GB Academy Mountain Bikers @ Fort William - Part 2

 

UCI Mountain Bike World Cup
Fort William 5-8 June 2008
Images & Report: Luke Webber

Link - Part 1 MTB Academy @ William World Cup 2008

Link: Fort William World Cup Race Reports

Luke Webber reports from the recent Fort William World Cup event, where he spent some time with the GB Cycling Team's Under-23 Academy Team - consisting of under-23 riders Ian Bibby, Ross Creber and David Fletcher and team manager Phil Dixon, soigneur Helena Eriksson, mechanic Dave Upton and Dave Bailey from the English Institute of Sport, the team were in Fort William for round five of the UCI series.

Prior to the race the, final day spent on the course was Friday, where riders could do a check on their equipment. Thursday night was a late one for mechanic Dave Upton, who was spending his first weekend with the team. His challenges included getting to know the staff and riders and devising a schedule whereby every rider had their bike seen to. This system means that in future Dave will know how each rider prefers to have their bikes set - everything from gearing, fork and tyre pressures through to brake lever angles and reach.

The Academy riders take a lot responsibility for the set up of their bikes on themselves

This is not something new to Dave though as in the past he has been a downhill race mechanic, a role which in many ways can be far more demanding, with a lot of wheel and tyre changes through a race weekend. Another great benefit of having a downhill specialist will come later in the season as Dave is currently educating the riders on tyre choice, bike setup and suspension settings. This is something often overlooked but as technology on bikes progresses it is another essential bit of knowledge for racers keen to get the most out of their equipment.

Ian Bibby in dynamic race action

When the riders got to the course on Friday it was their responsibility to check tyre-pressures or choose their preferred treads. Then they would set out on two or three laps of the track with some efforts in specific sectors. All the riders were back to the house by lunch, allowing for bike cleaning time and another afternoon of kit preparation. During the week riders were using tubed tyres but for the race each wheelset was run Tubeless with Stan's solution in.

Ross Creber takes a more conservative approach to the stream crossing

Friday evening there was a team talk, reminding each individual rider what they would be doing. Even though this was a World Cup race, it was not the biggest aim of the year. It was rather seen as a good opportunity to progress, build confidence and set markers for future training before the next race of this kind. Team staff also received a similar talk, discussing logistical plans (who would be at the course and when, and which feedzones everyone would patrol) and what this would mean for their tight schedule.

On Saturday the team were still fairly relaxed until the hour before the race, which is traditionally when there are too many jobs and not enough time. Warmups, clearing turbos, collecting transponders, getting the riders to the start line in the relevant box at the right time, taking kit from the riders on the line just moments before the gun and then a mad dash to the feedzone all makes for a frantic sixty minutes.

David Fletcher gets down to business with the snow-capped mountains for company

During the race there were no problems for Helena and Dave in the feedzones, every rider got their bottles safely and there were no mechanicals. On the main climb Phil Dixon and Dave Bailey were analysing the riders' performances, which would form the basis of the next stage of training. Their monitored loop took in the hardest part of the course - from the underpass back round to the bridge and this meant Phil could let his squad know time gaps and current position. It also provided a double intermediate split on top of the standard lap time printout. Alongside filming the riders on the climb, heartrate information, GPS data on the course and timings, these stats build up an interesting picture of where each individual excelled or suffered at exact points in the race.

Ian Bibby had a great ride into 39th place

After the riders were pulled in and results counted (Link: Cross-Country Race Report) and suffice to say Phil was more than happy with the progress made by his team so far, the real work started.

Back at the log cabins, data and videos were uploaded and put into the system and that evening some rough feedback was given on the emerging story. Each rider was interested in how their feelings during race correlated to the facts presented on screen. Splits from the times the lead group were doing are compared to each GB rider and while time differences or similarities are obvious it is the way in which these are interpreted and used to improve training regimes and make weaknesses into strengths.

Fiona MacDermid hooked up with the team ahead of her worlds debut next week

Obviously, we can't go into massive detail because the evening after a race was not the best time to look at stats in depth without all the information, but Phil and Dave will be going through each performance with a critical eye to root out areas for improvement before the next race.

That is how this team works - it is built for development and already we are seeing the results of the money and time spent so far. In the next three years it will be interesting to see how the squad develops from its current state and what progress is made. The next big marker is the World Championships though, in less than seven days, where the focus will be on results from work put in so far and with the encouraging performances last weekend we could be preparing for one of the most successful campaigns on record - let's hope so!