GB Coach Lead Racing Helping Develop Champions
Story posted February 19
By Larry Hickmott
They may not be 'real' races, but these coaching races were as hard as any normal event if not harder. Here George Atkins wins the Scratch race.
In Newport (Wales) last week, coaches in the Great Britain Cycling Team were busy helping to develop future champions by putting their Junior endurance riders through a rigorous schedule of coach lead track races over three days at the indoor Velodrome. Twenty riders from the Olympic Academy, Development and Talent Team programmes plus guest riders lined up each day for a series of races that went to form a handicap Omnium.
Whilst these were not races open to everyone like those at a track open or track league, they were as hard fought for as any race I have seen with coaches encouraging the riders to give everything they have to show what they are made of and to learn from their experiences in a coach lead environment.
“This is the next step up from our normal coach lead racing events” said Olympic Academy coach Rod Ellingworth. “What we wanted was an end of track season target for our riders to aim for. To give them a reason to peak for something. Now, for this first year, not many have targeted it but some like Andy Tennant have. He has known about it for four months and trained hard for it. The bottom line is we’re looking for riders to produce a performance on a given day because that is what the GB programme is about.”
Darren Tudor encourages one of the riders in the pursuit.
The question Rod added, was how do they, the GB cycling team, do that? Answer, to get the best young riders from around the country together during a mid term school holiday and call it a mock ‘World Cup’ where there are five endurance events going to make up an Omnium with a General Classement produced each day.
By having the overall table, riders at such camps will learn like those in a real World Track Cup do, to keep their eye on rivals who are both ahead of them on the table and behind them and defend their position appropriately.
“It’s also a bit of a shop window for the young kids to show us what they are capable of doing” added Rod. “It also gives them another racing opportunity where they have to think about what they doing. Warming up for example and working to strategies in different events depending on where they are on the overall. We’re trying to make it feel as close as we can to a proper race situation.”
Right: Essential toolkit for riders who have to change wheels, gears and prepare their bikes for each event.
The get together also lets the different coaches from across the GB programmes to work together and to see their riders and learn from each other. “This does help link the programmes together and lets people see where they are” says Rod.
Talking about his own programme, the Olympic Academy (male endurance) which has already produced a handful of world class riders already such as Mark Cavendish, Geraint Thomas and Ed Clancy with Steven Burke also showing last weekend he has what it takes to ride at the highest level, Rod explained how his Academy has changed this winter.
“From January onwards, we split the team into road and track riders. We have a few going to Italy doing the road section, and then the track riders are here at Newport."
Darren Tudor gives a talk to the ODP riders between races.
Working alongside Rod in Newport was Olympic Development (Male endurance) coach Darren Tudor. He backed up what Rod said by saying “this is a good way of them, the riders, experiencing what they will get a major competition”. The challenge each year for Darren is to get a squad of riders ready for the European Track and Road championships and these coach lead racing camps is one way to do that.
During 2008, Darren will be looking for his ODP riders to race on the road in the Junior National Series events unless they interfere with a major event like the European Championships. As well as the Newport coach lead racing camp, Darren has many more camps for his riders planned. These include a Team Pursuit camp and then at Easter they have a long camp, 12 or 3 days, that will include his Junior National Series event (Martyn Ashfield Two Day RR) and two days of coach lead racing. The programme for his riders will also include Paris-Roubaix as well as quite a few stage races abroad.
Asked if there are any changes to the squad during the first half of the year, he explained that the 10 riders selected are still part of the programme and that a review of the riders will be held at the end of February.
Getting back to the coach lead racing at Newport; the riders competing there were Jon Mould, Tom Wiesowski, Jo Rowsell, Lizzie Armitstead, Tom Skubala, Toby Meadows, Dom Jelfs, George Atkins, Chris Whorral, Sam Harrison, Dan McLay, Andrew Williams, Erick Rowsell, Mark Christian, Andy Fenn, Mark McNally, Andrew Tennant, Luke Rowe and Chris Legg.
With such a good line up of riders, the competition for the ‘overall’ was fierce. The Pursuit was won by Andrew Tennant but taking into account the handicapping, it was female Academy endurance rider Jo Rowsell who lead the Omnium after event 1. Jo broke her PB twice during the day showing what good form she has with a month to go to the World Track Championships where she is chasing a spot in the Women’s Team Pursuit team.
The surprise leader at the end of the day though, was Talent Team rider Chris Legg (above) who took over from Jo Rowsell who lead after the Pursuit. The Berkshire based rider was invited to the coach lead racing camp and told us “this has been really good and shows me where I need to be.” Chris, who is still only a first year junior, has been racing for 10 years already with a lot of that down at Palmer Park (Reading) under the guidance of Shane Benson. Chris is hoping to get a place on the ODP programme.
