Just who is Tao Geoghegan Hart?

In the pink out of the blue – a young Londoner who’s just taken the cycling world by storm

- James Shrubsall

I would love to see more diversity in cycling, which could definitely come from the sport increasing in popularity in cities like London. This is an amazing sport that takes you to incredible places so I hope I can inspire a few kids in Hackney to dream big.”

This was Tao Geoghegan Hart reflecting on what his win in the Giro d’Italia at the weekend could mean. You might expect such a ‘big picture’ view to come from a rider after a few months of reflection, once the initial elation of the moment had faded. But the fact it came only moments after the 25-year-old won one of the most prestigious races in cycling tells you a lot of what you need to know about him.

“Before I even met him, everyone would talk about it – this Tao, he has something special about him, personality wise,” says Joscelin Ryan of the Rayner Foundation – the charity which supports young riders and which Geoghegan Hart enjoyed the support of between 2014 and 2016. “And it’s true – he’s extremely mature, extremely intelligent, he knows what he wants and he’s determined,” she says.

This tale of a mature, level-headed and focused individual was echoed by all those we spoke to about Ineos Grenadiers’s newest star – a rider who had long shown promise in the Grand Tours and even co-led the team in last year’s Giro d’Italia – but for whom overall victory still seemed a way off.