Cumbrian cyclist turns pro at 38 – hopes to compete in Tour of Yorkshire

Seven years after taking up road cycling Andy Hawdon, from Millom in Cumbria, is hoping to compete at this year’s Tour of Yorkshire after turning pro at the age of 38, reports the North-West Evening Mail. The electrical engineer has signed with Team Raleigh-GAC after performing well in road and circuit races across the country over the past few years.

A keen mountain biker in his youth, Hawdon only took up road racing seven years ago and describes the experience of turning pro in his late thirties as ‘surreal’.

“I got my team kit and I was riding along looking down at it thinking ‘I can’t believe I’m wearing this kit. I had picked up a shoe sponsor after speaking to some shoe companies. I got home one night and I had three brand new pairs of shoes waiting for me. Stuff like that is just unbelievable.”

He has recently returned from a training camp in Andalucia, an experience he says was ‘awesome’.

“I’ve been to Spain before, off my own back with the different teams I’ve been with, but nothing that compared to this.

“This was a professional set-up and everything was laid on for you. You’d get back from a ride and the mechanic would sort your bike out for you, the carers would be taking care of all your cleaning and sorting food out for you.

“It was unreal, an absolutely awesome experience. You went out and trained, tired yourself out every day, then you’d come back and relax and recover, ready to go the next day. By the end of the camp, I felt like I was really bouncing and that I had really improved my fitness. I’ve come back and I’ll have a bit of a rest and I should be in a good place for the start of the season.”

Hawdon is not full-time, however. He will have to fit his racing and training in with his work at Sellafield, taking holidays for midweek events. “What I have always done in the past is use my annual leave for racing and I train by commuting to and from work on my bike, which seems to work well.”

After finishing eighth in the Elite Circuit Series last season, Hawdon is seen as a specialist circuit racer and will therefore be competing in the Tour Series, but he is also hoping to appear in stage races. As well as the Tour of Yorkshire and the Tour of Britain, there is the possibility of appearing in the Tour of Normandy and other UCI races abroad.

He admits to feeling guilty about spending less time with his wife and their two children, but says that is offset by the fact that his isn’t likely to be a long career. “I’m not kidding myself, I know it’s only going to be another year or two and then I’ll be hanging up my boots, but I’m going to give it a crack while I can.”

But is 38 really so old? In 2013, Chris Horner became the oldest Grand Tour winner at the age of 41, while Jens Voigt broke the Hour Record a day after his 43^rd birthday. The oldest rider currently competing at World Tour level is Tinkoff-Saxo’s 40-year-old Matteo Tosatto – although he hasn’t achieved any significant results since a seventh-place finish in Paris-Roubaix in 2012.

A few years younger, but also worthy of mention is AG2R–La Mondiale’s Jean-Christophe Péraud who finished second in last year’s Tour de France at the age of 37. Like Hawdon, Péraud was a relatively late convert to road cycling after a surprise French national time trial win at the age of 32 following a career in mountain biking.

Speaking after that win, Péraud claimed: “Cycling is an endurance sport suitable for old athletes.” Hawdon would surely agree.