Matthew Holmes discovers gravel

“Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.” It’s a well-known philosophical quotation that applies well to Factor Racing privateer, Matthew Holmes.

As a former WorldTour pro, Matt raced for several years at the highest level. Scoring top results for himself as a general classification racer, he eventually felt the demands of the job outweighed the rewards. Leaving the sport when he did, though, opened up a new, prosperous path.

“I just got raced to death. I didn’t enjoy it anymore with the team I was with. I didn’t have a plan. I just stopped. I could have joined another team, I’m sure. But I thought there is more to life than this. If I am just going to go from race to race to race, then it’s too hard to be doing that without enjoying it,” he said. But he was only in his late-20s when he decided to give up his spot in the WorldTour. Almost immediately, he realised that he maybe stopped too early, when he was still so strong and experienced.

“When I quit racing at the WorldTour level, I realized that it was probably a bit too soon. So I decided to focus my attention on track and gravel racing, the two things you can do at a high level without being on a team. That’s how I first came into contact with Factor, through David Millar,” Matt explained. Initially the talks just involved helping Matt get a track bike to race. But the conversation quickly snowballed, and Matt now finds himself as a founding member of the Factor Racing organisation.

“I’m really excited to be a part of Factor Racing. My part of it is predominantly gravel racing, but I will also continue to race on the track, since we have amazing bikes for that, and hopefully I can be chosen to be a member of Team GB for the Commonwealth Games,” Matt said.

Though one wouldn’t think that racing track and racing gravel would complement each other particularly, Matt has discovered that both just require a lot of commitment to becoming the fittest rider possible. “Racing track and gravel can work well together. You just train to get super fit, that’s the ultimate goal. Obviously, it’s different racing 200 miles at Unbound versus four kilometres on the track, but all the stuff that I worked on for the track translated well to gravel,” he explained. “The track work I did was all focused on my weaknesses like seated torque and outright power. So, lots of gym work and lots of big gear, high torque efforts. I trained really hard for the goal of making the Olympic squad on the track, and when that ended, I went on the road and on gravel, and I won straight away. It all complements each other.”

Focused on a tough block of racing

Matt started the gravel season at the hotly contested Santa Vall in Girona in mid-February. And though the race effectively revved up the legs, illness and a puncture on the first stage muted his season opener. “The level of gravel racing is crazy now. It was the first race of the season, and it felt like the World Championships. Just the level is so high, it was so competitive and so fast,” Matt said. “I know Factor was on-hand and we made a video about it. The video was great, but I was rubbish. I was just too sick to do well.”

With the first race of the season under his belt, focus will turn to the bigger goals on his calendar, highlighted by a block of races in May that culminates with a trip to Kansas to compete at Unbound for the first time. “My biggest goals this season are the biggest goals in gravel, I think. And many of them come right in a four-week period,” Matt explained. “I’ve got a 200 km sportif on the Scottish boarders, then Traka, then the Lincoln Grand Prix, which is a road race I won last year, then the Gralloch, which is a gravel race I won last year, then fly to American for Unbound, so I should be race fit by then.”

OSTRO Gravel: the right tool for the job

Entering the gravel scene can be tougher for someone who didn’t grow up riding mountain bikes and gravel regularly. As a professional road and track racer, Matt had limited experience with off-road riding. “I’ve never even owned a mountain bike, so there was a steep learning curve for me when I started racing gravel. But the gravel races that aren’t too technical and are really just hard road races with a lot of gravel thrown in are the types of events I like since those are the types of road races where I excelled too.”

Climbing onto an OSTRO Gravel can be a revelatory experience for any roadie. “If you want to go fast, the OSTRO Gravel is the one you want. It’s what a gravel bike should be. People seem to refuse to admit that physics applies to gravel as well. You do have to be aero, especially for Unbound. If you are racing 200 miles and you can save 10 watts over 200 miles, that’s going to be something like 500 to 1000 calories saved,” Matt enthused. “As someone who comes from the track, I’ve learned a lot from the team pursuit, and I wouldn’t want to line up to any race on a bike that didn’t take aero performance seriously. That is definitely an area where the OSTRO Gravel out-paces everyone.”

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Escaping the grind

Now as a member of the Factor Racing organisation, Matt has a chance to continue doing what he loves while building a foundation for the future.

“The life I’ve got now and the setup I’ve got now is great. I’m still riding my bike and it’s on my terms,” he said. “It’s like I’ve gone back to being a Junior. I just love it. I just love doing the sport. I love going out training with friends. And I love all the bikes and nice kit. I’ve gone full circle where nobody really tells me what to do, but I just do it because I love it.”

As with every former WorldTour pro who goes privateer, Matt has had to negotiate the sea of change, doing most things for himself that previously would have been done by team staff. “It’s sort of like I have started a business because I have negotiations and contracts and money coming in and money going out. It's setting me up for a foot in the real world as I transition from pro rider to not pro rider,” he explained.

“And if I can work with Factor Racing and help with the bike development and the R&D by giving my feedback, and help it grow to become something bigger, then I’d love to be a fundamental part of that.”

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