New Riders Settle Into Olympic Academy
Posted November 16, 2006
By Larry Hickmott
It is now two weeks since the latest intake of riders took up residence in the houses set aside for the Great Britain Cycling Team's Olympic Academy (Under-23) for Endurance riders. These riders are the ones the country may well be looking to for medals at the 2012 London Olympic Games and everything is being done to help them get the most from themselves and prove they have what it takes on the World stage.
Significant this year was that, despite new riders coming in, there were no riders leaving the programme. "Maybe at the end of next year, we'll have another look" their manager Rod Ellingworth explained, "but as long as this group continue progressing we'll see. There is only so many we can take on though so, next year, if there are some juniors we rate better than the current guys, then maybe the current guys will go and the new guys will come in".
Joining for the 2007 season are former Olympic Development Programme (Junior) riders Jonny Bellis, Steven Burke, Russell Hampton and Alex Dowsett, who join last year's intake of Ben Swift, Andy Tennant, Ross Sander, and Ian Stannard, to make eight riders in the Academy. Geraint Thomas from last year's Academy has just left to join the Barloworld professional road team.
Left to Right: Russell Hampton, Jonny Bellis, Ian Stannard and Steven Burke during training this week.
From the current Academy, two are currently in Australia on a pre Moscow World Track Cup training camp, namely Andy Tennant and Ross Sander. Since the Academy's introduction after the Athens Olympics, under the managerial guidance of Rod Ellingworth, there have been many success stories for them.
Besides finding places in professional road teams in Europe for Mark Cavendish, Ed Clancy and Geraint Thomas, there have also been many successes on the bike: Madison rainbow jersey and Commonwealth Games Scratch race title for Mark Cavendish; Ed Clancy was part of the World Title winning Team Pursuit team in 2005; and there was also a Silver medal at this year's World Track Championships for Geraint Thomas, who added to that with a win on the road in Fleche du Sud stage race.
One of the Academy's targets this year was the European Championships. Now the team look forward to a winter where the riders will be competing in UCI World Track Cups and other international competitions before heading off for another season on the road in Italy.
One of the most significant achievements of the academy is how, in 2006, riders fresh out of the junior ranks started getting results as first year seniors. Andy Tennant's ride (3rd overall) in Fleche du Sud was one of many examples of this.
On Tuesday of this week, we tagged along to see how a typical day panned out for them at this time of the year. Still early in the season, and with much hard work to come, the programme is still packed with training and racing. As well as the weekend's international track open, Revolution 14, two of the riders, Jonny Bellis and Steven Burke, will be heading for Belgium and the Gent Six (UIV Cup event).
Gent though will be a rare outing for them as their coach changes his strategy for the new intake. "These new guys are definitely better prepared" Rod explained to us. "But there is still a whole new learning curve ahead of them as they get to grips with being full time riders, which is quite hard for them."
"The programme has also been a learning curve for me" the Academy manager admitted. "Last winter, I was away with a few of the lads doing the six days whilst the rest of the team were left back here in the UK. Looking back, I don't think that worked well. So that is why this year we're not really doing many trips at this point in the season and instead, we're staying here and doing the general work we need to do before we start to travel."
Rod Ellingworth goes through yet another video of the rider's performance on the track.
"The first two months is like boot camp up until Christmas whilst the riders are based here in Manchester. Then they'll get a few days at home for Christmas and then, in January, we are off to LA for the World Track Cup. Then we'll stay out there for two weeks afterwards to train on the road before returning to prepare for the Manchester World Track Cup."
"In LA, all the riders will get a ride and then for Manchester, I'll make a selection of five or six. They need to have this experience at World Cup level so they get a marker as to how good or bad they are."
For an example of what the boot camp schedule is right now, see the riders' programme for this week at the bottom of this article.
