Jonny Bellis Selected for World Track Championships
Interview by Larry Hickmott
Posted March 15 | GB Track Worlds Team
Manchester World Cup in the madison and he makes Timothy Gudsell, a new professional with Pro Tour team Française des Jeux, grit his teeth as Jonny gives it some gas in the Madison.
After the Manchester UCI World Track Cup in February, where the British teams had unprecedented success with 8 Gold and 14 medals in all, the Great Britain Cycling Team have been busy preparing for the World Championships which start at the end of this month in Palma de Mallorca from the 29th March to 1st April.
In the past weeks, riders have been busy here in Manchester and abroad, putting the final touches to their form prior to an intense two week camp at Manchester which started this week. There, the riders in line for selection have been training hard and the team has also had a number of selection test events. One rider who hasn’t had to worry about the selection tests is Jonny Bellis as he had already passed a major hurdle.
The Isle of Man rider is part of the Great Britain Cycling Team’s Olympic Academy (Track/Endurance) and from that teams six riders (Under 23’s), Jonny was selected to represent his country at the World Track Championships. The versatile 19 year old rider who won a bronze in the Team Pursuit riding for Great Britain at the recent Manchester World Track Cup and also finished 4th in the Madison (with Ben Swift) has been selected to ride the inaugural Mens Omnium World Championship.
Right: Jonny is pretty pleased with his Silver medal at the Junior Track Worlds last year.
The event, in the World Track Championship programme for the first time, comprises of a 200m TT, Individual Pursuit, Scratch race, Points race, and Kilometre. It is certainly a testing days work but with the work ethic that his coach Rod Ellingworth has set him and his team-mates, Jonny will certainly have the endurance for it all.
Jonny agreed it was a big accolade for himself to be selected from an academy packed with talented athletes. “Having been on the Academy for only five months and to be selected for the Worlds couldn’t be any better really.” Being selected was a goal for each rider to aim for but is extra special for Jonny being only a first year senior.
A fellow Isle of Man rider, Mark Cavendish, won his first World title as a second year senior and that is not lost on Jonny who says “hopefully next year I’ll be even stronger after a year in Italy and hopefully up another level fitness wise and be able to ride an Olympic discipline event. That is not an unrealistic ambition for the World Junior Silver medallist (Points race) who showed in the Team Pursuit at Manchester just how strong he is as the GB Academy team went faster than they have ever gone before recording a 4.05 for the 4000 metres.
Talking about the Omnium however, Jonny says “I was a bit unsure when I saw I have to do a 200 metre TT and Kilometre but I am confident in my ability and feel I am a fast rider so I think if I can minimise my losses in the sprint events and score high in the endurance events, who knows where it will take me. There isn’t any pressure on me either and I’ll be able to get the experience of doing my first senior Track Worlds so its all good.”
Asked what it is like to go from one group, the Olympic Academy, and be drafted in to a senior team of experienced individuals, Jonny replied “It does feel different coming into this group. I spend a lot of time with the Academy lads and you know everything about each and every one of them so coming into this new group for a few weeks is a bit strange but I am getting to know them as time goes on”.
Right: Jonny leads the 100% ME Academy team to Bronze medal in the Team Pursuit at the Manchester World Track Cup.
“Its different doing my own efforts in training because I am used to being in a team pursuit group since I was a junior and that is all I have done in training and seeing the senior lads go up and me not being part of that Team Pursuit squad, it’s a bit weird but also a good experience to get used to.”
Going back to the Team Pursuit at Manchester where the young Brits beat a strong Spanish squad, Jonny explained his role in that race. “Before the race Rod drew up a strategy where I would do the start, lap, lap and a half, lap and a half, and finish (four times on the front in the 16 laps).”
“When I heard this I wasn’t very confident I could do that but I definitely felt better in the final than I did in the qualifier. So when I had to put those big turns in, I put them in better in the final and I feel that helped contribute to the extra speed and going much quicker (almost 3 seconds faster in the final) in the medal ride off where everybody was up for it. It was good to be part of that.”
Jonny on the podium at the Manchester World Track Cup with riders from the GB team who he will now travel with to the World Track Championships at the end of March.
It has to be said that the road to the World Track Championships has not been easy. Although coming into the Academy already possessing a lot of the skills required, there was much to be learnt and I personally witnessed some tough days on the track for Jonny as the first year Academy riders tried to mesh with the second year academy riders in a discipline which requires much more skill than people may think.
“There is so much detail that goes into it and you have to strive to get the best out of the team in everyway, technically and physically. So it is demanding but it does pay off on the day.” Considering Jonny never really rode the track as a first year Junior, his time on the track has been limited but the never ending drills under the watchful eye of Darren Tudor and now Rod Ellingworth have seen him progress to the point where he is already being looked at for a spot in the senior team.
Asked how his introduction to the track came about he says “I went on a road racing trip to Switzerland with Shane Sutton (Track performance manager for GB) and he spoke to me and asked me to come along and try the track. I got invited along on an ODP camp and started to progress from there.”
The track is not the be all for Jonny though who has more of a road racing background. “Hopefully if things go well on the road in Italy, I can find myself a spot in a team. My ambition is to be a successful professional cyclist and that requires me being away from home permanently and the time on the academy helps you learn how to deal with that”. We wish him luck at the Worlds as he flys the GB flag on the opening day.
