The revelation of last Track World Championships in the center of scouts' attention: "Five or six different WorldTour teams asked for my data"

Josh Charlton became quite a surprising world record holder in the individual pursuit when he clocked 3:59.304 in the qualifying round of the 2024 Track World Championships in Copenhagen. His reign was brief as Jonathan Milan broke his record at the same venue just hours later in the final, but it was enough to draw interest from big road teams.

"I didn’t realise the potential I had until October," he told Cycling Weekly. The Brit became only the third rider ever at the time to go below four minutes in the discipline. "I didn’t realise how good I was at it until that day."

To put into perspective, that's two seconds faster than Filippo Ganna's gold medal time at the 2023 Worlds. Asked if road teams took notice of his performance, Charlton said: "I had a few nearly opportunities come about after the world record in Copenhagen, but nothing really came of it."

"My agent had five or six different WorldTour teams asking for data, asking for TrainingPeaks, stuff like that. It’s a difficult time to do such a good ride like that in October, when rosters have been decided, budgets have been used up. If I’d done it in September, maybe it would have been a different story."

"It just shows there is potential, there’s definitely interest. I’ve got to keep pushing, keep driving, doing fast times, winning stuff, and eventually they’ll hopefully take notice," Charlton expresses.

Like many other British riders, Charlton found it unpleasant for his then team Trinity Racing to have folded at the end of last season. "I’m lucky that I’ve got the track, and I’ve got the funding from British Cycling, so I can still keep doing it," he said. "I know there’s a lot of guys, even guys who I rode with, who had to end their careers because the team folded."

"The guys I’m competing against, guys like Filippo Ganna and Jonathan Milan – Milan has won everything at the UAE Tour this week, and Ganna’s Ganna – if you’re going as fast as those guys, surely you’re going to be of some use to the big teams," Charlton said.