Daniel Lloyd (born 11 August 1980) is a retired English professional

road racing cyclist Road bicycle racing is the cycle sport discipline of road cycling, held primarily on paved roads. Road racing is the most popular professional form of bicycle racing, in terms of numbers of competitors, events and spectators. The two most common ...

and current commentator and presenter from

Christchurch, Dorset Christchurch () is a town and civil parish in Dorset on the south coast of England. The town had a population of 31,372 in 2021. For the borough the population was 48,368. It adjoins Bournemouth to the west, with the New Forest to the east. Part ...

. Lloyd's professional victories include the

Vuelta a Extremadura The Tour of Extremadura (''Spanish: Vuelta Ciclista Internacional Extremadura '' or ''Vuelta a Extremadura'') was an annual multiple stage bicycle race in Spain, visiting the main towns of the Extremadura region. Beginning as an amateur event in 1 ...

overall in 2008 and stages of Tour of Siam and

Tour of Qinghai Lake The Tour of Qinghai Lake is an annual professional road bicycle racing stage race held in the Qinghai province of China since 2002, named after Qinghai Lake. The race is sanctioned by the International Cycling Union (UCI) as a 2.HC race as part of ...

in 2006. He has said that his favourite race is the

Tour of Flanders The Tour of Flanders ( nl, Ronde van Vlaanderen), also known as ''De Ronde'' (''"The Tour"''), is an annual road cycling race held in Belgium every spring. The most important cycling race in Flanders, it is part of the UCI World Tour and organi ...

, one of the two major

Cobbled Classics The cobbled classics are four cycling classics held in March and April. Cobblestones, like mountainous terrain, are important elements in courses of cycling. Many classic cycle races in northwestern Europe contain cobbled sections. The two Monumen ...

, and that the highlights of his cycling career were reaching the

Champs-Élysées The Avenue des Champs-Élysées (, ; ) is an avenue in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, France, long and wide, running between the Place de la Concorde in the east and the Place Charles de Gaulle in the west, where the Arc de Triomphe is lo ...

in the

2010 Tour de France The 2010 Tour de France was the 97th edition of the Tour de France cycle race, one of cycling's Grand Tour (cycling), Grand Tours. It started on with an 8.9 km prologue time trial in Rotterdam, the first start in the Netherlands since 1996 ...

and riding in the

2009 Tour of Qatar The 2009 Tour of Qatar was held from 1 February to 6 February 2009 in Qatar. It was a multiple stage road cycling race that took part over six stages with a total of and was part of the 2008-2009 UCI Asia Tour. The Race was won by Tom Boonen o ...

, which was his first race with the Cervélo TestTeam.

Career

Lloyd started off as a mountain bike racer when he was about 13 years old, and his first major success was the Southern Area Mountain Bike Championships when he was a junior. Lloyd was active in the professional peloton from 2001 to 2012, with his most successful years coming between 2006 and 2009. After competing for Endurasport, Flanders Cycling Team and

Giant Asia Racing Team In folklore, giants (from Ancient Greek: '' gigas'', cognate giga-) are beings of human-like appearance, but are at times prodigious in size and strength or bear an otherwise notable appearance. The word ''giant'' is first attested in 1297 fro ...

in his early years as a professional, in 2007 Lloyd signed a contract with DFL-Cyclingnews-Litespeed for whom he rode for one year. He was a member of the Irish team in 2008. In 2009 he joined the (CTT), and was one of seven riders to move to when CTT folded at the end of 2010. After his contract expired at the end of 2011, he signed for the British . In November 2012, Lloyd announced his retirement from professional cycling, and became assistant

directeur sportif A ''directeur sportif'' ( French for sporting director, although the original French term is often used in English-language media; plural ''directeurs sportifs'') is a person directing a cycling team during a road bicycle racing event. It is se ...

at IG-Sigma Sport.