Day in the Life Of
The day we spent with the riders on the Academy began with a 10am ride to Sportcity on a wet and windy Manchester winter day. There at the EIS, they got changed into casual clothing and sat down for their Italian lesson with tutor Katya Bargna from the Languages for Business Centre. Prior to this, I had spoken at length to Jo Harrison, the EIS North West Athlete Support manager.
She explained how over the last few years, there has been a progressive increase in the amount of time GB's riders have taken advantage of the many programmes and assistance the EIS can provide them with. Besides sport science and video analysis, which is common at training sessions and major competitions, the EIS provide much more for our riders.
There's a riders lounge with TV and internet access (but no PlayStations yet!), a gymnasium, a physio and many lifestyle courses to help them outside of the actual cycling, so that when they line up in a competition, they can focus solely on their job as a racing cyclist. These comprehensive facilities are only across the road from the Velodrome, which makes them very well placed for our cyclists.
Italian Lesson
With the team being based in Italy for much of the year, knowing the language is one of the skills the riders need to make themselves more comfortable living there. So at the EIS they are given a 34 hour course to help them learn that language. It's based more on the conversation skills that young riders based there will need in everyday life, whether it's ordering food or drinks, getting directions or even social skills for their evenings off (they tell me they don't have time for that though)!
Attending the course this week were the injured Ben Swift, Ian Stannard and newcomers to the Academy, Jonny Bellis, Russell Hampton and Steven Burke. The other new rider on the Academy, Alex Dowsett, is still at home whilst he completes his schooling.
Talking about the value of the Italian lessons, Ben told us "After having lived in Italy last year, I know now how important doing this is. It's the everyday stuff we need, just to help the communication we need to have between people there because when we're in the house together we always speak English."
For two hours, their tutor Katya went through various exercises in talking Italian before the riders got changed again and headed for the Velodrome. Lunch followed and then a hard session on the track. Over the space of the three hours, the riders did two 5k Team Pursuit efforts and five 4k Team Pursuit efforts. Working with them was 'guest' rider David Millar.
Above: David Millar heads the Under 23 Academy riders around a lap of the track as he works with them during a training session at Manchester on Tuesday.
Talking about Dave Millar being with the team on the day we visited Rod explained that it was good for the road professional to get to know his riders as they may well be joining him on the road circuit around Europe in the coming years. It also gave the new British Pursuit champion an opportunity to get in some quality training prior to the Revolution meeting, whilst also giving the young riders a goal as they rode hard on the track keen not to let the recent Tour of Spain stage winner down.
The track was certainly busy with Bradley Wiggins and Nikki Harris doing their own thing along with Iain Dyer and his Sprint Academy riders Anna Blyth, Lucy Ayres and Jason Kenny. Also in on the session was Shanaze Reade, current World BMX Champion who I had seen earlier that day working in the Gym at the EIS.
The session started with a 5k Team Pursuit effort (17 second laps) and after a recovery period of five laps, they went straight into a 4k effort. This was one of two double efforts they would do followed by some single 4k efforts.
The day's training was all about learning a specific skill for the Team Pursuit and so while the pace was a second or two per lap off a race effort, the speed was still very high as they concentrated on getting the skill right with the help of video anaylsis thanks to Chris from the EIS.
Talking about the skills work they are doing, Rod said "we continue to move on and find ways of going faster and this work is about getting every little bit out of it. I really want to make sure they are working as one on the track and then we'll work on their engines. "
Final sprint for the line -- three of the Academy riders head for the line during a drill for the Team Pursuit.
The coach added that the skills sessions are generally split between doing Team Pursuit and Madison drills. This gives them everything they need to compete on the track as well providing benefits on the road too.
There were certainly some sore legs afterwards: manager/coach Rod Ellingworth was pleased with how it had gone saying that this new intake of riders had benefited greatly from their coaching in the Olympic Development Programme, under Darren Tudor.
One of the big differences between this year's intake and that of other years is the skill level of the new intake. Performance Director Dave Brailsford has been keen to put in place "development pathways" so that young riders are being coached and given the skills at a young age, so that if and when they get to the Olympic Podium Programme (effectively the final stage in their development), should they get that far, they have everything they need to win medals for their country.
