TCL leader Mark Stewart on what we can expect from him in Berlin: ‘I’ll be racing hard, but not stupidly’

To call Mark Stewart an unlikely early leader of the UCI Track Champions League is not to insult the 27 year-old’s abilities.

Having taken a well-earned break after the end of the road season, as the TCL drew nearer he found himself feeling “a little bit apprehensive about where my physical condition was,” he says. “Although I had a good chunk of time off and I was mentally and physically refreshed – I actually feel fantastic – I didn’t know that until the scratch race. I went into [the scratch race] thinking this could go one or two ways.”

Eurosport is speaking to Stewart in mid-week, between the first and second rounds of the TCL. After Mallorca he and his partner, New Zealand cyclist Emma Cummings, made the short trip back to their new home in cyclist’s mecca of Girona, to where they’ve recently moved. Cummings is also riding the Track Champions League, on the women’s endurance side of the competition.

Both athletes “pre-registered” for the TCL several months ago and then largely forgot about it.

Even after they were sent the next set of registration forms, “I honestly didn’t think they’d accept me,” says Stewart. “I raced the Commonwealth Games this summer, and did okay, but not great. I thought they probably wouldn’t want me.”

He was therefore somewhat surprised when the UCI’s Track Cycling Athlete Manager (and fellow Scot) Ross Edgar informed him he had made it onto the list.

Having made the cut, Stewart didn’t waste any time before making an impact, though he attributes success in that first race less to legs and lungs, than judgement.

“There’s so many factors in cycling that I think being good is almost a given,” he says. “Every guy I was racing against is good. Every guy I was racing against trains hard. But you have to be tactically astute. You have to be lightning quick with your decision making. And then sometimes you just have to have a bit of luck.”

Strategy came into it too.

“Although I didn’t try to lose it, I was happy to take a risk. I know that helped me win it.” Stewart says. Rather than going hard early doors, he would instead “let people go and sit at the back for a wee bit longer.”

In the race itself, the pivotal decision that he made came with eight of the twenty laps completed.

“It was quite a fun race, because there was always a move off the front. When me and the German rider (Moritz Malcharek) went with 12 laps to go, I thought ‘I wonder what will happen if I go full gas for a lap?’ And the gap just opened up.”

It helped, Stewart says, that three of the favourites, Ollie Wood, Dylan Bibic and Matthijs Buchli looked at each other, none prepared to chase lest they set one of the others up for the victory.

“When someone like me, that’s been a wee bit conservative and maybe a wee bit shy realises halfway into the race, ‘actually I feel all right here and I’ve not touched the wind once,’ you can just rip a race apart,” he says.

Rip the race apart he did, working with Malcharek for a while to build a lead, before other riders, including Spain’s Sebastian Mora, came across to join them. Stewart managed to make it across to the back of the bunch just ahead the bell signalling one lap remaining. 250 metres later he had the victory, 20 points, and €1500 prize money in the bag.

As pleased as he was to take what was the highest-profile victory of his career, Stewart says the feeling of being in contention at the front of the race meant more to him.

“I was feeling good, I wasn’t really hurting,” he says. “And that’s what you train for. I don’t think it’s the winning, it’s being in a position where you could win. I’ve won enough races and I’ve lost enough races to know that it feels good for a few minutes… I work hard so that I can have these opportunities presented to me, and at least try and take them.”

Having learned that he was not lacking in physical competitiveness, Stewart was able to approach the next race of the evening, the elimination, with even more confidence.

He said: “Knowing I am one of the fitter riders there, I can afford to ride a bit harder than others, which helps in an elimination race, because everyone’s got the same tactic: just stay at the front and stay out of trouble. But if you’re not as fit as others, you can’t do that.”

He admits to not being the biggest fan of the elimination.

“On the start line of every single one. I’m like, ‘Why do I do this? I hate this.’ And then the gun goes. But that’s living, isn’t it? That is why you do it, to overcome a challenge.

“The first lap or two is just going to be really dangerous because everyone’s trying to get to the front. And they can get to the front because they’re fresh. The second half of the race is so much more enjoyable because people are tired so they can’t get to the front. So it’s safer.”

In an even more aggressive elimination than usual in Mallorca, Stewart was able to do more than simply stay out of trouble. He made it down to the final three, where he was knocked out by last year’s overall winner, Gavin Hoover of the USA. The 15 points for third sport was enough to secure him the category leader’s jersey as well as adding €650 to his prize purse.

More than €2000 for 40 laps of racing. That can’t be bad for a night’s work?

Stewart agrees.

“I think they should publicise that there’s a lot of money on the line, because that’s also relatable…,” he says. “A grand for 20 laps is phenomenal.”

