Introducing...
Every month, we introduce some of the Kingston Wheelers. But this month it is local pro rider Daniel Lloyd. He's not a member but lives so close to Kingston that you might spot him out on the roads, that's if he's not racing abroad. It may only be February but he's already been up there this season as was instrumental in helping fellow local rider Roger Hammond take the win at the Tour of Qatar a couple of weeks ago, the first win of the year for the new Cervélo Test Team.
Thanks to Adam Currie for doing the interview.
Name: Daniel Lloyd
Age: 28
What made you start cycling?A friend of mine used to get MBUK MTB magazine passed on from his uncle each month. I started reading it and then got myself an MTB when I was 13. Spent a while mucking about the New Forest on that and then found a local race was on. Entered that and didn't do very well, but by the end of it I was addicted to racing! From there I got more and more serious about MTBing before starting to train and then race on the road with a view to helping my MTB racing. Eventually in 2001 I switched full time to road racing.
What bike do you ride? ? I've got a Cervelo S2, one for racing and one for training, although I believe that we will be getting and S3 and R3 also for racing. We are also using the P3's for TT's.
Give us a brief cycling backgroundWell, after I switched full time to road racing, I spent about 4 months racing in the UK, before getting my first taste of European racing with an amateur team in France called UVCA Troyes. Russell Downing had been there from the start of the season and was basically kicking arse. I started off alright but went quickly downhill. At home I was used to just racing at the weekends, and I had my own window cleaning business which i used to do on Monday's and Friday's. So my routine at home was racing on Saturdays & Sunday's, working Monday, training Tue to Thu, working Fri then racing again. When I went abroad I was going well, but I was doing a fair bit of racing so I decided that I was better of resting inbetween. That worked for a while until a packed a race or two, and at that point I think I basically started detraining, because I was resting between races and not finishing races! It was a steep learning curve that's for sure.
The following season I was back in France as an amateur, this time at a team in Clermont Ferrand, staying in an old (semi!) converted railway station. That was one of the best years of my life - the accommodation was shit but the people there (two brits, a kazakh and a South African) were a great laugh and we spent the entire season racing, training and laughing.
2003 was my first taste of professional racing with Endurasport, it was a British team based in Italy and run by Harry Lodge who had retired himself the year before. It was run on a shoe string but exposed me to some really high level racing, which I remember being a real shock, I just couldn't believe how fast the pro's were.
2004 and 2005 I was in Belgium with the Flanders team, another third division team on a small budget, but another step up in terms of race program. I did the Three days of De Panne both years for example and learned a lot in Belgium about positioning in the bunch and riding in cross winds etc.
2006 I spent a year racing all over Asia with the Giant team. Basically I didn't have anything in Europe in terms of a contract, Giant paid quite well and the prize money was good as we won a lot over there. It could have been the beginning of the end for my career as it's hard to get noticed by European teams over there, but it ended up being good. I got my first big win there, winning a stage of the Tour de Qinghai Lake in front of some good European teams, and ended up 4th overall. It attracted the attention of Nick Collins at DFL, who hired me for 2007. That was my first Pro Continental team, and having Eric Vanderaerden as Director and Nico Mattan as team leader taught me a lot, that was a good year.
Last year I was with An Post after another unpleasant winter where I struggled to get a contract. But it was another good year with another great group of lads, and the results I got there finally landed me in a decent team with Cervelo, where I am now.
Hope that was brief enough for you!
What was your best performance or ride?The national Champs in 2007 always stands out in my mind. I was away with David Millar for the last 70km of the race, and although he was killing me at the start, towards the end of the race I was feeling stronger and stronger and really felt like I had a chance to win it. It was a special day for me because it's not often that my family get to watch me race and so it was nice to do well in front of them and have my son Ralf on the podium with me, but I was a bit gutted not to get the jersey.
What was your worst day on the bike? There must have been so many! One of the worst that I can think of right now was when I was really young, in the junior category - a MTB race at Stanmere park in Brighton. It was a horrible day, but I was having one of my best races ever. Coming into the last of three laps I was in 5th place, it was a Southern Area race but for me that was going to be my best performance ever! Anyway, the course was getting slower and slower, and it was also turning into one of the longest races I'd ever done. I started to bonk on the last lap, and the sections that I was running in earlier laps I was now walking. Eventually, I got so bad that I couldn't even continue walking. I pretty much collapsed at the side of the trail, and spent the next half an hour or so asking every masters category rider passing if they had anything to eat. Eventually one of them got a marshall and they managed to get me a bit further up the hill where an ambulance was waiting. My family were obviously pretty concerned by this point as I hadn't come back into the arena. I had got mild hypothermia!!! That was a horrible experience, there have been many since but I seem to have been able to block them out of my mind as I can't remember them right now!
Any favourite pro or inspiration? I had a lot of cycling hero's when I was younger, but with things coming out about how cycling was in that time it's hard to hold them in the same light, or at least to paint them as a hero now. It's a shame, but I'm confident that things are changing now, it might not be 100% clean yet but it's a lot cleaner than people think, undoubtedly that's one of the reasons why I'm getting better restults these days.
What is your favourite bike food? The new Zipvit protein bars and energy bars we are using are very moreish!
Where is your favourite cycling location? That's a hard one. There are some great rides where I live now going out into the Surrey Hills, but there is a bit too much traffic for my liking. I grew up in the New Forest and I love riding round there, it's perfect for a nice easy recovery ride on a summer's day, although probably not really hilly enough for good training. I've done a couple of training camps in the Pyrenees, near to Foix. I love it around there, it seems less busy than where I've been in the Alpes, and there seem to be more roads too.
Most likely to say: "Pint of Stella please."
Least likely to say: "I'll just have a half."
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