Olympic Talent Team Programme Launches 'Regional Schools Of Racing'

 

News Posted: 27 June

As with all of British Cycling's Olympic Programmes, the Olympic Talent Team Programme constantly strives to be the best in the World for the development of youth category riders. The review process is central in achieving this aim and as such British Cycling continually tweaks the programme in accordance with the review's findings. The latest review has resulted in the launch of the 'Regional Schools of Racing', as well as a change of roles for Talent Team coach Tim Buckle.

Regional Schools of Racing (RSR) have been introduced to provide a much improved pathway for youngsters to progress on to the Talent Team. However, that is not all that the RSR's will provide. The Talent Team Programme has evolved over the past three years to run coaching days on a larger scale, such as two days last year at Mallory Park. Here, well over 100 youngsters attended each session and benefited from the input of the Olympic Talent Team Coaches. Following the success of these and other new initiatives that have been trialled, the RSR has been developed.

Aim
The aim of the RSR is to provide a wider base of youngsters with the opportunity to receive coaching input from the Olympic Talent Team coach in their region. This will essentially create a coaching group in each region that riders are invited to attend, with the aim of creating better bike racers. Providing a wider number of youngsters with this opportunity will not only provide a pathway onto the programme, but also help raise the standard of youth racing across the country and hopefully increase the pool of talented youngsters in each region. This is vital for the sustained success of the World Class Senior programmes.

Delivery
The sessions will be delivered on traffic-free facilities by Olympic Talent Team coaches with the assistance of club coaches. As a number of youngsters enter the sport through Go-Ride initiatives and the good work of clubs, it is important that club coaches are also provided with the opportunity to develop and improve. We feel that the RSR sessions provide a great opportunity for this development. To take advantage of this, the role of Tim Buckle, the current Talent Team coach in the West Midlands, has changed so that he is now available to assist club coaches all around the country to develop their sessions. Tim will act as the facilitator that bridges the gap between the Talent Team and Go-Ride schools and clubs. As such, he will be available to visit sessions and help coaches understand the level that the Talent Team operates at and to show them how the content of their lessons equips young riders with racing skills.

Commenting on his new role as part of this initiative, Tim said: "RSR is about creating a clearer more competitive pathway into the Talent Team but, most off all, it is about making more better bike racers. This process will in turn make the most talented even better. I am looking forward to taking on this new role and I encourage coaches from anywhere in the country to get in touch so I can assist them." Tim can be contacted on timbuckle@britishcycling.org.uk  

The RSR sessions will focus on racing, so although the session content will vary they will, where possible, include some racing with direct input from a coach.

Invitation of riders
Club coaches will be very much involved in nominating and inviting riders to the sessions. A minimum level of ability and skill will be required before a rider is invited to attend a session and through involvement, the club coaches will be in a great position to assist riders to get to up to the level at their own club sessions and then put their names forward for an invitation.

Although the majority of invitations will be through the club coaches, any riders that would like to find out about the programme of RSR taking place in their region should contact the relevant talent coach as follows:

Yorkshire & NE - Phil West; philwest@britishcycling.org.uk  
North West - Matt Winston; mattwinston@britishcycling.org.uk  
East Midlands & East - Jenny Gretton; jennygretton@britishcycling.org.uk  
South East - Stuart Blunt; stuartblunt@britishcycling.org.uk  
South / SW - Stuart MacDonald; stuartmacdonald@britishcycling.org.uk  
West Midlands - Tim Buckle; timbuckle@britishcycling.org.uk  
Wales - James Taylor; jamestaylor@britishcycling.org.uk  
Scotland - Gary Willis; garywillis@britishcycling.org.uk  

In addition to the RSR sessions, this year we are promoting three Mallory Talent Days. Following the overwhelming success last year, the days will be repeated once again at Mallory Park, Leicestershire. Further details including how to register will be published on the British Cycling website approximately three weeks prior to the days taking place and the dates are as follows:

Tuesday July 22nd - Road skills
Thursday August 28th - Road and Cyclo-Cross skills
Tuesday 28th October - Road and Cyclo-Cross skills