When the programme ends: Will Perrett interview, part two

In just four years, Will Perrett had gone from shocking the Great Britain Academy riders as the surprise package at the National Track Championships, to joining their sessions as a guest on his way to achieving his unlikely dream of representing Team England at the Commonwealth Games – the story of which can be read in part one of this extended interview.

In part two, Perrett shares the inside story of what led to him becoming the first male rider to make the flagship Olympic Podium Performance Programme without prior experience as part of a pathway squad, win a European Championship medal and World Cup, before being “booted off”, leaving him searching for answers as he heads into the next phase of his career, first stop the National Track Championships later this month.

I’ve won eight national titles on the track. It’s pretty mad to think I’ve achieved that

“You know, I feel like I’ve done a good job over the years since my first national title, which I won with HUUB-Wattbike. I know we missed a year with Covid, but I’ve won eight national titles on the track. It’s pretty mad to think I’ve achieved that,” says an introspective Perrett – talk not of retirement, but of reinvention.

From the ashes of his Olympic Podium Programme place, which he lost midway through last year, rose his coaching business, Next Gear Cycle Coaching, as he continues to train and race as an elite athlete alongside guiding the next generation to success, for now at least.

“It was something I always wanted to do. I don’t get the same joy out of working in environmental science as I do in cycling and elite sport,” he explains, having worked hard to complete his qualifications last year as he found himself unemployed.

“I’ve got some really good athletes I’m coaching, a mixture of really keen young lads, and I feel I can really help and improve them with all my knowledge and years of training and racing at the highest level.

I thought this is bonkers – I’ve ridden to 5th in the European Championships, I’ve won and beaten everyone on GB at the nationals in the Points Race. I thought I can’t just quit now

“It’s also enabled me to keep riding because after GB I didn’t just want to quit. I thought this is bonkers – I’ve ridden to 5th in the European Championships, I’ve won and beaten everyone on GB at the nationals in the Points Race. I thought I can’t just quit now. I feel like you should quit when you know you’re no longer good enough or you’re no longer competitive – I’m only 29, so I thought I’d keep going and see what opportunities come about.”

However, Perrett, who is no stranger to the struggle of working alongside training for elite competition, is honest about the long-term sustainability of such an arrangement.

“I should thank my partner, who’s been really understanding, and my Mum and Dad,” he says, having moved back into the family home after the rent on his house became unsustainable, essentially becoming unemployed when his time on the Olympic Podium Programme came to an end.

“You know this year I’ll be 30 and I’ll probably [still] be living at home with Mum and Dad. People can say ‘oh yeah but you’re national champion’ and that kind of thing, but I’ve been an eight-time national champion now and at some point I want to get my own home and live with my partner,” he explains, mulling over his longer-term future.

“To be able to perform to the level of winning at the nationals, beating WorldTour riders and full-time athletes on the GB programme, it’s not a small commitment it is your life. At some point you have to go, ‘well, if I’m not going to get selected for the Worlds, European Champs, or Olympics, at age 29, can I justify the time, effort and money I need to put in to be the best I can be as a bike rider?’ I guess the answer is no.”

For now, Perrett’s commitment to racing remains strong, however. Fully motivated, he says he has been “living like a monk”, with simply not enough time in the day for much outside of work and training – his first destination this month’s National Track Championships, where he will aim for a fourth straight Points Race victory, then the Commonwealth Games in the summer.

Perrett has, of course, been in a similar predicament before. Following the Commonwealth Games in 2022, he was pushing hard for a full-time berth on the Olympic Podium Programme, having been riding as a guest to that point. An environmental consultant by trade, international cycling was a rewarding, but expensive, hobby.

“I was really pushing to be given a chance on the programme because at that time I was still working and having to support everything myself. As an English bike rider, if you’re not on the Great Britain squad, there’s not really much support out there for you. You’re literally paying for your own track sessions and all your own equipment. It’s pretty tough,” he explains.

The answer to Perrett’s request brought about a sea change in his life, the sort of move an athlete can only make once as they strive to reach, and stay, at the top.

How am I meant to show I’m better than these guys when I’m working and they’re fully funded riders with all their training planned and supported?

“They said you’ve got to prove that you’re better than the guys on the squad, which I thought was a bit baffling – how am I meant to show I’m better than these guys when I’m working and they’re fully funded riders with all their training planned and supported?” he questions.

“I decided, right, it’s now or never. So I quit my job and trained full time.”

Perrett’s decision paid off when he was selected for that autumn’s World Championships in France, arriving in the form of his life and fully aware of the occasion.

“Again, I couldn’t believe they had selected me for a World Championship and [I would be] putting on that jersey again,” he emphasises, demonstrating just what such opportunities did, and still do, mean to him.

“I was a bit unfortunate [in that] I was a bit inexperienced and rode like a bull in a china shop, taking two solo laps [in the Points Race]. I was a bit wasteful with my energy and I missed out on the podium and a medal in the final sprint — it ended up five of us going for the podium, and I ended up 5th!” he notes, the result still stirring a mix of emotions.

