Anna Blyth: Junior Women's World Keirin Champion

 

Interview Date: 21st of November, 2006

Sprint Academy Feature: >>>>>

 

For one of the country's newest World Champions, Anna Blyth of Leeds, being offered a place on the Sprint Academy is the culmination of a long, hard and successful year with the Great Britain Cycling team. Like the other riders eligible to apply, Anna had known in the run up to the Junior Worlds that a Sprint Academy was being set up and she says "it was nice to know that there was another level we could aspire to."

The Academy was one of two career choices the talented rider had, with the other being a University place studying Sports Science in Liverpool. Anna chose the Sprint Academy and her parents, who were part of the capacity crowd at Revolution 14, have, says Anna, been very supportive of her choice. Anna adds that the rest of her family and friends are also now starting to understand it all and realise it isn't just going out and riding a bike for fun and that it is a job for her.

Life on the Sprint Academy during their first week was a little bit of a shock she admits - like having to sort out everything herself as well as shopping, doing the chores and so on. So that was a short, steep learning curve for her and the others but it has, she says, got easier as the weeks have gone on. "With our training being so structured, you always know what you are doing which helps when planning the other things we have to do" Anna added.

Moving into the academy has given these young riders their independence and is the start of a new chapter in their lives. Only when they go home to their parents do they realise how much independence they now have and Anna admits it is great to have the responsibility of looking after herself.

But whilst being a full time bike rider living away from home has presented new challenges to all the new Sprint Academy riders, the progression from ODP to Academy and beyond is all very seamless, which is how these GB Cycling Team programmes are designed to be.

 

No-one can accuse these young riders of not giving this their all as they train hard so they can race hard and be the best in the World.

The Academy Sprinters are working with the same coach they had in the ODP, Iain Dyer, so that feels very much the same and their training sessions now are in the same time slot as the Podium Programme riders, which means they get to do the same things and become comfortable being around riders they will invariably be racing with at World Track Cups etc.

 

"I feel very comfortable in this environment already" Anna says "and it wasn't such a big shock moving up because we still had Iain there and having been to world class sessions before, we knew the riders so that has helped us become just another part of the team."

Having seen the young riders knuckle down and do the hard work, I asked Anna how she finds her racing and training full time. Is it just a job now? "No one said it would be easy and we are fully prepared to do what ever it takes to succeed" Anna says. The extra work load is already helping her improve and since the Junior Worlds, Anna has set a new PB which she did at the Revolution 14 Track Meeting at Manchester last weekend.

Asked where she thinks the improvement has come from, Anna replies, "I think it is a mixture of things. Consistently being on the track has been a big thing but the main thing is doing nothing else but cycling. Before, I was only on the track once every three weeks or so but now I'm going on pretty much every day and that has really helped. So I think I am now a lot fitter than I was."

The training regime includes three or four 3 hour track sessions and two gym sessions plus during some phases like now, two road rides a week plus riding to and from the track (an hour). Seeing them training, it does look harder than racing and on one of the days I was there their training amounted to six hours. An hour to and from the track, two hours in the gym and then three hours on the track.

 

"Physically, training is always harder than racing where as mentally racing is always going to be harder" Anna says. "In racing, you are giving it everything but you have the adrenalin boost with it, but you need to train harder to make sure you can race hard."

Having made the Sprint Academy has helped Anna's mental approach to racing and training too. "I feel a lot more confident in myself now and confident of what I can do. Getting onto the programme has been a big help in that. You have to start to look within yourself and know you have been chosen to be on the programme for a reason. So that is part of it."

Having the rainbow stripes on her back also gives her confidence of course and she admits it is really great to be able to wear them at meetings like Revolution. Being introduced as World Champion is really nice she says and one of the 'perks' of being a World Champion.

Talking about her weaknesses and strengths, she admits that tactically you can always be better but feels she is doing pretty well so far. Anna added that on Saturday (Revolution) she did feel a little rusty after a break from racing but added "I can read races now a lot more than I used to, and have more strategies in my head about how to use the tactics. You go into a race with a clear plan and then take it from there."

"Technically I do have a few weaknesses (which Anna wouldn't reveal!) so I need to work on those especially as I now move up a category where I will meet experienced riders."

An event where Anna will indeed come up against experienced senior riders for the first time is the Moscow World Cup in December. It is her first World Cup and she admits having heard so much about the track, she is really looking forward to experiencing it all.

She knows her PB for the flying 200 of 11.5 is in the ballpark for doing okay at senior level even though she is still only 18. At the recent Sydney World Cup, the fastest half dozen riders were in 11.4 territory on the Olympic track which is similar to Manchester whilst the slowest qualifiers, also Juniors this year, were doing 11.9 which hopefully bodes well for Anna in Moscow and other World Track Cups.

With the times for the women so close, experience will count for a lot and it is this introduction to World Track Cups so young that will stand Anna in good stead as she looks to start to climb the ladder of the senior ranks, having been a Junior World Champion. Her big goal, as it is for anyone on the programme, is to be an Olympic Champion and she says that her aim is to take it one step at a time and if she makes the Senior World's this year, then that would be great.

Despite having done two Junior World Track Championships, Anna says she will still be nervous making the step up to World Cup level but adds she will still prepare the same and race as hard as she always does. Anna will also benefit from the routine the team has at all events which is very much the same, enabling them to concentrate solely on their job on the track. We wish Anna well in Moscow and the other UCI World Track Cups and look forward to hearing more from this talented rider in the months and years ahead.

 

Personal Bests:
200 Metres TT: 11.590 (November 2006)
500 metres: 36.0 (Europeans, Athens, July 2006)