Tom Stewart interview: “Who’s going to organise the bike race?”
Tom Stewart owes his decade in the professional peloton to his local cycling club. As Doncaster Wheelers turn 100, the two-time Lincoln Grand Prix winner makes the case for the institution he believes British road racing cannot afford to lose.
Tom Stewart still remembers the day he first wanted to race a bike.
“It was a ride we did to watch the Lincoln Grand Prix, and we had a Doncaster Wheelers member, Adam Weaver, in the break. And, you know, that was a fantastic bit of inspiration for me. I just thought I’ve got to be able to experience that again,” he tells The British Continental, making the case for what he feels is a much-needed resurgence of Britain’s traditional club scene—without which such moments could be consigned to history.
I owe everything to that format, and that’s why I believe in it
“I owe everything to that format, and that’s why I believe in it,” the now 36-year-old continues, revealing over the course of the interview how the Doncaster Wheelers, who celebrate their centenary this year, and with whom he remains an active member, are one of a number of clubs putting themselves at the forefront of that resurgence.
Stewart is perhaps best known as a two-time winner of the race which inspired him, the Rapha Lincoln Grand Prix, and called time on a decade in the professional peloton as the COVID-19 pandemic struck in 2020, having ridden for a host of British UCI teams in what is considered the golden age of the sport on a domestic level. However, the Yorkshireman has not forgotten where his journey, like so many others, started, and admits that if it were not for his local club, he may never have stayed in the sport.
Chestnut Homes Lincoln Grand Prix – Stewart wins the 2019 Chestnut Homes Lincoln Grand Prix. Image: Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com
“My parents aren’t cyclists at all. I didn’t know any cyclists. I got a second-hand road bike and took it to the local bike shop in town, and that’s where the club was based,” he explains.
“You’re introduced to a Sunday level one ride—super steady, and then you get invited out again, and then you progress to the next ride. And then, before you know it, a big part of your life is here in the cycling club—all this wealth of knowledge, all these trips happening, the social side of it, and obviously the help with training and all the rides. So the simple fact is that without that cycling club, I would never have become a professional, and probably wouldn’t have ever stayed a cyclist.”
However, while Stewart’s story is one that will resonate with riders from multiple generations, the club scene he describes, at least anecdotally, has suffered in recent years, evidenced by the startlists of races down to a regional level—trade teams and informal groups formed on social media dominating the final column where clubs once dominated.
Cycling clubs have kind of fallen out of fashion a little bit in the last 10 years, and most people now, if they want to race, they ride for a local team
“Cycling clubs have kind of fallen out of fashion a little bit in the last 10 years, and most people now, if they want to race, they ride for a local team,” Stewart points out, arguing that, perhaps more than ever before, the sport in Britain needs a resurgence of the club culture that he was brought up in—the domestic scene stronger through what he describes as a sense of community that comes from representing a club, and all its members, as part of something bigger.
“It’s more about realising there’s some value to [being part of a club], rather than just being a random person, on a random team, where nobody has any real interest in whether you do well or not.
“If you’re a member of a cycling club, you’ve got massive reach, potentially up to 200 people who are following you and they’re invested in what you’re doing, and they’re supporting you and are proud that they wear the same jersey as you, and I think that stands for a lot,” he argues—the racing contingent a crucial part of what the Doncaster Wheelers stalwart believes the ultimate purpose of a cycling club is: being there for anyone with an interest in the sport, and ultimately, developing that interest.
Tom Stewart take the win from JLT Condor’s Russ Downing at the 2016 Lincoln Grand Prix. Image: Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com
“It’s important that a cycling club can offer a level one ride where total beginners, or someone who just doesn’t want to ride very fast, can go have a social meetup. It’s important that they can offer some free, or certainly pretty cheap Go-Ride coaching, so that a young rider, if they fancy having a go, they can come down on a knackered old mountain bike, have some fun and meet other kids; then the parents can get some help with some advice,” he reasons, his experience with the current crop of Go-Ride intake at the Doncaster Wheelers cementing his point.
“These are kids who never really thought they wanted to race a bike. They just saw a leaflet. They’ve gone. And now, a year later, a couple of them are thinking they might start to race,” Stewart says. “It’s from those seeds that things grow, so it’s important that we have riders at the other end of the spectrum to show those kids that there’s a path right through which they can take.”
