Academy Takes to the Open Roads of Italy

 

Story posted July 2, 2007

By Larry Hickmott

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A Successful Programme
There have been many pointers to the Olympic Academy being a great success. I remember well the Academy riders in the UK Sports 100% ME colours racing the Team Pursuit at the Manchester World Cup this year. They were, quite simply awesome, the young guns were faster than most nations in the World.

 

Not long after, two former Academy riders then went on to be part of the World Championship Team Pursuit winning quartet in Majorca, namely Ed Clancy and Geraint Thomas. On the road, the team have had many successes across Europe and these continue in 2007 with Ben Swift and Ian Stannard winning events for the Academy, whilst former pupil Cavendish has done the same in the Pro ranks.

 

It isn’t the first time the GB team have tried to develop young riders and get them into pro teams on the road. But this programme has met with a lot of success and asked about this, Rod explained “The difference between this programme and ones in the past is the structure of the programme.”

 

“At the start of the programme, the first year of the academy, we have the boot camp style phase and for me, the work ethic and discipline elements are the the foundation for it all. Previously we didn’t have that. If I moved away from Italy, I am not saying it wouldn’t run, but  the guys would lose an edge of the performance because I am consistently turning them back to why we’re here for and I’ll remind everyone thinking of being on the academy, we are not here to have a jolly and to go to the café.”

 

Last year in Athens, Rod's lads won the European Team Pursuit title and two of the riders (Thomas and Clancy) are now professionals on the road.

 

Legitimate Route to a Pro Contract
Rod is keen to stress that the Academy is not a machine shop turning out champions. “If anybody thinks they will get on the programme and it’s a conveyor belt and they’ll come out a pro, they’ll go wrong. But, if somebody joins this programme, and they stay on and have the ambition they need to be a pro bike rider and medal either on road or track, then yes, this is the vehicle to take them there.”

 

“This is as good a vehicle as any to take them there. Whether they are good enough, however, only time on the programme will tell.”

 

Riders on the programme learn many skills within a structure that sees them learning on and off the bike. “The first key  things I say when I do a presentation to them is work ethic and discipline will give you the results. And results is the last thing we look at.”

 

“These riders on the Academy (the current cop of riders) are far from the finished article and they are still developing. The coming European Championships for example will give them a major event where they will feel that expectation to perform. If they don’t perform, it isn’t the result that matters - the real issue is if they underperform because they haven’t prepared well for the race. They will learn from that situation. We’ll talk about how we’d like to get so many medals, but the idea is that the Europeans is that final learning curve to take it to the line and how do I deliver?”

 

“The Academy is about work, its not a jolly or a joy ride. They will graft. In November, in the boot camp, they’ll be doing 20 odd hours on the bike a week plus eight hours of education and with everything else, a 40 hour week.” 

 

Part of the winter programme is a language school, Italian, to help them cope with life abroad.

 

The road element
On there being a Road element to the Academy, Rod says “We are  starting to get riders who potentially are going to be more focused on the road. Ian Stannard is one who chooses to lean to the road a bit more.”

 

“There will always be a track element to the programme but I know we’re not going to ignore any super talented young kid even if they were a 55 kilo rider. If they are winning bike races at the top level, and we still have an Italian team based in Italy, we would definitely take a look at them. All of the guys on the programme are talented in some way or another.”

 

“As an example, Russell Hampton early on, hadn’t showed  a lot on the track but had on the road and we knew he had a big engine. So he came onto the programme and then after  two or three months, he goes and wins a World Track Cup and he is here now (Newport, pre-Europeans training camp) training on the track and has definitely closed the gap.”

 

“So, as it stands, if there was a rider out there who was showing super ability on the road, you wouldn’t ignore them.”

 

Skills work

 

A blast from the past and Rod out with his first Academy team in Cheshire, teaching them skills they will need on the road. Tow of this group have gone on to earn places in the Tour de France.

Being a successful bike rider, especially a professional, requires lots of skills as well as physical talent as professional level cycle racing is one of the most punishing sports. The Tour de France, a race which lasts three weeks, with the riders tackling upwards of 100 miles a day, is enough to show that the sport is tough, very tough. And Rod’s job is to prepare his riders for that. To prepare them not just to be able to ride over these mountains and race for five hours but also have the required skills to be at home in the ‘peloton’ and be ready when faced with the various tasks a rider will face during a typical season.

