causing waves at the National Track Championships, experiencing elite sport with home city upstarts HUUB-Wattbike, and achieving his ambition to race for England at the Commonwealth Games, revealing his plans for the 2026 Games in Glasgow later on this year.
“As a junior I did the Junior National Road Series and the local track leagues. I loved racing but it never occurred to me it could be some sort of career I could go into,” Perrett admits, detailing his teenage years with his local Heanor Clarion club. “I never trained for it, I just raced at the weekend and in the week, it never occurred to me that other riders could be training for ten hours a week,” he continues, his introduction into the sport a far cry from the meticulous preparation he would later describe as he made his way into the elite ranks.
However, Perrett’s dedication to the sport came alive when he began studying at the nearby University of Derby, the city’s new velodrome, and the student lifestyle offering the perfect conditions for Perrett to thrive.
“That’s where it really took off,” he declares. “I had the time to train and commit, and it was just like a snowball effect. I won the local track league and the University’s big aim was the BUCS competition so I trained hard for that, and once you pick up your first BUCS medal you think ‘can I win one?’
“By the end of my final year at university I think I had won 20 BUCS medals across the board – track, time trial and road race,” he says, bigger, more prestigious competitions soon catching his eye.
“I turned up at the National Championships [in 2018] and won my first National medals – third in the Madison and second in the Omnium. I beat the likes of Fred Wright, Will Tidball, Ethan Vernon.
“I guess I was just a complete unknown,” he reminisces, his former Great Britain teammate Tidball and him still sharing jokes about their sudden introduction on the track to this day.
“I was just this random guy in bright orange University of Derby kit and I saw these GB Academy guys, well they’re the best in each year group, right? So for me to turn up and beat them, that’s one of the best results I’ve ever had.”
With Perrett having made his mark, his next move was a case of him being in the right place at the right time; hours spent on the boards in Derby coming at a time when the velodrome’s most notorious residents were the HUUB-Wattbike team, a group of upstarts making the city famous across the globe as they took the Team Pursuit scene by storm.
“They were really inspirational for me, seeing what they were going and doing,” Perrett says, Dan Bigham inviting him onto the squad during the final year of his master’s degree in Environmental Science.
“It was a dream to ride a bike full time for a year with good support and funding. I wasn’t paid, but everything was paid for, and we lived and breathed track cycling. It was amazing, and a real eye-opener for me about what it actually takes to be a full-time cyclist. John Archibald, he was just perfect as an athlete, like a robot in the way he trained and lived. Dan was doing incredible things, both as an athlete and with the aerodynamics.
“I was very much catching up to those guys. I was taking it all in, like a sponge in that environment.”
Having taken his first National title in the Team Pursuit, Perrett entered a crash course in international competition with World Cup experience coming in Minsk, Glasgow, and Brisbane; a training camp atop Tenerife’s volcanic landscape being the destination when the news broke that would change Perrett’s life.
“It was such a cool time in my life, but the lockdowns started and that essentially put a stop to the HUUB-Wattbike journey and team.”
“It was very much the rug had been pulled from under my feet,” he reflects. “I went into lockdown and I didn’t have a job, didn’t have a team. I managed to get a job with Royal Mail lugging sacks of mail onto planes at East Midlands Airport, but eventually I found a job as an environmental consultant. I did that part time but I didn’t want to stop cycling now I’d had my first taste of World Cups and that high level. I didn’t think I was out of my depth.”
Determined, hungry, and ultimately alone, Perrett made himself a two-year plan with lofty ambitions – the climax a ride in the Commonwealth Games for Team England.
“At the time the England squad was more or less the GB squad. And they’d never send you to the Commonwealth Games if you weren’t on the GB squad,” Perrett explains, as he embarked on his new life as an independent athlete.
“I set out trying to find a UCI track team that would allow me to then race in the Nations Cups, and thankfully an Irish team, Spellman Dublin Port, gave me a ride. It was quite a small set-up, an inexperienced set-up. But it was just what I needed to open the door,” he says.
“I’d fly away, just me and my bike box, to all the C1 and C2 events, picking up UCI points to enable me to then ride at the [Nations] Cups,” he explains, a fifth place in the Omnium at a Nations Cup meet in Glasgow opening the eyes of the GB coaches for the first time. “I had beaten the Olympic Champion and some pretty top bike riders. I was this guy going to all these events on my own and I guess doing better than a lot of the GB riders,” he notes.
With his results gaining traction, Perrett leaned on the contacts he had made to gain some track time with the GB Academy, his first taste of life on the National squad. “Derby [velodrome] had become a vaccination centre, and they were kind enough to let me train with the academy [in Manchester]. From there I was able to guest on the programme – it was no problem to them, just one extra rider on the academy track sessions. If anything they probably thought I raised the level of the sessions, having another good rider in there. I was able to put my foot in the door.”