The ride, however, was enough to impress the coaches – the catalyst for a winter to remember.

“The next day they said they were going to put me on the squad in January and give me a shot. It was amazing.

“I went and rode the Champions League, got a win there. I went on my first GB training camp. It was an amazing experience just being on the squad and all that it’s got to offer. I was training hard. I was able to win at the Nationals and a Class 1, beating the Oliveira brothers, and I was able to go to the European Championships and win a bronze medal. Again, that was in an absolutely world-class field – it was a massive result.

“And then,” Perrett pauses as his tone of voice shifts, “it all went downhill from there.”

Having been taken ill in Jakarta while with the squad at a Nations Cup meet with a bad stomach, Perrett’s health continued to deteriorate; Epstein-Barr virus was eventually diagnosed as the culprit. “That was a really tough period in my career,” he admits.

I’m suddenly a full-time athlete and I’m having to sit around and do nothing. Not that I had the energy to do anything

“I was incredibly motivated, but I’d spent all this time in my career having to work. I’m suddenly a full-time athlete and I’m having to sit around and do nothing. Not that I had the energy to do anything.”

Perrett returned to competition for the World Championships in Glasgow, the final edition before the next summer’s Olympic Games, again finishing 5th in the Points Race.

“You want it so much, especially in front of a home crowd,” he explains, Perrett’s passion, pride and desire to perform each time he raced in a Great Britain jersey clearly on display throughout the interview.

“In hindsight I might have fared better not going there because I wasn’t in the best form, but I had learnt so much that year – it’s actually one of my proudest performances,” he reflects. “To this day I still don’t know how I did it. I was vying for the medals right until the end and I couldn’t take the final lap – I cracked.”

Perrett was still feeling the after-effects of glandular fever into the winter, his first twelve months as a funded rider on the programme a tough one, a corner being turned with an impressive World Cup victory in the Elimination Race in Hong Kong at the start of 2024.

“Of course they weren’t going to select me for the Olympics because my performances hadn’t been at that level,” Perrett admits, as the Paris Games came and went, his focus further down the line as he returned to form.

“I had really improved and my numbers were getting a lot better. I trained incredibly hard looking towards the World Championships that summer and I wasn’t selected. That was a really tough one to take. I actually only found out by the email you receive. The coaches hadn’t actually told me.”

Perrett’s disappointment was only compounded by the reaction of the Great Britain coaches following a lacklustre display in Ballerup, where the men’s team went medalless in the bunch races.

They were looking at me to get booted off the programme. I thought that was pretty unfair because they hadn’t seen me race in a long time

“There was a lot of soul searching at GB and I got put on review, which meant they were looking at me to get booted off the programme,” Perrett shares. “I thought that was pretty unfair because they hadn’t seen me race in a long time, and I wasn’t given the chance at the World Championships to show what I had.”

After a winter in the Champions League, winning the Elimination Race in Paris before succumbing to a heavy crash, Perrett returned to the Great Britain fold determined to fight for his place in the set-up; judgement day was scheduled for the Madison at February’s European Championships.

“It was my first major championship Madison, and it was sort of all on the line for that one event. They put me with Matt Walls, who I’d never ridden with, and our first ever change in the Madison was in the event itself. I thought they were setting me up to fail with that a bit,” he says, honestly managing a wry joke despite the seriousness of the conversation.

“We came 5th. I think there’s a bit of a pattern there. We took three laps in that race and I felt like I put in a seriously good performance.”

Perrett then bolstered his case further at the National Championships, showboating his way to an insatiable third straight Points Race title with a flurry of lap gains, as well as finishing an impressive third in the Individual Pursuit.

“Then, unfortunately I got the bad news that they were booting me off the squad. They said that I hadn’t done enough. I was a bit baffled by that, but it is what it is. You can’t do much about it if the coaches don’t rate you for whatever reason – all you can do is turn up and try your best,” he says, philosophically, despite the circumstances around his expulsion still irking him now.

“It’s not how I would do it, it’s safe to say,” he responds with quiet defiance when greeted with shock at the lack of Madison-specific preparation. “And as a coach myself, it’s not how I would want to prepare for any major championship.

“But I guess in their eyes, at the end of the day, they’re incredibly Olympic-focused. That’s all that counts to them because that’s where they get their funding.”

Left to his own agenda, the remainder of 2025 was a mixture of highs and lows for Perrett. As well as experiencing the typical millennial angst of moving back in with Mum and Dad, bad luck cast a shadow on what could have been an excellent season, both on the road and on the track.

“I put in some good results, but apart from at the Rás I was never really at my best,” he summarises, a stage win in Ireland’s premier race, where the DAS-Richardsons rider took the race by the scruff of the neck and crossed the line alone, bookended by a concussion sustained at the East Cleveland Classic and a stomach bug caused by the parasite cryptosporidium, which saw him off the bike for yet another month.

“Then I came back and did a track race in Italy, got wiped out on a concrete track and broke my ribs, so it was just like, what is going on? You’ve got to take the rough with the smooth at times,” he says calmly, looking ahead to 2026.

