GB's Paralympic Team Get Ready in Manchester

 

Story posted August 22, 2008
By Larry Hickmott

Always a great event to watch, the GB Paralympic riders go through a Team Sprint drill on the track at Manchester. Up the track is Darren Kenny with Jody Cundy leading Mark Bristow.

 

After the success of the able bodied athletes on the road and track in Beijing, there is a real buzz in the Great Britain Cycling Team’s Paralympic Holding Camp which began on the 20th of August at the Manchester Velodrome. The athletes have come from around Britain to the National Cycling Centre to make their final preparations under the guidance of the coaches Chris Furber, Gary Brickley  and Jon Norfolk before flying out to the Olympic city in a week’s time.

 

On Thursday, the 21st, there was a media day and despite much of the press being in Beijing, there was a good turnout to meet and talk to the athletes who will be going for Gold in a few weeks time. Once that was over, it was back to training and what a busy day Thursday was with most of the athletes in the 12 strong team inflicting pain on themselves in an effort to be at the very peak of form for their events.

 

I have had the good fortune to travel to a World Championships with these athletes in 2006 and as ever, the mood in the Paralympic Holding camp was as relaxed and positive as ever. Fun and frivolity with a  serious edge to it! Here are a group of people who have overcome life changing moments in their lives and have had the strength and heart to over come those and then build on it to become the best in the world at what they do on a cycle. They are quite simply an inspiration.

 

The session on the Thursday was as tough as any able bodied one and in fact, the Paralympic athletes trained alongside those able bodied Great Britain athletes who were not in Beijing.

Matthew Crampton and Darren Kenny chatting during Thursday's training session.

 

I saw the likes of Barney Storey and Anthony Kappes leading out abled bodied sprinter Craig MacLean who let us remember was only a fraction slower than Jason Kenny in the trials prior to the Olympics and we all know how quick he was in Beijing! Then there was Jody Cundy doing motor paced efforts at speed, an athlete who one of the coaches says that without his disability would probably be in the able bodied GB squad.

 

And a rider who holds her own in able bodied competitions, Sarah Storey doing the same sickening intervals that I had seen Mark Cavendish doing only a few weeks before and the same that Chris Hoy and others do during their training routines.

 

These athletes put in as much effort into their training as the able bodied ones do and benefit from the support of the GB team just the same. On show at the camp were the new ‘SI’ bikes, the new helmets, skinsuits and much more. They are funded in the same way as the able bodied cyclists and as such, are under the same pressure to achieve their goals to retain that funding. 

 

They have to travel around the world to different countries as far away as Columbia, Spain, Switzerland, Norway and more to qualify places in the Paralympics and as number 1 nation, deal with the level of expectations from within themselves as well as those around them.

 

The squad is made up of Paralympians who won Gold in Athens (Darren Kenny and Aileen McGlynn for example) and have that experience to help them prepare better for Beijing and a group of rookies who have yet to know what it is like to enter an Olympic arena to do battle in. Athletes like Mark Bristow, Simon Richardson, Anthony Kappes and fairly new to the team, hand cyclist Rachel Morris. If ever there is an inspiration it’s Rachel!

Enjoying a few laps of the car park for my benefit, Rachel gets to grips with her new bike for the Games.

 

After having to deal with the loss of her legs in her early 20’s, the young lady was approaching her chance at Paralympic glory with all the vigour and excitement of anyone I have ever known. For one thing Rachel has a new bike – a handcycle – and she was over the moon with that and finding much amusement in how I struggled to recognise the front from the back and so on.

 

On Thursday, after a session in the heat chamber which she says was very demanding, Rachel then spent two hours on the turbo in between doing photos and interviews with the media at the Velodrome. And all with a  smile and genuine enthusiasm for what she is doing.

 

Driven?

 

This young lady is as hard and driven as they come and don’t go asking for an arm wrestle because the biceps on this girl are bigger than probably any of those you’ll see on the male sprinters! Not surprising  when she averages between 80 and 90 revs per minute for two hours on the hand cycle which on the road she races at a speed of around 20 miles an hour –driven along by her arms remember!

With her arms whizzing around at speed, Rachel closes her eyes tight as the pain of the effort kicks in during an interval on the turbo.

 

Asked to do some photos on the green of the Velodrome track, she was like a kid on a  new bike (which she is of course)  and quickly testing out the limits of the track's apron and itching to get up on the lower slopes of the boards.

 

Just another example of how special all these athletes are who in two weeks will be going for Gold in Beijing! The Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games open on September 6 and closes on September 17. The track cycling events at the Games take place at the Laoshan Velodrome in Beijing from September 7 to 10 with the road cycling taking place from September 12 to 14.

 

At the Athens 2004 Paralympic Games Britain finished second in the medal table with a total of 35 golds, 30 silver and 29 bronze medals. With competitive standards continually rising and the dominant Chinese team taking the home advantage ParalympicsGB recognises that the 2008 Paralympics will be one of its biggest challenges yet.

 

Photos:

Staff and riders are welcomed to the Paralympic Holding Camp by performance manager Helen Mortimer.

Rik Wadden is interviewed by the BBC who spoke to all the riders in the team at the track for the media day.

Jon Norfolk and Chris Furber make notes from the training on Thursday as they helped in the training of the athletes for the Paralympic Games as well as those preparing for the European Track Championships which are at the same time.

On their new tandem, Barney Storey and Anthony Kappes race around the boards at Manchester on Wednesday.

Another of the specially built tandems at speed with Ellen Hunter guiding it around the track with Aileen McGlynn on the back.

Sarah Storey before her punishing session on the track on Thursday.

In great form according to the coaches, Darren Kenny has a really full programme of events on road and track in Beijing.

Left: Mark Bristow and right, Simon Richardson.

 

We’ll have more from the team in the coming weeks. In the meantime here is a  guide to what events the cyclists in the team will be doing -- Twelve riders (including two tandem pilots) will contest thirteen events in Beijing:

Men’s Kilometre
Mark Bristow LC1
Jody Cundy LC2
Darren Kenny CP3   
Simon Richardson LC3
Rik Wadden CP3

Men’s team sprint
Mark Bristow LC1
Jody Cundy LC2
Darren Kenny CP3 
Rik Wadden CP3

Men’s tandem sprint
Anthony Kappes  B3  (Pilot Barney Storey)

Men’s tandem kilo
Anthony Kappes B3  (Pilot Barney Storey)

Men’s individual pursuita
Darren Kenny CP3 
Simon Richardson LC3

Men’s time trial
Darren Kenny CP3 
Simon Richardson LC3
David Stone (trike) CP2

Men’s road race
Mark Bristow LC1
Darren Kenny CP3 
Simon Richardson LC3
David Stone (trike) CP2

Women’s tandem kilo
Aileen McGlynn  B3 (pilot Ellen Hunter)

Women’s tandem pursuit
Aileen McGlynn B3 (pilot Ellen Hunter)

Women’s pursuit
Sarah Storey LC1

Women’s 500m time trial
Sarah Storey LC1

Women’s time trial
Rachel Morris HC B  (handcycle)
Sarah Storey LC1

Women’s road race
Rachel Morris HC B (handcycle)

 

 

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Paralympic Rider Information