Cameron Mason holds four fingers up to the camera, face splattered in mud. The blanket grey sky and flush in Mason’s cheeks betray the icy day he’s just battled through to secure his fourth consecutive British cyclo-cross national title in northern England. “Just as tricky as the first, just as sweet,” he captioned an Instagram post.
Three days on from Mason’s home win, and he’s looking towards the next two weekends of UCI World Cup racing before the UCI Cyclo-Cross World Championships at the end of the month.
“I think I can do something in Maasmechelen and Hoogerheide,” the 25-year-old tells Cycling Weekly “Even if I shoot for Worlds and then miss, I’ll still be good enough – there are other races.”
This weekend’s win followed a lull period for the Scottish rider. “Mentally and physically, I needed something to flip the switch. Winning nationals is quite a good way to do that,” he laughs.
Every brush with success is a reminder of the levels he’s yet to reach, although he believes he is able to. In Tabor, a mechanical in the first lap set his race back. In Flamanville, he unclipped at the start of the race, but made back precious time to finish in third. The nature of cyclo-cross racing, Mason tells me, is a rider’s near-inability to predict how a race will turn out, and to draw lessons from each regardless.
“Every race is so different,” he says. “Every time you turn up, there’s different competition, there are different weather conditions, the context is always so different. It’s not like in track cycling or in track and field, where the conditions are so controlled.
“But I think it’s good because you could have an absolutely shocking day on a Saturday, and then turn up on Sunday, and you might still remember how rubbish you were the day before, but no one else will. Then equally, it could be the other way. I had it this winter that on some of my Saturdays, I was just on top of the world, just floating, and then the next day I just felt like such a terrible bike rider.”
But learning from his mistakes, changing his training routines to focus more on the gym, and interspersing his cyclo-cross training with running (his other love), mountain biking and gravel riding, is what Mason believes will bag him the top step, whether that arrives in the coming races, or next season.
“I’ve already learned why I got second last time, and that’s why I should be the guy who can win,” he explains.
Mason is calm, and realistic about the upcoming races. There is a quiet confidence in the way he talks about his goals, a knowledge that success is possible, with the right amount of work and that bit of luck.
He’s is just about to board a plane to Spain when I talk to him. He’s headed to warmer climbs, but his heart never really leaves Scotland. I ask him about the cyclo-cross scene in the UK, as crowds continue to throng to races on the continent.
“It’s so easy to make comparisons, because they have the same name, we’re racing the same sport in Belgium as we are in the UK,” he says. “But I wouldn’t see them as the same sport. Fundamentally, the cycling races I do in Belgium are professional, whereas the ones I do in the UK are amateur races.
“I think people want to copy and paste the Belgian scene into the UK, but I think that would be a mistake – everything’s different. The public want different things, the racers want different things. I know that what works in Belgium just won’t work in the UK – there’s just not the money or the support to do that.
“I want British Cycling to create more races and more stepping stones so that juniors can race more UCI races in the UK, and then take those points over and race in Belgium. They should work together,” he continues.
“The way to raise UK riders’ level is not to just host a race that costs hundreds of thousands of pounds to put on. It would actually be to just spend normal amounts of money on the races that already exist, because there’s already race organisers, clubs and series that are super keen and super active.”
“Every time I come home to the nationals, okay, it feels like I’m at an amateur event, but it’s super important – it’s one of the most important races of my year,” Mason finishes, eyes set on the next race ahead of him, just beyond ten days in the Spanish sun.
