Getting into professional cycling

Chip \'oyler

Kona21 wrote:

Realistically you have to be picked up by team at about your age, 16. A junior specialist team like Glendene. You get noticed and picked up by racing well, so get racing ASAP.

Also as someone has said you have to be natural at it, its all genetics, at pro level you either have it or you dont. Look at the riders in the top British teams, Dowings etc.. Chances are they are as fit as they will ever be, they train as much as possible but due to genetics they may never be good enough to to make it as a full on pro on the continent. (they are still amazing riders)

Get racing and see how you get on....

Going forward a few years you need to be honest with yourself and say 'will i make it?'. Dont throw your life away, mess up school etc... all for cycling. It will be obvious within a few years if you stand a chance or not.

Pete

The Downings are good also because they were brought up by a very good cyclist, their Dad, Kenny. They started racing on the local grass track when they were very young (I remember Russ's bike was too big for him!). So by the time they were 16 they had at least 6 years of racing and training under their belts. Starting very young does have its advantages

blackhands

Germaine Burton has just been turned down by British Cycling for the Olympic Development Programme - and he's quite useful!

Kona21

Also starting young is not all about the extra fitness. It can be about learning race craft, the more experience you have the more you understand how races work. If you have the ability to take a good guess about how a race will unfold you don't have to be the fittest to win. Starting young can only help this.

fred_bee

kamil1891 wrote:

Does anyone know how to get into cycling on the Manchester velodrome track? I live not far from it and I'm very, very interested (age almost 20 if there are any categories etc)

have you looked on the manchester velodrome website for beginners 'taster sessions'?,these are for beginners of all ages and you can hire a track bike from stadium for the session.
sessions are very usefull,from these you can graduate to proper training session then the regular track league.

oldwelshman

blackhands wrote:

Germaine Burton has just been turned down by British Cycling for the Olympic Development Programme - and he's quite useful!

Would be interested to know why, what may be behind the decision.
I know he does not ride the track and not sure if the same now, but he had no interest in doing so, or should I say his Dad stated no interest
He is a class rider and bags of potential.

Richj

oldwelshman wrote:

blackhands wrote:

Germaine Burton has just been turned down by British Cycling for the Olympic Development Programme - and he's quite useful!

Would be interested to know why, what may be behind the decision.
I know he does not ride the track and not sure if the same now, but he had no interest in doing so, or should I say his Dad stated no interest
He is a class rider and bags of potential.

I would suspect it's the lack of track racing (or potential lack of willingness to race on the track) if that is true. A quick look at the GB squad make up (it's out of date)

http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/gbcycl ... raphies--0

there's very few non-track riders there. The whole BC youth development programme set up is geared towards track riding and the long term goal of Olympic medals, the road side of it anyway not mtb or bmx.

Tom Butcher

Yes that'd be my assumption too - I was told that Lucy Garner had difficulty getting support initially as she was seen as a cross and road rider rather than track - if that's crap then there you go but that's the rumour I heard.

Pross

To be fair to BC they have done a fantastic job on development in the last 15 years or so but they do seem to be very much obsessed with 'numbers' and as we have seen riders such as Dan Martin missed out and have gone on to bigger things. I think looking at a persons athletic potential from test results is more suited to track riders than road riders and that may be where the apparent bias towards track riders comes in? Add to that the talent teams tend to be based at a velodrome and also our success in the past decade has been on the track as that is where the Olympic glory is and that in turn brings in the funding but I think that the road side is starting to take off more now.

There is also a far larger talent pool to pick from than in previous times, partly as success has bred success and brought more youngsters into the sport and partly because of the talent identification process.

Richj

Pross wrote:

To be fair to BC they have done a fantastic job on development in the last 15 years or so but they do seem to be very much obsessed with 'numbers' and as we have seen riders such as Dan Martin missed out and have gone on to bigger things. I think looking at a persons athletic potential from test results is more suited to track riders than road riders and that may be where the apparent bias towards track riders comes in? Add to that the talent teams tend to be based at a velodrome and also our success in the past decade has been on the track as that is where the Olympic glory is and that in turn brings in the funding but I think that the road side is starting to take off more now.

There is also a far larger talent pool to pick from than in previous times, partly as success has bred success and brought more youngsters into the sport and partly because of the talent identification process.

+1

BC are doing a fantastic job at promoting cycling with youths and juniors. There's a growing talent pool of youngters and BC can only take on a few riders each year on their programmes, so good riders are going to miss out. It would be good to see more domestic teams investing in youths, there are a few juniors teams (Maxgear, Hargroves and Glendene I'm sure there's more) but I am not sure how many give the riders a shot at European races and what options are left once they finish their junior years, it all seems to fall on BC. That said it's great to see Rapha Condor Sharp taking on a couple of youngters this year.

Richj

you don't have to start young, shows there's no magic formula to follow to become pro and natural talent will/can rise to the top.

http://velonews.competitor.com/2011/05/ ... rcq_172960

fatboy23

Ignore the entries on here that specify individual youngsters and teams etc...some (not all) will be about youngsters who've been "hothoused" to the n-th degree by incredibly pushy parents with aspirations that relate more to their own egos than the aspirations and motivations of the kids, (many of whom will be out of cycling as soon as they can think for themselves)...suggestions that, at 16, you may have missed the boat somehow are utter nonsense..if that were the case we'd see bunches of 20 year-olds leading the pack up Venteux and Alpe D'huez in the tours...also ignore suggestions that you "need" a coach..or that you "need" to be picked up by a sponsored team ..again that's nonsense...ignore suggestions that somehow you need a VO2 max of over 65..ignore any suggestion that you need to oil yourself in with the bigwigs at the local track (there are some quality coaches there indeed, but also a few jokers and jobsworths who shouldn't be paid in washers, let alone lottery cash.)

Go out and race (don't cheat...the main under 16 time trialling comp -GHS- which degenerated into a motor-paced event,was an utter farce in this respect in 2011)..learn how to rest as much as you learn how to suffer...seek a good mentor(s) and/or follow a good coaching manual (Friel's bible, or similiar)grow at your own pace and at a level that you're happy with...and you'll become aware as to your own potential and/or limitations...and you'll decide whether or not you are totally "in love" with the sport or not.