Adam Blythe
Adam Michael Blythe (born 1 October 1989) is an English former professional road and track racing cyclist, who competed professionally between 2010 and 2019 for the , , , , and teams. Blythe began racing at a young age and went on to become a member of British Cycling's Olympic Development Programme. Amateur career. Born in Sheffield, Blythe began cycling at a young age with the Sheffield Phoenix club. Cycling was a family activity, his sister Kimberley Blythe was also fairly successful as a young rider. Blythe became Derbyshire's Junior Sportsman of the Year in the East Midlands Sports Personality  of the Year Awards, 2005. Blythe left British Cycling's Academy Programme by mutual consent in February 2008, and went to race in Belgium. He stayed with the ex-professional cyclist, Tim Harris, in Westmeerbeek, near Antwerp. Blythe was awarded a Cycling Time Trials scholarship to enable him to race on the continent and develop further. He raced for the Wielerclub Des Sprinters Malderen which is a feeder club for a professional team. He also received support from the Dave Rayner Fund during his time in Belgium. Professional career. Blythe returned to Belgium to ride for the DAVO squad in  2009, under the tutelage of Kurt Van De Wouwer, a former professional. He had joined pro-tour team as a trainee in July 2009, it was announced on 7 September 2009 that he had signed a two-year contract with Silence-Lotto in the wake of a string of good results for the team. In 2012, Blythe followed his teammate and close friend Philippe Gilbert to the . In October 2012, Blythe sprinted his way to victory in the semi-classic Binche–Tournai–Binche, popping out of his teammate's wheel on a cobbled sector with to go, edging Adrien Petit  () and John Degenkolb of . In 2014, Blythe rode for the newly formed British team. After a very successful year competing on the British domestic scene, Blythe joined Australian team Orica-GreenEDGE for the 2015 season. After one season there in August 2015 it was announced that Blythe would be moving to for the 2016 season, where he would be reunited with directeur sportif Sean Yates, who worked with Blythe during his time with NFTO. With folding at the end of 2016, Blythe joined the squad for its inaugural season in 2017. Following the announcement of 's collapse, in September 2018  Blythe announced that he would return to for the 2019 season, linking up with former teammate Caleb Ewan as part of the latter's sprint train, with an additional role as a domestique for the team's classics squad. In October 2019, Blythe announced that he would retire at the end of the season. Post-racing career. Blythe is a pundit for Eurosport's coverage of cycling, having worked part-time in this role on the channel's coverage of the Grand Tours during his final professional season in 2019. He was also “on-site” reporter for NBC Sports' coverage  of the 2020 Tour de France, and fulfilled that role again in 2021. In November 2019, Blythe announced that he was taking up a role with David Millar's cycling clothing brand CHPT3 as a product marketing executive. Personal life. He currently lives in Bollington, Cheshire, England.