So the riders coming into the Academy have now spent two years on the Olympic Development Programme. On this Rod says "There has been definite progression in the level of the riders coming into the Academy. Darren and I are working quite close to try and ensure that the change over from one programme to another is quite smooth."
In all, the riders had done 30 kilometres of Team Pursuiting and after each effort within that, they went through a detailed question and answer session looking at the video. Riders each time were asked how it went for them and then there was a critique of the skills being performed.
Right: The Academy riders ride home in the rain after a long day at Sportcity.
If 30k on the track wasn't enough, there was a night session in the Manchester Premier League Track meeting also to look forward to. So once the training was over, the riders had to refuel and then prepare their bikes for the evening work out. Results in these are not the aim but learning tactics and basic race experience is important. Before they started the session, they had a meeting with their coach to go through what he was looking for from them.
Once the track league was over, the riders had another visit from their coach who had advice on what they had done well and not so well during the evening. The final chore of the day was the ride home to their academy house, a 30 minute ride in the dark and rain of a Manchester winter. Whilst it is a far different regime to the one riders had to endure prior to lottery funding, it is certainly no easy ride and Rod doesn't call the winter programme a boot camp for nothing.
One look at this week's programme shows that there aren't any days off - it's a 24/7 job for these cyclists. It's a tough test of their love and passion for their chosen sport whilst giving them all the tools they need to make it as pro bike riders in the coming years.
After a winter on the boards, Rod takes his boys back to Italy at the start of March in 2007. Last summer, the time in Italy was treated as a pilot programme for the Academy and it was a big success. So next year they will have a similar schedule on the road, although the introduction of having to ride the Under 23 World Cups to qualify for the World Road Championships means the race schedule will be different."
Talking about the World Cup Road races, Rod said "We're going to give that a go for a year and see how it turns out. Only one of the races is in Italy, so there will be a lot of extra travelling which is a bit disappointing."
Rider Interviews
Whilst with the riders, we spoke to two of them, second year academy member Ben Swift and first year Academy rider Jonny Bellis.
Ben Swift
One of the riders not training and instead walking round with his arm in a big sling was Ben Swift. He had a rather nasty crash on the last stage of the Tour of Britain this year where he dislocated his shoulder but because it went 'back in' as he rolled over, the medics didn't find a problem at the time. It did seem to get better and as a precaution he went for an x-ray in Italy and that didn't show anything. More >>>>
Jonny Bellis
A Silver and Bronze medal at the World Junior championships and a ride at the Commonwealth Games were just two of the highlights for the Isle of Man's Jonny Bellis this year. He is one of four riders to make it onto the Academy and says that after two weeks, it has been busier than what they expected it would be. More >>>>
This week's programme for the Academy riders
Monday: (Day off riding)
Food Hygiene Course to avoid issues such as food poisoning etc
Tuesday: (Hard Day)
10.00 am Set off to EIS
11.00 am Italian lessons, 2 hours
1.00 pm Lunch
2.00 pm Track session (3 hours)
7.30 pm Track League
9.30 pm Ride home (30 mins)
Wednesday (Moderate)
3 hour Road ride including two 20 min efforts
Rest
Thursday (Hard)
8.00 am Ride to the track (30 mins)
9.00 am Madison session (1-2 hours)
1.00 pm Track session, Team Pursuit efforts (2 hours)
6.00pm Ride home (30 mins)
Friday (Moderate)
10.00am Ride to the track (30 mins)
12.30 feedback sessions
2.00 pm Track session, madison session
5.00pm, Ride home (30 mins)
Saturday (Hard)
9.00am 2 hours easy road ride
5.00pm Ride to the track (30 mins)
7.00pm Racing (Revolution)
Sunday (Moderate)
10.00am 3 to 3.5 hours road ride including a long climb.
Related Articles:
Riders Selected for 2007 Academy: >>>>>
