It’s an ordinary Thursday, and a teenage Callum Thornley rushes home from school as quickly as he can to eat his dinner. It’s usually tuna pasta. All day he’s been excited about racing in the Dirt Crit in the evening, a series of 15-minute bunch races at his local mountain bike centre. He’s thought about little else.

“It felt like it was the World Champs or something,” Thornley recalls of those nights at Glentress where the races were held near his hometown of Peebles in the Scottish Borders. He remembers the sound of the crowds as the riders cut through the course, the aroma of the cake tent and most of all the addictive adrenaline rush which got him hooked on racing bikes.

Almost a decade later, Thornley has emerged as one of Britain’s most promising young talents on the road. He is about to make the step up to race at WorldTour level with Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe where he will race as a colleague of Remco Evenepoel and Primož Roglič, but the Scot is just as excited to race now as he was then. 

“Everything's changed since the Dirt Crit days, but then also at the same time nothing's changed. It's just still that same addictive atmosphere and adrenaline that you get,” he says.

Image: Maximilian Fries

After starting out on the mud, Thornley quickly found a love for the road, joining up with his local chain gang and then progressing into racing across Scotland. COVID put the brakes on Thornley’s junior career, preventing him from cutting his teeth in Europe. In an era where so many teenagers are being discovered and fast-tracked, he would have to find another way.

Thornley stayed in Peebles for his first year at under-23 level too and arrived at the 2022 British National Championships as something of an unknown. Having targeted the under-23 time-trial, Thornley sprung a surprise by finishing second in a stacked field. He caught the eye of Trinity Racing, where he would progress steadily for two seasons before being picked up by Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe Rookies for 2025, his final year at under-23 level.

While many of his peers were signed up by WorldTour teams years before, Thornley’s slower progression to cycling’s top division could serve him well in the long-run. Most young riders are now living the life of a professional very early on, but Thornley has a different perspective having experienced a more ‘normal’ adolescence.

“It's funny because I'm obviously last year under-23 now, but in my head, I'm a lot younger because everything still feels pretty fresh,” Thornley says. “Rather than making all those mistakes that you would make as a junior in Europe, I had to make them in my second year as an under-23 because it was the first time I was in Europe. I think also physically not having as many races in the legs at that age just pushes everything back a few years.”

“When I was younger in those junior years, I kind of did all the things that you can't do as a cyclist, a bit more socialising with friends and all these things. I've already done those things and realised I don't want to do them, and that really cycling is what I want to do. Also not being as successful when I was younger definitely kept me hungry.”

Image: Maximilian Fries

Thornley has greatly impressed staff at Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe Rookies this season, signing a contract to step up to the WorldTour after just a couple of months with the team. He started off the year by deputising for the professional team in Mallorca and Algarve, before racing with the Rookies in Croatia, placing third at the Istrian Spring Tour. A rider built for the Classics and time-trials, Thornley was revealing his versatility on the climbs and potential for the future.

Shortly after, Thornley’s agent Andrew McQuaid received a phone call with the good news: he would be making the move to the WorldTour in 2026. 

“It was surreal,” Thornley says of the moment he found out. “Day-to-day you have the training goals or the focus of the races and each training session, but in the back of my mind, it's always to turn pro. That's the goal, to get a pro contract and make it my job. When it finally happened, it was weird, the next week or two transitioning. I've done it, now I need to have the long-term goal. I was a little bit lost for a few days, [thinking] this is incredible, but I need to now find the motivation from somewhere else, and quite quickly I found motivation elsewhere. It's just incredible.”

However, the 22-year-old’s season had only just begun. He went on to place 20th at Scheldeprijs before getting injured at Paris-Roubaix Espoirs. He bounced back with 10th at Giro Next Gen and won the British under-23 time-trial title before an impressive end of season run to finish 5th in the time-trial at the World Championships and become the first British rider ever to win the under-23 version of Il Lombardia - the latter being the result he is most proud of.

Image: Maximilian Fries

“Lombardia was just amazing. I’ve won those TTs this year, but it's not the same adrenaline rush of a road race win. The last road race I won was I think a Nat B in Scotland like three or four years ago. The combination of emotions coming over the line was something I can't really get out of my head. It's motivating me a lot. It's going to be tricky to switch off in the next few weeks when I need to be having some time off after feeling that. But no, it's good motivation for next year to try and chase this feeling again.”

This set of results at under-23 level is among some of the best of any British rider in the last few years. He may not have followed the well-trodden path through the juniors, but Thornley could have a big future ahead of him and he feels as though he has “a lot of headroom to grow.”

As he moves into the big time, Thornley will put his personal ambitions to one side, focusing instead on his adjustment to life in the WorldTour. He joins Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe with the team in a time of transition with the impending arrival of Remco Evenepoel as well as several new faces in the managerial staff. Thornley is looking forward to being a colleague to some of the biggest names in the sport, but is unfazed and keeping his feet firmly on the ground. 

“I think at the end of the day they're just people. We will have a team camp in Austria and I think once you get to chat to everyone there, make all the connections and stuff it'll become pretty normal.”

"It's the same sport that I've been doing, but it's just all the names are getting bigger and the stakes are a bit higher now.”