The full, original version of this article was published in the 26th June 2025 print edition of Cycling Weekly. Subscribe online and get the magazine delivered direct to your door every week.
Len Double dressed his youngest son Paul, just nine at the time, in a yellow jersey and red helmet, and plonked him on a £100 mountain bike. “We were in Cheddar Gorge and I told him to ride down the hill and then back up,” Len remembers. “I didn’t expect much, but he rode up it like a bloody rocket! I thought, Jesus, if he takes this up, he could be pretty useful.” The ride whetted young Paul’s appetite for cycling. “I felt very early on that if he persevered he could become a stage race rider,” his father continues.
To reach the promised land of WorldTour and Grand Tour racing, Paul – born and raised in Winchester, Hampshire – has taken a winding and unusually long path. Along the way, he has had to scrape by on pay as low as €3,000 a year, making ends meet by chopping wood on the slopes of Mt Etna and sticking foam to his bike to improve his time trialling. It’s been nearly a decade-long journey from novice under-23 rider to Giro d’Italia finisher – a path demanding both patience and perseverance, the very qualities his dad always said he would need. “I said he’d be a slow burner, and that’s what he’s become,” Len says. Finally, though, at 28 – half a decade later than most of his peers – Double has arrived at cycling’s top table, and he’s already started picking up some big wins. “Becoming a pro has always been the dream, the one thing I’ve always aspired to, and it feels like I’ve only just started,” he says.
You may like
The young Double showed early promise
(Image credit: Paul Double)
Sporty upbringing
It was from his dad Len that Double inherited his love and enthusiasm for cycling. In his younger years, Len, who is now 71, was a first-cat racer and a familiar face on the south London road, track and time trial scene. But cycling wasn’t Paul’s first sport. “He played table tennis, swam well, and was a decent runner,” Len recalls. “Then one day, our hairdresser – who coached kayaking – asked if he wanted to give that a go. He did, and took to it quickly, but was entered into an event he wasn’t ready for. He flipped the kayak and took a while to resurface. We didn’t realise at first, but he was actually drowning in front of us. Understandably, he lost interest after that.”
Kayaking’s loss was cycling’s gain – though Double didn’t start racing until after finishing school at 18. In July 2016, he made an impression at the Welsh amateur race Ras De Cymru, winning two stages against far more experienced riders. The performance caught the eye of ex-pro Flavio Zappi, who runs the Italy-based Zappi U23 Cycling Academy. “I saw this very skinny guy smash everyone in the time trial and then again up the Tumble,” Zappi recalls. “I asked if he wanted to come out to Italy, but then realised he was already quite old – 20 at the time.”
Despite his age, Double immediately dropped Zappi’s regulars on the climbs. “He had a lot to learn, but I was convinced he could hold his own,” says Zappi. What convinced him? “He had a petrol engine, not a diesel – meaning he wouldn’t peak right away, but over time, he’d get there.”
Survival money
And so Double’s cycling career began – but there was one major obstacle: he had barely any money to fund his dream of making it to the top. “I did odd jobs – cafés, bars, hotels, helping my dad – just to get by,” he says. “[Rider support fund] Pedal Potential gave me a bit, but it was really just survival money.”
Double’s eldest brother James was doing well in London’s financial sector and stepped in to help. “He could see I was a bit lost, but also that I’d been given a real opportunity. He said I should go for it, and let me borrow money on the understanding I’d pay him back if it all worked out.”
Friends and family chipped in too, offering “coffee money”. “I was very lucky to have so many people supporting me,” Double reflects. Others provided hand-me-downs and spares with which Len modified Paul’s bikes in his garage workshop. “Paul was known as the Bianchi Kid at first because his first bike was a celeste Bianchi,” Len says. “After that, a friend gave us a frame, someone else gave us wheels, another some tri-bars – we cobbled it all together.”
For time-trial training, Len once wrapped upholstery foam on Paul’s handlebars. “People laughed when they saw it, but then Paul went out and smashed them all.” On winter group rides, Paul wore washing-up gloves to keep his hands dry. “He was penny-pinching because we just didn’t have any money,” Len laughs.
