Prior to this year, no rider had ever won three consecutive rounds – Mould did exactly that in Redditch, Aberystwyth and Durham; victory on the latter course, notable for its steep cobbled hill, also saw Mould overtake team-mate Ed Clancy as the Series’ all-time most successful rider.

• Tour Series – most individual wins

• Jon Mould – 11
• Ed Clancy – 8
• Graham Briggs – 5
• Dean Downing – 5
• Kristian House – 5

The Newport-born rider wasn’t done there either – having already won in Motherwell earlier in the Series, he added individual victories in Stevenage and Croydon to take his career tally to 11 (Clancy has eight, Downing is level third with five).

“It is what I’m good at,” a modest Mould tells RoadCyclingUK as he reflects on the Tour Series. “That experience of starting on the track, with the points race and the Madison, it’s a similar concept – attacking, recovering and a lot of threshold work. It’s right up my street.”

Right up his street, whether that street be a steep cobbled hill in Durham, from a bunch sprint in Croydon or on a rain-battered seafront in Aberystwyth.

Race pace

That track background has been there in the previous three seasons Mould has raced the Tour Series, for Team UK Youth, NFTO and ONE Pro Cycling respectively – and yet, this year, Mould has won more times in a single series than he – or for that matter anyone – did in the previous three combined.

For that, the Welshman credits his move to JLT-Condor, with an international racing programme providing him with plenty of opportunity to get serious racing in his legs before the Tour Series.

Where last year Mould’s Tour Series preparation came in training, this year he had been in Australia, Croatia and France before the Series kicked off in the Isle of Man in May.

“I’ve done a lot of racing this year – a lot more than I normally would in the past three years really,” he explains.

“Last year especially, we hardly raced in the build-up. We trained a lot instead – which works in some ways, you get your fitness from training – but this year there’s been racing since January.

“It’s worked pretty well for me this year. It’s been really good heading to JLT-Condor. Last year, with ONE Pro Cycling, the whole year was built around the Tour Series. I didn’t really get much chance to do anything else.

“It’s been good to come at it from a different angle. It’s still a big aim for the season, the Tour Series – it always is – but to be able to come into it in a different way and with a bit more race fitness has helped.”

Fortune favours the brave

Mould has enjoyed Tour Series overall victory before, as part of the all-conquering Team UK Youth in 2013, but he says there are a lot of differences between that team and the ‘men in black’.

Led on the road by Yanto Barker, UK Youth folded at the end of that 2013 season when Formula One driver Nigel Mansell was unable to continue his sponsorship, but several of the riders – Mould included – were reunited at ONE Pro Cycling.

Though guarded in his answers, the ethos at JLT-Condor is different, according to Mould, who has also relished being given more of a leadership role in the team.

Crowd pleaser

Mould’s team boss John Herety recently questioned whether British cycling – at grassroots level, at least – really was in the rude health it has often been suggested it is.

But if that’s the case, the Tour Series has been the exception to the rule with big crowds turning out for the popular, fast-paced evening criterium action.

“It’s a big thing for all the British riders,” Mould says. “You tour around the UK and you get some of the biggest crowds all season.

“It’s hard work travelling a lot, but when you’re there it’s great to be racing in front of big crowds – you can’t complain about it really.”

Now, however, the focus for Mould is on a victory at UCI level, with the Beaumont Trophy – now in its third year as part of the UCI Europe Tour – next on the cards in Northumberland.

Connor Dunne’s victory in the Rutland-Melton Classic – also part of the UCI calendar – has set the tone for JLT-Condor, and Mould wants success of his own as he looks ahead to what could be a big second half to the season.

He says: “The Beaumont Trophy, the week before the road nationals, is a big one for this team – UCI 1.2 ranking, at home, in the UK. It’s a big one for the six of us who are going to ride it.

“I want to get a result at a UCI race and it’s also a stepping stone to making sure we qualify for the Tour of Britain.

“The nationals is just a smashfest and you’re hanging on most of the time when the WorldTour boys get it between their teeth”

“Then it’s road nationals and then you hit the national road series – GP of Wales will be a good, being a Welshman it will be nice to win on home soil so that will be one of my big targets.”

And with Mould clearly a man in form, should some of the country’s biggest stars be sitting up and taking note ahead of the National Championships? Mould doesn’t see why not after a tenth place finish in Lincoln last year.

“It’s always a tough one, the nationals – it’s just a smashfest really and you’re just hanging on most of the time when the WorldTour boys get it between their teeth,” he says.

“But there’s definitely a chance for any of the British riders just because of the way it’s raced.”

Whatever the second half of the season may hold, however, there is no question who the star of the first half of the domestic campaign has been.