Eighth place on the general classification at the Tour Down Under might not be a result that is going to make headlines, but a number on ProCyclingStats never tells the whole story. Tom Gloag’s road to a WorldTour top-10 in his first stage race of 2025 has been turbulent and challenging, characterised by two crashes which have hindered the progress of one of the sport’s most promising young climbers. The first came in August 2023, when Gloag’s right kneecap was shattered into dozens of tiny fragments after he collided with a car during training. It took eight months for the 23-year-old to return to the peloton, after a lengthy period of rehabilitation. In his first race back at the Czech Tour, Gloag won stage three, beating Marc Hirschi in an uphill finish – a testament to his bolshy and determined character.
“My plan was always to come back and be competitive straight away. People would always say at the start of rehab: when are you planning to return to the peloton again? I think that's the wrong question to ask, because turning up to a race is one thing, being competitive in a race is a whole different kettle of fish,” the British rider explains.
“I don’t turn up to races and not be competitive, I’ve done that bashing round the Giro d’Italia in 2023. Before Czech, I knew that I was in a really good place, but I did miss a little bit last year in terms of those micro accelerations. That’s something that will come when I manage to race more.”
Despite Gloag’s success Down Under already this season, he is keen to stress that his aims in 2025 are not specifically results-focused. Instead, he wants to do as many race days as possible, finding the sharpness and tactical nous that he lost while missing eight months of competitive sport.
“This year, it's a very boring goal, but I'd love to just get 50 or 60 race days in. I feel like a big silver lining of going from not being able to walk to learning how to win a pro bike race for the first time is that you get to understand yourself,” Gloag says. “I think my first year in the team I was quite insecure, surrounded by a lot of really good riders on the team. I came from a small Continental team to one with the Tour de France winner and the Giro d’Italia winner. That was a lot to get my head round. The fact that I managed to come back from my crash and win helped me build some more inner confidence.”
Image: Tom Gloag at the 2025 Tour Down Under
Gloag believes that both his mindset and his entry to the sport has helped him keep perspective during challenging periods of his career: “I’m someone that kind of lucked into the position I'm in. It’s not like I had from a young age a massive want to be a professional cyclist. It's obviously something that I've really enjoyed, but I kind of found myself here more by chance, and then by pure will,” he says.
“You can definitely want it too much. Probably my biggest mistake before getting hit by a car when I was in my first year professional was I wanted it too much and I didn't know when to back off. Once you start gaining that confidence and feeling it within yourself, you start looking for a lot less validation from people like your trainer or the team. Everyone is very professional on Visma and has a massive inner drive. That can be overdone sometimes even – it's a weird little balance. I think I found that quite nicely this year.”
It’s clear that Gloag’s mental strength is crucial to his success. Despite all the setbacks, he asserts that he never doubted his ability to return to the peloton after his crash. He may have had to learn how to walk again, but the British rider always believed he would learn to win bike races at the same time.
“I think I was a bit delusional, because I just convinced myself I was always going to come back. I didn't even consider the possibility that it wasn't possible,” he says. “I'm very fortunate that I didn't have that conversation with myself, because I think that's quite a slippery slope to go down. You've got to live every moment in this sport. The perspective that I gained from that crash is I just really enjoy bike racing, I’m really grateful to be doing it and just finishing safely.”
Gloag suffered his second serious crash at the end of the 2024 season, breaking his elbows after hitting a pothole on a training ride in Spain. After the work he’d done to return to the peloton already following his knee injury, ending another year of ending racing early was a further setback for the British rider, but he explains his mindset always got him through.
“Motivation hasn't been a big problem because especially when you have a really big crash, you start from zero, so you see a lot of gains quite quickly. Everything's so new for me at any race I show up to, whether it's the smallest pro race or Grand Tour, it is exciting for me,” he explains. “At the moment,I just need to stay consistent – touch wood.”
His performances in Australia are a positive sign for the young Brit. A top-10 at WorldTour stage racing level is no easy feat and raises the question: what could Gloag achieve if he hadn’t to overcome so many hurdles in his first years as a pro? Thinking about hypothetical situations like this isn’t something that Gloag is prepared to entertain, however. Instead, he wants to remain grounded and realistic when it comes to the year ahead.
Image: Tom Gloag at the 2023 Giro d'Italia
“For me being competitive just means being able to help a team win. I don't have that much experience, so it's not like I can do a fantastic job in the early parts of a race for the guys, so I have to compensate a little bit with my level to help the team win,” he explains. “There are a lot of really strong guys on Visma, but it's easy to over complicate the sport. If you turn up and you have a competitive level, you're always going to be able to be an asset to a team.
“I try to really focus on the physical preparation and I’ll do whatever the team wants me to do with that. That is what we're really good at, doing the right steps day by day to get you fit. We're lucky that we've got world class trainers, nutritionists and personnel around that understand the physiology of a team.”
Gloag’s positivity and optimism regarding the rest of his career despite what he has been through so far is admirable, and points to promising signs for the rest of his career. The Tour Down Under is just the beginning of a season which could finally see Gloag have the chance to race at the highest level consistently, fulfilling the potential he showed as an under-23 rider. If the Brit can learn how to walk again, then come back for a second time after another training crash and still compete at the top level, the sky is the limit. His greatest strength is perhaps that he has felt what it might be like to have everything taken away from him – simply being in a bike race is an achievement in itself.
“Everyone's always looking to do better and better but I am happy with the level I'm at now,” Gloag says. “I really want to do more of the same and move up step by step. It's a difficult sport, I'm happy with where I'm at. I’d love to just keep that going.”
