Mark Stewart Reflects on Glasgow 2014 as Career Turning Point
Mark Stewart, who became a Commonwealth Games champion in 2018, recalls finishing "dead last" in his first race four years earlier. The Scottish cyclist describes his debut Commonwealth Games appearance in Glasgow 12 years ago as "probably the most pivotal point in my career" as he prepares to return to the city this summer.
In 2014, Stewart was a student in Dundee, staying on a friend’s couch while preparing for the Games in Glasgow. He finished last in the points race, struggling with aching legs and uncertainty about racing the next day, but managed to recover and secure a sixth-place finish in the scratch race.
Four years later, Stewart won the points race gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games on Australia’s Gold Coast. Now 30 years old, he also holds three World Championship medals—two silver and one bronze—and was a member of the Team GB track cycling squad at the Paris Olympics in 2024.
Stewart on His First Commonwealth Games Experience
"It was massive, probably the most pivotal point in my career, if you could pinpoint a moment or a race that changed a trajectory.
It allowed me to show the GB team, to show the international track cycling community that I could compete.
I took a kicking in the points race and I remember thinking 'I don't know how it's going to be possible to race again tomorrow the way I feel right now'.
But coming sixth in the scratch race was a turning point for me mentally, to go 'okay, I can do this and I do belong'."
New Opportunities and Ambitions
Regarding his prospects of adding to his medal tally in Glasgow, Stewart stated that it is "definitely on the radar." He explained,
"I have started this season with a new road team [Modern Adventure Pro Cycling] and it has been a new lease of life for me.
I've got a brand new coach. I am being exposed to extremely high level road races which is really stepping me up physically.
So I am pretty excited to come back to Glasgow to try and win."
Family Sporting Heritage
Stewart’s success is perhaps unsurprising given his family’s sporting background. His father, Stan, was a top-level Ironman triathlon competitor, and his mother, Caroline, was a respected hill runner. Mark’s cycling roots extend further back to his grandfather.
"My mum's dad, Neil Sinclair, he rode a bike until he was 97 years old," Stewart said.
"He had a garage filled with bicycles, wardrobes filled with old cycling tops and caps, so it is something that has always been there, I had that identity growing up and that's probably where a lot of the love and passion stems from.
I was very lucky there was a strong cycling community, if Dundee Discovery Junior Cycling Club hadn't started when I was 10 years old I wouldn't have a cycling career.
Having that local club is vital to creating that community atmosphere and for me to progress through the youth years.
The contrast to that would be through school and other avenues, it was non-existent.
I remember the thought of speaking to teachers or even to peers to suggest that you were going to be a pro athlete or that it was your dream to ride the Tour de France, in somewhere like Dundee that was like a foreign idea."
