Great Britain Cycling Team's Women's Olympic Academy

 

23rd of December, 2006

 

 

In britishcycling.org.uk's continuing look at the programmes within the Great Britain Cycling Team, we paid a visit to a training session for the newly formed Women's Olympic Academy on the Friday before Christmas, the final hit out for the riders prior to a short break for the festive celebrations.

The Women's Olympic Academy is a new initiative for the 2007 season and has only been up and running for six weeks, under the directorship of Women's Endurance coach Dan Hunt. Three riders have been inducted into the programme, former World Junior championship medallist Lizzy Armitstead, Katie Curtis and Jo Rowsell. They join Nikki Harris who moves into the new Academy having been part of the GB setup for a couple of years.

Lizzy has come to the Academy from the Olympic Development Programme which she was part of for two years. Prior to that, this young rider from Otley in West Yorkshire was part of the North East Talent Team. Highlights of her 2006 season included 4th in the Junior European Championship Points race and 4th in the Junior World Championship Scratch race.

 

Coach Dan Hunt helps Katie Curtis get her handlebars in position on their new bikes.

London's Jo Rowsell was also a rider on the ODP and she is the current Junior National Pursuit champion. She was also 4th in the Junior European Championship Time Trial. However, perhaps her most impressive result was her 3rd place in the National Senior Women's Road Race Championship which also saw her win the Under 23 Champion's jersey, all whilst still a junior.

Welsh rider Katie Curtis (Cardiff) also comes to the Academy from the ODP. Katie is National Junior Points champion on the Track and since joining the Academy, her form has come on in leaps and bounds.

The aim for the Olympic Academy Programme is to help these riders fulfil their potential across a range of Olympic disciplines on track and on the road, with a view to winning medals at the 2012 London Olympics and beyond.

Unlike the Men's equivalent, the Women's Olympic Academy is non-residential, because all three riders who have been selected are still at school and only when they have finished their studies, will they be brought together under one roof and their training stepped up another level. For now though, as they are at school and the training camps, like the one we visited in Manchester, are limited to periods when all are free from schooling commitments.

The day we visited was part of a three day camp where the riders had travelled from all parts of the country. Jo had driven up from London, Katie from Wales and the closest to the Velodrome, Lizzy from Otley. Also at the session was Nikki Harris who has been part of the GB team since before the Women's Academy was setup and of all of them, is the only full time rider.

The track training at Manchester is aimed at helping the riders attain the race fitness required to perform at the Manchester World Track Cup where some or all are in line for a ride. Of the four riders, only Nikki has Track World Cup experience so, for the other three, riding the Manchester event will give them a taste of the level they need to be at and a goal for them to aim for.

 

Dan Hunt briefs the riders before a drill on the track.

National Women's Endurance coach Dan Hunt has sensible expectations of the riders at the Manchester World Track Cup: "it's unrealistic whilst they are still full time school students to be competitive with the best in the World, but I think it's important they experience this level of racing before next year when they'll drop into a full season of World Track Cups. It is all about learning where the level is and then stepping up their game to perform at that level".

After the Winter Track season has finished, the riders will compete in a series of UCI ranked Road races during April and May before having June off whilst they do their exams. This will be followed, in the latter part of the year, by more stage racing on the road and, if they attain the level the team expect them to, they'll then be in line to be selected for the UCI Road Worlds.

"I don't want to say this is a track or road programme" Dan explained. "What we're trying to do is create Olympic medal bike riders, whether that be on the road or on the track. If you look at Women's cycling internationally, riders who are competitive on the road can also be competitive on the track, so one discipline links to the other."

Following the 2007 road season, the Olympic Academy riders will then go on to the Track World Cups, where they will be expected to be competitive. And awaiting them is an exciting new event for Women, the Team Pursuit. This explains why the girls are now doing Team Pursuit drills in training. As well as being a conditioning tool, the Team Pursuit drills in training also give them experience of the event which will be introduced into Track World Cups and World Championships in the next track season. Whilst we watched their afternoon session, the girls did six Team Pursuit efforts during their three hours on the track.

"This camp is all about learning the skill of Team Pursuiting, which we'll be doing for real some day" says their coach. "I think when it comes to the track programme, you have two events that you can use to cover all the skills and fitness conditioning they need for bunch track races. Those are the Team Pursuit and Madison, which make up a big part of our coach led racing. In those, the girls have been doing 120k Madison efforts in a day and to be fair, the girls have come in here and impressed."

 

Talking about the Team Pursuit drills, Dan went onto explain "we intend to progress these Team Pursuiting sessions so they are doing blocks very much like the lads. So this week's session has been about learning some of the skills required; the changes, the effort, the starts and the finishes."

For the other sessions this week, the team have also had English Institute of Sport video analysts on hand to give them feedback on the drills so the riders can learn from the step-by-step analysis immediately aftewards.

The Team Pursuit will also be taught at ODP level so riders coming into the Olympic Academy are already well drilled. "Simon Cope (Womens Endurance ODP Coach) and I work closely together" Dan told us "and I have a fair amount of input into what those girls will be doing. So the focus in their track training will be the Team Pursuit and Madison because if they can do those events, they can do Points and Scratch races."

 

Katie Curtis leads the foursome round the Manchester track.

Qualifying for the Academy

The GB Cycling Team's Olympic Academy for Women is aimed at riders between 18 and 23 and although that rigid, it is, says the coach, where they would like to keep it. As for what he is looking for from riders, he explained "if a rider performs exceptionally domestically, then they are generally given the chance to show internationally, and if they do that, then we can then look at the possibility of offering them a place on the squad."

"We don't have a massive group of talent to work from though but we are hoping that will come from the pool of riders coming through from the ODP."

Once on the programme, the girls are funded by lottery money which is there to cover their training related costs. They also get their bikes and kit so they don't really have any equipment costs. The coach stressed that the money they get is there to help them get to and from training/races and by way of example, says one of the girls has used her money to buy herself a cheap run around car just so she can get to Manchester for track sessions.

Rider Interviews

Katie Curtis (Wales, Cardiff) >>>>
Lizzy Armitstead (Otley, Yorkshire) >>>>
Nikki Harris (Derbyshire) >>>>
Jo Rowsell (London) >>>>

 

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