Team Player – GB’s Paul Manning

Story posted February 14, 2008

By Larry Hickmott

Paul Manning leads the GB foursome round the track in the Team Pursuit during training for the Copenhagen World Track Cup this weekend.

At 9am on Saturday morning, the best teams in the world will be lining up for the qualification round of the Team Pursuit. So far in the two UCI World Track Cups contested (Sydney and Beijing), the Great Britain team have won the event and currently lead the World Cup standings which means when they head out onto the boards to do their qualifying round, they’ll be in the World Cup leader skinsuits.

Racing for GB will be four riders from the five that have travelled to Denmark and they are Paul Manning, Ed Clancy, Geraint Thomas, Chris Newton and newcomer to the senior squad for the Team Pursuit, Steven Burke.

At the last two Olympics, Britain has won medals in this event – Bronze in Sydney and Silver in Athens. Although pleased with an Olympic medal, the hunger for Gold has never been stronger and with strong competition for places to be part of the four who ride the event, and the competition within in the team getting stronger as younger riders come through the development programmes, the chances of a Gold in Beijing are very good indeed.

Paul (far right), a keen photographer, came back from the Beijing World Track Cup with lots of pictures from the trip and you can view them by clicking the Gallery button at the top of the page.

Before that however they will have to get the World Cups out of the way before the World Championships in Manchester. A rider who has long been part of GB’s Team Pursuit despite being one of the World’s top individual pursuiters, is Paul Manning. He was part of the World title winning squad in 2005 and 2007 and also in the Olympic medal winning teams for 2000 and 2004. His life revolves around the event and booking a place in the team for Beijing is a key focus in his life right now.

There are however no guarantees for this and Paul like everyone in the team is having to work harder than ever  to keep their place under the guidance of National Endurance coach Matt Parker. In Copenhagen this weekend, Paul will lead out the team and because they are World Cup leaders, he won’t get the chance to wear the rainbow stripes of World Champion which is a shame having worked so hard for them.

Last week, Paul was in Manchester for an Endurance Training Camp along with Ed Clancy, Geraint Thomas, Chris Newton and Steven Burke. There, for the first time since Beijing, the team went through the drills of getting the changes right and re-learning the pace management required to be in the ball park for medals at the World Cup. Asked what the goals were for them in Copenhagen after two golds already, Paul replied “I think we’ll just go there to stay on top of the table really.”

Gold in Beijing. Three of the four above travel to Copenhagen for the Team Pursuit there along with Chris Newton and Steven Burke.

“We’ll probably try a few different combinations and as we have Steven with us, he may get a ride. We don’t know yet what the team will be as we’re still in the training phase and seeing what the best options are going to be. We can certainly afford to try new things and get in some training for the Worlds at Manchester.”

When British Cycling spoke to Paul, the camp was on its fourth day and Steven Burke was holding his own with the ‘big boys’ going faster than he has ever been in the Team Pursuit. In training, despite no track work since the Beijing  World Track Cup, the riders were already going very quick, and I said to Paul that the team has certainly progressed in the last few years.

“Yes” he agreed, adding “last year was quite a break through year and one of the early indications of that was the qualifying ride at the Manchester World Track Cup. To do that, go under 4 minutes for the first time in a qualification ride (cue loud applause from the crowd at Manchester that saw that great moment), was pretty special and sticks in my mind as one of the real battling rides we have done as a team.”

Despite the times they are doing in training and have done in the past year, the team are under no illusions that winning at any level in this event is easy and one look at the UCI list of winners for this event over the last decade show Australia as the major hurdle to the Olympic Gold. They last won the title in 2006 (only just by a hundredth or so),  and before that had won it five times since 1993 including Gold in Athens.

“We need to be able to go that fast (under 4 minutes) all the time and get the best out of us all even if one or more riders in the team are not quite at their best which happens in all the team events. The times are moving on and we have had to push ourselves into unknown territory to better our standards all the time” explained Paul.

Paul’s own form looked good on the track despite a crash the week before in Majorca where he lost a little ‘bark.

“Training has been good” he told us. “I kind of carried on from the Tour of Britain phase. I struggled after the Track Worlds (2007) with my road form and after working so hard you need a mental break so the road form was slow to materialise. Come the Tour of Britain though it was pretty good and I stayed healthy during the winter, had some time in Australia which helps, and time too in Majorca. All this has given me a good foundation for 2008.”

