London-born professional road cyclists have risen to prominence in recent years and SWLondoner is reviewing how four of them performed in 2022.
It was two years to the day on Tuesday since Holloway-born and Hackney-raised Tao Geoghegan Hart won the 2020 Giro d’Italia.
Since then other riders from the British capital have found success at top teams in both the men’s and women’s pro peloton.
But how did they stack up against the world’s top riders in 2022?
Ethan Hayter: INEOS Grenadiers
After proving himself at the 2021 Tour of Britain where he was bettered only by Wout Van Aert, one of the sport’s absolute finest, Hayter kicked on in 2022 with his first World Tour level (WT) win.
He beat teammate and former Tour de France winner Geraint Thomas to win the Tour de Romandie prologue and added a victory on stage 2 for good measure.
Further into summer, Hayter, 24, defended his British National Time Trial title in Dumfries and took his first WT stage race win at the Tour de Pologne.
He then started his first Grand Tour at La Vuelta a España in August, but unfortunately had to abandon due to Covid.
Nevertheless he came back strong at the World Championships in Australia with 4th in the time trial and 9th in the road race but during the ITT a dropped chain and bike change ruined any chance at a medal or the rainbow jersey.
Pfeiffer Georgi: Team DSM
Despite growing up in the West Country the young British star was born a stone’s throw away from the legendary Herne Hill Velodrome in South London.
Georgi, 22, took her biggest win to date at the British National Road Race Championships last year, meaning she donned the red white and blue throughout 2022.
Her season started well in the spring classics where she came 4th at Dwars door Vlaanderen and 9th at one of the hardest races in cycling: Paris-Roubaix.
The majority of her work however, was done in aid of teammates and for Lorena Wiebes, the winningest rider of 2022 across men’s and women’s cycling.
Georgi chased down breakaways, guided her sprinter up hills, and completed leadouts for Wiebes to take victories including: two stages of the Tour de France Femmes and three at the RideLondon Classique.
Fred Wright: Bahrain – Victorious
Another product of Herne Hill Velodrome and the fantastic youth development done there, Wright impressed throughout the summer and rode both the Tour de France and La Vuelta.
Wright, 23, started his season with an incredible seventh place finish at the Tour of Flanders and only lost out to superstars including Mathieu Van Der Poel and Tadej Pogačar.
He narrowly missed out a first big win but took four top tens at Le Tour and seven top tens at La Vuelta which showed his versatility and how he could win on a plethora of different parcours.
Flora Perkins: Le Col – Wahoo
Perkins moved up the ranks through Velo Club Londres just as Hayter and Wright did and rode her first senior season for British team Le Col – Wahoo.
She was thrown straight into the deep end as the season commenced and rode a trio of Women’s World Tour races within ten days in April at Paris-Roubaix, La Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
Perkins, 19, got into the breakaway at Liège and despite going over the time limit showed that she could compete with the very best.
After completing her A-levels she finished the season at one-day races in Belgium and France.
She achieved a fourth place finish at A Travers les Hauts de France and played an integral role at Grote Prijs Beerens as she attacked early in the race before helping leadout Marjolein van’t Geloof to victory.
These are only part of the contingent of professional road cyclists from London that have bright futures ahead of them with Thomas Gloag and Leo Hayter signed on to ride for Jumbo-Visma and INEOS Grenadiers respectively until 2025.
Featured image credit: James Moultrie
