S4 Ep50: Brother UK Cycling Podcast - Josie Nelson interview

Josie Nelson might be the archetypal Rayner Foundation rider: resourceful, resilient and now a fully-fledged professional with WorldTour heavyweights Team DSM-Firmenich-PostNL. With the support of the Foundation and her family, the 21-year-old from Lichfield has progressed from British Cycling’s mountain bike academy to road racing’s top tier in only a handful of years.

The youngest of four siblings, Josie is the inheritor of sporting genes that propelled sister Emily to world and European team pursuit titles, yet nothing has been presented to her on a plate. Her determination to shape her own destiny is perhaps exemplified by her move to Belgium during the 2020 Covid pandemic to advance her cyclo-cross career as a teenager.

Her palmares might inspire envy among far more experienced riders. She has already ridden – and finished - the Tour de France Femmes and the women’s Paris-Roubaix, and won two of the biggest prizes in domestic cycling: the British circuit race championships and the women’s CiCLE Classic.

An all-rounder with a skillset ranging from track racing to Belgian kermesses, Josie has not ruled out becoming a GC rider, but in 2024 is keen to learn and develop with the support of a professional team. Having previously been part of a UCI Continental squad and raced for a Belgian club team before that, her ascent to the Women’s WorldTour has been both rapid and methodical.

The new season will bring new opportunities for Josie, whose programme includes the Spring Classics and early-season climbing races. The revered Strade Bianche, held on the white roads of Tuscany and concluding with a punchy uphill finish into Sienna, will surely play to the strengths of this former mountain biker with eyes now focussed on the glittering prizes of European road racing.