Gareth Winter
2024 Ambassadorships and Partnerships
Veloforte • Silca • Le Col • Vires Velo • Factor Bikes • POC Sports • UDOG • MICHELIN
My story
It all started with my grandmother, Branda Winter, who left me with these parting words:
“Live your Life while you have it. Life is a splendid gift — there is nothing small about it.” That is something I have always tried to do, and I hope my enthusiasm for Life will give you a purpose to do the same.”
I can still hear her voice.
Her accent switched from 'queen's finest' (when I was in her good books) — to 'cockney' when I was in trouble.
She was a working-class hero who always saw the best in people and travelled the world on two wheels.
Nan bought her first bike in 1949 from Algurn Cycles in Wandsworth, London. It cost my great grandfather £35, and It's still hanging in my dad's garage. Cycling gave young people in post-war Britain an escape, freedom, and independent travel when cars and money were scarce.
Nan met my grandfather at a local cycling club. Every weekend, he'd cycle home from his RAF base in Wiltshire (140km each way) to see her and spend the weekend racing at Herne Hill and Brands Hatch — powered by Nan's homebakes.
I always wear my Grandad's first gold medal on a pendant — from the year they met — as a good lunch charm and to take him riding with me. Its presence has often felt… otherworldly.
Much like my grandmother, he left me with equally valuable final words:
“You look good on a bike.
Just as good as your dad.
Nearly as good as your grandad.”
My parents met at a roller-racing event in Peckham. Naturally, my dad inherited cycling, while my mum picked up a bike to escape a tough home life.
My schoolmates spent summer holidays at places like Disneyland — while I went cyclo-touring across the UK, camped in the rain, drank river water and lived off flapjacks. But I'd have it no other way. Cycling taught me the value of hard work and persistence… to say the least.
“Now that I am a father, it’s my turn to hand down the greatest gift my family gave me.”
Cycling and Career Journey
In 2010, I began my career in the creative industry as a junior designer at Sky News & Sports. My involvement in broadcasting Sir Brad Wiggins's Tour de France victory and Team GB’s dominance at the London 2012 Olympics evolved into a full-time role in Sky's cycling sponsorship team, where I grew to lead the creative outputs.
Working with my cycling heroes, performance team, management, chefs, nutritionists, physios, psychologists, etc., opened my mind to a wealth of knowledge I could apply to my career and personal cycling goals.
You are a product of your environment. Being surrounded by high performance took my cycling and profession to another level.
I didn't realise it then, but I had been building the foundations for my next career chapter at Veloforte.
During Team Sky training camps, I quickly realised that my perception of how a professional athlete fuelled was entirely wrong.
I assumed pro cyclists consumed "space food" and ate supplements all day. However, nutritionists and chefs prepared our meals: porridge and omelettes for breakfast, rice cakes packed by hand in neat foil parcels, and smoothies full of fruit and vegetables. There was barely a scientific-looking supplement in sight (the contradiction of what nutrition sponsors would lead you to believe) — the team prioritised real food — as it's naturally packed with delicious energy, flavour and nutrients — and digests properly.
I discovered that If you feed your health and well-being with quality natural ingredients and avoid ultra-processed products, your overall health, immunity, sleep, digestion, etc., will vastly improve — leading to better performance, health, and recovery.
In the pro peloton, products like energy gels were reserved for the pointy end of racing — as you can inhale loads of carbs in one go — which is essential when gasping for oxygen. However, most gels are full of synthetics, fillers and preservatives, which often cause stomach upsets and digestion issues — a contradiction of athlete wellbeing.
By 2014, I'd fully adopted Team Sky's 'food first philosophy' and hand-prepared all my on-bike and off-bike meals. As a result, my health, performance, skin, hair, lean muscle mass, gut health, immune system and energy levels improved significantly.
Data does not lie. My resting heart rate, lack of illness, sleep, and power-to-weight ratio entered new realms.
Despite my learnings, I fell into the trap of trying to achieve a world tour “power-to-weight-ratio” (high power + low weight = fast cyclist). As a result, I prioritised losing weight above building power, to the point of becoming powerless — a story for another time, but this taught me to "fuel and train" and never "diet and exercise."
Fuelling and training builds a strong, healthy body and mind. Dieting and exercising leads to mental and physical depletion. I found out the hard way, so please learn from my mistakes and please reach out if necessary.
Discovering Veloforte
Delicious food delivers a morale lift that is almost more powerful than the energy it provides. So, when I discovered Veloforte, I found a brand that completely aligned with my nutrition values and spoke my language: delicious, natural, and high-performance. I felt, “Finally, a brand that gets it.”
Joining Veloforte
Sky withdrew all cycling sponsorships in 2019 (Team Sky became Ineos and British Cycling HSBC, now Shell…). Our purpose was hugely fulfilling — "To win the world's greatest bike races and inspire millions to take up cycling."
I became responsible for Sky's corporate, charitable, societal, and environmental initiatives. As a result, I broadened my experience, personally and professionally. However, there was a cycling/sporting-shaped hole in my heart that made joining Veloforte an easy decision.
Helping athletes worldwide, at all levels, become healthier, fitter, stronger, faster, and more knowledgeable about nutrition and foundational health gives me a great sense of purpose and responsibility.
A cycling ambassador
My mission: to lead by example and use my experience to help, encourage and inspire others. I am committed to becoming a better person and athlete than I was yesterday.
I represent and work with brands whose values align with my own:
A commitment to continuous progression and world-class performance.
Giving back and improving sport for the next generation.
Living clean and training hard.
Style and suffering go hand-in-hand.
The past informs the present and the future. Respect it.
Self-prioritisation leads to more significant acts of selflessness.
