GB Academy Riders Triumphant in Europe
Story posted February 12, UIV Website: click here
By Larry Hickmott
European Champions -- The GB Olympic Academy for male endurance riders has had its fare share of success over the past few years and that continued in the winter when Peter Kennaugh (left) came into the Academy for th first year and straight away made his mark on the tracks of Europe. Picture is from the 2007 European Championships -- Peter Kennaugh, Ben Swift, Jonny Bellis and Steven Burke. Note: Peter was still a junior when he came into the Under 23 team to win the European title.
In Copenhagen recently, two Isle of Man riders, Jonny Bellis and Peter Kennaugh, won the UIV cup for the Six Day race. The UIV Talents Cup was introduced in 2003/2004 and won by the Belgium team Iljo Keisse and Dmitri De Fauw. The main goal of the Cup is to help develop new riders and stars for the 6-Days and Iljo Keisse is a very good example of this.
The event for Under 23 up and coming stars, was yet another chance for the British riders to learn race tactics for the Madison event and continue their development in the Olympic Academy, especially for Peter Kennaugh who is a first year member of the Academy.
The first outing for them was Gent followed by three more including Copenhagen and the coach at the academy, Rod Ellingworth was looking to see what they had learned and the bottom line says their coach, they have both improved. “The win at Copenhagen” he explained “was hard and not just because of the opposition. Jonny Bellis was ill for three days so he did really well to turn that round.”
“Peter learned a lot in Copenhagen” adds Rod Ellingworth. “Especially how to look after your partner in the race because you are only as good as your partner. In Berlin, they were very special, head and shoulders above everyone else. In Copenhagen for a few nights they weren’t but only because Jonny was ill.”
Because Bellis was feeling completely empty on the track, the team had to switch to a different strategy and sit tight and defend the lead they had built up over the first three nights. They started out in the event slowly, not wanting to show their cards too soon and let some of the other teams race and see what happened.
The next night they gained a lap and started a winning streak which included taking another lap on the third night then on the fourth night they went for points. “We were already two laps up on most of the field but we wanted to make sure that if for some reason they lost two laps, a crash etc, they still had enough points to win it overall” explained coach Rod Ellingworth (pictured right)
On the fifth night, Jonny had his worse night and the plan to take laps had to be changed and despite Jonny not being well, they still scored well in the points. They consolidated this on the final night, finishing two laps ahead of the nearest team and three laps on the rest overall as well as having the most points. “They were clearly better than any other team” says their coach.
Before Copenhagen, Peter Kennaugh rode the LA World Track in the Madison with Rob Hayles. That was an opportunity for him which we took says the coach and this week, Peter will also be doing the Copenhagen World Track Cup which he wasn’t down to do but because of the injury to Ben Swift, he has an opportunity to continue to score more points for the country in the Olympic qualification race for the Madison.
“Peter is always up to take these opportunities and good enough to be given them” says Rod. “He rode well with Rob in the Madison and listened to him.”
Peter Kennaugh in his rainbow stripes.
After Copenhagen, the team do not intend racing Peter a lot before letting him have a steady month prior to going to Italy. As a group, the Academy endurance riders (male) go out to Italy soon to start yet another season on the road out there. In all, the Academy will have nine riders out in Italy and during the season, they will also bring in guest under 23 riders who have the results that catch the eye of the coach.
Of all the riders in the Academy though, there are a few that really stand out. Jonny Bellis for example, whose Bronze medal in the Under 23 road race championship of the World is enough for him to be carrying a lot of expectations on his shoulders in coming seasons.
Steven Burke has impressed in the Team Pursuit with the senior squad in trials and the others like Andy Tennant are all looking to follow in the footsteps of those in the Academy who have moved on to bigger and better things like Mark Cavendish who is one of the worlds top sprinters and World Champions Ed Clancy and Geraint Thomas.
Peter Kennaugh Interview
Another one destined for great things perhaps is one half of the duo that won in Copenhagen, Peter Kennaugh, a former World Junior Champion. Both Peter and Jonny Bellis are heading to Copenhagen later this week for the Madison event in the UCI World Track Cup there. Bellis is now getting over his illness and Kennaugh is really up for the race there despite not having the best form of his season.
After his heavy winter programme, he has his eyes on the Road season coming soon to the Olympic Academy riders as well as the British Madison Championships on March 2nd. Looking back at the winter, he says there are pros and cons to the heavy schedule. “It’s been great to travel and get away from Manchester because the boot camp here was getting hard and repetitive and the weeks were getting longer. Coming back after Christmas and doing all this racing has been a great experience, especially the one in LA with Rob Hayles.”
“Every race you go to, you learn more and build on.”
His programme of winning UIV races held in conjunction with some of the biggest Six Day events of the winter started in Gent with Adam Blythe and was supposed to include Ben Swift in the latter events but Swift’s broken collarbone put paid to that and Jonny Bellis was brought in.
Kennaugh slings in Jonny Bellis. Photo courtesy of UIV Website: click here
Of the four UIV races he has done, two have seen him racing six days in a row with Rotterdam five and Berlin four days long. “When you are racing for six days in a row, it gets really hard. To start with, you’re really up for it and everything is really exciting. Then, for the next few days you struggle until you get to the final day where you can finally let go and get everything out.”