 

“We have just done four months in Italy and when ever we a have break between races we work on race skills. Everything I do with them is about how do they race best as a team. Every training session, we talk about bike racing. None of it is about just doing an effort for fitness. It’s also about why we are getting fit and it is in the bike race that the fitness is needed.”

 

“So we go out and do lots of team time trial drills, lots of climbing exercises, learning how to deal with the long climbs. It’s not just physical but about techniques. On a 10 or 15k climb you’ll go through good and bad sections, and I go alongside them and refocus them after they get dropped and get them to remember what we have talked about. You have cracked, how do you get it back.”

 

“We also do lead out sessions so we know how to lead out our sprinter in a bunch finish, sessions behind the motorbike to build their speed, sessions behind the car so its as if you’re in the middle of the bunch and just using the gears at race speed”.

 

Rod is always looking at his riders and analysing their technique to see where improvements can be made. “In a stage race in Germany, we were car two or three every day and I could see one of our riders in the bunch and see him go up a short steep climbs and instead of dropping it on the little ring and dancing up and letting his legs do as little as possible, he’d keep it in 53x14 and wind it up the climb. And we would talk about it later and how that chips away at your own energy”. So being with them 24/7 makes a difference!"

 

Mock Races
To help them prepare well for when they race in Italy, not just ‘chipper’ (easy) events but ones where the world's best Under 23 riders are racing, the Academy riders will  once  a week, do a mock race, a club run type thing.

 

“I’ll tell them the night before, we’re out for five hours and there is a climb every hour and we’ll sprint here and sprint there and I want them to get through this bike race. We’ll drive it flat out up this or that climb or they’ll be behind the car some where else and then we’ll sprint at the end.”

 

“Within that, they’ll puncture and come back to the car. Or I’ll have them on the radios so we do that practice and I’ll call them back to the car regularly like ‘Andy Tennant come back to the car please’ and he’ll sit along side the car and we’ll chat and then maybe I’ll give him some bottles to take to the riders and its all practice.”

 

“Before these ‘races’, we’ll look at each of the riders and their form and decide, how can we get the best result – who is the best bike rider here at the moment and we’ll ID two riders. Then I’ll tell one of the others, you have to come back to the car at 50k and take all the bottles and I’ll talk to you about how to do that. Where they come back, I’ll explain where they put the bottles and then how do you go from the cars in the convoy to the front of the bunch.”

 

Even at races proper, the coach is keen they learn and develop their skills. By way of example, he explained “I’ll tell them before a race where we we’re going to start riding so they get a chance to practice doing through and off at the front of the bunch. And even if its not a bunch sprint, I make them sprint because they won’t learn unless they sprint on tired legs. Every day you’re chipping away at them so they learn something, even on an easy day.”

 

Networking….
The work the team does on behalf of riders goes beyond giving them the skills and making the most of their physical ability. Within the Great Britain team are people who have contacts within professional teams and that includes former professional Shane Sutton as well as other GB staff who have raced and worked in Europe, such as Dave Brailsford and Rod Ellingworth.

 

So when a rider is ready to move on, the team will do their best to find them a suitable place in a team. “One thing I want to make clear to everyone is we’re not going to give free places in a pro team away” Rod says on this. “After the learning and training, they have to get the results to move on.”

 

“For example, Ben Swift - in big bike races this year, has had a first, third, fourth and seventh plus other jersey winning performances in stage races – they are major results in major bike races and he is moving on to a pro contract and that is great progression for him. Ian Stannard however has had a win and a fourth, and a couple of other decent results, but is not moving on yet because he has to concentrate on what he is doing and get a few more results.”

 

The Academy programme has for a few years now also had some high profile ‘fans’ and one of these resulted in Cavendish getting a spot in the Tour in one of the World's leading professional teams, T-Mobile.

 

“The people at the head of the T-Mobile development programme are super impressed with how we run things. They were at a race in Germany when ‘Cav’ won two stages and the green jersey and Geraint won the young rider jersey and Ed (Clancy) won a  stage and held the yellow jersey. That was a hell of a race for us. And the T-Mobile people were impressed with how the lads were drilled and how they went about their business and that is why Cav was spotted.”

 

Proof, if needed, the Academy programme is succeeding in developing new champions is here at the 2007 World Track Championships with Geraint Thomas and Ed Clancy part of the World Championship winning team.

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