Tom Southam is a British former competitive cyclist from Penzance, Cornwall, who competed professionally between 2003 and 2011, finishing his career with the team Rapha Condor. His racing highlights include representing Great Britain in five World Championships and getting silver in two, and riding in several UCI ProTour events. Since the end of his pro-cycling career, he served as a DS for several teams, namely Drapac Professional Cycling or Cannondale-Drapac before sticking with multiple iterations of what later became his current team, EF Education-EasyPost.
Outside of his hands-on involvement with the sport, Southam also co-wrote the book Domestique: The True Life Ups and Downs of a Tour Pro with former team-mate Charly Wegelius and has written for magazines such as Rouleur and Procycling, putting his master’s degree in Professional Writing from University College Falmouth to use.
With Matt, they took a deep dive into his decorated pro-cycling past and directeur sportif present, discussed a DS’s best and second-best quality, staying on top of things in the sport’s rapidly changing landscape, how building a robust relationship with the riders also means them being comfortable hearing they did something wrong, favourite 2023 season racing moments and more.
Sit back, hit play and enjoy!