GB at speed in the Team Pursuit wearning their UCI World Track Cup leaders skinsuits.

2007 Highlights
Although winning the World title in the Team Pursuit with a fantastic time under 4 minutes was a highlight on the track, Paul had some great moments on the road as well. One of my highlights in 2007 was being on the back of a motorbike in the Scottish hills as the field in the Tour of Britain headed for the finish in Glasgow.

There, in the wind, cold and hills, a certain Paul Manning pressed hard on the pedals and stretched the field, broke the elastic and after a spell in a small group, rode clear of them for a solo win. It is often forgotten what a special road rider Paul is but that day highlighted that he can have some very special days.

Tour of Britain, 2007, and Paul Manning rides away from the field in the hills of Scotland.

In front of a big crowd, Paul crosses the line to win the final stage of the 2007 Tour of Britain

He’s won major road races in different countries and perhaps, could have achieved more on the road but for his focus on the Team Pursuit and holding his place in the team for that event. Talking about the Tour of Britain success, he says “it was nice to win that stage. I go home and look in the cabinet and have the trophy in there which is good but I always think back to stuff like Leige-Bastogne-Leige which we (his trade team) rode. I was fortunate enough, or stupid enough, to ride that straight after the Track Worlds and it is one awesomely difficult road race”.

“That event and others like it were great to be part of but are something I’ll never excel at for whatever reason. Leige sticks in mind as being pretty special. The best thing about the Tour of Britain was being with Rod and the young lads (Olympic Academy riders). You know the competition for places in the GB team is right behind you and when you look around and see the likes of Steven here, and two of the five in the TP here are the old guys while three are the young guys (Ed, Geraint and Steve) you can see things are changing.”

“We’re slowly getting replaced!”

Shortly after the Tour of Britain, Paul got married and so like anyone who has a family to think about, life as an Olympic athlete is one of treading that fine line between doing enough to fulfil the sporting goals whilst keeping those special to you, with you for that journey.

Paul knows that with the likes of Geraint Thomas, Bradley Wiggins, Steve Cummings and Ed Clancy, all in pro teams on the road, he has had to make that sacrifice of being away from home and living the life of a road professional in Europe. For those who have ‘normal’ lives, it can be a lifestyle that is impossible to imagine but then nothing in life ever comes easy especially for some one with an eye on Olympic Gold.

Talking about his life in Europe with the Landbouwkrediet – Tönissteiner pro team he explains “the work in Europe on the road gives me the strength in depth you need for the team pursuit. You do the big single day events as well as the multi-day stage races, and the racing is so hard there, you have to work hard just to be in there. I could never train that hard and so I have to be in Europe. It’s a necessary evil and means more time away from home than you ideally want but you don’t get anything without making sacrifices. It’s the way its got to be.”

The Landbouwkrediet – Tönissteiner pro team -- left, Ian Stannard and back row (second from left, Paul Manning with Ed Clancy next to him (third from left back row).

Writing this on Valentines day, Paul is one of many athletes who’ll be away from his partner as he prepares to compete in the Copenhagen World Track Cup but because of the Olympics, time away from home on the roads of Europe will be less than in previous years. He says that the team did look at squeezing in some road races before the track Worlds but there just weren’t the right races during the windows of opportunity.

“We have a track block now” he explained “and the road races we may have done would have been towards the end of Feb but there was nothing really suitable. We are better off controlling what we do either being Manchester based or going back to Majorca. The blocks of work we do there can be just as hard as some of the stage races we do where we’ll do a split day of five quality hours of specific training”.

Looking ahead to the Manchester World Track Championships, Paul says the team will get a real buzz racing on the boards at their home track and adds that he doesn’t feel any more pressure than usual despite going in as defending champions. “We’ll get so much from the crowd, and knowing we have friends and family up there will far out weigh any nerves we may get riding at home”.

“I think its great it is here this year and we can then move onto the Olympics which is the main thing that is in the back of your mind.”

We all wish Paul and the riders in the Team Pursuit well for their event in Copenhagen and look forward to seeing them on the podium there.