Rider profile: Steele Von Hoff
Every cyclist that lines up week in week out at the local criterium, road race or time trial will at some point or another have dreamed about getting noticed by the guys who run the big pro teams. Dreaming that the managers and directors notice your results and finally offer you that contract that will allow you to line up along side the heroes of the sport and live that pro life style.
I’m one of these guys, like many it never happened for me. But when you see it happen to people that you’ve raced against, guys that have ripped your legs off in the local races you have to tip your cap and say a well deserved “well done” to them. Steele Von Hoff is one of these guys. Steele now rides with the Garmin-Sharp team.
I can’t say I know Steele real well, though over the past few years I’ve kept an eye on his results, chatted to him when our paths cross and shared the odd tweet or Facebook message.
He first came to my notice on a trip to Australia in 2011 while at the early season opening race series of the well renowned Bay Crits held in and around Melbourne.
Steele took the overall lead as well as 2 out of the 4 races in the support category. Please don’t think that the support race is just a bunch of local have-a-go local heroes, the races are renowned for being some of the fastest and hardest crit racing in the world.
From a short conversation I had with Steele after the final stage I found out that he was just about to start his first full road season, at the age of 23 (I think). He had raced mountain bikes up till then, dabbled a bit in road but was now turning to the road full time. I continued with my travels and thought nothing more of it.
Fast forward to the stage 3 of the 2012 Tour de France where I spotted a familiar face, it took both of us a while to work out where we knew each other from. When it clicked I reminded him that he’d put me in the hurt box at all 4 stage of the Bay Crits. He was there doing a bit of driving work for the Garmin team. He was taking a few weeks out from racing as he was spending the 2012 season in Europe riding for the Chipotle Development team, a squad that feeds Garmin-Sharp with fresh up and coming stars of the sport.
It looked as though he had come a long way in the short time from January 2011. I asked Steele if there was anything more to the driving job than just working for the Garmin squad at the Tour or not, he couldn’t tell me either way. Usually when some one says this they’re keeping a secret. From then on I kept a close eye on his results and within a month after the “driving job” he was riding as stagiaire for the Garmin team.
Every year pro teams give young guys who have had outstanding seasons in the amateur categories a chance to show their worth, Steele had been handed this chance. Some guys show what they are capable of, others don’t produce the goods. For Steele two great results at the Tour of Britain, and several other top 10 places in well renowned races secured him a 2-year contract with the team.
Steele had made it, he was one of a select few of aspiring riders to have made that leap from amateur to pro.
I managed to catch Steele at the recent Tour of Britain, nearing the end of his first full season amongst the World Tour riders. Steele (usually dashing to the start line) was always happy to let me interview him on a daily basis.
Steele had come to the Tour of Britain in the hunt for that elusive first pro win, he’s come close several times. He started the season back in January where he took second in the Australian national champs, from there on he’s chipped away at the races with notable results in the Tour of Poland, a World Tour classed race, and then there was stage 4 of the Tour of Britain were it not for a tussle with Cannondale rider Viviani he may have taken the win from under the nose of the manx missile Cavendish. If you want to check out bike handling skills at their very best go check Steele out on the finish of that stage.
The step up to a fully fledged pro rider is a dream but it’s an immensely hard step up, all the guys in the pro peloton have put that hard work in to be there but it’s just as hard to stay there. You have to constantly show your worth.
Its a tough sport and there’s always young guys hungry to take your place, Steele’s clearly hungry for that first win. The season not over yet though, on his way back to Australia for the winter he’ll be stopping off for the Tour of Beijing and the Japan cup. Will Steele grab his first win there, let’s wish him good luck.