Double was profiled by Cycling Weekly in 2018, in a feature contrasting his DIY set-up with the extravagant spending of Essex stockbroker Ian Hope – who, inspired by Double’s commitment, later gave him a one-off financial boost.
All those hard yards and creative methods started to pay off. After riding on the amateur Italian scene for Zappi in 2017 and 2018, Double secured a contract with the third-division Colpack team for 2019. When Covid hit in 2020, he returned to Zappi and sat out the pandemic on the slopes of Mt Etna. “Until I went to Sierra Nevada [in Spain] ahead of this year’s Giro, Etna was as close as I’d got to altitude training,” he says. He and his trapped team-mates turned lockdown into a bootcamp, gathering their own firewood while Double turned house chef and lead entertainer.
“I play the guitar and sing a bit,” he says. “My go-to songs are usually sad and slow, relying on a few chords.” He draws a parallel to his day job. “I’m not very talented [musically], but like my cycling I continue to see progression, so maybe if I keep it up, I’ll end up playing Wembley stadium,” he laughs, promptly adding: “That was a joke!”
Riding with Tadej
Double resumed racing at Continental level in 2021. The following year came a breakthrough: he finished seventh on GC at the Tour of Slovenia, mixing it with Tadej Pogačar in the mountains. “I exceeded expectations that week and people saw I could ride and climb with the top guys,” Double says. UCI ProTeam Human Powered Health immediately hired him, setting in motion a chain that would see him move to Alberto Contador’s Polti Kometa in 2024 and then to Jayco-Alula on a two-year contract at the start of this season.
Aged 28, long after most riders would have given up and fallen back on a different career path, Double, the wily, aggressive climber, had made it to the big time. “Maybe I was delusional, like one of those people on X Factor who’s been told they’re amazing when they’re not,” he says. “But I saw progression every year, so I had reason to be optimistic.”
There’s no trace of arrogance – Double is well aware he’s still learning. “The biggest change at Jayco has been wearing a heart rate monitor. Before, I’d let my power meter die and wouldn’t replace the battery until a team asked for data. I’ve always ridden on emotion and feel, but now I’m embracing the science.”
In April, he won a stage of the Coppi e Bartali, his first ever win as a WorldTour rider. “I’ve always been an overthinker and I’d been doubting myself in the WorldTour, so to win was a relief more than anything.” A few weeks later, at his maiden Giro d’Italia, he was briefly the virtual leader when he found himself in the breakaway on stage seven. “It was super exciting and there were serious thoughts going through my head that if they gave us a load of time this could be a really big day.” It didn’t happen, but Double finished the Giro. “I used to watch these races thinking, ‘how do they do this?’. Now I’m thinking, ‘how do we do this?’. They say a Grand Tour changes you, and I really think it has.”
It’s been a long journey but in just six months Double has earned his place at the WorldTour. “The team have told me that they foresee even more progress from me, which is nice to hear. I won’t be putting massive pressure on myself, but will keep doing what I’ve always done: taking opportunities when they come my way.”
(Image credit: Future)
Late developer – longer career?
Paul Double’s late entry into the chaos and stress of professional cycling may ultimately work in his favour, says the former Italian pro who first took a chance on him, Flavio Zappi.
“Many boys start cycling around 10, and by the time they’ve developed the engine, at 18 or 19, they have completely burned out mentally,” Zappi says. “Paul, on the other hand, had the engine from the beginning, but had to learn race craft, how to eat, train, and all the rest.
“Improving as a cyclist has always been important to him, but he’s never been paranoid about it. I’d love to have 100 boys like him every year to train and coach.” Zappi remembers Double’s victory in an Italian amateur race in 2018 – the first ever for his team in eight years. “After he won, he did the most Paul thing: he insisted on driving the team van back home,” Zappi says. “It was what he loved to do, and it was his way of thanking everyone. He’s the best team-mate you can ask for.”
Looking ahead, Zappi is confident Double will continue to justify his place in the WorldTour. “He can win a stage of a Grand Tour,” he says. “He needs time, but he can do it.”