This previous 12 months 20-year-old Jonas Walton received the Canadian U23 time trial nationwide championship and a pair of gold medals on the street at USA Cycling Collegiate nationals. Walton can thank his dad and mom Dana Gygory Walton and Brian Walton, each completed cyclists of their careers, for twin citizenship.
Jonas is the center of three youngsters for the biking couple. Dana Gyory Walton has received eight world titles at UCI Masters Track World Championships, 5 of them coming in 2011 when Jonas was seven years outdated. Jonas’ father was the 1998 Canadian street champion and a two-time Pan-American street champion, driving professionally throughout 11 years with 7-Eleven and Saturn.
However, even with a deep pedigree within the sport of biking, Jonas didn’t gravitate to racing immediately. He hoped to compete in school in distance working, however was, actually, sidetracked in the direction of biking. His function fashions are all Canadian cyclists, however he’s a fan of many sports activities.
“My household and I are huge Baltimore Ravens followers,” he admitted when he despatched some pictures to Cyclingnews for the piece. “The Ravens beat the Steelers within the first spherical of the playoffs. I’m not going to jinx it, however… massive hopes this season.”
As an adolescent Jonas had large success on the observe, in 2022 in Mexico, he set the World Junior Hour Record, going higher than the earlier mark of 49.1km and increasing the space to 50.993km. That was particular for the household too, as his father received a silver medal on the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games within the Points race.
He’s one of many new signings this 12 months for Project Echelon Racing, a US Continental staff which begins the 2025 season in two weeks on the Mallorca Challenge one-day races in Spain. Jonas Walton spoke to Cyclingnews about his new staff, his path throughout Canada and the USA as a junior racer and the place he thinks the street will lead.
Image 1 of 3
Cyclingnews: Tell us about your loved ones, with roots in Canada and the United States and the way you get into aggressive biking.
The newest race content material, interviews, options, evaluations and knowledgeable shopping for guides, direct to your inbox!
Jonas Walton: My hometown can be Westminster, Maryland. My mother’s facet of the household is all from Maryland, and my dad’s facet is all from Vancouver, western Canada. I’m the final of my three siblings to start out biking. My older sister and youthful sister began racing a 12 months earlier than me (maybe they paved the best way for me to start out). Their first race was the 2019 Junior National Championships. They each did it for enjoyable with solely 2-3 weeks of coaching and held their very own.
Now, they’ve determined they need to begin racing once more, and their first race collectively will likely be in February (2025). I’m unhappy I will not be there (I will likely be in Mallorca), however I’ll be again and have already got some races on the calendar for us all to do.
CN: And what about one other member of the family, your canine?
JW: I’ve a hairless canine named Bastille. He’s the most important sweetie pie.
CN: In what different sports activities apart from biking have you ever been energetic, particularly once you had been youthful? What sports activities and professional athletes do you observe as a fan?
JW: I used to run observe and subject for so long as I can keep in mind, primarily 3000m, 1500m, and 800m. However, round my junior or sophomore 12 months in highschool, I began getting excessive knee ache. A really sudden and sharp progress spurt tousled my knees. I went to 1 physician who advised me one thing I did not need to hear, so I went to a different. He mentioned the very same factor – that so long as my progress plates had been open, I’d not get higher. So, my hopes of working D1 in school had been over.
However, each medical doctors advised me I may do one among two issues… begin swimming or biking. It seems getting injured was the most effective factor ever to occur as a result of I by no means would have began biking, and it seems it is far more enjoyable than working.
CN: So your dad and mom, completed racers, didn’t steer you into biking immediately? How did they encourage you as a baby to be energetic?
JW: Considering my mother or father’s historical past with biking, most individuals assume they received me into biking, nevertheless it wasn’t farther from the case. I owned bikes rising up, however my dad and mom by no means pushed me to race. It was simply one thing we did for enjoyable. Nothing loopy; after I was little, I believed 5-plus miles was insane. I solely did my first experience over 10 miles after I was 15. Then, just a few weeks later, my dad and mom satisfied me I may quadruple that to 40 miles, and it took some time, however I beloved it. I feel we stopped not less than 4 lengthy occasions, and the principle factor I keep in mind was desirous to attempt to do it once more however sooner.
