Alice Towers has had a whirlwind experience in professional cycling.
In just two seasons, she has won the elite women’s title at the 2022 British Championships, represented Team GB at the 2022 UCI Road World Championships in Wollongong, signed a three-year contract to compete on the Women’s WorldTour with Canyon-SRAM and has competed in some of the biggest bikes races, from Paris-Roubaix to the Tour de France Femmes.
The jump into the deep end of the sport where she is competing alongside the best in the world might have left some riders feeling the pressure to perform, but Towers seems grounded by her new experiences.
In several interviews with Cyclingnews during the 2023 season, Towers has said that with the support of her family and team, she’s been given the time to develop, learn and grow slowly.
While Towers aims to become one of the best riders in the world in the future, she said she continually reminds herself that, at just 21 years old, it was not that long ago that she was a full-time student. Part of what keeps her on a firm footing is taking the time to appreciate just how far she’s come in such a short period.
Cyclingnews: How did you get involved in cycling?
Alice Towers: I’ve been riding for ages and ages, since I was about ten years old. It’s just a classic story, really. My family rides. I just rode with my family on the weekends and then only started racing when I was about 15 and 16. Some people have been put on a bike, and they’ve been doing races since they were four and five years old. I came into it late, even though it’s still young. I started racing in the national series in the UK. There’s quite a good national series that goes on around the country.
I did pretty well. I never trained for the races, which was quite good, but I was still at school and didn’t know what I wanted to do after school and stuff. I’m quite easygoing. I didn’t have a plan or think about it too much.
I was a junior in 2020. And that’s when we went into lockdown. And I don’t need to say much about that. So I was still at school then, and school got cancelled, and I had loads of free time and then that was when I discovered my love for cycling because I basically became a full-time cyclist. I didn’t have to do school anymore so, my whole day was going out for rides, and that was when I realised I’d love to keep doing this full-time. I didn’t want to return to school, university, or studies.
That was when my brother [Lucas] raced…
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