In Copenhagen, he described the programme starting with breakfast followed by 90- minutes on the road and then some more breakfast. They then went to their room for four hours followed by lunch, racing and then tea.
“It was the same routine every day and it gets a bit boring” he says revealing the picture behind the glamour of being a rider racing at the six day shows. The hardest bit for me was sitting in the room. The rooms were quite small and I was in a bunk bed above Jonny and it was cracking me. One day I actually went out and did a bit more on the road because I couldn’t handle being in the room.
“Rod” he says “told me it wasn’t the best thing to do because the resting is part of the learning to be a bike rider”.
Peter admits that some of the major events though were anything but boring with the crowds pouring in to see the big Six Day stars. “It was amazing at times and watching the main events was also a good experience in itself. The racing though on tracks like Gent was quite technically difficult. It is such a small track, you go to attack over the top and all of a sudden there is no where to go because there is another change happening. It was so tight you have to really think about what you are going to do otherwise it gets dangerous.”
“Berlin was probably the best one. The crowds were really big, even for our races and there was good music and stuff. The atmosphere there was the best and you could easily get yourself up for the races where Copenhagen was a bit of a shock because the first few days it was really quiet and the only busy night was the last night when I was struggling.”
Asked if the way they dominated some of their races motivates him even more to bring on the road season in Italy, he replies “I can’t wait to get out to Italy and see what the lifestyle is like out there. I’m going into the unknown a bit. I know I can do it on the track but it’s a big world out there on the road and I’m a bit nervous about how fast the racing might be and the extra distance of the races.”
Bellis and Kennaugh -- winners in Copenhagen. Photo courtesy of UIV Website: click here
A Different Endurance Academy in 2007/08
The Great Britain Cycling Team’s Olympic Academy set up this season is quite different to what it has been like in the past when there was a small group of riders and they were together a lot of the time, training and doing drills on the road and track. Peter says this year, his first in the academy seems to be different to what it was like for Cavendish and Clancy for example.
“Now, everybody is doing different things and we don’t see that much of each other. Me and Jonny have been away doing the sixes, Ben is out with his broken collarbone and then there are others like Andy concentrating on the suedo World Cup camp they have in Newport. Then we have the roadies going to Italy for a training camp. Everyone is doing different things and I think it’s good for us.”
“It’s good to come back and see a fresh face and talk about different things.”
Riding in Isle of Man colours, Bellis slings in Kennaugh. Talk about a country producing one star after another!
Los Angeles with Rob Hayles
Before winning the Copenhagen UIV Cup, Peter was in Los Angeles for the World Track Cup there, riding with Olympic Bronze medallist in the Madison, Rob Hayles. “I think I coped with the event okay there. That was partly down to being with some one like Rob Hayles who has so much experience.”
Rob Hayles won the World Madison title on the same track in LA in 2005 and with the difference in build between Rob and Peter, there was a lot of learning going on. “Riding with him gave me a lot of confidence. It was quite strange going into the race as I have looked up to Rob for a few years and then all of sudden I am riding with him. It was quite surreal riding and sharing a room with him.”
Asked about the Madison slings between two riders who are so different in weight and build, Pete says “for me it was alright because Rob could throw me halfway round the track. I could come in to the change quite slow because I am so light but for Rob, if he came in too slow, I’d struggle to hold him. The height was also an issue. I’d been doing Rotterdam with Swifty and using a low sling but as Rob was taller, I had to take that into account.”
On how tough the racing was, Peter explained, “I couldn’t believe how tough the qualifier was – it was harder than the actual final. It was a non-stop race to stay in the top six, never mind score points. Rob and I scored in the first sprints and were then on the back foot and that was hard.”
Talking about what was hard about the racing, he replied “It isn’t just the speed but the fact they can keep up that speed for so much longer. In the Points I was good for 100 laps but the race was 120. The speed though didn’t bother me.”
Peter (right) has come along way in a short space of time. Pictured here as winner of the Future Stars competition not so long ago!
Heading back to Denmark
Since returning from the Copenhagen Six Day, Peter and Jonny have been doing a little on the road with no track required until they get to Copenhagen. “We’ve just been getting in the miles. The longest ride has been just over three hours because we’ve been quite tired. I’ve been able to relax and freshen my head up. I feel much more focused now and on it.”
Peter says of the accommodation for the Academy that he had no idea what it was like to live in a house like the riders did before but the set of apartments they have are fine, especially as he seems to have scored one with an ensuite. “We’re only 18 or 19 and learning our trade so the accommodation is spot on. We all have our own room and everything we need so its been good.” He then added that getting into the country was a long ride, 40 minutes or so, but it hasn’t proved to be a major problem.
Being in the academy has also helped him appreciate home a lot. Coming from the Isle of Man, he says that he doesn’t get to go back much but when he does, he appreciates it a lot more than he did when he lived there. After Christmas there, his next whistle stop at home will be before he heads to Italy and one he is looking forward to. Before that though, he has a final World Track Cup race to do and British Cycling wishes Peter well in Copenhagen along with Jonny Bellis.
Junior Road Race champion, Peter Kennaugh has so many major victories to his credit its hard to keep up with them all! Photo Richard Robotham.
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