Race wins

Lloyd was the general classification winner of the 2008

, his only overall victory in a professional stage race. The race was first held as an amateur event in 1987 and was uprated to professional status on the

UCI Europe Tour The UCI Continental Circuits are a series of road bicycle racing competitions which were introduced in 2005 by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) to expand cycling around the world. The five circuits (representing the continents of Africa, the ...

in 2005. His team started strongly with victory in the opening 22.4 km team time trial around Mérida, the only victory of Lloyd's career in that discipline. Lloyd finished in the top 20 on each of the remaining four stages which proved enough to seal overall victory by 36 seconds. His other professional wins came while riding for

in 2006 during minor stage races in Asia. He started his season in January at the Tour of Siam, winning the final stage around

Phuket Phuket (; th, ภูเก็ต, , ms, Bukit or ''Tongkah''; Hokkien:普吉; ) is one of the southern provinces (''changwat'') of Thailand. It consists of the island of Phuket, the country's largest island, and another 32 smaller islands of ...

by 36 seconds ahead of teammate Kuan Hua Lai. He returned to Asia and the

in China in July, winning stage 4 on his way to 4th place overall.

Grand Tour participation

Lloyd contested a

Grand Tour The Grand Tour was the principally 17th- to early 19th-century custom of a traditional trip through Europe, with Italy as a key destination, undertaken by upper-class young European men of sufficient means and rank (typically accompanied by a tuto ...

on three occasions, completing the race each time. He rode in the Giro d'Italia twice, finishing 109th in

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

and 103rd in

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

. In his sole

Tour de France The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage bicycle race primarily held in France, while also occasionally passing through nearby countries. Like the other Grand Tours (the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España), it consists ...

appearance in

, Lloyd finished 164th of the 170 riders who completed the race, over four hours behind initial winner

Alberto Contador Alberto Contador Velasco (; born 6 December 1982) is a Spanish former professional cyclist. He is one of the most successful riders of his era, winning the Tour de France twice ( 2007, 2009), the Giro d'Italia twice (2008, 2015), and the Vue ...

. He would later be upgraded several places after multiple riders were excluded from the results, including Contador which saw

Andy Schleck Andy Raymond Schleck (; born 10 June 1985) is a Luxembourgish former professional road bicycle racer. He won the 2010 Tour de France, being awarded it retroactively in February 2012 after Alberto Contador's hearing at the Court of Arbitration f ...

declared the official victor. He finished 22nd on stage 11 from

Sisteron Sisteron (; , oc, label=Mistralian norm, Sisteroun; from oc, label=Old Occitan, Sestaron) is a commune in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, southeastern France. Sisteron is situated on the banks of the rive ...

Bourg-lès-Valence Bourg-lès-Valence (; oc, Lo Borg de Valença) is a commune in the Drôme department in southeastern France. It is a suburb of Valence. The archaeologist and Hellenist Fernand Courby (1878–1932) was born in Bourg-lès-Valence. In 2014–2019 ...

, his highest placing in any individual Grand Tour stage.

Other races

Lloyd competed in seven editions of the road race at the British National Championships, with second-place finishes in 2007 and 2009. In the 2009 edition, Lloyd chased down

Bradley Wiggins Sir Bradley Marc Wiggins, CBE (born 28 April 1980) is a British former professional road and track racing cyclist, who competed professionally between 2001 and 2016. He began his cycling career on the track, but later made the transition to r ...

and

Chris Froome Christopher Clive Froome ɹɪs fɹuːm (born 20 May 1985) is a Kenyan/British Road bicycle racing, road racing cyclist who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam . He has won seven Grand Tour (cycling), Grand Tours: four editions of the Tour de ...

in the latter part of the race, ultimately dropping Wiggins and finishing ahead of Froome and

Peter Kennaugh Peter Robert Kennaugh MBE (born 15 June 1989) is a Manx former professional racing cyclist, who rode professionally between 2010 and 2019 for and . In 2012 he won the gold medal as part of the Great Britain Team Pursuit team at the 2012 Summer ...

but losing out to winner

Kristian House Kristian House (born 6 October 1979 in Canterbury, England) is a British former racing cyclist who rode for the team from 2008 to 2015, and joined in 2016. He was the 2009 British Road Race Champion. He has raced in Europe and Australia. He r ...

in the sprint to the line. After winning a stage and finishing 4th overall in the 2006 race for Giant Asia, Lloyd returned to the

in 2007 representing DFL-Cyclingnews-Litespeed. He featured in the top 20 on each of the nine stages, finishing second overall behind Giro d'Italia stage winner

Gabriele Missaglia Gabriele Missaglia (born 24 July 1970 in Inzago) is an Italian former professional road bicycle racer. Palmarès ;1997 :1st, Stage 11, Giro d'Italia :1st, Stage 1, Tour of the Basque Country ;1998 :1st, Overall, Tour de Langkawi ;1999 :1st, S ...

