Versuchen GOLD - Frei
YOUNG GUNS
CYCLING WEEKLY
|February 18, 2021
From delayed Olympic dreams to lining up with Peter Sagan, Matt Walls’s last year on his way to the WorldTour has not been lacking in action

Lockdowns have been the unfortunate theme of 2020 and, so far, 2021, with stagnated training the norm for both the pros as well as us mere mortals looking for their group ride fix. For WorldTour neo-pro Matt Walls, taking part in group physical activity was less of a problem because his house-mates Ethan Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers) and Fred Wright (Bahrain- Victorious) form arguably the strongest household training bubble in the United Kingdom.
“I couldn’t exactly complain, because you could ride with your household so the three of us riding together was pretty cool,” Walls says.
“We moved in just before lockdown in March, just after the Worlds so it was good timing. We were all on the academy together, I lived with Fred in Manchester in the academy house for a year or two years and then I lived with Ethan when I was out in Italy with the academy. So we have all lived together at some point and all get on well so might as well get a house together.”
During the spring lockdown, these training days were common – Wright was pictured with an old race number fashioned into a sign reading “we live together” on his back. At that point Walls still had dreams of going to race on the track at the Olympics in August 2020, just a couple of months later he’d sign a contract with BoraHansgrohe as the German team’s road sprinting protege for 2021. But as summer rolled around and the Olympics were shifted to 2021, Walls’s track commitments and his housemates’ WorldTour schedules left him training alone once again. It wasn’t the ideal lead up to what is now a 2021 season pregnant with possibility but the amiable and upbeat Walls seems unfazed.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der February 18, 2021-Ausgabe von CYCLING WEEKLY.
Abonnieren Sie Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierter Premium-Geschichten und über 9.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Sie sind bereits Abonnent? Anmelden
WEITERE GESCHICHTEN VON CYCLING WEEKLY

Cycling Weekly
ALL BLAZED OUT
Cycling ignites passion but too much pressure and expectation can burn it away. Psychologist and racer Steve Mayers tackles the delicate issue of burnout
8 mins
September 25, 2025

Cycling Weekly
WE CAN BE HEROES!
\"From Ibiza to the Norfolk Broads\" is a quirky David Bowie lyric - but to James Briggs it was the inspiration for a life-changing bike ride
6 mins
September 25, 2025

Cycling Weekly
Meet the UK's newest hill-climb
The Zig-Zag Hill-Climb is the UK's freshest grassroots race, and is now open for entries
3 mins
September 25, 2025

Cycling Weekly
BATES VOLANTE TRACK BIKE
A rapid late '30s beauty, with unique, shapely tubing and flowing forks
1 mins
September 25, 2025

Cycling Weekly
WATT WORKS FOR ME ANNA HENDERSON
As she prepares for the Rwanda Worlds, the TT specialist talks veganism, being coached by her boyfriend, and loving Pilates
2 mins
September 25, 2025

Cycling Weekly
Bäckstedt blows away competition
Welsh rider wins under-23 women's time trial in dominant fashion to take ninth world title
3 mins
September 25, 2025

Cycling Weekly
GOODBYE BUT NOT FAREWELL
Fresh from his Tour of Britain retirement party, Geraint Thomas sits down with Chris Marshall-Bell to look back on his extraordinary two-decade-long career
7 mins
September 25, 2025

Cycling Weekly
CERVELO S5
The latest S5 delivers aero gains, reduced weight and enhanced comfort
4 mins
September 25, 2025

Cycling Weekly
Tour de Romandie
Passing vines, Condor's Carlo Clerici leads Cilo's Hugo Koblet at the 1953 Tour de Romandie, potentially on stage four to Martigny.
1 min
September 25, 2025

Cycling Weekly
Should I be wearing an aero jersey?
Drag-cutting designs boost your speed but there's more to it than 'smooth and skin-tight'
2 mins
September 25, 2025
Translate
Change font size