Final Overall (three days of competition)
1. Dan Mclay
2. Luke Rowe
3. Chris Legg
4. Andy Tennant
4. George Atkins
6. Eric Rowsell
6. Sam Harrison
8. Mark McNally
9. Mark Christian
10. Andy Fenn
11. Andrew Williams
12. Dom Jelfs
12. Chris Worrall
12. Tom Skubala
15. Lizzie Armitstead
16. Peter Dibben
17. Jo Rowsell
18. Toby Meadows19. Jon Mould
20. Tom W 021. Sandy King *was ill on day 1
What the riders say about the coach lead racing…
Andy Tennant: “This week has for me been about doing the Individual Pursuit and getting back to where I was and I am roughly back to where I was before my problems. I am pretty pleased with how its gone”.
Andy, who has done a ‘28’ in training which is a world class time for a rider of his age in the 4,000 metre pursuit, says he was disappointed by the ‘30’ at Newport although he is aware that the temperatures inside the track were rather cold which is a factor.
During the winter, Andy has had his head down working hard towards this goal. “It’s been a bit boring at times but I have progressed which is the main thing. Being Olympic year, its been difficult to get places in the team but Burkey (Steven Burke) deserves his spot in Denmark as he has been riding really well. For me, this was the next best thing.”
The coming season in Italy will be Andy’s third for the Academy. “Hopefully I can emulate or go better than what I did the first year. Last year was a bad year. I over trained early on and then after the Euros I lost a lot of weight and put myself in a box and lost all my power. After that it was back to square one but its all coming back together now”.
Andy now heads for Italy for a road programme.
Above: Mark Christian gives it everything as Rod Ellingworth signals two laps to go.
Mark Christian: The Isle of Man rider, a second year junior, came on to the Olympic Development Programme in 2007/08. On the day British Cycling was at the track, he had the fourth fastest time for the Pursuit. “That was my first ever 4K so I am happy with that. I was going into the unknown with that as I haven’t done much 3k work either.”
“The programme has been good so far. We have had a couple of camps, mostly on the road with coach lead racing in between. The coach lead racing days are good to give us experience on the track and every time, we come out knowing something new.”
Asked about how it feels on the Isle of Man these days with so many successful riders, Mark replies “it has been good for the Isle of Man and there are some big footsteps to be following on from in these programmes. I’ll be trying to do the best I can and hopefully progress. Back on the Isle of Man, everything the other Isle of Man riders are doing filters back and everyone there looks up to them. They are a source of inspiration of what can be done.”
Mark’s big goal is to make the GB team for the European Track (Sept) and Road (July) Championships.
Daniel McLay (above): The rider who will be a first year junior this year, and currently leads the prestigious Future Stars competition for the Revolution track opens, said of the programme “It’s meant a lot to me to get on the programme and be here doing this racing. Over the winter, my programme has been mainly coach lead racing days and Revolution. Without these coach lead racing events, it would take a lot more to get going.”
Daniel explained the racing comes during a normal period of training for him and that it wasn’t a specific target for him. He added his favourite discipline is the road at the moment but that the track is equally good. His pursuit in qualifying on the day was one of the best (7th) and he says it comes quite naturally. “I didn’t quite get it right but it was my first 3K so the time was a PB.”
George Atkins: The rider who won a Youth Olympic race last year, has been on the ODP programme for about six months now. During the day at Newport, he won the Scratch race with a lone break and was caught on the line but held on to win – just!
He said of his pursuit at Newport “that was only my second one and I felt the pace was constant. I was quite happy with it. Being on the programme has helped me a lot and is the best and most simple way to progress because everything is set out for you and its just up to the rider to do the training.”
Asked how the programme has helped him, George replied “every aspect really. From diet to training in general. The coaching helps a lot for the track as well as the road.” George added that his racing programme does not start on the road until March 2 (Martyn Ashfield Stage Race, Wales) which he feels is a good thing as it will be a long year especially with one of the ODP goals, the European Track Championships, not being held until September.
Talking about the track, George admits he doesn’t really know where his strengths are at the moment but he is an aggressive rider and the Scratch race showed he knows how to win bike races. On the road in 2008, his season will include the National Junior series plus some of the Elite Circuit Series races and local races.
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PHOTOS
What its all about -- coaching riders. Darren Tudor gives Chris Whorral some advice before his pursuit effort.
After each event, the riders results were entered into the spreadsheet and the overall calculated.
Mark McNally leads the chase after a lone Atkins with a lap to go of the Scratch race.
The riders were given a sheet about warming up and when to do what. Here they prepare to go to the track for the scratch race.
Coaches Darren Tudor (closest to camera) and Rod Ellingworth enter the results of the event.
Jo Rowsell did a PB twice on the day.
Lizzie Armitstead finished the scratch race in the bunch after a strong ride.
The riders have two Pinarellos. One for bunch races, the other for Pursuit events.
Rod gives advice to one of his Academy riders.
'Look mum, no hands' -- Sam Harrison on the rollers.
Guesting on the day, Toby Meadows gets stuck in during the Scratch race.