Matt's Profile

Like so many Great Britain Cycling Team endurance riders before him, Walls has shown great potential in track and road racing although when he was selected for the Tokyo 2020 squad, it was as part of the men’s endurance team that will be chasing medals in the Olympic Velodrome.

Not that the young rider’s exciting talent has gone unnoticed in the world of road racing. In August 2020, the BORA-Hansgrohe professional team announced they had signed Walls to a “neo-pro” contract, a three-year deal which came as a reward for the young sprinter’s development and an indication that he will concentrate on road racing in the future.

But for 2021 at least, the track beckons in Tokyo, after Walls proved himself a possible medallist. The 2020 track season was badly curtailed by the Covid-19 pandemic, but there was still opportunity for Walls to demonstrate that medal potential in impressive fashion.

In February, at the UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Berlin, the Oldham-born rider won a bronze medal in the multi-discipline omnium event despite the presence of a world-class field. Among the riders Walls beat were Denmark’s Lasse Norman Hansen, Olympic champion in the omnium in 2012, and Italy’s Elia Vivaini who won the Olympic event four years later.

Later in 2020, when racing resumed at the UEC European Track Championships in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, in November, Walls was a double gold medallist in the omnium and the elimination race, a non-Olympic event. That form marked Walls out as a young rider to watch in Tokyo, especially as it was his first full season at the elite level, having enjoyed a long run of successes at junior and under-23 level.

As early as 2016, at the UEC European Junior Track Championships in Montichiari, Italy, Walls made his mark with gold, in a team pursuit squad that included current Tokyo team-mate Ethan Hayter, and gold in the Madison, with Rhys Britton.

There were also medals at that summer’s UCI Junior Track World Championships in Aigle, Switzerland, where he collected a silver in the points race and bronze in the team pursuit, respectively.

Walls and Hayter helped Great Britain win gold in the team pursuit as they stepped up to under-23 level at the 2017 World Championships in Sangalhos, Portugal, a year later but 2018 proved to be a real breakout year for the rider, at both under-23 and elite level.

At the UEC European Under-23 Track Championships in Aigle, Walls dominated, collecting gold medals in no less than three events - the scratch race, team pursuit and Madison, where he partnered Hayter. But the highlight of his year, and his career to date, came in the elite UEC European Track Championships in Glasgow, where he was crowned European champion in the elimination race, and the final UCI Track World Cup meeting of the year, in December, in London. There, Walls won an exciting omnium event, beating a strong field that included third placed Vivaini, the reigning Olympic omnium champion.

The 2019 season saw Walls start to make his mark in road racing but there was still time for him to retain his UEC European Under-23 Track Championship Madison title, this time with Fred Wright, in Ghent, Belgium. Walls also added a gold in the omnium at those Championships for good measure.

On the road, Walls gained experienced with the 100% Me domestic team before the 2018 season saw him collect some eye-catching results - most notably in the Flèche du Sud stage race in the Netherlands where he won two stages and the points classification.

There was also a victory on a stage of the A Travers Les Hauts De France - Trophee Paris-Arras Tour in France, a feat he repeated at the same race 12 months later. Indeed, that was only the start of a memorable 2019 in which he won a stage of the prestigious Giro Ciclistico d'Italia, the amateur version of the Giro d’Italia, and made his debut at the Tour of Britain where, riding for a Great Britain team, he came second on Stage 5 in Birkenhead. There was also an impressive 13th place in a bunch sprint at the Prudential Ride London-Surrey Classic - a race won by his track rival Viviani - and a top ten for Walls in the European Under-23 Championships Road Race in Alkmaar, Netherlands.

By the time the 2021 road season got underway properly, Walls was with BORA-hansgrohe and racing a busy schedule that included completing the stage races at the Tour de la Provence, where he recorded two top-ten finishes, and Tour de Suisse.

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