Academy's Steven Burke Steps up a Level
Story posted February 7, 2008
By Larry Hickmott
Steven Burke in the Individual Pursuit where he won a Bronze medal at the European Track Championships in 2007.
For those on the Great Britain Cycling Team’s Olympic Academy (Under 23 riders), the dream is to make the step up to ride in major events with the Podium Programme riders and one who may well get that chance is Colne’s Steven Burke. This week, Monday, Steven was on the track with no less than three Senior world champions in the Team Pursuit (Paul Manning, Geraint Thomas, Ed Clancy) and former World Champion in the Points and Team Pursuit, Chris Newton.
Steven is down to be ‘5th’ man for the World Track Cup in Copenhagen and may get a ride in the Team Pursuit and if not, then his event may be the Scratch race. The European Team Pursuit Champion (Under 23) is a specialist in the Team Pursuit event as well as a prolific winner in the Scratch race (National champ too!) and this week, was given a chance by the team to show what he could during the Endurance training camp at Manchester.
It was a tough start to the week for Steven starting off with some standing start efforts on a much bigger gear than he normally uses. Then, to top off the day, Steven was involved in a minor crash at the end of the day where he lost a little skin but none of his determination. We spoke to him before the week kicked off and then again after day 1 had finished.
Steven told us being given the opportunity to go to Copenhagen as fifth man is a great opportunity at such an early age in a team who are the current World Champions. “My form is very good at the moment. I’ve just come off a training camp in Italy getting the miles in and that went quite well. I just need to maintain the speed and hopefully I’ll be on the plane to Copenhagen.”
During the training session this week where the riders were doing their first Team Pursuit work since the Beijing World Track Cup, they were given various drills to do including standing starts which hurt – a lot – and short team pursuit efforts to get back into the swing of doing the changes and so on.
Steven certainly held his own during the session and there were ‘well dones’ from the managers and coaches afterwards. It has certainly been a long road for Lancashire rider Steven to get to this point after starting out many years ago in the Talent Team where his coach was Chris Furber. Asked if it had been a long wait to get this chance, Steven replied, “I hadn’t really been expecting it to be honest. It has come quite soon actually and I’m looking forward to it really.”
Steven explained that in the Team Pursuit so far in his career, he’s found the man 1 position to be his spot due to his good start where he uses his power to get the team up to speed. And speed is something he’ll need as he steps up from a team where he says the best they have gone is a ‘4.03’ to a team that has done a ‘3.57’. He admitted to being a bit nervous before getting into the line with these World Champions but says he’ll just take it day-by-day and see where he is in the scheme of things.
Steven wins the British Championship for the Scratch race last year.
Steven has been one of the Olympic Academy riders who have travelled to Italy during the summer months to race there and unlike a few of his teammates who have had their fair share of success on the road, Steven hasn’t yet quite made it on the road. “I found Italy last year very difficult just getting used to Italian racing” he was honest enough to admit.
This from a rider who has been known to out sprint some well known sprint professionals at the end of training sessions on the road and admits also he is hoping he can do better this season now that he knows more about what lies ahead.”
Asked is it a mental or physical toughness dealing with these endurance events on the road in Italy, he replied “both really. I think the physical ability is there but I really need to have a flatter route to do well because I’m not as good a climber as the others. It’s climbs that are the difficult part.”
Far from the alpine passes in Italy the Academy riders get to experience regularly, Steven however is at home on the track as he has showed many times over the winter.
Should he not get a ride in the Team Pursuit in Copenhagen, the other event he may well ride is the Scratch race which is a ‘one chance’ race where the sprint at the end decides the winner.
“Sometimes in the Scratch race you have to put all your eggs in the one basket and hope for the best” says the British champion. “As long as it comes down to a sprint, I should do okay in it. I know a lot of the names in the World Cups and what they can do and the race there will see how I can do at that level.”
Steven has certainly been racing well in the last six months against world class opposition such as Chris Newton. He beat the world class Points rider Chris Newton to the line in the National Scratch Race last year, also beating another well known speedster in Peter Kennaugh who is doing so well right now in the Madison.
Steven, right, was part of the British team who won the European Championship for the Team Pursuit.
Speaking of which, Steven then teamed up with Kennaugh in a Madison Kilometre event at the last Revolution open and won that before crowning a great night by beating Ben Swift in the Scratch race. “I think the form I have is the best I have ever had”.
He puts this down to the hard training his coach Rod Ellingworth puts him through including all the skills and drills they do on the track and the miles on the road. Double track sessions on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday and then on Wednesday a road ride as well as more of these on the road on the weekend is no easy schedule for Steven and his Academy teammates.
And for a non-climber, these roads they are told to train on are anything but flat as the squad riders head into the hills of the Peak District in Derbyshire and well known names such as Axe Edge and Hitter Hill, climbs from the old Tour of the Peaks.
Climbs which don’t hold no fear for Steven. “I can get away with the hills over here because the climbs are not as long as those in Italy.”
Climbing however is something he hasn’t had to worry about this week as he joined the World Champion Team Pursuit riders for a training camp. He rode an accomplished session on Monday afternoon where he acquitted himself well during the drills. Despite the crash late on Monday afternoon, Steven was back at the track at 8am the next day and mixing it again with the Team Pursuit riders with a few bandages being the tell tale signs of the crash. He admits the night after the crash he slept well and although a little sore, was okay to carry on training.
After the morning session, he said the two sessions so far had been “very tough”. He was however getting used to the bigger gear and extra speed adding that he hopes to improve as the week goes on. “They (the other riders in the Team Pursuit) are very smooth which makes it easier in a way but then again it’s a lot quicker on a bigger gear but I’m getting there. I’m looking forward to the rest of the week.”
Good luck to Steven for the rest of the week and in Copenhagen.
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