Ben Tulett is aiming to eventually become the next British GC leader as he steps up to the WorldTour in his debut season with Ineos Grenadiers.
The 20-year-old Brit moves over from Alpecin-Fenix, where he rode for two seasons in his first years as a pro rider, to now join the top-tier outfit that shares his nationality.
“I’ll go to some races where I really want to perform and really want to go for the win, and others where I’m a domestique, or there to help and there to learn. Next year it’s important that there’s a good mix of both," he told Rouleur.
Tulett is cautious about being caught up in the natural ambitions of a burgeoning young talent, determined to measure his progression to becoming a leader for the general classification.
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“I think there was a lot to be learnt about that [Remco at the Giro],” he says of his Belgian peer's testing debut Grand Tour at the 2021 Italian Grand Tour following a bad injury at Il Lombardia. “I don’t want to miss steps or skip steps. I think that was a good example of how we have to be careful with my development, not rush things, take it as it comes.
“There will be riders who have two or three years of success and then burnout, and we don’t want that, we want a long and successful career. We don’t want to have a career where I get to 24 and I’m finished."
Tulett joins Pidcock as another of the British team's new homegrown hopes and the pair will become training partners in Andorra this year.
“I think our attributes are relatively similar but I turned away from cyclocross earlier than Tom did, in order to focus on the road,” Tulett says of comparisons between him and Pidcock.
“My ambition is to focus into a leading GC rider, so I’ve taken the step at an earlier age to step away from the cyclocross for the time being. I’m now in that transition where I’m going into the road, and in particular into the GC, climbing profile races.”
