It’s said that the hardest contract to obtain in cycling is the second one. A neo-pro will often pen their first WorldTour deal based on promise with teams willing to take a calculated risk for a smaller financial outlay on untapped potential. The second contract, however, is only offered on the back of results. If a rider hasn’t proven their worth, their spot goes to a younger rider.
Cycling is littered with stories of riders dropping out of the top tier in their early 20s, with few making it back. So when Mark Donovan was told midway through the 2022 season that DSM – the team he signed a three-year neo-pro contract with in 2020 – would not be renewing terms, the Englishman understandably feared if he’d ever get another chance to race in Grand Tours, Monuments and other high-level WorldTour races.
“It was one of the toughest moments in my not very long career so far. Knowing I wasn't staying with DSM because they didn’t want me, and to be quite honest, not wanting to stay either, I wasn’t forgotten about, but I was definitely looking around for a contract just hoping for a sniff from somewhere. But I wasn’t having much luck,” Donovan tells Rouleur. “It’s not like I had a bad time at DSM and it wasn’t a bad fit – I certainly don’t regret going there – but I don’t think they got the most out of me.
“I was good my first year [with DSM], decent the second year, but my third year wasn’t great and I had a lot of shit going on. And then I did the Vuelta, and the one time I got Covid was then. It was like, oh shit. It was pretty tough. I’m not the biggest name, I didn't have loads of results where everyone was like, ‘wow this guy is world class’. It’s the same for 90% of the bunch – you slip and you’re forgotten about a little bit. It’s maybe one of the worst things about the sport in that you’re only as good as your last race.”
Donovan, a climber by trade who was in contention to win two stages in his debut Vuelta a España in 2020, had one door open for him when he needed it most: the newly formed second division outfit, Q36.5, were willing to sign him for the following two seasons. It wasn’t a WorldTour team, there’d be no guaranteed Grand Tours, but he was still a professional. It was a second chance at proving he belonged in the peloton – and he wasn’t about to let it pass.
In the ensuing two seasons, Donovan won the Sibiu Cycling Tour, finished fifth and then fourth in successive editions of the Tour of Britain, fifth at the Giro di Sicilia and eighth at the Czech Tour. Lower-level races, maybe, but solid results that demonstrated his ability to be competitive, leading Q36.5 to offer him a further two years. In March of this year, he finished second overall at Coppi e Bartali, one of the most prestigious second-tier stage races. The recently turned 26-year-old is on a clear upward trajectory – demotion from the WorldTour has not spelt the end of his career.
“I’ve not changed so much, but I’ve matured as a rider and over time I’ve been doing things better and getting stronger,” Donovan reflects. “There’s a nice atmosphere in the team which motivates me to turn up to a race, and I’ve also got more opportunities and more freedom here. I don’t feel like I’ve plateaued yet, and I think I can get better every year.
“I was aiming for a good result at Coppi, but I ended up racing Tirreno-Adriatico before which is a pretty hard race to be put into. But it worked out well and I know from before that I get better and better rather than worse if I do a few races before. It’s a lower-level race, but if you look at the top 10, there were lots of class riders. It doesn’t matter if you’re in Poland, Czech or France, it’s hard to get onto a podium these days.”
The reward for career-best form is that Donovan is currently racing the Giro d’Italia, his first three-week race since he crashed out of the opening week of the Vuelta a España in 2022. After a hiatus of a couple of seasons, the Cumbrian is mixing it at cycling’s top table once again. “The thing I liked and enjoyed the most at DSM were the Grand Tours – they felt like real cycling, epic racing,” Donovan smiles.
“It’s been nice to do different races, but I’d miss doing Grand Tours. I’ve never done the Giro before and everyone says it’s the next one. We have Tom [Pidcock] here and I’ll be helping him as much as I can, and also seeing if I can get a result in a few stages."
On stage three, the face's final day in Albania, Donovan was part of the six-man breakaway – it was a sign, perhaps, of what's to come in the coming three weeks. "There’s nothing cooler than being in a breakaway in those Alpine mountain stages," he says. "From experience, I have confidence that I get better the race the longer it goes on, and I feel like in the second and third week I’ll be stronger. I’d be lying if I said I knew what my ceiling was, but I might as well be confident: I feel like I can be competitive for Grand Tour stages, and I would love to win one in my life. That’d be something pretty special.”
