In 2018, Luke Pollard saw an advert from British Triathlon seeking guides to work with their elite paratriathletes. Responding to that advert would see Luke embark on an incredible journey with paratriathlon legend Dave Ellis. Since 2019, the pair had secured almost every major title in paratriathlon. But there was one missing: a Paralympic title. The duo went into Tokyo 2020 with high hopes and even higher expectations. But an unfortunate mechanical on the bike meant that Paralympic dream didn’t come true.
Undeterred they were soon back to training and racing, and redemption came on the streets of Paris at the 2024 Paralympic Games in the form of a gold medal, which saw them both awarded an MBE in the New Year Honours.
As British Triathlon launch their latest Guides for Gold campaign as they look to recruit new paratriathlon guides to work with their athletes towards LA 2028 and beyond. We caught up with Luke Pollard to find out more about his experience as a paratriathlon guide. From learning to ride a tandem, to securing a Paralympic title – it’s been quite the ride.
“That sounds right up my street…” the journey to becoming an elite paratriathlon guide
These days Luke Pollard has a paralympic gold medal to his name and several top 15 results as a solo athlete in the professional men’s field at middle distance races in recent years. But his journey into triathlon started, as he put it, as “just a bit of fun.”
“I started triathlon in 2012,” Luke explains. “I’d just started working in the RAF and I needed something to do, something a bit different. So I thought I’d give triathlon a go. My dad used to be a cyclist, and I think he did a triathlon in the 80s. So I thought it might be a good opportunity to pick some tips up from the old man!”
“I started just as a bit of fun. It was something new, a way to meet people and stuff like that. And I found out that maybe I’ve got a bit of a knack for it. I started winning a few bits and bobs and then I started racing at the elite level only a couple of years later.”
“That looks pretty cool…”
“In 2018, British Triathlon put their Guides for Gold advert out. Mark Buckingham was guiding Dave Ellis and doing a great job. I knew Mark and I thought, ‘Oh, that looks pretty cool.’ It looked really exciting.”
“So after watching Mark do it, I decided to go down [to British Triathlon’s paratriathlon guide interest day]. It was really good – seeing literally a room full of people who were all racing at a competitive level interested in guiding. It was good to see everyone there and ready to go for it.”
A new world – learning to guide
Clearly, guiding an elite level paratriathlete is going to take a strong level of performance yourself. But there are also multiple other skills involved, that the majority of us wouldn’t have experienced while racing triathlon solo. So we were interested to hear from Luke what that learning process was like.
“I remember going on the tandem the first time with Dave. I had never ridden the tandem previously and you have just got this thought in your head of ‘there’s someone else with me.’ But it was actually really good fun in the end.”
“The initial bit of getting going is actually the hardest bit and there’s those initial nerves and stuff. But as soon as you get going, you’re sort of working together and talking to one another. You’re like ‘we’re going to stop, we’re going to put the foot down on the left side’ so you’re not both trying to do your own thing.”
“When you start rolling, it’s like ‘oh wow, this is actually brilliant, what a great bit of fun this is.’ Getting started is the hardest bit!”
“It’s a testament to how patient Dave is and how good it is to work with someone like Dave who understands that for a guide it can feel like quite a lot of responsibility and it’s something completely new. He talked through what had worked for him in the past, and if you do get bits wrong he’s completely understanding and says ‘don’t stress yourself about it, it’s OK. We can try something different next time.’”
“It’s a bit of a new world in triathlon, that you don’t experience as a solo athlete. But I think it’s really exciting. I really enjoyed it and took to it quite well.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever been as nervous for a race…” stepping up to the start line for the first time
“In 2019, Dave had three different guides: myself, Mark Buckingham and Tim Don. We all raced with Dave through the season. But my first race with Dave was in the July at Montreal which was also the first race of the qualification window for Tokyo 2020.”
“I’d obviously been training with Dave since the January, so we’d been training together quite a lot. And I’d done some big races on my own. But I don’t think I’ve ever been as nervous for a race as I was for that Montreal race. Just knowing that Dave and I had been working together for six months and it being the first race of the qualification window. There was a lot more on it.”
“There was the added pressure of ‘OK, I want to do a good job for Dave and make sure that he can race to his full capacity.’ He was relying on my shoulders a bit and I didn’t want to hold him back. But again Dave straight away just said ‘it’s alright, it’s cool. We’ve been training really well. We can just do what we can do, and then hopefully we get a good result.’ That just helped to calm me down quite a lot.”
“As soon as you start the race, because you’ve trained together for a long time and you sort of understand each other it just flows naturally and you have a good race.”
A good relationship is key for good race results
That ability to trust each other and communicate effectively, even in the adrenaline-fuelled height of a race, is key Luke explains. “A good guide-athlete relationship does equal really good results. You see it across not just me and Dave, but other pairings too.”