“I’m looking forward to [the track] nationals and trying to pick up more medals and titles, put in some good performances with One Life Cycle, and then of course I’m looking forward to riding on the road with DAS-Richardsons and hopefully have a smoother season with regards to crashing and illness, seeing what I can do in the perfect environment to achieve some good results.”

As the conversation shifts back to his time on the Olympic Podium Programme and the fallout from his expulsion, Perrett casually reveals he was self-coached during his time on the national squad, as he had been throughout his career.

I would write my own training, prepare for races myself. I’d watch hours of footage of past races. I was very much, I guess, my own entity

“I would write my own training, prepare for races myself. I’d watch hours of footage of past races. I was very much, I guess, my own entity,” he reveals, his maverick approach offering him vital experience for his current vocation, but not always paying dividends when it came to navigating the internal politics of international sport.

“I did listen to advice they gave me, it wasn’t like I was completely against what they were saying. I feel like I built up some good relationships with the coaches,” Perrett argues when asked if the coaches didn’t fully trust him, having already come from the outside as the first male rider to make it onto the top-tier Olympic Podium Programme having never been part of the British Cycling development system.

“Sports organisations, like anything, are rooms full of people,” he continues, diplomatically searching for potential reasons he was let go. “And what you’ll notice from being on squads like GB is that if you’re a coach or a physiologist and you coach a certain set of riders, you’re going to big up your own riders. When a discussion happens about my selection and programme membership, have I got anyone in that room fighting my corner? The answer is no because I coach myself. My coach isn’t in that discussion, saying how well I’m going or how good my numbers are, bigging me up, so that does work against you in that sense.

“I can imagine them saying, we need this guy to improve by this much, and we’re not coaching him, so we have no control over how much he’s going to improve.”

Another thing out of Perrett’s control is his age. At 29 he is perhaps only just reaching his peak; however, the fact remains that he is older than the average rider Great Britain favours fielding in certain major championships with an eye on future Olympic cycles.

“Honestly, I personally believe I’m a top bunch rider,” he preaches to the already converted.

“They see me as a 29-year-old with not as much improvement as some of the youngsters coming through, and they’re potentially thinking if I ride at the Euros or Worlds I’m taking away an opportunity for them to gain experience and get better.

“Instead of seeing a guy who turns up at nationals, beats everyone, [and saying] he’s someone we want on the squad because the youngsters need to see what the level is, they’ve kind of gone, well this guy is better than a lot of the younger riders we’ve got, but he’s just in the way of them getting opportunities.

It does feel like they’re hunting around for a silver bullet, and as we know, silver bullets very rarely come around

“It does feel like they’re hunting around for a silver bullet, and as we know, silver bullets very rarely come around. For the majority of athletes it takes years of commitment, dedication and good coaching. And they gave me what? A couple and a half years on the squad, and for half of that I was recovering from glandular fever.

“When you look at it like that it’s a tough one to take, especially since now the Omnium at the Olympics has its own sole, separate spot. You no longer have to be [in the] Team Pursuit. Having a sole Omnium and Madison rider, that’s where my skillset and speciality lies.”

With chances to lay down markers at both the National Championships and Commonwealth Games ahead, does Perrett hold any hope of making it back onto the Olympic Podium Programme, forcing the coaches’ hand with unignorable results?

“Honestly, I don’t know. It’s very difficult for coaches to make a decision and then go back on it; it doesn’t happen very often,” he says with a dose of vivid realism.

“You’d always say yes, because you never know. And if they turned around and said we’ll put you back on the programme and select you for the Worlds, I’d absolutely say yes.”

With Perrett still dedicated to achieving success at the top level, it seems premature to end the interview talking of legacies, even if the odds of him returning to the Great Britain fold are stacked against him. However, he insists he can look back on what he has achieved with pride, not only as a maverick, but as a trailblazer for the way riders are now selected for the national squads and programmes.

You get hit with setbacks all the time and people saying no, not thinking you’re good enough, and you just have to keep on going and keep plugging away

“Without doubt, especially to self-coach and do it as well,” he affirms. “You know, you can be super proud of that – what I did, the plans I made, the training I did, and all the different ways I tried my best to get on the squad, and I kept on pushing. Because as we all know with sport, and cycling in particular, you get hit with setbacks all the time and people saying no, not thinking you’re good enough, and you just have to keep on going and keep plugging away.

“Of course I’m really proud of that, and it is cool to see now there are other riders who have followed that same avenue onto the programme, that other riders do now get given a shot because in the past they really didn’t. That’s nice to see, and it’s nice I’ve been a part of that.”

If Perrett again strikes gold at the National Track Championships this month, jerseys nine, ten, or even eleven are unlikely to change the legacy he has quietly gone about building. Determined, passionate, and perhaps above all else inspirational, they will only serve to highlight the situation of a rider who continues to perform, with or without the programme. How long will he continue? Perhaps the answer lies not with Perrett himself, but with the opportunities that may still come his way. As he has proven before, the door is never fully closed.

Featured image: Olly Hassall/SWpix.com