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Chris Newton Interview · 29/07/10
Image Courtesy of ckingimages
Interview by Paul Rowlands
With his boyish looks it’s easy to forget that Chris Newton has been in the top echelon of British cycling for over 15 years, being one of the most consistent performers both domestically and internationally across that time. Amongst the Olympic, World Championship and International victories that liter his palmares are three overall victories in the Premier Calendar, the latest one confirmed last weekend with his 4th place at the recent East Yorkshire Classic. So with the final round of that competition where Chris will be officially crowned champion taking place this weekend, I took a few minutes to catch up with him over a coffee to talk about 2010 and just what has made this such a stellar season, I started off by asking him whether this was the best season he’s had here in the UK over the course of his career:
CN: In terms of the pure number of Premier Calendar wins in one year it’s been my best for a while, I think in 2000 I won 4 but switched to the track half way through and missed the last part of the year. It’s satisfying, I think at my age it’s more satisfying than ‘fantastic’. It’s been nice, deep down satisfying to win each of the races, but to take the overall, that’s a bit like the icing on the cake for it.
PR: More like an accident, or just something you want to jinx by setting your stall out too early?
CN: I said at the start of the year it’s not something you ideally want to start chasing, you take care of the individual races first and then follow it a bit after that. So for example last weekend (at the East Yorkshire Classic where he was 4th) I did a bit of extra work, to consolidate the lead and make sure I couldn’t be beaten by the last round
PR: So as the title gets closer, does the emphasis shift? Would you have ridden East Yorkshire Classic differently if it had been in April?
CN: I wouldn’t have put as much into the break and holding people off, there’s a few places where I attacked just to put people under pressure as opposed to trying to make a winning move, if I hadn’t done so much before the circuit I could have attacked at the end and gone for the win… my sprinting legs would have been much fresher… I could have pegged people back more efficiently rather than let riders go up the road who might take care of the points. So yes, it’s just little things, it’s very much like a year long points race really, you’re trying to calculate who you can allow to take points, who you can’t, when to take a win, when not to push too hard, particularly in the last third of the series, that’s how you have to think.
Talk of the points race moved the conversation back to Chris and his qualities as a rider. Always known as one of the more intelligent and savvy riders on the road, I wondered if this is what has made him so much better than the rest in 2010?
CN: I think early on it was a combination of factors, I didn’t have to do a lot of the track world cups post December, so instead of a week of travel to LA or Beijing then come back and be jet lagged and try to recover, I was flying to a training camp, doing two solid weeks then coming back to the UK, recovering and then going again. I got a really good foundation from doing that. Having put aside any team pursuit aspirations I switched more to the Omnium which in theory you can only do certain training specifics every other day for, that helped at that stage of the year for the overall package for myself in terms of fitness and technique and ability. So once I got past the worlds and came into the first Premier Calendar although I still had track legs and felt the cold and struggled that way everything else was in place and the wins just kind of boosted the morale and set me up really.
A combination of factors then that perhaps hadn’t existed in previous seasons where chasing world cup points around the globe in the winter would have an inevitable impact on his form during the road season?
CN: To an extent yes, I think after that first premier calendar as well we had two weekends that were free between races and again, I didn’t have to focus on a race, I could train and just rest up. You don’t want to go into a race tired, it’s difficult to try and do a race in the middle of a training block, people are expecting things. This year I was able to cut down, do some really hard training, it meant I was still tired from the mini camp I did by myself (in the early rounds of the series), but it came to fruition for the Lincoln which was great, it just set me up for the next few races then.
It’s clear from chatting with Chris that base fitness, the right programme and meticulous attention to detail in training give the conditions under which he’s ready to win, but you still have to win the races once you’re out there, so I asked him again, what gives him the edge?
CN: I think it’s about racing from the front, this year I won on the courses that are hard and require you to race the full distance as opposed to relying on team mates too much. That’s worked for us in another sense, when I’m up the road they can sit pretty, other riders are looking at us and saying ‘I can’t get across because he’s got a teammate’ so that’s helped, but putting yourself in that winning position to start with, that’s the biggest thing, I know how to take care of myself at the end as well, how to save my energy and when to use it.
PR: Back again to that topic beloved of Team GB, marginal gains! What are the little things you do that other guys don’t then?
CN: That’d be telling! It’s just things you learn all the time, the biggest thing for me is that I’m pretty focussed when I’m around my bike, when I’m going to do something I’m going to do it, if I’m laughing and joking, not pressuring myself to perform then I’m not focussed. I put everything into it and I’m quite selfish in that way but I feel I need to be selfish to do it. If I don’t think I’ve trained properly I don’t race properly, I get confidence from the training I’ve done and my own self belief helps me to perform. Some riders can just turn up, they don’t need so much training, if they’ve had a bad week they go into a race and it won’t make any difference, I feel I need to train properly to perform.
PR: And perform he has, what was the best win of the year?
CN: I don’t know, maybe that little sprint win in Doonhame, that was a good team effort. We didn’t panic, just let the race unfold and I got a good leadout from Zac and Dan, that was satisfying. Then there’s the Lincoln which is one of the best ones to win in the country, or so they say, perhaps that’s because of the crowds and the tighter circuit and that was satisfying in the way I was always there, I attacked just to make people chase, trying to have an easier ride by being off the front. In Beaumont, I took the race on and smashed it up the last climb, I wanted to win that. I think it’s a mistake in this sport to single out one big race to win, for anyone coming up in this sport a Premier Calendar is a Premier Calendar, it’s the bike riders there that are making the race, if you can beat them, you’re on your way to moving up the ladder
PR: Speaking of which, how has the competition changed over the years?
CN: There’s always been little tweaks, the races have changed, stage races like Tour of Lancs have gone, some years they’d give you points for stage wins, others for overall only, other years would be just your best 10 or 12 races. Some of the big classic races have gone now too, like GP Essex, Tour of the Peak, the Archer, that was my first Premier Calendar win back in 95. I’ve kind of seen it all!
I think that 96 was when it went open and you lost the pro/am distinction. It got a bit muddled up, even now it’s still the same. A professional is someone who gets paid to do a job, someone who gets paid to ride and I guarantee some of the riders that are called professional don’t make a living from it, so that’s not a professional team and that’s a bugbear, it distorts the public perception of what we do.
In terms of the racing there’s less individuals and one or two man teams. You’ll always get a rider who has such ability that it doesn’t matter what team they ride for they’re going to get a result, but the teams change the dynamic of the racing, like in the crit’s, they’re still as fast but it’s a lot faster for a shorter period and it slows down when it’s being controlled, you have to think and that suits me. It changes the sport and the younger riders have to learn that more quickly.
With that mention of ‘younger riders’ a fitting final question to ask might be what next for a rider who’s won pretty much everything there is to win here in the UK?
CN: I’ve never had big goals, I’ve said this whenever I’ve been back into schools and done little talks about getting to where I am. I never see it as something big, because it’s always come from the step just below. If you climb a mountain you never look at the top, you look at the next place to get to and you never look down either, just take little steps.