“When athletes get on with their guides, and they’ve got this really good trust. The athlete can push harder, the guide can communicate better and then perform the role better to help the athlete get the most out of themselves and hopefully get the best result.”
Not letting the Tokyo 2020 heart break become the defining moment
Dave Ellis and Luke Pollard went into the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic triathlon has favourites to bring home the gold. But a mechanical on the bike led to heart break with the duo forced to pull out of the race. “Tokyo was really, really tough,” Luke reflects. “But we had European Championships only around 2 weeks after we got back from Tokyo, and World Championships left to go in the season.”
“Dave took the result from Tokyo and was like: ‘Right, let’s not let this be the defining moment.’ Or, let’s not let this be the finish line. We’d put years of work in together and Dave had waited for nearly a decade to get that result we wanted. So we just had to make that call to not just end it here, and to just crack on. We wanted to finish the season on a high.”
“Luckily we did. We won Europeans and Worlds that year. After that we put our focus towards the Commonwealth Games the year after and then we’d start thinking about qualifying for Paris and hopefully getting a good result.”
“So obviously, it was a really tough day and a tough time for both myself and Dave.”
“But I think actually having that experience together, you can help each other. You don’t want to let each other down.”
“I certainly didn’t want to let Dave down and be like ‘well I don’t want to do this anymore’ because it was really tough to take. I wanted to see him get what he rightly deserved.”
Redemption in Paris
Thankfully, the Paris 2024 Paralympics certainly did see Dave and Luke get what they deserved – with an emphatic and emotional victory finally securing them that elusive Paralympic gold medal.
“That’s probably the best day of my life so far, definitely the best moment in my sporting career by miles to actually be there,” says Luke.
“Having that day – after it didn’t work out in Tokyo – where everyone could come to Paris and watch. Being able to share that moment. The amount of years and hard work and sacrifice that we’d both had to make. That made it more special in a way.”
“Tokyo was a huge, huge down point. But that sort of made the high of Paris even higher.”
What does it take to become a paratriathlon guide?
As British Triathlon start their search for new paratriathlon guides, plenty of high performing triathletes might find themselves inspired by duos such as Dave and Luke, and Alison Peasgood and her guide Brooke Gilles – who came 4th in the women’s PTVI Paris 2024 Paralympic Triathlon. But you might also wonder what other skills, beyond pure swim-bike-run capabilities, you need.
It’s all about communication and commitment, Luke explains. “I’d say the skill that massively stands out is communication. That’s the first thing that comes to your mind! It’s being able to learn about the athlete as well, understanding that different athletes like different cues and different descriptions. It’s important to understand that different athletes require different things.”
“But I’d also say it’s being fully committed to it. I guess you could say I’ve sacrificed quite a bit of my own career to be able to do this stuff with Dave, but in no way would I rather just do my own racing. 100%, I’d rather being doing this with Dave. We’ve done some pretty incredible things!”
It’s easier to pick up than you might think
Most triathletes won’t have much experience riding a tandem bike, and nervousness about being able to ride a bike with someone else could be a potential barrier to getting involved with guiding. But as Luke explains, it’s a learning curve for all new guides – and it’s not necessarily as tricky as you might think. He himself only rode a tandem for the first time at his first training session with Dave Ellis.
“I think it’s quite rare to find someone who’s rocks up to that first session, and they’re an absolute whizz on the tandem and know exactly what they’re doing. Everyone’s going to be a bit, if they’ve never been on it before, a bit tentative. They’re going to be possibly a bit nervous.”
“But triathletes in general, they’re pretty resilient and adaptable. That’s a huge part of our sport. You hear about races getting changed all the time. Every athlete is really good at adapting to stuff. So I think it’s just about being open minded and being relaxed and you’ll be able to pick it up. It’s easier to pick up than you think it is.”
“With good communication, and remembering that the athletes have more experience and can say what they like and what works for them. You can take that knowledge and put it into practice.”
Just go for it
Find yourself on the fence about finding out more about becoming a paratriathlon guide? “Just go for it,” Luke says.
“It’s the best thing I’ve ever done with triathlon, and you never know where it might take you. It might take you places you’ve never been and it’ll give you experiences you’d never get to have.”
How to find out more about becoming a paratriathlon guide
Through their ‘Guides for Gold’ campaign, British Triathlon are on the search for:
- Training guides – to support existing guide/athlete partnerships as they prepare for events
- Reserve race guides – to provide additional guide options for our visually impaired athletes when they compete
- Named athlete guides – to partner specific athletes as they build towards LA2028 and beyond
You can find out more about what it takes to become a paratriathlon guide, including the pace and power performance targets, and register your interest on the British Triathlon website. The federation plans to hold a day for potential guides to meet some of the athletes and the performance team over the summer.
