ODP Endurance Riders Switch Back to the Track

 

July 19-23; Athens Olympic Velodrome

Home Page European Track Champs

 

 

Back to school for the Endurance riders as they go through the video feedback with their coach Darren Tudor.

 

Keeping the Olympic Development Programme endurance coach Darren Tudor busy at Newport for the pre European Championship training camp were eight riders who are all travelling to Athens. Of those eight, four will be selected for the Team Pursuit where the country will go in as defending champions and the other four, will be vying with the rest for selection in the other endurance races, Pursuit, Scratch and Points with the country able to nominate two riders per event.

Looking at the team line-up, as well as the riders on the ODP, there is also a rider from outside the ODP squad who has been invited to go to Athens, Mark McNally. He has guested for them on a number of stage races this year and his selection for Athens shows that the door is not closed for those outside the programme.

"No-one doubts how strong he is" Darren explained, "he just needs to get better on the track and in Gent (training camp in April) he was going better. Mark has pretty much done everything the ODP boys have done but without the bikes and other stuff. If someone else comes along like Mark, and shows the qualities we are after, it's not a closed door for future events."

In the Junior endurance team going to Athens, only two riders from last years team remain but the crucial thing is that the rest, despite not being juniors when the Olympic Development Programme was launched early in 2005, they have all been part of the programme's camps since its inception early last year. Because of this they are very much at home in the team preparing for this major event in Greece.

 

Peter Kennaugh, Alex Dowsett, Steven Burke and Jonny Bellis start a 2K race effort for the Team Pursuit.

The long road to Athens
The build up to the Europeans has been a long one and back in May, a selection of the ODP endurance riders were off on trips around Europe to compete on the road there. They went to Italy where they had a lot of bad luck and then to Holland for a Hors category UCI ranked stage race where that luck changed a little (only a little!) and they came away with a number of trophies and successes. A race in Switzerland followed as well where they again shined on the mountainous roads.

The road work they have been doing is for a number of reasons. On one hand, it helps in getting them fitter and stronger for their track goals but it also assists them in learning the skills they will need to be road professionals as the GB team looks to try and help them earn a place in a pro team in later years.

Looking back at those stage races, Darren says "Everyone went into the Dutch race a lot more prepared. Going into Italy, they were not sure how hard that race was going to be whilst in Holland, they knew exactly what they had to do."

Holland was however, still a massive learning experience which despite the racing many of these riders have had in Europe for their clubs or as youth riders, they had to learn to race with the Worlds best and survive in echelons that formed in strong crosswinds, as well as cope with stages over lots of cobbles and so on.

It was in these races and conditions that their coach could see the fighting qualities in his riders, something they will need to be Olympic champions which is everyone's aim.

"We went into races with a plan hoping to do well" Darren says talking about the races the team have done on the road, "but the most important thing is that they came out of them having given it 100 per cent and if they make mistakes - fine - but they have to have learnt from that mistake and not repeat it in their next race."

The goal now for Darren is to prepare these riders, especially the Junior 2 ones, so they are ready to challenge for a place on the Olympic Academy next year and as last years juniors have learnt being based in Italy for their road work, there are many skills required when working with the Academy.

Riders have to not only be independent and able to live away from home with everything that requires (cooking lessons anyone?) but also able to apply the lessons learnt in the ODP and build on them on the road and track with the Academy coach Rod Ellingworth. Taking the ODP team to Italy was part of the learning experience for the Junior riders with an eye on the future and the possibility that some will make it into the Academy where racing in Italy is a major part of the programme.

"There is a massive difference between racing in Italy and Belgium" Darren says of the road work "and I wanted them to experience what racing in Italy was like. We have done as much stage racing as we can mixing it with school and exams and some of them are really showing the benefits of that road work. Jonny Bellis is one for example who is really strong, and fast now."

 

Jonny (the Blues Brother) Bellis leads the team as they get up to speed during a 2K effort.

