Catching up With the Walkers

This year promises to be a pivotal one in the professional ranks for Manx cycling siblings Max and Zac Walker.
At age 21 and 18 respectively, the Walker brothers’ careers are still in their formative years but both have caught the eye in recent seasons.
This was particularly true in 2022 when Zac won the British National Junior Road Race Championship title and shone at the UCI World Road Race Championships in Australia, while Max claimed fine top-10 finishes at the Rutland-Melton CiCLE Classic, the Ronde de l’Isard in France and in the men’s under-23 time trial at the British National Road Race Championships.
As such, Zac has earned a move to Tudor Pro Cycling, while Max is gearing up for his third season with Trinity Cycling.
We caught up with the two brothers during the off-season to get the lowdown on last year and look ahead to the 2023 season.

ZAC

Congratulations on the move to Tudor Pro Cycling. How did the deal come about?`

It’s quite a long story actually. After winning the British championships I reached out to lots of teams as deals in cycling often happen earlier in the year than expected.
From this only a few teams were interested, with Tudor being one of them: they laid out their visions and plans and I was onboard with it straight away. We stayed in contact but through a few miscommunications the deal was then off and then back on…and then off again.
It got to the end of the year and I was still without a team but with a few more results to my name and a good showcase in the World Championships I now had a lot of serious teams offering big contracts.
We asked Tudor one last time whether they were interested and it turned out they had been again for some time. I then had the choice between Tudor and a few other perhaps better known teams, but Tudor felt like the best fit for me to become the best version of myself in the long term.
From the experience I have had so far, I don’t regret it!

You’ve had a great year, including winning the junior British road race championship and performing superbly at the world champs. Any other highlights of your career so far?

I would say I have been poking about for a while now but last year was really a breakout year results-wise.
In particular winning in the Tour De Gironde, Tour of Mendips and winning the British Series. But additionally it’s been really fun travelling around Europe and the world with friends and becoming independent while doing so.

How did you originally get into cycling? And what age were you?

I’ve been asked this a lot but to be honest I can’t fully remember the age, perhaps five? It was the typical Manx story of me and my brother going down to the infamous NSC league on a Tuesday night held by Dot Tilbury and becoming hooked on it ever since.
We both have been really sporty our whole life and, as we have got older, we have edged more towards cycling until it became our primary sport.

What would you say your strengths are as a rider? And what would you say Max’s strengths and weaknesses are?!

I always say that I’m not the best when it comes to pure lab tests, as in when performing a specific test I would be below expectation.
But I think my strong points are that I am relentless and won’t tire as much as others and also that I have good race craft and can really turn it on when it comes to race day.
A strength of Max’s is that he can do it all – sprint/ hillclimb/ TT you name it. This means he can win a bike race in multiple different ways. Let’s hope I can find out some of his weaknesses this year otherwise I’ll be relying on a bit of heatstroke on his side as he often suffers from that!

How’s your winter training going? Did you get a day off for Christmas?

Winter training has been going well. I often get too keen too early so perhaps started off too hard but have found a good rhythm now.
There has been nothing overly intense; just lots of clocking up the miles which isn’t always pleasant in this weather. For Christmas definitely, I had a small run with my mum but that wasn’t on the plan, just an improvised activity as it’s not often we can do that together.
Tudor have a big stress on a balance between on-bike/off-bike life so there was no pressure from there whatsoever – probably preferring if I watched movies all day!
What are your plans for the 2023 season? What are the first few months of the year looking like?
I have two training camps coming up in Calpe, Spain with the team in January and February.
But due to the weather and logistical reasons it seems best for me to stay there during January in between the camps where hopefully I can get a productive period of training done and go into the season being as fast as possible.
After that I’ll be returning home for a little downtime to rest and recover before kicking off the season mid-March time in Croatia I believe.

Do you have ambitions to ride this year’s world championships as well?