CN: You have raced the final two years on the Continental stage with Team Ecoflo Chronos, a staff out of Canada. What do you see is completely different in regards to the change to Project Echelon Racing?
JW: The distinction is the group and the upper stage racing I get to do. Lots of Conti groups aren’t made equal, and t his one is certainly much more severe. You do much more excessive stage races too.
CN: You have mentioned there’s a lot you need to study from the older riders on Project Echelon Racing, like positioning in pack racing. What different abilities are you trying to develop for street racing?
JW: I actually need to sit on extra skilled man’s wheels and watch them race, see how they transfer by means of a subject, preserve vitality, and study once they know a break is or is not going to go. There have been just a few occasions when older guys on previous groups, particularly Edo Goldstein, have requested me why I’d observe or make strikes when the peloton wasn’t letting something go. I nonetheless have not found out the sensation of the peloton when the massive groups determine when one thing can or cannot go. So possibly the older guys can train me to sense that “feeling”.
CN: You talked about you’re looking ahead to racing towards different Canadians within the professional peloton at European occasions in 2025. For riders like Hugo Houle, Michael Woods or Derek Gee – who’re all with Israel-Premier Tech – what abilities do they exhibit that you just want to emulate?
JW: I feel all of these guys are massive engines who can use their TT talents in street races. Hugo Houle and Derek Gee, particularly, each have received the elite Canadian time trial nationwide championships. Hugo Houle has received a stage of the Tour de France by going solo. Derek Gee has numerous breakaway outcomes and a prime 10 on GC on the Tour. Michael Woods additionally has a stage win of the Tour from a breakaway. They actually succeed at long-range assaults and use their massive engines to place distance on the sector, and I’d like to attempt the identical.
CN: Of that trio of Canadian riders, is there one specifically you observe? And have you ever ever met him?
JW: I actually like watching Derek Gee. I received to race alongside him on the World Championships this 12 months within the mixed-team relay. I went out the again fairly fast, however he made certain our #1 rule was to “have enjoyable”. It was an excellent expertise, and hopefully, subsequent time, I’ll have a greater day so I can present extra help.
CN: The UCI Road World Championships will likely be in Montréal in 2027. Are you eyeing that for U23 competitions already? How massive is that in your private objectives?
JW: It’s a methods away. I’d love to start out eyeing it, however there are too many essential races to return, and I’m too busy even to contemplate it proper now. It can be a dream come true to race a house nationwide championship (exceptionally uncommon for a Canadian), however proper now, I’m 100% targeted on my races arising this spring.
CN: Tell us the place you go to school and what do you get pleasure from finding out?
JW: I am going to a school close to Charlotte, North Carolina – Belmont Abbey. There’s positively a perception in biking the place some individuals suppose that you must “totally commit”. However, if I solely rode my bike, I’d have far an excessive amount of free time, and I feel I’d go loopy if I weren’t busy. Between racing, courses, homework, journey, conferences with professors discussing work whereas I’m away, and collegiate/Project Echelon staff obligations, I’ve positively stored myself busy.
I additionally discovered I actually get pleasure from Economics (my main), and my minor in Data Analytics has solely additional indulged my love for biking. I’ll graduate in 2026, in order that’s coming manner too quickly, and I could not have loved my time right here extra.
CN: What do you want doing in any free time you will have?
JW: I’ve a ardour for cooking. The solely factor I do not like about school is that I can not deliver any cooking gear. If I do not get cycling-related presents, my household often provides me cooking-related ones. So when I’m again residence, I often do the cooking—something from pasta from scratch, a medium-rare steak, or ramen with do-it-yourself broth. I’m often again residence when on school breaks, so that is one other manner I keep busy when I’ve an excessive amount of free time.