Peter Hawkins (right) with team mate Dan Craven. The Irishman is up for the Tour of Britain.
By Brian Canty
Belfast native Peter Hawkins will bring his career to a new level this weekend when he lines up in Ipswich for the start of the Tour of Britain alongside some of the biggest names in the sport.
The 26-year-old IG Sigma Sport rider has had a superb season to date with a string of wins at home while also performing well on the Continent. And it’s refreshing to hear that even names like Bradley Wiggins or Ivan Basso won’t intimidate him when he gets a close-up of them on Sunday.
“I’m not nervous, I’m just looking forward to it,” Hawkins told stickybottle.
“I think I have some pretty good form so hopefully I can do well. I’ve definitely been riding better than ever this year but the Tour of Britain is going to be a step above what I’ve been doing so far. I haven’t ridden a 2.1 race since the Tour of Turkey in 2008 so I’m going into a level that I haven’t raced at for quite some time... it’s hard to know how it’s going to go but I’m not intimidated.”
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“First of all you gotta think, these guys that have rode the Tour de France, they’re not going to be as motivated for this and maybe won’t have the form. But having said that they’re still going to try! If you look at the teams in the race there’s really only about 50 guys at World Tour level, and then there’s a lot of guys with teams that are just like mine. So, half the field will be guys that I’ve been racing with all year and competing well against.”
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Indeed, it’s a huge fillip for Hawkins, who is trained by fellow Belfast man Cormac McCann and whose whole year has been geared towards this.
“I mean it’s been a target for the whole year,” he confirmed.
“I think I’ve had some good results so far so I was pleased to get selected. I think we’re going to try and take our opportunities as best we can. We don’t have an outstanding favourite for the overall or sprints or climbs. We’ve a number of strong riders so we’re just going to have to try and be in the mix every day with the breaks.”
“I’ve had a look at the race manual and we’ve ridden the last stage in Surrey but I’ve only ridden one stage. I’ve a fair idea of what’s coming up though.”
So far the year has been a whirlwind for Hawkins and he’s enjoyed the 100mph nature of it; far better than being holed up in Belgium he says.
“It’s definitely been good, in comparison with living in Belgium and just riding Belgian races, it’s been good. Part of it has been getting good results which also makes things easier.”
As regards next year and where he’ll be, he is unsure but a good ride next week could clear away a lot of the uncertainty.
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