It feels disrespectful to call Jake Stewart’s 2019 season a breakthrough given the
strong first season as an U23 that he had in 2018, but there is no question that
the young Brit took things to a new level this year.
After swapping the comforts of the GB Academy for France and the newly
formed Groupama-FDJ Continental team, Stewart went on a tear through Europe,
recording 13 top tens, including five podiums. 2019 was not a breakthrough, it
was a season in which Jake established himself as one of the best U23s in the
world. All he missed was a win, but more on that later.
We caught up with Jake just before the festive period began for an in-depth
interview, as per U23 Cycling Zone tradition on New Year’s Eve, and now you can
get to know the sprinter and Classics rider better with our exclusive interview.
“The best way for me to sum up my 2019 season would be ‘close but no
cigar’. I found myself in the right place a lot through the season, however I just
missed out on that elusive UCI win. Fortunately, I found myself in a position
where I had no pressure on myself as I had performed consistently though the
season with a number of podiums. A win would have been nice, but I didn’t
come away from this season disappointed at all. Its left me more motivated to
have an even better season in 2020.”
Indeed, Stewart has no reason to be disappointed, after backing up 2nd in U23
Wevelgem and Trofeo Piva last year with third at both U23 Flanders and
Eschborn-Frankfurt, as well as 5 th overall at the Triptyque stage race in
Belgium. Throw in 8 th at U23 Roubaix and a strong few days at the U23 Giro,
plus a solid Tour of Britain debut, and you have a season that would be the
envy of all but the very best U23s this year. Jake, strong a number of terrains,
spoke about his strengths and weaknesses at this early stage in his career.
“My strengths certainty lie in the one-day races, this is where I have seen
myself excel the most over the last two years as an U23. I think I prefer the
one-day races to stage races and my favorite races of the season are for sure
the U23 “classics”. I’d say I have a fast finish on me and I would say that I’m
definitely better at the end of a grippy day on the bike, rather than a real pure
sprinters day. I’ve got an ability to get over the slightly harder climbs where
the real fast boys suffer, so at the end of a grippy race I’ve got that few extra
percent. I seem to recover pretty well from day to day on the bike and
therefore throughout a stage race I usually feel quite good on the bike – my
fatigue resistance is good but I just haven’t quite been able to prove myself on
the sprinters stages or grippier days of the long stage races yet. That’s
something I certainly want to work on in 2020. Triptyque this year was an
example of that, but ultimately my real downfall is on the TT bike, I was happy
with the result I pulled out at Triptyque, but there has always been a thought
of what could’ve been if I could TT better. For sure that’s my biggest downfall
at the moment and something I’m really keen to work on.”
Despite clearly being a good sprinter, Jake says he believes his destiny is in
the Classics, and goes so far as to say that’s what motivates him to get up
and train every day. His knowledge of the races is already impressive, and will
be big help once he eventually moves up to the pros, whenever that is.
“Currently the rider that I see myself becoming is a one-day classics rider.
This is where my heart is, and always has been, and it’s what motivates me to
get up in the morning. I certainly see myself progressing in these races the
most, but I can’t forget that I’m still young and still have two years of
development as a U23 rider. There’s still plenty to learn and plenty of areas to
progress in. So for now, I’ll just continue to ride to my strengths and see how I
progress.”
Whilst many of the elite class of 1998 and 1999 in the UK (which includes
guys like Fred Wright, Matt Walls, Ethan Hayter and Tom Pidcock, as well as
Stewart) opted to race in the UK or remain on the GB Academy, Jake made
the bold move to head to France and race on a Conti team, the Groupama-
FDJ U23 feeder team to be specific. Jake told us about his move to France
and why he made that tough call.
“I’ve actually really enjoyed my first year abroad. It’s something that I’ve said
over and over again, but honestly it’s nice to be out of that British bubble. I
feel as a young rider it’s so easy to get trapped in the British racing scene and
not actually experience bike racing away from a British set up. For me it’s
been eye-opening to be outside of a British set up and fending for myself on
the continent. I’ve really seen myself grow up and develop over the last year
and I would will anyone that is thinking about taking the step to move abroad
to just embrace it and take the opportunity with open arms. Ultimately, my
reason to move away from the BC Academy was because I felt they didn’t
have much more to offer me as an aspiring road rider. I was approached by
Groupama-FDJ after my result at Gent-Wevelgem in my first year, and as an
aspiring road rider it felt like the right direction for me to go. Ultimately, I didn’t
see myself progressing on the track with so many strong lads ahead of me
fighting for selection for the Olympics. I had made the decision that I didn’t
want to pursue track due to the nature of its uncertainty, so it didn’t seem
logical for me to stay in the set-up riding track when I had an offer from a
WorldTour development team.”