To put that into context, he points to the fact that “in my last two years on British Cycling, I was earning £15,000 a year, because I was on the lowest grade of National Lottery funding.” With the overall winner in each category taking home €25000, “within four weeks, I could make double what I was making in a year with British Cycling, if it went really well.”

“My passion and my love is track cycling,” says Stewart, and there’s no question that he’s in it for the money, but it’s not the most lucrative of disciplines, so the cash prize is not unwelcome. Besides, the last two years have been a roller coaster for him to say the least.

“I went out to New Zealand for a month at the start of 2020. And then lockdown happened and then British Cycling dropped me,” he says, somewhat matter-of-factly.

Stewart harbours no animosity towards his former employers for terminating his contract with the Olympic programme. “The reality of sport is sometimes you’re not good enough,” he says.

A six-month parachute payment helped ease the financial burden a bit, before Stewart decided he would need to get a job in order to make ends meet. The first thing he picked up was some babysitting work for the team doctor at cycling New Zealand before quickly realising three hours a week would not bring in the money needed for him to save enough, as was his plan, to support him through the first half of 2022.

“That’s why I got a job at the swimming pool, where I was a lifeguard team leader. I had five or six lifeguards that I kind of looked after. You’re basically a duty manager. I really enjoyed it, because you’re looking after this whole facility. You’re also looking after these kids that are 17, or 18 who don’t know what to do. So there’s a lot of opportunities to have a positive influence on them. And then I was also coaching at the velodrome one night a week.”

The experience showed him the importance of separating his life’s passion from work, providing him with boundaries that had been entirely absent throughout his time with British Cycling.

Stewart returned to race in Europe this spring, but not before first winning the New Zealand Cycle Classic and briefly holding the position of No.1 rider in the world.

When the Track Champions League offer came along he saw it as “a chance to pursue my passion.” The equality and fairness of it the way it’s organised appeals to him as well.

He says: “They’re not going, oh your face fits, or your face doesn’t fit. They’re just going, if you’re good, race.”

The TCL, Stewart says, “reignites the kid in you.”

“When you rock up the ramp, and you see the level of production, the first thing I thought was, ‘Wow! This is bigger than any World Championship I’ve been to.’ This is actually something that’s really cool to be a part of.”

It’s also presented the opportunity to make new friends and reunite with older ones. The latter include fellow GB alumnus Ollie Wood, at whose wedding Stewart will next month be the best man, and Scottish team-mate Katie Archibald.

The way Stewart talks, describing his approach, his ability to step outside himself and his situation, as well as his ability to reflect on his own strengths and weaknesses, is remarkably similar to that of Archibald. It’s no surprise to learn the pair are “really good pals.”

They became friends at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

“Katie just kind of burst onto the scene,” Stewart says. “She came third in the point race, fifth in the time trial, and seventh in the road race. She was 19 years old, and it was fantastic. I’d finished with the track, so I was just bashing about the Glasgow village for a week and hanging out.”

The night before the women’s time trial the pair stayed up talking until 3 or 4am.

“We share a lot of the same interests,” Stewart continues. “We quite like the holistic approach to training, as well as pushing boundaries and taking risks. She’s smarter so she likes the data a lot more than me.”

Like Stewart, Archibald also won her scratch race in Mallorca, though she fared somewhat less well in the elimination, going out first of 18.

Stewart took some delight from Archibald’s shock early exit. “Wasn’t that good to see?” he says with the kind of warm sadistic glee that only a true friend can get away with.

“I said that to Laura [Kenny] when she came off the scratch. “She said to me ‘Oh, I did s**t.’ And I said, ‘You know what you are now? You’re relatable. No one can relate when you win everything!’”

Ollie Wood was another rider who didn’t quite have the opening round performance he’d have hoped for. Stewart is confident that his friend will grow into the competition:

“He took a break after Worlds and it’s not paid off. He felt rubbish in Mallorca, but as the weeks go by, he’ll just get better and better.”

Starting with Berlin this Saturday. Having competed in the city several times before Stewart, for his part, “can’t wait, to be honest.”

Aside from the opportunity to continue his hot streak he’s looking forward to appearing in front of Berlin crowds who, from his experience, really “know cycling.”

“You can just tell these people are really invested in the races,” he adds. “If a race is close, the noise goes up.”

And his own plans for Saturday night?

“I hope it doesn’t change now, because I’m in the leader’s jersey. Now that I know that I’m not out of place, I’d like to have some more fun with the racing. And I’m not sure what that will look like.”

He pauses for a moment before arriving at a conclusion: “I’ll be racing hard, but not stupidly,” he says.

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