Ethan's Profile

Having raced for the first time at the tender age of four, Ethan Vernon always seemed destined for a life in cycling and with two world titles under his belt, he is targeting his second Olympic Games in Paris this summer.

Though his first club was Welwyn Wheelers CC, Vernon was a BMX rider and racer until the age of 14, Vernon turned his attention to track racing in Newport and his versatility was underlined at the 2017 UK National Junior Track Championships where he won three national titles in individual pursuit, 1km time trial and the points race, adding third places in the Madison and scratch races for good measure.

That was sufficient to earn Vernon selection to Team Wales for the Commonwealth Games in April 2018 in Gold Coast, Australia in which he helped his squad finish fourth in the team pursuit, an event he managed to fit around studying for his A-levels.

His tremendous track potential was also cemented that summer when he set a new world junior best of 3:10.121 in qualifying for the 3km individual pursuit at the HSBC UK National Junior Track Championships in Newport. It was the highlight of a competition in which Vernon won two more national junior titles and in August 2018, he announced his arrival on the international stage with a silver in the individual pursuit at the UCI Junior World Track Cycling Championships in Switzerland.

Before the end of the year, he had also made his mark at senior level, winning a team pursuit bronze medal at the London round of the 2018-19 UCI World Cup series.

Intriguingly, by 2019 Vernon was branching out onto the road, recording a second place in the prologue of the prestigious under-23  “Peace Race,” in the Czech Republic in June. A month later, his time-trialling prowess became apparent at the British under-23 National Road Championships in Norfolk where he placed third in the individual time-trial, a result all the more impressive as he had done no specific training for the discipline.

In September 2019, Vernon completed the gruelling Tour of Britain as part of a GB team, finishing 14th on the first stage from Glasgow to Kirkcudbright. A few days later, he also posted a creditable 21st place in the UCI Under-23 World Road Race Championships individual time trial in Harrogate.

In 2020 Vernon was called up to the Great Britain Cycling Team Senior Academy before recoding his best result to date on the track, winning a silver medal in the 1km time trial at the senior UEC European Track Cycling Championships.

That set Vernon up for his call-up to the delayed Tokyo 2020 team although, in May 2021 he also recorded arguably the best road result of his career to date, when he finished 10th at the prestigious Spanish one-day race, the Trofeo Alcudia, a race won by the legendary Andre Greipel. That summer, he continued on his upward trajectory on the road, proving his fast finish by winning a stage of the marquee under-23 race the Tour de l’Avenir ahead of the likes of Arnaud de Lie and Marijn van den Berg in a bunch sprint finish. He concluded the road season with a 7th place finish in the UCI World Championship under-23 individual time trial. He also achieved a bronze medal at the track World Championships in the team pursuit, in a squad featuring Ethan Hayter, Charlie Tanfield, Ollie Wood and Kian Emadi.

2022 was a big year for Vernon, as he achieved a World Tour call-up, signing for the Belgian Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl team, and achieving excellent results, including his first WorldTour win, with a stage at the Volta Catalunya. He also scored two second place finishes at the Tour of Norway (2.Pro), a third place at the PostNord Tour of Denmark (2.Pro), and two stage wins at the Okolo Slovenska (2.1). 

He represented England at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, taking silver in the team pursuit with Dan Bigham, Tanfield and Wood. The year concluded in glittering style, as alongside teammates Hayter, Bigham and Wood, Vernon won the world title at the UCI World Championships in Saint Quentin-en-Yvellines, France.

During his second season with QuickStep, Vernon notched up and exceptional six wins on the road, including one at World Tour level at the Tour de Romandie. He achieved four podium finishes at the Tour of Britain in September behind the Jumbo-Visma duo of Olav Kooij and Wout van Aert, 

In the break-out year of his career to date, Vernon also achieved on the track, with silver in the team pursuit at the European Championships in Grenchen, Switzerland. Disaster struck for the team at the world championships in Glasgow when they crashed out of their qualification race, but Vernon bounced back to win an individual world title in the elimination race two days later.

In an Olympic year, Vernon has already made positive steps towards securing qualification for Paris with two victories on the track so far in 2024. In January, a team pursuit gold at the UEC European Championships in Apeldoorn, Netherlands (with Bigham, Tanfield and Hayter), preceded another win in April at the UCI Track Nations Cup in Milton, Canada, alongside Bigham, Hayter and Wood. 

If you have been inspired to get on a bike...

Get Involved