Jake’s 2019 is even more impressive when you consider he didn’t really have
a bad period of the season, and was in shape pretty much year round. Even
after breaking his collarbone in Alsace towards the season’s end, he returned
with a bang at the Worlds and U23 Paris-Tours. Part of his success comes
from following a plan set out by his trainer at the team, but the other part is
genetics and his ability to recover well.
“To be fair I’m not too sure how I did it myself. If you want an answer to that
question I suggest you speak to the boffins at Groupama-FDJ and Nico
Boisson who is the genius who kept me in the best shape possible throughout
the year. Joking aside it’s just a game of juggling races and training. Like any
rider I wrote down my objectives at the start of the season, discussed the
races that I wanted to target, and the rest was left to the coaches to make
sure I was in the best shape possible. Certainly the plan was to be consistent
throughout the year, I think for sure my fatigue resistance helps with this and
with a calendar with so many of my objectives spread throughout the year, it
was always going to be a struggle to keep the form for so long, but in order to perform at each of my objectives it was necessary to try and carry the form
through, rather than an approach of backing off and peaking again.”
Given Jake didn’t get a chance to raise his arms in a UCI race this year, but
had several top tier performances, we asked him to pick one that stood out to
the man himself. He chose the race he called “his biggest target of the
season”.
“My favourite performance of the year is for sure Flanders, this was a race
that I would say was my biggest target for myself the year. We turned up at
Flanders with probably one of the strongest U23 teams that the nation has
had for a while I would say. We had so many options and cards that we could
have played that day and in the end, I ultimately fell short in the final 50m
when cramp got the better of me and I was rolled on the line for 3 rd . On the
day it felt like a big disappointment and I was frustrated that I hadn’t been able
to finish the job off for the boys. However, on reflection upon what was a day
of what some might call unlucky, but inevitably it’s just the nature of such a
race, due to the number of mechanical problems and punctures I had, that
were far from ideal at times, I can look at the race and honestly say I couldn’t
have done anymore. The result was bittersweet but I think this was probably
my best day that I had on the bike all year.”
Given he was only in his second year at the level in 2019, Jake says his lack
of a win, whilst coming as a frustration, was matched by the pleasure of
excelling so early in the level’s biggest races, especially when at just 19 for
almost all of the season (he turned 20 in early October), he was racing guys
up to two years older and, consequentially, two years more developed than he
was. 2019 was more a year of proving to himself that he belonged in the top
tier of U23 riders and backing up the 2018 Wevelgem ride. But there is no
question 2020 is about the wins.
“To be honest I would say a mixture of both. The frustration comes as I’ve
been so close to getting that win, but as regards to pressure, I don’t really feel
that there is pressure on me, for the need to perform, I feel as if I’ve proven
myself a number of times, so really the pressure just comes from myself and
wanting to get that elusive win. I’m definitely super happy to be performing at
the level I have been though, that Gent-Wevelgem result came as a bit of
surprise in my first year but I’m glad I’ve been able to build on that result this
year in a number of races and I think it shows that I’m not just a one trick pony
– moving forward in 2020 I hope to see the same progression and I’m really
hungry to turn those podiums that I’ve had this year into wins next season.”
For those who don’t follow this level of the sport too well, you may have
missed Jake signing on at Groupama-FDJ Conti for yet another year, his third
at U23 level. This means for 2020 he will take on a greater leadership role, as
well as being one of the elder statesmen on the team now. In fact, he may
even have the task of showing another young Brit, Lewis Askey, the ropes as
he begins his first season as an U23 with the same team.
