Paralympics Beckon For Britain’s Best
Story posted March 4, 2008
By Larry Hickmott
Related Link: Athens 2004
Anthony Kappes is ecstatic with a world record on the tandem with Barney Storey.
At the last Paralympic Games in Athens, cyclists in the Great Britain team came back with a haul of medals that proved yet again they were the best in the World. Since those heady times, they have continued to bring back Gold medal after Gold medal from the World Championships and later this year, a very select team of potential Gold medal winners will be heading for Beijing and the Paralympics.
Unlike the able bodied athletes in cycling, the competition opportunities for them are few and far between and a lot of their preparation for the big event in September will be away from the spotlight like it was recently when many of the team assembled in Newport (Wales) for a training camp. Those attending the Newport camp included:
Sarah Storey
Barney Storey (pilot)
Ian Dawson
Aileen McGlynn
Ellen Hunter (pilot)
Jon Norfolk (pilot)
Anthony Kappes
Jody Cundy
Rik Waddon
David Stone
With the cyclists in the team spread out around the country, camps such as these are a very important part of their preparation for an event which carries with it huge kudos for those who taste success as many Brits in the team already have. At Newport, the riders were on the track under the guidance of Performance Manager Helen Mortimer and coach Chris Furber. They also made use of gym facilities in the area as well to continue the training required to be at their peak for Beijing.
It was a demanding week for many with two sessions a day, either both track or a combination of track and gym. The camp was also open to other athletes on the long list such as Paul Hunter, Ian Sharpe, Simon Richardson and so on.
Helen Mortimer explained that the closer the team gets to September when the Paralympics take place, the more intense these camps will get and between now and the Paralympics, there will be a training camp a month including a camp in Majorca and track time on the islands Palmer Velodrome.
As well as the training benefits, the camps will also allow the coaches and manager to see the athletes performing and this will help in the selection process which will be especially tough with so many potential medallists.
“The selection process” Helen explained “is different for the Olympics than it is for the Paralympics. So far, we have been allocated six male places and three female places (not including pilots) and from that, it is up to us who takes those places. Some of the categories have been ring fenced so the category that Rachel Morris rides in is ring fenced and if we have an athlete in that category, we have to take them or we lose that place.”
“We have to weigh up who has the most Gold medal potential and that is how it will be selected” she added finally.
Coach Chris Furber talking with World Champion Jody Cundy.
It was according to their coach Chris Furber, a lot of the teams first time together on a track after the success at the World Disability Championships last year. “Since then, the riders have been doing a lot of work on the road and building up a big base of endurance” Chris explained. This included a 10 day camp in Majorca where the camp not only enabled them to get in some miles and cap the endurance work but also to meet up together and see each other for the first time in a while.
“This camp in Newport is where we can start doing the work on the boards that we know we’ll need to be ready for Beijing” he added.
Races – what races?
Chris agreed that his job is not made any easier with the lack of international competitions for his riders. “A rider needs a goal, and Beijing is a long time away and you can make a lot of mistakes in the meantime so you need interim goals to concentrate on. In the last three years, we have been really lucky to have the Paralympic World Track Cup in Manchester which has always been an early season focus. This has given us a competition to prepare and taper down for in May which has helped give us a focus prior to the major one which has been the World Championships later in the year.”
The World Paralympic Cup however doesn’t help everybody as it has a track focus and Chris adds that his road riders for example cannot take advantage of it and they miss out on that early season major competition hit.
Looking ahead to Beijing, Chris says GB has a massively strong squad. “It is a pleasure to work with them and they did a great job at the Worlds last year in Bordeaux where we won 13 Golds and topped the Medal table.
That was the culmination of two years work and now we have a squad of twelve riders and of them, eleven of them are World Champions and the one who isn’t has two pseudo World Records to his name. We have strength in-depth now and it’s looking like we have qualified enough places to get these riders to Beijing.”
“We’re certainly in a very very strong position to do really well at the Beijing Paralympics.”
Only Gold Will Do
It has been a Great Britain Cycling team philosophy across all disciplines to travel to major competitions with a team of riders capable of winning Gold and Chris says that it is a great position to be in. “It’s a real nice problem to have from a coaching point of view when the only athletes you are currently working with are World Champions or World Record holders. It does though bring with it a new set of problems because you’re at the top and everyone in the world is trying to knock you off your perch.”
Gold! It was the team expects now -- Jody Cundy, Rik Waddon and Darren Kenny.
Success, he says, can breed complacency and it is an aspect of the training that they work hard at so the athletes and the team do not get into that frame of mind. “We’re continuing to move forward and push the boundaries out of what’s good. It’s really great to have here athletes who can raise the eyebrows of the public and able bodied athletes and say ‘that isn’t just an exceptional disability time but an exceptional time full stop’.”
Examples of this have been Jody Cundy and his times for the Kilometre, Sarah Storey and her times in the Pursuit and the times the Men’s tandem do for the 200 and kilometre time trials. “They are doing times a lot of able bodied athletes would be proud of” Chris added.
Unlike many national disability teams, Chris is fortunate to be one of a large number of coaches in the Great Britain Cycling Team across many disciplines and he is able to tap into the progress and new ideas made by all the coaches and managers with the GB cycling team. “I have counterparts in other teams who don’t have any link with their national able bodied team or even the governing body and that makes life very difficult for them. We are very fortunate that we share track time with the able bodied riders in Manchester and when it comes to Beijing, we’ll be on the same equipment.”
“I can speak to the likes of Scott Gardner (GB Sports Scientist), Matt Parker (Endurance coach) and the sprint coaches and tap into the work they have done for the team sprint. As a coach, it is my job to go and find out what the able bodied coaches are doing.”
Chris Furber talks over the Team Sprint with Rik Waddon and Jody Cundy at Newport recently.
Chris has come a long way in a short time when it comes to coaching. Known through out the country for his commentary work at Mountain Bike events, Chris started out as a Talent Team coach and moved up into the coaching of the Disability athletes in the national team. In September, he’ll be with the team at the biggest competition in the World, the Paralympics. “Working in the Talent Team was a real good grounding for the skills I needed to do this job” he says.
“It is very different working with adults as it is working with teenagers and there is also pressure because they are a very successful team. However, we were able to bring things over from the Talent Team which has helped us push the riders on to the next level. We’re always trying to get to the next level of professionalism with them and one of the things I really majored on was athlete responsibility. A lot of them were quite reliant on the coaching staff that were in place at that time and I have tried to get them to take on ownership of their own programmes.”
“I have been coaching full time for five years and Beijing was the draw of moving over to the squad and will be the highlight of my career so far.”
In the coming weeks before the World Track Championships for able bodied cyclists where there will be demonstration events for the Paralympic riders, we’ll be bringing you interviews with the riders who in six months will be looking to bring back Gold from Beijing. Our thanks to them all for their time and we wish them lots of luck in the coming year.
RELATED LINKS
Related Link: Athens 2004
2007 Paralympic World Championships
2006 Paralympic World Championships
2005 Paralympic European Championships
2005 VISA Paralympic World Cup
2006 VISA Paralympic World Cup
2007 VISA Paralympic World Cup
