'I wanted to be a motorbike rider': How Alec Briggs became a crit racing ace

Alec Briggs is one of the UK's strongest and most skilful criterium racers. In 2018, he founded his own team, Tekkerz, with the aim of nurturing talent within the British scene. He also competes in cyclo-cross and track cycling. 

What was your first bike? 

It was a little, yellow Raleigh kids bike. It was my older brother's. It had those three or four-spoke plastic wheels and foam-style tyres that got worn out over time. I had that when I was about three years old and I just wore it out to death. We had this small garden, and I used to ride around in an oval pretending to be a speedway rider. I would dress up in the kit that my Dad made me, breastplates and the armour they had, and then we'd get flour, cooking flour, and paint the white lines on the floor to mark out a little oval and a start gate. It was so cool. 

What was the first bike race you remember watching? 

I remember going and watching the Good Friday track meet at Herne Hill Velodrome. I watched Symon Lewis do a really good ride in a race, going over the line with his hands in the air – I think it was a points race – and I didn't know what was going on. 

I remember all the people stood around the fences at Herne Hill. I'm talking the whole circumference of the fence, lined two people deep. It was amazing. It was such a cool atmosphere. That's the peak of grassroots sporting showcase for me. 

Who was your cycling hero growing up? 

Steve Peat, downhill mountain biker. I really liked mountain biking because it had that presence of motocross. The reason I like bicycles is because I liked watching motorbikes on TV when I was a kid. I never actually had an interest in cycling, and I'll be honest with you, I don't think I understood cycling at all until I was like 18. 

Watching someone plummet and do jumps on a downhill bike was really cool. In 2019, I went to Seat Otter for Specialized and Steve Peat was doing a signing. When I saw him, I was like, "You know what, dude, you might be one of the reasons I ride a bicycle." He was like, "Ah, man, that's really cool." And I was like, "You're really cool!" 

What appealed to you about crit racing? 

I wanted to be a mountain biker, but I don't think I put in the effort to do classic cross-country mountain biking, and where I grew up [in south London], there wasn't anywhere to do downhill mountain biking. Then I got into cyclo-cross, and I really enjoyed that because of the corners and the technical slidy-ness of it. 

I went to university, and did sports coaching in Wales. I just sort of kept hitting next on the UCAS button until I was in university, and I came out the other side thinking it was really crap and a waste of time. I thought, well, I kind of want to start cycling again.

I saw this random dude on the street, riding around on a fixed gear bike, and I was like, "Who is this joker?" He had just been in the lanes on a fixed gear bike, and he ran this Red Hook Crit team. He told me about it and asked me if I wanted to come do it. The reason I was so sold on it was because he said this phrase to me: "It's like MotoGP on bicycles." I looked at him and went, "I fucking love MotoGP."

I didn't care about bicycles really, I wanted to be a motorbike rider. Red Hook Crit gave me this new love for cycling that I did not know I could have. All of a sudden, I started liking road bikes a lot more, and I loved the art of racing bicycles. 

You founded your own team in 2018. What inspired you to start Tekkerz? 

I always loved the customisation of motorbike riders, and thought they had really cool liveries and team kits. I liked the idea of having my own identity as a racer, a self expression sort of thing. That was a big part of it, but the main reason I set it up was because I wanted to have my own output and hold myself to my own values. 

I also wanted to give an opportunity for junior riders to have an alternative pathway to get to the highest level of the sport. When I was younger, I didn't make it onto the British Cycling talent team, but the British Cycling coaches were extremely helpful with me. I wanted to create that extra option for someone that is perhaps not in tune with the traditional pathway. I wanted to shout about the technical side and gamesmanship of cycling, and promote this other part which I think needed to be shouted about as much as watts and efficiency. That's the ethos I wanted to shout about. 

If I can help some kids along the way, or help them get to a professional contract or on their way to the Olympics – which is what I dreamt of when I was a kid – that's really nice. 

If you hadn't gotten involved in cycling, what do you think you would have ended up doing? 

The dream would have been to be a MotoGP rider. I still watch MotoGP and think that's the best job in the world. They basically ride around corners for a living. It's incredible. 

I would love to say I'd be a motorbike racer, but I know that was never going to happen, because it cost so much money to do. I'd probably end up doing something stupid, like playing computer games for a living or playing Gran Turismo online. 

Now, when I go, "What am I going to do when I stop cycling? How am I going to get my kicks?" I start thinking about how I can make enough money to start a little motorcycle career. That's the only thing I can think of that would be as fulfilling as winning a bicycle race. 

What is the proudest moment of your career so far?

Someone asked me this quite recently, and I didn't really know what to say. I'll be honest with you, I haven't reached it yet. There's nothing I'm mega-proud of. I'm proud of everything I've done, but I don't think there's anything standalone that exceptional. 

It was really nice to win a National Circuit Series round last year, but it was more of a relief than feeling mad proud about it. I'd really like to get a national jersey, just once, because I feel like I should have got one when I was 16 in junior cyclo-cross. I still have that in my head, and I'm just trying to sort of right some wrongs from when I was 16. The coolest thing is that I've managed to make a living out of riding my bike, which was a childhood dream.