Lucy Ayres Interview

 

Interview Date: 21st of November, 2006

Sprint Academy Feature: >>>>>

 

Lucy hard at work in the gym on Tuesday.

 

One of the country's top young female sprinters, Lucy Ayres from Wigan, has shown at the very top level she has what it takes to be a World class sprinter. Lucy is one of two female riders in the Great Britain Cycling Team's Sprint Academy and she is now settled into a routine of training hard on the road and track as well as in the gym to try and gain a place to ride the Manchester UCI World Track Cup in February.

Lucy, who rides for SportCity Velo, this year finished 9th in the 500 metre time trial at the Junior World Championships, whilst at Revolution 14, Lucy was second overall in a classy international sprint Omnium, beating the Junior World 500 metre champion Sandie Claire of France in the process.

Lucy also has two Bronze medals from the 2006 Senior British Track Championships in a growing collection of trophies - a collection that will no doubt continue to grow as she is given the best opportunity of making the most of her physical ability being part of a World Class team.

"It felt great to be selected for the Academy and to have the opportunity to do this full time. Being on the programme means that there is pressure to achieve your performance goals but if you focus on what you need to do, it should all be okay so I feel positive about that side of it."

 

Right: Lucy practices her standing starts with coach Iain Dyer.

Talking about the transition from the Junior Development Programme (ODP) to the Academy (for Under 23s), Lucy explained "It has been a big change going from the ODP to the Academy. We now have four track sessions a week and two gym sessions so the workload has increased a lot and so has the intensity."

Leaving home to be part of the academy has given her the opportunity for independence but with her family home only 40 minutes away, she doesn't have far to go to see family and friends when time permits. Lucy added it was good to have also finished college and not to have to worry about studying whilst concentrating on her cycling.

Lucy admits that being in the Sprint Academy with Anna Blyth, who she has known and travelled with on the Olympic Development Programme for two years, means making the move from home into an Academy house has been very easy. Lucy and Anna share the house with BMX World Champion Shanaze Reade and Lucy says "we all get along really well and have a laugh so that has helped make the move out of home really easy".

The training routine for the riders is fairly straightforward even if the actual elements of the training are not. The year is divided up into phases and their training on the road, track and in the gym is structured around these phases. At the moment, the riders are doing two gym sessions a week, whereas they were only doing one a week on the ODP.

This change has meant that the Sprint Academy riders have had to adjust to the bigger work load they now have to complete each day. "You can really feel it in your legs on the track when you do a gym session in the morning. The legs on the bike are really heavy but I do enjoy the gym work a lot so that's okay" Lucy told us. "We've been doing this since early October and I am starting to feel stronger. The weights have been increased in most exercises I am doing so it must be working."

 

Lots of effort required for the drills in the gym prior to heading for the track and yet more hard work.

 

Asked for an idea of what she lifts, Lucy says at the moment her maximum lift for a back squat is 115 kilos which isn't bad for a girl weighing only 64 kilos! The Strength phase she is in means that she isn't seeing any major improvements at the moment on the track and is looking for them to come later on in the training cycle.

Soon, Lucy will be heading for Majorca to do some road work, but last weekend she took part in the Revolution international track open and says that although rusty having not raced since the track nationals, she felt it was a lot of help to gain more experience against international riders.

When Lucy returns from Majorca, she will continue her training with the National Sprint Coach Iain Dyer, working towards achieving her performance goals in order to gain selection for the Manchester UCI World Track Cup which is the next major competition she is aiming to be selected for. After that, the training will be structured around the major goal for the riders, the European Track Championships.

 

Personal Bests:
200 Metre TT: 12.110
500 Metre Time Trial: 36.4