Tom Mazzone: Doing it my way (video)

Promotional article in association with Lapierre

Originally from the Isle of Man, 28 years old Tom Mazzone is now based in Cheshire and riding for the Saint Piran UCI Continental team, fitting in his training around his day jobs.

Tom talks about how he got into road cycling via BMX racing, which he started aged just five. At age 14, he made the choice to concentrate on road cycling, with his cycling career including a spell racing in Belgium for three seasons from 2013. 

“It was amazing, but equally brutal,” he says. It taught him a lot, although he’s sorry he never got to step up to a higher level European team. 

He still wanted to race when he returned to the UK though, and feels himself lucky to have found a place in the roster at Saint Piran, working jobs on the side and being helped along the way by personal sponsors who have allowed him to dedicate the time needed to training and racing.

He’s raced for the Isle of Man at the 2018 Commonwealth Games road race in Australia and for Saint Piran at the 2021 Tour of Britain. 

His younger brother Leon races alongside him at Saint Piran and is Tom’s main training partner. The brothers are close and their abilities complement each other; Leon is good at the longer efforts, whereas Tom is the sprinter, so they can work well together. 

 Well set up for racing 

At Saint Piran Tom is riding the Lapierre Aircode DRS, the same bike used by the Groupama-FDJ WorldTour pro team. DRS stands for Drag Reduction System and is the latest version of the Aircode frame, designed to be more streamlined, more rigid, more aerodynamic and more comfortable.

Mazzone rates the Aircode DRS as one of the best bikes he’s ridden during his career, with the stiffness and reactivity he needs for the sprint finishes in which he specialises. The disc brakes help with confidence and handling in a sprint too.

“On previous bikes, I’ve had to put a lot of effort into making the bike a little bit more racy, both for comfort and aerodynamics,” he says, “But with the Aircode it’s got a much more aggressive geometry, which has made it a lot easier process to get it how I like it.”

Looks may not make any difference to performance, he says, but it’s nice to have a good-looking bike and the Aircode DRS’s pearlescent red paint just makes him want to ride even more. 

If you want the same red Aircode DRS as Tom, you’ll have to go for the top spec Aircode DRS 8.0, which we rated 4.5 stars and which garnered a spot in our Editor’s Choice selection of the best products we reviewed in 2021. Equipped with Shimano Ultegra Di2 and 50mm deep DT Swiss wheels, it costs £6,999. 

But the Aircode DRS range starts at £2,999 for the 5.0 spec. This has the same frame and comes with a Shimano 105 groupset and DT Swiss P1850 alloy wheels. Lapierre also sells the Ultegra equipped £3,999 Aircode DRS 6.0 in the UK.