Lukas Nerurkar
Hometown
Truro, England, UK
Date of birth
14 November 2003
Languages
English
Nicknames
None
Lukas embarks upon his second professional season with the added benefit of the experience and wisdom he gained in 2024. He won his first race with the team at the Tour de Kyushu Kokura Castle Criterium and later that same week, finished second on GC at the Tour de Kyushu. Now that his rookie year is behind him, Lukas can’t wait to go all in for 2025.
Before he had turned professional, he had already won stages of the Giro Next Gen and Orlen Nations GrandPrix and finished sixth on GC at Spain’s O Gran Camiño, all as a U23 racer.
Racing runs in his genes. Bike racing was never the obvious choice for Lukas however. He grew up in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where his dad – Olympic marathon and 10,000 meter runner Richard Nerurkar – moved their family after he had hung up his racing flats. He’d always trained in Africa and loved the atmosphere. Lukas’s mom Gail was a runner too. His sister Almi was soon bounding in their footsteps. She became a runner as well. But as soon as Lukas started riding bikes, he knew that cycling was the sport for him. When he was a kid, he and his dad would escape Addis Ababa’s clogged streets and ride up into the hills above the city.
Lukas just loved going farther and faster.
He has been doing that ever since. When he was seven, Lukas’s family moved back to England and settled in Brighton, where Lukas started racing with the Preston Park Cycling Club. He stayed with this local team all the way through the youth categories. By the time he was 16, he was ready to step up. He joined VC Londres in London and soon caught the eye of the racers in the club, who introduced him to Trinity, a British Continental team. There his talent blossomed. Lukas has made a name for himself on the under-23 circuit racing all across Europe.
A punchy climber, he is confident that he has what it takes to compete with the best. O Gran Camiño proved that. But Lukas knows that he still has a lot to learn. He will stay humble, but never lose his competitive fire. After all, he is Girona’s town-sign sprint and chess champion.
Questions & Answers
What is your favorite pump-up song?
No Security by Skepta.
If you had to cook dinner for the team, what would be on the menu?
Arancini
What is your favorite word in your native language? What does it mean? What do you like about it?
Twerp. Silly or annoying person. My dad would call me a twerp when I was being annoying.
What’s the first thing you do when you get home after being away at a race?
Get a steak fired up on the BBQ.
If you could have a superpower, what would it be? Why?
Teleportation. Nothing worse than being stuck in a queue.