Naveen John, the Indian who races in Belgium
'No one had done it before' - experienced Indian rider on establishing himself in Kermesse racing and developing young Indians
It’s extremely rare to see an Indian rider racing a UCI race on the road, even on the Asia Tour. One might expect then that it would be even more rare to see an Indian cyclist compete at the cultural epicentre of European cycling: the Belgian Kermesse scene.
However, for the last decade, that’s where you would find Naveen John; an Indian racer who has become infatuated with the historic Belgian races.
“2025 will be my ninth season going back,” John tells me over a video call from his home, with about 5,000 miles between us.
Now 38, John first went to Belgium in 2015 after getting into cycling while at university in the USA studying engineering. “I got into cycling halfway through and fell in love with that, more so than I did with the idea of being an engineer,” he says.
An idea, a dream perhaps, was planted inside his mind to return home and try to become national champion. He went back to India in 2012 and at his third attempt, in 2014, became national time-trial champion by less than a second.
Cycling by this point had become an obsession. John devoured autobiographies and blogs, seeking to learn more about the sport. From his research, he decided that Belgium was the place he needed to be to pursue his passion.
“I thought let's go to Belgium and figure this stuff out, you know. Sort of like a breadcrumb trail. No one had done it before, so there's nobody you could talk to. Nobody in Asia was doing it.”
“I did it with a couple of young riders. We went there. We absolutely got our behind handed to us. It was an eye-opener.”
Some in the group of Indian riders struggled with their summer in Belgium and never went back, but John was hooked. You can feel his enthusiasm for racing Belgium Kermesse races just from talking with him. Ever since, he’s been back as often as he could to compete in what is becoming a more and more diverse racing scene. John describes it as a sort of cultural “soup,” where racers from all over the globe come together in a shared love of riding bikes round-and-round a short circuit very quickly.
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It has taken time, and consistency, for John to be accepted into the fold as an outsider. The experience wasn’t always completely positive.
“The first time I go to Belgium, everyone's like, ‘oh, really cool. There's this brown dude here in the peloton’ - I'm the only brown guy in the field. And everyone's like, ‘oh, where are you from? What are you doing here? How long are you here? People ride bikes in India?’”
“And then you go back the second time and like maybe it's a change in you or maybe it's a change in the peloton. It's like, ‘okay, what is this guy doing here? He's back a second time. What's his thing?’ In my third season, my fourth season, there were a couple of encounters with xenophobia a little bit and stuff like that getting called out. And it was really cool that people in the peloton also stood up for me. But then you keep going back and then things started changing.”
John is yet to win a race in Belgium. His best result came in 2018 in Lokeren where he finished third. However, over his time there he has become more and more accepted into the crowd, and has learned the art of the Kermesse.
“In Belgium people think it's just about hitting your head against the wall,” he says. There's actually a lot of patterns. In your first, second, third season you start to see the patterns. But to be part of the pattern…the guys who are in that top 10, you need to be allowed into that group. You need to be trusted. People need to give you that corner. And that started happening in my fifth season. And that's where I got my best result.”
Today, John has a passion to see the sport develop in India. He’s a coach and mentor to younger riders, and every year brings new young Indians to experience racing in Belgium. He’s also gone on to become a multiple-times national champion and in 2016 was the first Indian rider ever to be registered to a UCI team, the year he also raced the Road World Championships in Qatar.
It would be fair to say that road cycling has yet to take a real foothold in India. The road race scene has grown steadily over the past decade, but significant development is yet to come. There is some local racing that happens all over the country. However, racing at a higher level, a level that would push the riders to better things, is out of reach for most riders.
That’s why John continues to invest in taking riders to Belgium. He is heading back again this summer. He believes it’s the best thing for their development.
“I believe it's the pathway that that needs to be followed. Asians just need to come over to Europe because we're not going to have a scene like a Kermesse scene that pops up anywhere in Asia anytime soon. The UCI Asia Tour is very much there and the races keep going. But you don't see riders from there breaking through to Europe.”
“It's tough for someone to pack up their bag and like six months and live in a live in an apartment where nobody knows your name. It's not the most initially rewarding pathway.”
Although development is slow, John is starting to see some riders coming through. One rider in particular appears to be following a similar journey to his own.
“There's this one kid who came with me last year - he's been there two seasons - who's now following the path that I kind of went down. He started college now this January in the US. He's a kid who has a really good chance of going at least Continental and then see where he goes from there.”
“I believe it's the pathway that more young Indian riders need to follow. And and so every year I take two to three athletes with me and show them the ropes.”
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Really cool story
Excellent story! Thanks for sharing!