Tao Geoghegan Hart is one of the biggest talents in Britain just now and he recently showcased his talent to the WorldTour teams at the Tour of Britain, where he finished in 15th place overall- something he wasn’t pleased with, showing just how high his own expectations are.

“It wasn’t an amazing week for me,” the 19-year-old Londoner says of September’s Tour of Britain. “My form certainly didn’t feel like it was at its peak.”

This assessment seems a little unfair when you take into account that at 19 years of age, he was only 1 minute 30 behind third placed Bradley Wiggins and 1 minute 42 behind Michal Kwiatkowski, who would become World Road Race Champion later that month.

Hart finished on the last step of the podium in terms of U23s riding the race too, with the other two already riding for WorldTour teams, race winner Dylan van Baarle of Garmin and tenth placed Dylan Teuns of BMC.

“If I had said top 20 or top 15 going into the race, I would have been reasonably happy with that,” he adds. “So to have achieved that is a good marker to progress from.”

Hart also has third place in the 2014 U23 Liege-Bastogne-Liege, behind Anthony Turgis and Teuns again. He also beat riders who will turn pro net year like Tiesj Benoot, Loic Vliegen, Frederik Ludvigsson, Tanner Putt, Pierre-Roger Latour, Kevin Ledanois and Olivier Le Gac. He has also finished third in the 2013 Paris-Roubaix Juniors race, showing that he excels on all kinds of terrain.

Hart also competed a the Tour of California with his trade team, the Bissell Development Team, but he was, by his own admittance, in awe in America and didn’t perform as well as he should have.

“Riding alongside big names like Sir Bradley Wiggins has been super-interesting,” he explains. “The first time I raced against those guys, especially Sir Bradley, was at the Tour of California and, at the time, I felt like they were a million miles away. I was just in awe and thinking, ‘I’m never ever going to reach that level’.

“But in the Tour of Britain, I felt like I was a little bit more competitive and more a part of the race. Obviously we didn’t have the heat or long climbs of California, but it didn’t feel like a crazy speed and I certainly felt I was more involved.”

Hart also showed his strength at the Tour de l’Avenir, heralded as the U23 Tour de France, where he finished tenth on GC in his debut appearance.

“It was definitely an interesting race,” he told reporter Matt Westby. “The standard in under-23s is really, really high. The guys who are winning could step into pro races and do very well, as we saw with the Belgian rider Dylan Teuns at the Tour of Britain [Teuns won a stage of the Tour de l’Avenir and then finished tenth at the Tour of Britain].

“It was a race that I really enjoyed and I will look forward to trying to go back to it next year and hopefully have a bit more of a crack at it. It’s a race that lends to my skillset and my physiology. It’s the type of race I would really like to go full gas for.”

“There was very clear room for improvement,” he adds. “The feeling I had wasn’t the feeling I have when I’m on my top climbing form, so it was very clear for me where I need to improve. I would like to think that with a few tweaks and a more consistent season that I could be up there.”

Next year Hart is targeting working and improving on his weaknesses and anything else, such as wins, podiums or a pro deal, are bonuses.

“Next year is going to be more inward-looking than looking outwardly at goals,” Hart adds. “I’m just looking for areas of improvement personally and then that brings you to the level you need to be at for those goals."

“There are areas that I am really pinpointing to work on this winter and develop in time for next season. I want to improve my climbing and also bring my time-trialling level up a bit. In terms of races, I will be hoping to line up at the Tour of California again with the team and I would love to race at the Tour of Britain again.”