. Leading up to the

2008 Olympic Games The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...

, Lloyd expressed a desire to be selected for the British Olympic road race team, and put together a series of strong results which led to him being considered for selection. However, he was not included in the final squad. None of the four riders who did compete for Team GB finished the race. In 2009, Lloyd made his sole appearance in the road race at the

UCI World Championships The UCI world championships are annual competitions promoted by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) to determine world champion cyclists. They are held in several different styles of racing, in a different country each year. Championship winne ...

Mendrisio Mendrisio (; lmo, label= Ticinese, Mendris ) is a municipality in the district of Mendrisio in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland. Mendrisio is the seat of the Accademia di Architettura of the university of Italian-speaking Switzerland (U ...

, Switzerland. Part of a nine-strong team, he was one of seven British riders not to finish the race. He also rode in four

monument A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, his ...

races, with a best finish of 45th at the

, and finished 9th at the 2009 edition of Strade Bianchi. He participated in the

Tour of Britain The Tour of Britain is a multi-stage cycling race, conducted on British roads, in which participants race across Great Britain to complete the race in the fastest time. The event dates back to the first British stage races held just after the S ...

five times, with a best overall finish of 10th in

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

. The

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

edition of the race was his final outing as a professional cyclist.

Retirement

Lloyd now works as a broadcaster for

Eurosport Eurosport is a group of pay television networks in Europe and parts of Asia. Owned by Warner Bros. Discovery through Warner Bros. Discovery Sports#Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe properties, its international sports unit, it operates two ...

's cycling coverage and the Global Cycling Network (GCN). He has also served as the international English finish line commentator for the Giro d'Italia. Lloyd is the lead presenter for GCN's news and race preview shows. He has used this platform to voice his opinion on cycling matters, for example regarding whether only amateur and unsigned riders should be eligible to compete in the men's under-23 road race at the

. As of 2022 the event is also open to professionals who meet the age criteria, with Lloyd opining that contracted riders should only be eligible for the elite road race event. He also combines commentary and in-studio punditry during Eurosport and GCN coverage of the Grand Tour races alongside

Orla Chennaoui Orla Chennaoui () (born 13 November 1979) is a Northern Irish television journalist and former all-Ireland triple jump champion. Chennaoui was born in Draperstown, County Londonderry in Northern Ireland. After completing a degree in Law and Fre ...

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 ...

Robbie McEwen Robbie McEwen (born 24 June 1972) is an Australian former professional road cyclist. McEwen is a three-time winner of the Tour de France points classification and, at the peak of his career, was considered the world's fastest sprinter. He las ...

, Sean Kelly and others.

Major results

;2006 : 1st Stage 7 Tour of Siam : 4th Overall

::1st Stage 4 : 4th Overall Tour d'Indonesia ;2007 : 2nd Overall

: 2nd Road race, National Road Championships ;2008 : 1st Jersey yellow

Overall

::1st Stage 1 ( TTT) : 4th Overall Volta Ciclista da Ascension : 4th Road race, National Road Championships : 6th Overall Cinturón Ciclista a Mallorca : 9th

Grand Prix Pino Cerami Grand Prix Pino Cerami is a single-day road bicycle race held annually in April in Hainaut, Belgium. Since 2005, the race is organized as a 1.1 event on the UCI Europe Tour. Giuseppe 'Pino' Cerami, after whom the race is named, is a former Belg ...

;2009 : 2nd Road race, National Road Championships : 4th Overall

Tour of Qatar The Tour of Qatar was an annual professional cycling stage race held in Qatar. First organized in 2002, the event was part of the UCI Asia Tour until 2016. The 2017 edition was to have seen the event upgraded to the UCI World Tour for the first ...

: 9th Monte Paschi Strade Bianche ;2011 : 10th Overall

Grand Tour general classification results timeline

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lloyd, Daniel 1980 births Living people British male cyclists English male cyclists People from Christchurch, Dorset Sportspeople from Dorset Cycling announcers