This article is part of Cycling Weekly’s ‘the ride that changed me’ series. Our writers hear from a range of professional and ex-professional cyclists about that one day on the bike that changed the trajectory of their career for good.
For someone so young, Lewis Askey has already been around the block in professional cycling, and has the battle scars to show for it too.
The 22-year-old from Cannock is steadily growing into something of a Classics connoisseur for Groupama-FDJ, an inevitability after his performances on the cobblestones of northern France and Belgium in the early days.
Askey has now ridden the elite Paris-Roubaix on three separate occasions, but he believes it was his victory in the junior Hell of the North which put him on course for a career at cycling’s top level.
Askey explains that from speaking to others, it’s clear that every rider’s path is different and can sometimes change at unexpected moments.
“A lot of guys you speak to will sometimes show you that others have struggled,” he tells Cycling Weekly. “I was speaking to a rider last year in an airport who told me he was just spending every last penny he had on things like altitude camps and stuff to try and make it when he first came over to Europe, and then he went and won Paris-Tours. You could speak to him and I’m sure he’d say that changed everything you know.”
“Whereas with me I think I’ve just always been in the right place,” he adds when reflecting on a turning point in his young career. “Although if I had to say one then I’d go for Paris-Roubaix as a junior.
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“When you’re a junior is when you first start doing what I’d say is real racing that has more of a resemblance to the world tour. You’re on the same courses and stuff like that.
“I was in my first year and won that with the same crowds as the pros because it’s on the same day. Winning that was like the first time I stopped and thought I can keep doing this actually. I suppose that was the first time when I was really on the radar of the WorldTour teams but also just the general public.”
On a mad one
(Image credit: ©Phil Crow 2018)
Askey explains that the chaos of that particular day on the cobbles has been perfectly etched into his memory ever since.
“It was a beautiful day,” he recalls. “I actually came down after the first sector that we did but luckily I was right at the front. I actually crashed because a spectator was crossing the road.
“Weirdly for me, whenever I have something like that happen and my adrenaline really kicks in. I was on a mad one then and didn’t feel anything for the rest of the day.”
The Groupama-FDJ rider found himself up against plenty of riders that would end up joining him on the WorldTour, even a future Grand Tour winner.
“The group got smaller and smaller until there were just about 15 riders left,” he says. “I remember Remco [Evenepoel] was getting chased down for everything because of who he was.
“I remember he was throwing his toys out the pram a bit because it’s a bit of a hard race to just ride away from people on especially as it was a junior race so not as long.
“He wasn’t happy and then there was a moment where everyone sat up and was getting annoyed with each other and then we hit a food zone.”
“I couldn’t get any as there was no car there, it was so messy,” he adds. “We were going over a motorway bridge and then I just attacked. An Italian rider, Samuele Manfredi, came across to me and then us two rode all the way to the velodrome.
“We nearly got caught on the l’Arbre sector, we had about 8 seconds on the chase group coming through which had Matias Skjelmose, Quinn Simmons, Evenepoel and all of them in it. But then we got back onto the road bit, got a gap and came into the velodrome for a two up sprint.
“I sort of put him up against the barriers and then just dropped down and sprinted in the last corner and I just won and got it.”
