Tanfield brothers training in tandem amid the coronavirus uncertainty

Cycling’s governing body, the UCI, has suspended all events on its international calendar and, under strict lockdown restrictions on the continent, many of the sport’s top names have been unable to leave their homes.

However, Tanfield has been taking advantage of UK government rules which permit an hour’s outdoor exercise each day and is confident he will be in good shape when the season eventually resumes.

The 24-year-old, from Great Ayton, has been training alongside brother Charlie, a member of the Great Britain track squad and says, so far, he is “pretty unaffected” by the health crisis.

“We are fortunate in this country that we can still ride and train on our own, which is good compared to some other countries like Spain and Italy,” he observed.

“Obviously, there’s some facilities we can’t use, like gyms, but it’s not the end of the world.

“We (the two brothers) have made ourselves our own little home gym so we are pretty well sorted as far as it could be.

“Some days we are training together, it depends what training we’ve got.

“We are in the same house so it’s not an issue.”

Tanfield had been racing and training abroad with his new team, French squad AG2R La Mondiale, before Covid-19 wiped out all professional competition. He explained: “We were locked down for a week in Spain and I got out when I could. I got the only flight I could buy.

“I didn’t look to book a flight until the 10th (of March) and I flew on the 20th, which was the first one I could get hold of that wasn’t ludicrously expensive. I didn’t want to wait that much longer because they were starting to cancel flights, but there were a few that were still going so I was all right.

“We had a full week of lockdown there and (were only allowed out to visit) supermarkets and pharmacies, that was it. Coming back here was like coming back to normal life for a few days and then they started to impose measures here, but it’s still not to the same level as it was out there.”

The Tour de Yorkshire, which was due to begin at the end of this month, is among the races which have fallen victim to the pandemic.

Tanfield confirmed: “Yorkshire wasn’t on my programme anyway; my team doesn’t ride the Tour de Yorkshire, which is a bit of a shame, but there’s a lot of other races, like the Classics season, which we’ve completely missed.

“It would have been nice to do those, but it is out of our control and the races at the start of the year have had to suffer.

“I did two races abroad, in France and Belgium, before the sport was suspended.

“That was all we could get in. The season will restart at some point, but no-one knows when.”

Tanfield was signed by Team Katusha-Alpecin – who were rivals of AG2R on the sport’s World Tour – for the 2019 season after impressing at the previous year’s Tour de Yorkshire, when he won the opening stage.

He was a member of the Great Britain squad which won a bronze medal in the team time trial mixed relay at last year’s World Championships in Yorkshire, but left Katusha after the team was taken over by Israel Cycling Academy.

Coronavirus’s economic impact has had a knock-on effect on the top level of cycling which is based around trade teams and therefore reliant on sponsorship.

Having had a bad experience at Katusha, the last thing Tanfield wants is uncertainty over his new team’s future.

“Hopefully, the team is fairly stable,” he said.

“No-one really knows, there’s a lot of issues with sponsorship in teams and it is uncertain times for everyone.

“No-one really knows what will happen because some title sponsors are pulling out of teams and teams are folding.

“Ultimately, it’s the title sponsor who pays the wages.”

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