Geoghegan Hart blog after he'd won raffle to train with Team Sky aged 14 | Sticky Bottle

Tao Geoghegan Hart, aged 14 on the left, is now a Grand Tour winner but back in 2009 he was determined to get as many photos as he could when he won a competition to join Team Sky on a group leisure ride in London as the WorldTour team was getting started

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Tao Geoghegan Hart became Britain's latest Grand Tour champion at the conclusion of the Giro d'Italia in Milan today and now a blog post he wrote as a 14-year-old has emerged.

Team Sky was just being launched and they'd run a raffle for kids for places on a ride they were doing in London. Teenager Geoghegan Hart won a place, much to his surprise as his blog post from the time (below) reveals.

Then a Cycling Club Hackney rider, Geoghegan Hart explained in his blog that Team Sky had run the competition through its Facebook page. He said he often entered cycling competitions but had never had any luck.

“So when out of the blue I got a text today, saying I had been picked for the ride I was amazed and exited," he said in the blog post dated December 30th, 2009.

“It will be interesting to see how many turn up to the rides. I will be armed with my camera and on a mission to get as many photos with the Pro’s as possible.”

*The blog post, dated December 2009, that Geoghegan Hart wrote about being so excited (or rather 'exited') to win a place on a Team Sky leisure ride*

*Geoghegan Hart at a Cycling Club Hackney meeting back in 2009 where they were planning their cyclocross season and also looking forward to the track and road season at the time.*
At the meeting coaches Keir Apperley and Gary Lingard were advising Geoghegan Hart (middle in blue) along with another future Team Sky rider, Alex Peters (far left), and Clem Berrill. The club's site shows just how much effort Cycling Club Hackney put into its young riders at the time; schooling them in all cycling disciplines and bringing them all over the UK and to Europe for events (Photo with thanks to Cycling Club Hackney)

The now 25-year-old Giro winner - with Ineos Grenadiers - has become a close friend of Bradley Wiggins who he idolised when he was young.

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He continued to write on the blog for a number of years and in the introductory remarks, Geoghegan Hart wrote of himself: "My name is Tao Geoghegan Hart, I am a 16-year-old racing cyclist.

"Le Stagiaire is my blog about cycling and the life of a young cyclist. This is my dream to one day become a professional athlete.

"I am very proud to be sponsored by Condor Cycles and ride in the British Olympic Talent Programme. I race for Cycling Club Hackney along with Eastern and South East regional teams abroad."

The Cycling Club Hackney site is well worth a look and you'll find it by following this link.

Like Carrick Wheelers and An Post-Chainreaction with Sam Bennett and O'Leary Stone Kanturk with Eddie Dunbar, the London club put a huge amount of work into its young riders.

The posts on the club site from the time show meetings of riders and coaches in London and the riders being brought all over the UK and to Europe for a wide variety of cycling experiences.

The riders rode cyclocross as well as track and road, with lots of effort made by the club over a long number of years; all of that paying off in Milan today when one of its former riders won the Giro.