“I think it will be really nice to have a Brit with me this year. I really enjoyed
being the only Brit on the team this year as it put me in a new situation and
forced me into scenarios that I wouldn’t find myself in if I was surrounded by British lads. It’s been really refreshing but I am looking forward to having
some British company next year. Its just the little things that you hardly notice
at the time, but when I came home after Flanders this year my parents asked
me why I was speaking to them like they were 4 year olds again? Why I was
speaking to them in broken English? I guess after so long communicating with
foreign lads, some of whom didn’t have much of a grasp on English, the
default was to speak broken English to them! It’ll be nice to have a Brit on the
team that understands some English humor and can have a laugh with,
without having to explain something after. To be honest, I don’t know Lewis
too well, he’s 2 year groups below me so I’ve never actually raced with him,
2020 will be the first year that we will even be in the same category, so I’m
looking forward to getting to know him. He’s a Brummy lad like me anyway so
at least we’ve got that in common. I don’t necessarily see myself as a mentor
to him, but a familiar face that he should feel comfortable speaking to, for
sure. I think definitely next year the team will look to me for more of a
leadership role. We have Morgan Kniesky for the races that are 1.2 and 2.2,
but for the U23 races there is no defined leader. I kind of naturally took on that
role through the year in a few races, but at no point was I appointed it or
asserted myself in that role, but on occasions the lads would come to me if
they needed someone to call the shots in a race – I found this was always
difficult in U23 racing as everyone is trying to make a name for themselves,
but I think if you’re an individual that is pragmatic and fair and that is
recognized, then the lads will respect you and look to you to lead them. I think
moving forward into 2020, we have a lot of new guys on the team, most of
whom are first years. I think for sure the team will look to us older lads that are
moving into our second year in the team to lead going into some races. It’s a
role I’ll definitely relish and try to help all the guys to progress the best they
can.”
For Jake, 2020 is about excelling in the Classics again, but also about
improving his weaknesses, for which he will use the 5 th place overall at the
Triptyque (and 18th in that race’s TT) as a barometer. Adding a few wins would
also be a target for the season too, and with those some offers to make the
step up to join close friends Wright and Hayter on the WorldTour.
“I’ve got a podium in both Flanders and Gent-Wevelgem, in 2020 I really want
to assert myself in that style of racing, I know I can perform in these races so
for sure I’m going to be going into the races with my sights set. I also want to
put in some work on my TT bike and I want to test myself at Tryptique again. I
feel this is a race that suits me really well, and if I can get my TT dialed down
a bit better I think I put myself in a good position to come away with a better
result than I did this year, but I think ultimately next years goals will be similar
to this years, I’ll look to be as consistent as I can be throughout the year and
try and get my hands in the air a few times. The end goal for next year will be
to end the season with some UCI wins under the belt and some offers on the
table to step up to the World Tour for 2021 or 2022.”
Given what Jake reiterated to us repeatedly during the interview about the
Classics, it was not a shock that he picked a Classic as his dream pro win. Like so many, he mentioned Flanders and Roubaix, but also through in a race not many U23s have mentioned in Amstel Gold. All three do really suit the 20 year old and his skillset.
“For me classics racing are what get me out of bed in the morning. It’s the
kind of racing that I love to watch on TV, but also the races that I enjoy most
when I am riding too. I want to be a Classics man and I think the big dream is
to win one of the monuments, probably either Flanders or Roubaix. The
legacy these races hold is pretty special, but I also love the Ardennes
classics; I think it would be pretty cool to win the Amstel Gold Race. I think the
style of races where it’s grippy and hard and at the end of the day the
strongest man wins, they’re the kind of professional wins I want to get.”
Like many of his peers in the British classes of 1998 and 1999, Jake Stewart
has star potential. His skills are diverse, and lend themselves to winning big
races, and that turn of speed is something that defines a winner from
someone who does well but misses out in small group sprints. I’ve really
enjoyed following Jake for two years now and am a massive fan of his. I’m
pretty sure he will be on the WorldTour by this time next year, but in between I
really do think 2020 will be the year he becomes the winner of the big races at
U23 level, as opposed to “just” being a man for the podium.
U23 Cycling Zone wishes to thank Jake for taking the time to answer our questions, especially since he went into such detail at the end of a long season and in the midst of his festive preparations. His effort is truly appreciated, and we thank him for helping keep our New Year’s Eve tradition alive. We wish him all the best for his 2020 season. You can follow his Twitter at @jakey_stewart.
U23 Cycling Zone 