First off, I suppose you should know a little bit about me. I was born on April 23rd 1990, in the tiny little village of Jangothang, near the base camp of Mount Jumolhari, which lies on the western border of Bhutan. The village lies at about 4,100m in altitude, so higher than any mountain pass that I might have to tackle in Europe! I lived in Jangothang until I was 16, completing a daily 5km trek down to my school, which was comprised of inhabitants from the various villages along the ‘Jumolhari trek’ and children of the Indian army officers living in the army outpost as well; before moving to Thimphu, the capital of Bhutan, in search of a job - yak herding didn’t really appeal to me! My main language is the local language, Dzongkha, but I consider myself fluent in English and have picked up some Hindi during my twenty-three years in this world.


Mount Jumolhari, viewed from the base camp at Jangothang.

My father has been a yak herder all his life, as had his father before him, and my mother has lived at home since she married my father. However, my mother’s sister is an extremely intelligent being and she was one of the five students that are selected every year to be given a scholarship by the government to study abroad. Having studied law at university in Kolkata, she moved to Europe, something she has always dreamed of, and has now settled down in Italy, having found a dashing Italian husband - so maybe I’ll be able to visit her sometime.

I studied at the Royal Bhutan University at Thimphu, and there, along with some friends, developed an interest in cycling, a rather niche sport in the country at the moment. Since then my interest in the sport has grown rapidly, and I now consider myself a bit of a geek on the subject! My favourite riders are probably Alberto Contador, for his wonderful style on the bike, and Chris Froome, for how he has risen up from a similarly underdeveloped country towards the summit of world cycling.

I find the best way to win cycling races is to attack, simply following others will see you still following them at the end of the race, or if you do manage to overtake them, the gains are marginal. According to my peers, I have good bike handling skills, which probably comes from navigating across unpaved roads for much of my late childhood; consequentially I can maintain high velocities going downhill, hopefully something that can play into my hands.


I participated in last year’s Tour of the Dragon, the most prestigious race in the country, and was very successful, winning the race by a large margin. This result, and my obvious passion for cycling, seemed to make the government interested, and after a lengthy application process, they agreed to give me a scholarship to travel overseas and, miraculously, I was granted entry into the Tour de l’Avenir, on the basis that my entry would reinforce the UCI’s mantra of spreading the sport across the globe.

I was overwhelmed by the attention that came with this, and found the going tough in the first few stages, but after an adventurous attack near the foot of the famous Col du Telegraphe on the fourth stage, I was able to secure second place behind the Frenchman Warren Barguil. After some more good performances in the other stages, I ended up an unbelievable 7th in the overall standings!

This fantastic result was enough to attract the attention of a few professional teams, but one in particular stood out to me.


Race Results 2012

1		Chambula Dorji	10h47'23
2		Sonam	+ 25'52
3		Rinzin Norbu	+ 46'14
4		Ugyen Yoezer	+ 1h24'35
5		Rajkumar Rai	+ 1h32'12
6		Slavomir Piskaty	+ 1h59'01
7		Randall Krantz	+ 2h06'46
8		Tom Horniblow	+ 2h08'00
9		Sandra Walter	+ 2h13'29
10		Sangay Phuntsho	+ 2h14'10

Stage 4 Seyssel - Valloire (155km)

1		Warren Barguil	France	4h11'52
2		Chambula Dorji	Bhutan	s.t.
3		Gennadiy Tatarinov	Russia	+ 2
4		Juan Ernesto Chamorro Chitan	Colombia	s.t.
5		Daan Olivier	Netherlands	s.t.
6		Sergei Chernetskii	Russia	s.t.
7		Mattia Cattaneo	Italy	s.t.
8		Jay McCarthy	Australia	+ 21
9		Sergey Pomoshnikov	Russia	s.t.
10		Pierre Paolo Penasa	Italy	+ 24

Final General Classification

1		Warren Barguil	France	18h36'07
2		Juan Ernesto Chamorro Chitan	Colombia	+ 1
3		Mattia Cattaneo	Italy	+ 9
4		Sergei Chernetskii	Russia	+ 15
5		Ian Boswell	USA	+ 19
6		Sergey Pomoshnikov	Russia	+ 26
7		Chambula Dorji	Bhutan	+ 28
8		Gennadiy Tatarinov	Russia	+ 31
9		Daan Olivier	Netherlands	+ 42
10		Patrick Konrad	Austria	+ 45

Volta Ciclista a Catalunya
Top 5 place: Stage 6

Team Sky is arguably the best team in the peloton, with a strong core of riders for every discipline, the only thing the team lacks is a really strong sprinter. I'll write a short piece about the main leaders on the team, even though if you're reading this blog you probably know who they all are!

From my first impressions, the team as a whole seems to have a great work ethic and they look like they train very hard throughout the year. I look forward to making friends with everyone over the course of the year!

Chris Froome is an amazing rider, who after a period of mediocrity suddenly shot to fame by coming close to winning the Vuelta a Espana in 2011 in an extraordinary, unpredicted performance. This form was carried through to 2012, where he finished second behind Bradley Wiggins in the Tour de France, part of a triumphant year for Team Sky. The fact he hails from a similarly third-worldy country and has made a name for himself inspires me a great deal.

Bradley Wiggins is another interesting rider, one who I feel proud to be on a team with. After a period of a few years as a very solid, but not spectacular time-triallist, coupled with some great success on the track, he joined Team Sky and decided to aim for the big mountains. More specifically, the Tour de France. With the help of our team’s marginal gains policy, he had a stellar season last year, culminating in a dominant win in the Tour and an Olympic gold medal.

Richie Porte is someone who I feel will perhaps blossom this year, with the help of the medical staff here at Team Sky; a seventh place in the Giro a few years ago is his only real result of note. He will be supporting Froome in his bid for Tour glory, and will likely end up in the top five as well, if all goes according to plan.

Signed last year, Sergio Henao is the first of our pair of talented Colombians. At 26, he is yet to reach his peak, and no doubt will do just that in the near future. He will probably take leadership for the Vuelta this year, depending on how the other main riders plan their schedules.

The other half of the Colombian pairing is Rigoberto Urán. He is the same age as Henao, but has more experience on the World Tour circuit, with some solid results in the week-long stageraces like Catalunya, but yet to show his full potential in the Grand Tours. Also a handy rider for the classics.

Edvald Boasson Hagen is without doubt the most multitalented rider in the squad. This man can do everything! Be it winning a mountain stage and a sprint stage in the same Tour de France edition, winning the Eneco Tour, winning the hilly GP Ouest-France, or being National Time-trial champion five years in a row, he is good at everything he does. This year he will focus on the classics, both hilly and cobbled, whilst throwing some sprinting and some time-trialling into the mix as well.