Back on Track
The road work however is behind them for now and its on the track that Darren has been working hard to get them back to where they need to be to challenge for medals at the Europeans. On the day I attended the Newport training camp, there were 2k Team Pursuit race efforts from the starting gate as well as a flying team pursuit effort to finish the day off. After each effort, the videos were put on-screen and dissected so riders could see where they were making mistakes.

With so many riders at the camp, six (Alex Dowsett, Jonny Bellis, Peter Kennaugh, Steven Burke, Adam Blythe and Russell Hampton) were used in the Team Pursuit efforts (four in formation, two following) whilst the bunch race riders, European Junior Scratch race champion Matt Rowe and Mark McNally, were busy doing paced efforts to get some speed in their legs.

Missing from the Newport Velodrome though were the Junior girls, World Junior Championship medallist Lizzy Armitstead, Cardiff's Katie Curtis and a rider fast making a name for herself, Jo Rowsell (Bronze in the British Women's Senior Road Race championship).

Lizzy and Katie were in Manchester training with Nikki Harris under the guidance of Women's coach Dan Hunt. Darren explained that he's tried to instil in these girls a strong work ethic so it's not so much of a shock when they come to work with Dan who is a noted hard task master. Meanwhile, Jo Rowsell was in Holland, the only rider from GB at the European Junior road championships where she competed in the Time Trial and was 4th, just out of the medals.

The ODP endurance coach, Darren Tudor admits that it's a lot different this year preparing for the European Track Championships than last when he had only been in the job for a short while. He explained this year he is a lot more confident teaching the technical side of things for the Team Pursuit which is one of the teams major aims as ever.

European Scratch race champion from 2005, Matt Rowe, was busy this week doing speed work ready to defend his title. Matt and the Team Pursuit both won Gold last year.

Going over the work the team did at Newport in preparing for the Euros, Darren explained they began with some Madison work on day 1 and then went into Team Pursuit training and bunch race efforts for Matt and Mark.

After having done many repetitions of Team Pursuit work in the training and selection camps, Darren was pleased with how quickly they dropped into formation at the Euros training camp adding that the riders expected to figure in vying for a Team Pursuit spot are Peter Kennaugh, Jonny Bellis, Adam Blythe, Alex Dowsett and Steven Burke.

Of the other races, the line-ups being looked at now (and these may change) are Matt Rowe for the Scratch with support from possibly Mark McNally whilst Jonny Bellis rides the Points race with one other and then for the Individual Pursuit, the line up is expected to be Alex Dowsett and Russell Hampton.

It's the Team Pursuit though where the team are looking for a repeat of last years Gold medal winning performance. So the good news for Darren is that at the end of the camp, the team pursuit in race pace trials were seemingly riding faster than the team the year before. And Darren was happy to heap praise on a rider who is the only one left from last years line up, Steven Burke.

Whilst Darren admits it has taken a long time to train the new riders up for this demanding event, he also says that he has also had longer to do that and having 'Burkey' still in the team has been a great help. "Steven Burke having gone last year to the championships, has been very valuable in providing feedback and so on and the other lads have benefited from his experience" Darren explains.

They certainly looked sharp in training as they thundered around the track at a pace few Senior World Championship teams could maintain, practising their changes and keeping their shape at 60 k an hour.

Not only that, after the efforts, everyone seemed so relaxed and Jonny Bellis after the Commonwealth Games experience agreed that this is now a 'walk in the park'. It's certainly hard to believe these riders are just juniors with the results they all achieve (Adam Blythe was 3rd in the Senior Crit nationals) and it will be interesting to see how they compare against the best from Europe on the Olympic track where only over confidence seems to be their biggest threat.

 

Related Links:

Steven Burke Interview >>>>

Lizzy Armitstead Interview >>>>

Katie Curtis Interview >>>>

 

 

More Photographs

 

The Juniors get off the line in formation and down to business.

 

Gold medallist last year Steven Burke is the only rider left from the 2005 team with the rest having gone up an age group and into the Olympic Academy.

 

Isle of Man rider Peter Kennaugh, a first year Junior, leads the Team Pursuit during training.