I think, at the minute, there’s a lot of riders who at the first opportunity will just leave a club to go and ride for a team without actually being offered anything substantial
“I think, at the minute, there’s a lot of riders who at the first opportunity will just leave a club to go and ride for a team without actually being offered anything substantial,” he continues. “They’re not paid professionals, but it looks a bit more shiny, it’s just cooler isn’t it? There’s some nice pictures, nice kit, and some nice bikes—and people want to be a part of that, and I would have done too at that point in my career. I don’t blame anybody, but without clubs, how are people going to get into the sport in the first place? Who’s going to nurture those younger riders and keep everybody together? Who’s going to organise the bike race?”
Stewart’s final point is a crucial one—the Doncaster Wheelers hosted the Danum Trophy again this season, as it has done for many years —a seemingly permanent fixture on a road racing calendar rocked by uncertainty in recent years with a number of clubs, having lost touch with their racing heritage, no longer promoting the events which are the lifeblood of the sport’s grassroots.
Founder member of the Doncaster Wheelers, Archie Fuller. Image: supplied
“I think that, again, is one of the key selling points for the club,” Stewart reflects.
“This wealth of members, some of them with time on their hands—it can come together and organise a race like that which requires hundreds and hundreds of hours of volunteer work.
“There’s always one or two people at the centre, but still, on a very basic level, on that day, we need people to come down and stand there with a jacket and wave a flag about. And if you’re part of a cycling club, you have people there you can lean on for that, and they’re keen to come and help, support the racers they know from the club.
If you’re part of a cycling club, you have people there you can lean on for that, and they’re keen to come and help, support the racers they know from the club
“I’d also like to think that the elite-level riders we’re supporting can see the benefit in giving something back to the club, given that the club has such a rich history of hosting races, not just the Danum Trophy—there’s youth races, we’re hopefully organising a big cyclocross race this year too.”
Stewart speaks of the riders the Doncaster Wheelers are supporting, a project which the club hopes will reverse the trend of riders leaving the club for trade teams, keeping them within the club membership throughout their journey in the sport.
“We’re not calling it a race team,” he is keen to point out, the club not directly competing with what is already on offer elsewhere, but offering an incentive to remain within the existing setup.
“We support the riders financially, so we provide them with some kit, some help with race entry fees,’ he says. “They have a deal with Giant through the local bike shop where they can become ambassadors and get a bike at a reasonable price. So in some ways, we are similar to these teams in terms of the actual quantifiable support that we can offer. Hopefully these riders can buy into the idea that they’re going to have some supporters at races, and stay part of that community.”
A Doncaster Wheelers rider in action at the 2026 Rapha Lincoln Grand Prix. Image: Milan Josy/The British Continental
The idea of a club financially supporting its riders is not a new one, but for the Doncaster Wheelers, as it celebrates its 100th year, it is part of a modernisation that Stewart has seen first-hand over the past quarter of a century.
“There are some things in cycling clubs that just work, but of course, like anything, it has to modernise and stay relevant,” he says—the traditional club dinner, a tour to Germany, and the ride to the Lincoln GP where it all started for Stewart, a reminder of the past as the club looks forward with a modern kit design bringing the look of the club into 2026.
“It’s really smart. Hopefully lots of people on the fringe of the club will see and join the club because they want to ride in that kit,” Stewart says—fashion, and its impact through social media, an area clubs now need to consider almost as much as the traditional café stop to meet the needs of their members.
However, the overarching thing Stewart believes is paramount to the club continuing to thrive is simply having the elite racers present, there to advise and inspire.
In order to keep it relevant for the next 100 years, we want to get back to having riders who are racing for us and are staying within the club while they compete at a national level
“In order to keep it relevant for the next 100 years, we want to get back to having riders who are racing for us and are staying within the club while they compete at a national level. And I think there’s just a really important threshold that we need to meet to be able to be attractive enough to keep riders in-house, because without that, you’re always just a stepping stone.”
Tom Stewart on the cobbles, Michaelgate, Lincoln in 2016. Image: Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com
Despite the multiple challenges that even the biggest cycling clubs face in a fast-changing world, Stewart seems confident that the club that gave him so much can continue to thrive for future generations, pointing to examples of traditional cycling clubs thriving—Clifton and Shibden in Yorkshire continue to expand, while Beeston in Nottinghamshire—who ran a similar scheme with supported riders before shifting focus to become an Elite Development Team—are another success story he highlights.
