‘It’s shocking and cool but I want more’ – Laurence Pithie the breakout star of 2024

For Laurence Pithie, 2024 so far has been shocking, but not necessarily surprising.

Following Wout van Aert deep into the finale at Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne, out-sprinting some of the world’s best at Paris-Nice, finishing 15th in his first Monument, not to mention winning his first WorldTour Race at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race… All these things have added up to make the 21-year-old New Zealander the breakout rider of the season.

Spectators of the sport have marvelled at this leap in level, but speaking to Pithie, he’s not quite pinching himself in quite the same way.

“It’s always cool to look around and see the guys I’m racing with, it’s quite shocking and cool at the same time, but for me it wasn’t a surprise to be with the best guys,” he tells GCN.

“I knew I had good legs, it’s what I’d trained for. It was definitely a shock for many people that I was there, but that’s where I want to be.”

Those comments suggest there’s a lot more to come from Laurence Pithie. Performances like his could be seen as a flash in the pan, a rich vein of form that will settle, but listening to Pithie you don’t get the sense this thing is slowing down.

“I’ve always had the ambition to be the best,” he asserts.

That ambition made itself clear over the winter when sitting down with the Groupama-FDJ management to assess his debut season as a professional. He’d won the Cholet-Pays de la Loire and then made an impact at WorldTour level at the BEMER Cyclassics and the Renewi Tour, and he could sense there was more to come.

“I didn’t have that many opportunities last year but I thought I could perform if I had the role of leader.

“I didn’t push too hard, because I knew my time would come. But the team saw last year I was able to get some results without the best opportunities, and that probably opened the most doors.

“I have more leadership this year within the team. They have more belief in me every day. I’m super happy with how it’s going.”

Super happy, but not totally happy.

“I’ve recently been wanting more. It’s been a bit disappointing, not getting a win in Europe yet. I know it’s quite ambitious already, but when I won in Australia I was wanting more,” he says. “I’ve been close, and that’s what hurts the most. But it’s a long season, and I can’t be unhappy with what I’ve done so far.”

Making the leap as a Kiwi rider

© Getty Images

Pithie's first big win came closer to home at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race in Australia, but he's hoping for European success soon

Pithie grew up in Christchurch and combined his early dabbles in road racing with a more serious programme on the track with the New Zealand federation, finding success at World Championships level as a junior. The road, though, always inspired him more and, sensing the New Zealand scene could only take him so far, he took the plunge and headed to Belgium to base himself in 2020. However, he was soon on a plane home, the COVID-19 pandemic threatening to cut all bridges to the professional ranks.

He credits his career to being linked up with his agent, the former rider Manuel Quinziato, who managed to bag him a place on a Groupama-FDJ development squad that was increasingly looking at riders from English-speaking countries.

“I landed on my feet, and it has all fallen into place,” he says.

It might still be falling into place. For all the certainty over his ambitions, Pithie is still working out what kind of rider he is.

“I was never 100% sure anyway. I always knew I was fast, but not fast like a pure sprinter. For me, a harder race is better. I guess you could class me as a versatile sprinter – a Classics guy really. But I’m still learning about that every day, and it’s a nice surprise to see what’s happening.”

What he does say with more certainty, however, is that he’s a ‘racer’. In a sport where riders are increasingly viewed in terms of watts and CdA, it’s notable that Pithie sees himself as having less tangible qualities.

“I’ve always been a racer. We’d always go out together, me and my mates, we’d tear up climbs. When it was a race, it was fun. Before, I didn’t like the training side so much, I was always ‘race, race, race’, but I’m energetic, active, and always want to do well."

Referring to Kuurne, he adds: “That’s how I want to race - from the front, in those groups.”

Pithie attributes his physical progress this year to some marked improvements in his climbing. The ironic thing is, though, that it has happened almost entirely by accident.

“I worked a lot in the gym over the winter, which I haven’t done since the track, so I was focusing on my sprint and my peak power, but the opposite happened. My weight came down, which helped, but I guess everything has just lifted up with that.”

Pressure and responsibility

As well as the physical side of things, Pithie is also keen to stress the psychological. He was given the opportunity to be a leader, and that means thinking like one, even if he’s still only 21.

“I take the role of being a leader very seriously,” he says. “You really have to lift your game in all aspects

“When you have teammates working for you, giving their all for you, you really feel you have to pay them back. My biggest thing is I don’t want to let my teammates down. I have a lot of confidence in myself but also the guys around me. When you’ve got one or two guys performing at a high level, everyone can come up a bit more.”

Traditionally, leadership comes with age and experience, but Pithie is part of a new wave in the sport, one of youngsters winning races and taking responsibility before an age at which many of their elders were still serving their apprenticeships. When it comes to learning how to handle himself in this new role, the shortcut turns out to be the television.

“I’ve been able to learn a lot just from watching the racing and seeing how big champions do things - just on TV. Watching how the guys race, what they do, where they are.

“I like to think I can feel the bunch quite well - track helps with that. I’ve always been quite tapped in on where people are and what they’re doing, and picking up on that.”

When we ask Pithie which riders stand out to him when he scans that bunch, we’re barely able to finish the question.

“Van der Poel,” he states. “The best. When you look at him racing, he’s always there when it matters, and in the big moments he makes it happen.”

As he wheels off, he adds: “He’s a rival now though.”