Global 6 Cycling at the Tour of Britain
I spoke with James Mitri and Nico Sessler before stage one of the Tour of Britain. The team seeks to be the most diverse in the sport.
The behemoths of cycling were on show in Altrincham before stage one of the Tour of Britain on Sunday. The crowds swarmed around the buses of Jumbo-Visma and Ineos Grenadiers, cheering raucously when their stars emerged.
A few meters away, the Global 6 Cycling riders and their management prepared for the 163 Kilometre hilly lap of Greater Manchester in relative peace.
They may not be the stars of cycling, not yet anyway, but Global 6 seem to be building something unique.
I learned on Sunday that the ‘6’ in the team’s name corresponds to the 6 continents, of which they have at least one rider representing in their squad of 14 - 5 are represented at the Tour of Britain, just Australasia missing, which is the continent the team is registered in.
“I wanted to do something to grow the sport, make it sustainable, and include riders from all around the world,” team founder and manager James Mitri told Global Peloton.
Mitri says it’s a joy to have such diversity in the team. Far from being a challenge to bring all these different cultures together, their differences help make Global 6 a strong team unit.
“The culture tends to be very good. I think because they all bring in different experiences; in life and sport, in everything, to the table, they all tend to bond well. We're a small squad, but we've got a strong group of guys.”
One of the team’s strongest riders this season has been Brazilian Nicolas Sessler. The 29-year-old is returning to a race he loves at the Tour of Britain, having featured in several breakaways and finished second in the King of the Mountains classification in 2021. Sessler appreciates being part of such an inclusive team. The team motivates him because it’s about more than just performance.
“It's my third year on the team,” Sessler told me. “I've been with them from the start and every year the team changes a bit, improves, gets a better calendar, better structure, riders come and go and there’s a more internationalised orientation.”
“It's just a big learning because, for example, now you have opportunity to ride with Tomoya [Koyama] from Japan, Tom [Wirtgen] from Luxembourg and it's just such a big mixture of vision from all over the world. It's something really, really nice to have.”
“And you learn, you make friends… I always say we as cyclists, you are really looking into your own bubble and my results, my performance, my watts and what it is going to be.”
“But you see in the end, what we bring for life are the persons, the stories, the friends we make. In 20 years time, you're gonna be sitting and enjoying and remembering those nice moments. Obviously we want to win, we want to showcase. We are here to put on a show. But the good moments and the friendship and the stories that we create in the team, that's also something that you take on for life.”
In his usual style, Sessler’s big goal is to be on the front foot this week in Britain. He’s a likely candidate for regular TV time in the breakaways.
“Nico showed great form, he was fifth in a stage in [the Volta a] Portugal. He's very clever as a rider. It's his third time here. So we'd love to get that KOM jersey,” Mitri said.
Mitri continued to give a break-down of the goals and roles for each rider over the eight stages.
“Tom [Wirtgen]’s in great form too. he had some time off to refresh and he's also very keen to push for some stages and try the GC.”
“Giacomo [Ballabio]… is very promising. He won in May in Fléche du Sud. He’s shown great form throughout the season. So we'd like to see in the finishes some good sprints.”
“We've got Callum [Ormiston]. He's going to be looking to be combative in the breakaway. And then Evan [Russell] and Tomoya [Koyama] we’re giving a chance to them to gain some experience. This is a bigger race for them.”
The team missed the early move on stage one. Italian Giacomo Ballabio was their top finisher in 25th. They will hope for more as the week goes on.
Global 6 Cycling have big plans for the future and it will be fascinating to follow their progress as they look to grow while holding onto their values - not always an easy task, but they appear to be committed.
Before the World Championships, I interviewed Global 6’s South African climber Callum Ormiston.
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Feeder/development projects have succeeded before thru the vision and dedication of one person. So why not this..it’s not sustainable in that it’s one person really with the heart but meantime impact can be huge..to turn such riders from being “ a rider from...” to “a rider”, with concomitant impact in home countries..