Kids are buying into it. They’ve even got sponsors. You can achieve a lot more as a bigger group of people
“That’s just a few, and there’s many others that are going from strength to strength because they’ve got that sense of community,” he adds. “Kids are buying into it. They’ve even got sponsors. You can achieve a lot more as a bigger group of people.”
When the Lincoln Grand Prix peloton tackles Michaelgate in the coming years, young fans will be there to experience first-hand the race that inspired Tom Stewart, the young Doncaster Wheelers rider going on to inspire the next generation while never losing touch with his roots, regardless of the jersey on his back.
For Stewart now, however, it is no longer a question of whether someone will provide that same inspiration, but how. His firm belief is that without a return to the thriving club scene known to generations past, not only will a long-held tradition die, but a large part of the sport may cease with it. Who is going to inspire, and teach, the next generation?
Tom Stewart still remembers the day he first wanted to race a bike.
“It was a ride we did to watch the Lincoln Grand Prix, and we had a Doncaster Wheelers member, Adam Weaver, in the break. And, you know, that was a fantastic bit of inspiration for me. I just thought I’ve got to be able to experience that again,” he tells The British Continental, making the case for what he feels is a much-needed resurgence of Britain’s traditional club scene—without which such moments could be consigned to history.
“I owe everything to that format, and that’s why I believe in it,” the now 36-year-old continues, revealing over the course of the interview how the Doncaster Wheelers, who celebrate their centenary this year, and with whom he remains an active member, are one of a number of clubs putting themselves at the forefront of that resurgence.
Stewart is perhaps best known as a two-time winner of the race which inspired him, the Rapha Lincoln Grand Prix, and called time on a decade in the professional peloton as the COVID-19 pandemic struck in 2020, having ridden for a host of British UCI teams in what is considered the golden age of the sport on a domestic level. However, the Yorkshireman has not forgotten where his journey, like so many others, started, and admits that if it were not for his local club, he may never have stayed in the sport.
“My parents aren’t cyclists at all. I didn’t know any cyclists. I got a second-hand road bike and took it to the local bike shop in town, and that’s where the club was based,” he explains.
“You’re introduced to a Sunday level one ride—super steady, and then you get invited out again, and then you progress to the next ride. And then, before you know it, a big part of your life is here in the cycling club—all this wealth of knowledge, all these trips happening, the social side of it, and obviously the help with training and all the rides. So the simple fact is that without that cycling club, I would never have become a professional, and probably wouldn’t have ever stayed a cyclist.”
However, while Stewart’s story is one that will resonate with riders from multiple generations, the club scene he describes, at least anecdotally, has suffered in recent years, evidenced by the startlists of races down to a regional level—trade teams and informal groups formed on social media dominating the final column where clubs once dominated.
“Cycling clubs have kind of fallen out of fashion a little bit in the last 10 years, and most people now, if they want to race, they ride for a local team,” Stewart points out, arguing that, perhaps more than ever before, the sport in Britain needs a resurgence of the club culture that he was brought up in—the domestic scene stronger through what he describes as a sense of community that comes from representing a club, and all its members, as part of something bigger.
“It’s more about realising there’s some value to [being part of a club], rather than just being a random person, on a random team, where nobody has any real interest in whether you do well or not.
“If you’re a member of a cycling club, you’ve got massive reach, potentially up to 200 people who are following you and they’re invested in what you’re doing, and they’re supporting you and are proud that they wear the same jersey as you, and I think that stands for a lot,” he argues—the racing contingent a crucial part of what the Doncaster Wheelers stalwart believes the ultimate purpose of a cycling club is: being there for anyone with an interest in the sport, and ultimately, developing that interest.
“It’s important that a cycling club can offer a level one ride where total beginners, or someone who just doesn’t want to ride very fast, can go have a social meetup. It’s important that they can offer some free, or certainly pretty cheap Go-Ride coaching, so that a young rider, if they fancy having a go, they can come down on a knackered old mountain bike, have some fun and meet other kids; then the parents can get some help with some advice,” he reasons, his experience with the current crop of Go-Ride intake at the Doncaster Wheelers cementing his point.
“These are kids who never really thought they wanted to race a bike. They just saw a leaflet. They’ve gone. And now, a year later, a couple of them are thinking they might start to race,” Stewart says. “It’s from those seeds that things grow, so it’s important that we have riders at the other end of the spectrum to show those kids that there’s a path right through which they can take.”
