Born in Sheffield, Blythe began cycling at a young age with the Sheffield Phoenix club. Cycling was a family activity, his sister Kimberley Blythe was also fairly successful as a young rider.[citation needed]
Blythe became Derbyshire's Junior Sportsman of the Year in the East Midlands Sports Personality of the Year Awards, 2005.[5]
Blythe left British Cycling's Academy Programme by mutual consent in February 2008, and went to race in Belgium.[6] He stayed with the ex-professional cyclist, Tim Harris, in Westmeerbeek, near Antwerp. Blythe was awarded a Cycling Time Trials scholarship to enable him to race on the continent and develop further. He raced for the Wielerclub Des Sprinters Malderen which is a feeder club for a professional team.[7] He also received support from the Dave Rayner Fund during his time in Belgium.[8]
Professional career
Blythe returned to Belgium to ride for the DAVO squad in 2009, under the tutelage of Kurt Van De Wouwer, a former professional.[9] He had joined pro-tour team Silence–Lotto as a trainee in July 2009,[10] it was announced on 7 September 2009 that he had signed a two-year contract with Silence-Lotto in the wake of a string of good results for the team.[11][12]
In 2014, Blythe rode for the newly formed British NFTO team.[14] After a very successful year competing on the British domestic scene, Blythe joined Australian team Orica–GreenEDGE for the 2015 season.[15] After one season there in August 2015 it was announced that Blythe would be moving to Tinkoff for the 2016 season, where he would be reunited with directeur sportif Sean Yates, who worked with Blythe during his time with NFTO.[16]
With Tinkoff folding at the end of 2016, Blythe joined the Aqua Blue Sport squad for its inaugural season in 2017.[17] Following the announcement of Aqua Blue Sport's collapse, in September 2018 Blythe announced that he would return to Lotto–Soudal for the 2019 season, linking up with former Orica–GreenEDGE teammate Caleb Ewan as part of the latter's sprint train, with an additional role as a domestique for the team's classics squad.[18]
In October 2019, Blythe announced that he would retire at the end of the season.[4]
Post-racing career
Blythe is a pundit for Eurosport's coverage of cycling, having worked part-time in this role on the channel's coverage of the Grand Tours during his final professional season in 2019.[19] He was also "on-site" reporter for NBC Sports' coverage of the 2020 Tour de France,[20] and fulfilled that role again in 2021.[21]
In November 2019, Blythe announced that he was taking up a role with David Millar's cycling clothing brand CHPT3 as a product marketing executive.[19]