Perrett’s foot in the door was keeping it firmly open by the time he was selected for the European Championships, his first ever competition as part of a Great Britain squad. “Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would put on a GB jersey,” he says, looking back with pride. And perspective.
“I went there to do the Team Pursuit, but in the end I was the Team Pursuit sub and did the Elimination and Points Race, which was a bit of a shock. I don’t think I’d ridden my bunch bike in a long time, but still had a pretty decent ride,” he says, referring to his eighth place in the Points Race in particular. “I think they were happy with what they saw and how I coped in that kind of environment.”
Now a vastly more experienced athlete than the one who partnered Tom Ward to a bronze medal four years earlier, Perrett put what he had learned into practice, winning his first National Madison title at a raucous Derby Velodrome in the spring of 2022, sending a strong message to the selectors ahead of the Commonwealth Games despite his status as a guest with the Great Britain set-up.
“It wasn’t enough to get me selected. But I was selected as a reserve, and was actually put down as first reserve,” he explains, a turn of fortune making his ambition become reality.
“Amazingly, last minute I was training on the track in Derby and I got a call saying can you drive down to London because you’re going to ride in the Commonwealth Games, we need you.
“It was mental.” He beams. “I packed up the car, drove down and I was probably the happiest athlete in that village because I set that target.”
There is little missing from Perrett’s glittering palmarès as we speak almost four years on from his Commonwealth Games bow. “A World Championship medal, which I fully believe I’m capable of,” he notes, having missed out on selection the past three years, a Commonwealth Games medal the other which eludes him after he raced in the Points Race and Individual Pursuit back in 2022.
“To be honest, at the time they weren’t my best performances,” he concedes, looking back. “At the time a lot of athletes were having problems with Covid, and I had had Covid pretty bad in the run-in towards the Commonwealth Games.”
However, Perrett remains determined that his chance of a medal has not yet passed, his passion for the Games, which have shaped his journey like no other, shining through as he sets out another ambition centred around selection for the quadrennial event.
“I’d like to get selected for the Commonwealth Games this year,” he declares, in many ways a more challenging goal than that of four years ago, despite his vastly increased stature in the sport.
“How it works for Team England, it’s effectively Team GB. It’s the same coaches, the Team GB coaches effectively become the Team England coaches. It would be incredibly difficult for me to get selected for England, or nigh on impossible because the same coaches who didn’t rate me and booted me off the programme do the selection,” Perrett states bluntly, his recent National Madison crown, or even a fourth straight Points Race title later this month, unlikely to change the status quo.
“So I’ve made the decision I’d like to ride for Team Wales at the Commonwealth Games, which I’m fortunate I can do, make that switch, because I have Welsh family,” he reveals.
“I believe I’m one of the best track riders, bunch riders, in the Commonwealth, and I think it’s only fair really that I should be given that opportunity. I’d hate to not get a ride due to politics or just being out of favour.
“That’s my aim and being part of these [upcoming] British National Championships are a good way of showing my level to get selected.”
Straddled across July and August over just four days, the Glasgow track programme contains multiple opportunities for Perrett to claim the medal he so desperately desires, the obvious opportunity in the Points Race, where he excels, but also the Elimination race, where he won a highly competitive World Cup two years ago in the build-up to the Paris Olympics, the Scratch race, as well as the Individual and Team Pursuits.
“I was third in the Individual Pursuit [at the National Championships last year],” Perrett states, his bronze medal all the more impressive when the results sheet reveals his time was only bettered by Michael Gill and former World Record holder Josh Charlton.
“Then after that I was told I was being booted off the [Olympic Podium Programme] squad,” he says bluntly, the Commonwealth Games this time around providing more than an opportunity for success, but one for redemption. An international competition, and a chance to set the record straight.
“I’ve gone and won the National Madison by over 30 points and I haven’t been selected for the European Championships, which is mad,” Perrett argues as the conversation turns to his time with, and after, the Great Britain Cycling Team, a fascinating conversation about the highs and lows of being involved in one of cycling’s most storied national squads.
For now, Perrett is back where he has so often found clarity: training, racing, and setting his own agenda. The boards, the bunch, the stopwatch – the simple, unforgiving measures of form. Whatever comes next, his career has already been shaped as much by what he has had to build for himself as by what was ever offered to him.
This interview is the first part of a two-part conversation with Will Perrett. The second part, exploring his time inside the Great Britain Cycling Team and his plans for the years ahead, will be published later.
Featured image: SWpix.com
Share this:
Discover more from The British Continental
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.