There was a time when Britain’s young team pursuiters on the track mostly developed into climbers on the road: Peter Kennaugh, Geraint Thomas and Bradley Wiggins. The latter two grew into Tour de France winners. Today, however, with team pursuit times plummeting from around four minutes two decades ago to a quite staggering 3:40 nowadays, the make-up of a team pursuiter has altered significantly. They’re more power athletes, requiring mostly fast-twitch fibres, and as a result the trend has shifted. No longer are they climbers on the road, but sprinters – Ethan Vernon and Ethan Hayter in recent years, and now the latest to emerge: the season’s breakthrough star Matthew Brennan and soon-to-be EF Education EasyPost neo-pro Noah Hobbs.
“The discipline has changed: now the team pursuit is more of a sprint event – you need raw power for the whole duration of the race,” Hobbs says. “The track, providing you get the balance right and don’t skip too many road races, definitely helps your form on the road. They make each other better.”
While Visma-Lease a Bike’s Brennan was promoted to the WorldTour this year aged 19 and has adapted to the rigour and demands of it like one of his peers does to being in a nightclub at 5am, Hobbs decided to stay put one more year in the U23 ranks, to gain more experience winning and to finesse his skills before his own promotion. The approach has paid off: eight wins, including three at the Tour de Bretagne, and one at the Tour de l’Avenir. Everyone’s talking about Brennan, but the reality is Britain has two rip-roaring young sprinters with an education honed on the track coming through.
“Matty’s definitely got the title as the best among us at the moment,” Hobbs, 21, laughs. “Just before this call he won in the Tour of Britain – it’s almost too easy for him now. We’ve not raced since we were juniors, and even then he was first year, but I’m excited to step up and race with him again.”
Hobbs grew up in London, but Devon in England’s south-west corner, is where he spent much of his childhood, and where he speaks most fondly of. “With my brother Henry [18, also a promising rider], we were doing every sport that was available: football, tennis, swimming, and whenever we were at our grandparents' house, we would go surfing. Whenever I’ve got time now I go back and get the surfboard out, especially in the winter when the waves are bigger. You need a thick wetsuit, mind.” Aged 15, Hobbs dropped the other aforementioned sports – with the exception of surfing – to focus on cycling. “Throughout the summer holiday in Devon I was on my bike, and wherever we went the bike came with me. That’s when I got onto GB’s Junior Academy and when it all properly started.”
Hobbs's success as an U23 rider has earned him a WorldTour ride with EF Education-EasyPost.
British Cycling’s Academy combines both road and track, but its education is centred on the teachings of the velodrome. It’s constantly churned out world-class bike riders since the Millennium, and is continuing to do so. When Hobbs was recruited, though, he had a lot to learn. “As an U16 rider, I was terrible at the track. I remember parents going up to my Mum and asking, ‘how come Noah is so good on the road, but so bad on the track!’ I was on a borrowed bike, borrowed wheels, using a borrowed helmet, and would come up and down the banking at the wrong time. I struggled with it all.”
Eventually, though, Hobbs got the hang of it, and he has won two team pursuit gold medals at the European U23 Track Championships, and has also picked up medals in the scratch race, Madison and Omnium. “The LA Olympics in 2028 is my big goal. I don’t care what it is, but I just want to ride in any of the Olympic events: the team pursuit, Madison, Omnium, whatever,” he says.
In 2023, Hobbs stayed on British Cycling’s senior Academy for track racing, and for the road joined Groupama-FDJ’s development team in France. It was successful – a handful of impressive results against more experienced riders, and three wins in big U23 races. But more than anything it was a schooling in life. “It was quite scary moving away from home and living with people who you don’t know to start with, but being split between Manchester and Besançon in France was so, so good. They were two of the funnest years of my life. It was pretty much exactly like going to university – always picking up new skills, and learning what to do in certain situations.” He picked up French habits, too. “After every race we’d be given a grapefruit drink for recovery, which in my eyes is very French, and even now on altitude camp I’ll get a block of cheese out post-ride and start eating that with a baguette. Everyone’s like, ‘We can tell you’ve been on a French team!’”
Hobbs has become a mainstay in Great Britain's team pursuit squad, with the next Olympics just three years away.
This past year has been less French, and more Spanish. “Living in Girona, I’ve swapped the cheese for alioli” – a garlic and olive oil sauce – “but not the baguette – I could easily eat a whole one.” Hobbs has been riding for EF Education-Aevolo, the development team of the WorldTour outfit, and he’s content with his choice. “Doing this extra year in a development team has given me more confidence as a sprinter, and thrown more scenarios at me.
“I’m still finding out what I am best at, and at the moment it seems to be the more uphill sprints or sprints after a few climbs, but l’Avenir was a flat sprint, and I can definitely hold my own in those pure flat sprints. In my first year as an U23 rider, I didn’t win any races, but I came close, built my confidence and now I feel like I can take on any sprinter. It’s another reason why I feel like turning WorldTour now is the right time, because I can go into races thinking I can win rather than trying to get a top-5.”
Hobbs has already raced a handful times with the senior EF squad, and next year as a neo-pro is expecting leadership opportunities. “I’m hoping I’ll get some chances for myself in WorldTour sprints – it’d be nice to see how I stack up, now that I feel I’ve made a big jump. They’ve got a really good team around me. Jez Hunt and Greg Henderson are my coaches and they have all the knowledge that I need to have.”
Next up for Hobbs is his first ever long haul flight, all the way to Chile for the Track World Championships in late October. It’s a key fixture as the Olympic cycle starts to hot up, and then he’ll be hitting the 2026 season, his first on the road as a WorldTour rider. “As I got into cycling, Cav and Wiggins were riding the Madison together at the Olympics,” he says. “That’s partly what inspired me to take up the sport.” Hobbs might not win 35 Tour de France stages, and given his profile almost definitely not the yellow jersey, but he is on the path to emulating his track and road heroes. “I’m just excited to step up, and go to races where I can win.”