“I think, at the minute, there’s a lot of riders who at the first opportunity will just leave a club to go and ride for a team without actually being offered anything substantial,” he continues. “They’re not paid professionals, but it looks a bit more shiny, it’s just cooler isn’t it? There’s some nice pictures, nice kit, and some nice bikes—and people want to be a part of that, and I would have done too at that point in my career. I don’t blame anybody, but without clubs, how are people going to get into the sport in the first place? Who’s going to nurture those younger riders and keep everybody together? Who’s going to organise the bike race?”
Stewart’s final point is a crucial one—the Doncaster Wheelers hosted the Danum Trophy again this season, as it has done for many years —a seemingly permanent fixture on a road racing calendar rocked by uncertainty in recent years with a number of clubs, having lost touch with their racing heritage, no longer promoting the events which are the lifeblood of the sport’s grassroots.
“I think that, again, is one of the key selling points for the club,” Stewart reflects.
“This wealth of members, some of them with time on their hands—it can come together and organise a race like that which requires hundreds and hundreds of hours of volunteer work.
“There’s always one or two people at the centre, but still, on a very basic level, on that day, we need people to come down and stand there with a jacket and wave a flag about. And if you’re part of a cycling club, you have people there you can lean on for that, and they’re keen to come and help, support the racers they know from the club.
“I’d also like to think that the elite-level riders we’re supporting can see the benefit in giving something back to the club, given that the club has such a rich history of hosting races, not just the Danum Trophy—there’s youth races, we’re hopefully organising a big cyclocross race this year too.”
Stewart speaks of the riders the Doncaster Wheelers are supporting, a project which the club hopes will reverse the trend of riders leaving the club for trade teams, keeping them within the club membership throughout their journey in the sport.
“We’re not calling it a race team,” he is keen to point out, the club not directly competing with what is already on offer elsewhere, but offering an incentive to remain within the existing setup.
“We support the riders financially, so we provide them with some kit, some help with race entry fees,’ he says. “They have a deal with Giant through the local bike shop where they can become ambassadors and get a bike at a reasonable price. So in some ways, we are similar to these teams in terms of the actual quantifiable support that we can offer. Hopefully these riders can buy into the idea that they’re going to have some supporters at races, and stay part of that community.”
The idea of a club financially supporting its riders is not a new one, but for the Doncaster Wheelers, as it celebrates its 100th year, it is part of a modernisation that Stewart has seen first-hand over the past quarter of a century.
“There are some things in cycling clubs that just work, but of course, like anything, it has to modernise and stay relevant,” he says—the traditional club dinner, a tour to Germany, and the ride to the Lincoln GP where it all started for Stewart, a reminder of the past as the club looks forward with a modern kit design bringing the look of the club into 2026.
“It’s really smart. Hopefully lots of people on the fringe of the club will see and join the club because they want to ride in that kit,” Stewart says—fashion, and its impact through social media, an area clubs now need to consider almost as much as the traditional café stop to meet the needs of their members.
However, the overarching thing Stewart believes is paramount to the club continuing to thrive is simply having the elite racers present, there to advise and inspire.
“In order to keep it relevant for the next 100 years, we want to get back to having riders who are racing for us and are staying within the club while they compete at a national level. And I think there’s just a really important threshold that we need to meet to be able to be attractive enough to keep riders in-house, because without that, you’re always just a stepping stone.”
Despite the multiple challenges that even the biggest cycling clubs face in a fast-changing world, Stewart seems confident that the club that gave him so much can continue to thrive for future generations, pointing to examples of traditional cycling clubs thriving—Clifton and Shibden in Yorkshire continue to expand, while Beeston in Nottinghamshire—who ran a similar scheme with supported riders before shifting focus to become an Elite Development Team—are another success story he highlights.
“That’s just a few, and there’s many others that are going from strength to strength because they’ve got that sense of community,” he adds. “Kids are buying into it. They’ve even got sponsors. You can achieve a lot more as a bigger group of people.”
When the Lincoln Grand Prix peloton tackles Michaelgate in the coming years, young fans will be there to experience first-hand the race that inspired Tom Stewart, the young Doncaster Wheelers rider going on to inspire the next generation while never losing touch with his roots, regardless of the jersey on his back.
For Stewart now, however, it is no longer a question of whether someone will provide that same inspiration, but how. His firm belief is that without a return to the thriving club scene known to generations past, not only will a long-held tradition die, but a large part of the sport may cease with it. Who is going to inspire, and teach, the next generation?
Featured image: SWpix.com
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