Graham Waller is the latest rider to take their place in the spotlight for a review of their season and who produced some top pedalling. An impressive, multi discipline champion, unique perhaps in that he is the TLI 2024 & 2025 RR champion.
TLI CYCLING FEATURE: (by Michael Bell) — Team Bottrill’s Graham Waller is the latest rider to take their place in the spotlight for a review of their season and who produced some top pedalling. An impressive, multi discipline champion, unique perhaps in that he is the TLI 2024 & 2025 RR champion.
Nothing so unusual in that I hear you say, consecutive wins are not that out of the ordinary. However, Graham won both titles in the same calendar year, the ’24 title race being postponed until early ’25. In addition, he is the BMCR RR and MTB champion, overall winner of the season long Stallard series, silver medallist in the TLI circuit race and TT titles and completing the medal haul with a bronze in the TTT champs.
Personal Bests (PB’s) at 10 miles (19:05) and 25 (50:27) and a number of other wins all adding up to an impressive season. Voila Waller! So, without further ado, let’s get to know Graham.
Q: TLI Age group?
GW: Age 39-44 Cat A
Q: Employment status/profession?
GW: I am quite fortunate in that I don’t work on a day to day basis which gives me a decent bit of time for training and recovery.
Q: Home scenario?
GW: I am lucky enough to be married to Stacey. After my kids she is my biggest fan.
Q: Pets?
GW: Yes we have two whippets and my girls both have hamsters in their rooms and I have a fish tank too which keeps me busy.
Q: How long have you been cycling? Is there a family connection, how did you discover the sport? (This is my favourite question to ask, coming from a second generation cyclist I was indoctrinated at a young age 🙄)
GW: My grandad used to cycle to work a lot in London, But I am not from a cycling background. My dad was and incredible long distance runner.
As a child I was never far from my bike. I grew up in the cotswolds so had some great opportunities to go out mountain biking. I took up cycling relatively late in my early 20’s. I started racing, mainly with TLI actually in a Thursday night league just outside of Sheffield. I got some decent results but kids put a hold on my racing career until my comeback last year.
Q: Your cycling strength/weakness?
GW: I would say my biggest strength is an ability to recover from an attack. My outright figures are never that amazing but an ability to repeat them over and over does seem to serve me well. I would also rather come last trying to win rather than be cautious.
Q: How many hours per week do you train, or miles per week?
GW: My training is pretty consistent. I do 8-10 hours a week of training which seems to equate to around 150 miles a week.
Q: Home trainer, Zwift, Wahoo etc.
GW: Yeah I have a super set up for my home trainer. Zwift with a wahoo kickr bike on an omni rocker plate and the headwind fan.
I get pretty bored so have a huge tv to keep me interested too.
Q: How do you see yourself and/or the sport developing?
GW: I think this is one of the biggest challenges we and the sport faces. For me I need to work on my areas of weakness. I have had a chat with my coach – Daniel Barnett from Team Bottrill and we have identified some areas to work on over the winter. So hopefully that means I can improve a little over the winter.
I think the sport generally is in a difficult place at the moment. At the top it’s dominated by one rider and one team with the biggest budget making it hard for the other teams to attract the best riders and sponsors etc. At our level the effort that is required to be competitive in the season is huge and far more than I remember in my 20s. I believe this makes it hard particularly for the ‘younger’ riders who have jobs and young families, so to develop it needs to find a way to bring everyone together.
Q: Do you have a hero, both in cycling and ‘normal’ life or indeed, an anti hero?
GW: My anti hero would definitely be Lance Armstrong. He was why I got in to road cycling in the first place. In my more direct circle definitely Matt Bottrill. He has been unbelievably successful. As he has reached the end of his most competitive years one thing that inspired me was how much enthusiasm he had for the team and others riding bikes. An absolute legend of our sport.
Q: Something that winds you up. I know the scruffy podium photos is a personal bugbear of yours.
GW: ha ha yes that is enormously frustrating. I think it shows a complete lack of respect to the organisers and your fellow competitors.
It’s not hard to wait to stand on the podium in your team kit. What’s crept in during the year which is even worse is people not even bothering to wait for the podium presentation if they didn’t win the race.
Q: Give the reader an interesting fact about you. Cycling related or otherwise.
GW: Not sure if its interesting but I have ADHD and am also pretty dyslexic. Both conditions have taught me to be resilient and find another way to be.
Q: Do you see yourself cycling into the older categories?
GW: Yes I would think so but you never know. I am not great if I am not competitive so if I can still turn up and compete then I would. If I was making up the numbers then probably not.
Q: Would you consider an E Bike?
GW: Probably not. I imagine when I can no longer cycle as I wish then I will turn my attention to something else. I do think they are good for a certain demographic that otherwise wouldn’t cycle a bike. It’s also good for my wife stacey to be able to come for a ride with me on much more level terms.
Q: Would you encourage your children to cycle? Competitively or otherwise.
GW: Yes I always try. I think the reality is that they just like the sports they enjoy more than cycling, and to be fair they’re pretty good at them. They compete on a national level at diving, gymnastics and trampolining, so cycling isn’t at the forefront of their minds, sadly.
Q: Current book/last book?
GW: Being dyslexic means I don’t read unfortunately.
Q: Karaoke song?
GW: Ha ha I am terrible at singing. If a gun was held to my head I would sing Tequila by The Champs. I think even I could do a decent job of that one.
Q: Who puts the bins out?
GW: Whoever remembers…..so Stacey more often than not!
Thank you for your time Graham 👌
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