Of course I would love to, every cyclist wants to represent Great Britain wherever they can. It’ll be a tough task with it being my first year in the u23s racing those four years older than me.
With this in mind and it also being a relatively flat parkour, my main focus will be on doing as well as I can and if that leads to the World Championships than that’d be great, but for now I definitely don’t have an expectation to be on the team.

Looking further ahead, is it an ambition to compete in the next Commonwealth Games in Australia?

I hope so! In 3.5 years time I certainly think I’ll be more than ready and on the standards of the other athletes but by that time I want to be there competing for the medals.

And what about Grand Tours in the future?

All cyclists compete to ride in Grand Tours – if asked the question to ‘serious’ cyclists everyone would also say that they have a goal to ride in one of the big three. So yes, if given the opportunity to ride one certainly but getting to that level is the hard part!

Max

How would you assess your 2022 season with Trinity? Were your highlights the CiCLE Classic and the Ronde de l’Isard?

My 2022 season was a bit up and down. In my first race of the season I crashed and unfortunately dislocated my collarbone.
It was not quite the start I was expecting but, after lots of help from Isle of Man Sports Aid and physio Ruth Cooil, I was able to bounce back and achieve a fifth place in the time trial at Tryptique Monts et Chateaux.
Not long after that I came fifth at Cicle Classic, which was definitely one of the highlights of my season. I then went on to compete in the Tour Series, racing crits every few days or so across the UK for two weeks. This was a change from the type of racing I’m used to and good fun. On top of that it was successful for my team,Trinity.
I then ended my season at Ronde de l’Isard which is a hilly five-day stage race in the Pyrenees. I achieved a fifth place there which was definitely another highlight of my season, giving me lots of motivation to train hard for this winter in preparation for the upcoming season.

Have you been working with Peter Kennaugh much? If so, what has his input been like?

Last season I worked with Pete at a few races with him as the director sportif for Trinity.
I found his insight and knowledge really valuable, I was so impressed with the way he spoke to us before, after and during the race that I asked him to be my coach going forward.
Luckily for me he agreed and since October I have been working very closely with him. I am feeling stronger than ever on the bike and I hope that we can achieve some good results together this season.

How did you originally get into cycling? And what age were you?

My introduction to cycling was through Dot Tilbury’s races at the NSC. I was around seven when my parents took me down for my first race and I’ve been hooked ever since.
It’s such a great set-up and without it the Isle of Man cycling scene would definitely not be the same.
Plus my parents have supported both Zac and I all these years. We definitely owe Dot and our parents a huge thank you!

What would you say your strengths are as a rider? And what would you say Zac’s strengths and weaknesses are?!

I would say my strength as a rider is being well-rounded and strong on all terrains and my weakness is racing in the heat. I’ll be working on that this year by spending around six months of the year in Spain.
I would say Zac’s strength as a rider is climbing and his weakness is resting – when he’s not on the bike, he never sits still!

How’s your winter training going? Did you get a day off for Christmas?

Winter training is going well and I feel fit and healthy. There is always a good group of people to ride with over the winter here in the Isle of Man which is especially helpful in getting you out of the house when the weather is less than ideal.
Yes, I did have a day off at Christmas and I made the most of it, two massive Christmas dinners!

What are your plans for the 2023 season? What are the first few months of the year looking like?

My plans are to race as much as I can in u23 and lower level pro races with Trinity Racing.
I’m flying out to Spain mid January to train with Zac and then meet my team for a training camp at the start of February.
My complete race programme is not finalised yet but I will start racing around February/March time.

Do you have ambitions to ride in this year’s world championships? And what about competing in Grand Tours in the future?

Yes, I would absolutely love to ride the u23 World championships this year – it’s a big personal goal for me.
I rode it as a junior and had such a great time, I’d be honoured to represent Great Britain again.
I feel the same about the Grand Tours too in the future. The Tour de France is the biggest race in the world and it’s certainly the race I want to do the most.
It will be extremely hard to get to that level but hopefully the work I’m putting in will help me get there.
That’s the dream!