Jonny Bellis Pursing More World Championship Medals

Story posted March 16
By Larry Hickmott | Track Worlds Preview

Back from a spell on the road with his pro team Saxo Bank, Jonny Bellis has been training hard at Manchester looking to earn a place in the Team Pursuit squad for Poland.

Asked how the road work has been going in first year as a fully fledged professional, the bronze medal winner at the 2007 World Road Championships (Under 23s) explained “the California training camp was really hard. The final one before the season kicks off and a lot of the riders were going from there into the Tour of California so as you can imagine, everyone was looking to go well there and the camp was hard as a result. It was good.”

Jonny was out there in the US for the two week camp only where he says he got a good solid 10 days training in which he says is what he needed.

“That camp will set me up well for the year ahead. We didn’t go out on the rides to smash each other but instead had a set intervals to do on a  ride."

"We didn’t do massive hours or kilometres either – six and half hours I think was the longest – but we did 4,000 metres of climbing in that six and half hours and a lot of individual intervals up the climbs. You’re working on the basic things like power, speed and strength.”

“Since then I have had two one day races and a five day stage race and being early season, it has all been about these Track Worlds so I haven’t been looking for results as such but then I didn’t expect to have any either.

My role has been more about working for the team which is good as hopefully it will give me the strength in-depth I need for the World Championships.”

Jonny confirmed that the racing at this time of the year is definitely harder than at the end of the year. “I think that is why stagiaires happen at the end of the year when some riders are not as motivated and are a bit tired from the Grand Tours and a long season. You can definitely see the difference early season – everyone has early season objectives like getting into the team for the big races so its hard racing at this time of the year.”

On his role as a ‘worker’ in such a top team as Saxo Bank, he explained that in the Mercia Tour (Spain) on the first day, he rode on the front for 120k with only two others, a rider from Columbia and one from Rabobank. “It was a pretty tough day that and it nailed me pretty early on in the stage race but by the end of it, I was  starting to feel a bit better.”

Jonny, has raced in two Track World Championships, one as a junior and another as a Senior where he rode the Men’s Omnium and Scratch. This year, he is hoping for a spot in the Men’s Team Pursuit where competition for a place is as ever, fierce.  

Jonny in training last week at Manchester.

“There is going to be a lot of expectation on the British team being World and Olympic champions as well as world record holders so it is not an easy team to just get into.”

The day we spoke was Jonny’s first day of Team Pursuiting but he was upbeat about fitting straight in despite missing Copenhagen. “I have done plenty over the winter and all the efforts we are planning to do in training we have done before so it is not as if its new to me.”

“Whilst I have been away on the road I have also been trying to put in a few roller sessions in the week so I can keep that cadence going and that track feel in there and be as well prepared for this as I can.”

Good luck to Jonny in Poland