NEXT GENERATION
Geraint Thomas’ path to Tour de France glory began in the mid-1990s at Cardiff’s Maindy Flyers, one of a number of British youth clubs laying the foundations for the nation’s future champions… “The main thing was for it to be a club for kids to come to a
The youth groups laying the foundations for the next generation of British champions.
“People always want to know if we could see from the start that riders like Luke Rowe and Geraint Thomas were destined for the top,” says Debbie Wharton, founder of Maindy Flyers, “and the answer is, ‘No!’ Geraint couldn’t ride in a bunch. He once finished a national championship circuit race in sixth, but he’d started his sprint at the back of the group because he didn’t like riding in the bunch! So there were always things that they needed to learn. Obviously, they did win races from an early age, but it wasn’t clear that they were destined for the top level. Of course, at the time, it was difficult to see anyone making the top level because Great Britain, never mind Wales, had never won anything on that scale.”
Maindy Flyers Youth Cycling Club, established in 1995, is an impressive organisation, with alumni that include Elinor Barker, Owain Doull, Luke Rowe and, of course, Geraint Thomas. Following Thomas’s yellow jersey last July, the spotlight has naturally turned to the club, and Debbie, to see how they produced so much talent.
“The main thing was always for it to be a club for kids to come to and have fun with their friends. It wasn’t about training to race - those were things that happened because they wanted to come and have fun. At the time there was no specific kids focused cycling. This wasn’t unique to Cardiff - it was what happened everywhere: you turned up on Sunday morning and went out with a bunch of old men on a 50-mile club run. No-one really knew any different and youth development was a combination of luck and the survival of the fittest.”
Not that you can necessarily see who is the fittest at that age. Youth training is usually done by feel rather than hard data - wattage can be dangerously misleading. With no way of telling what a rider’s capabilities will be when they physically mature, or how close they are to being fully mature, there’s no way of knowing whether pursuing a change in their numbers is likely to push their developing bodies too hard and cause long-term damage.
A rider’s eventual capabilities, their phenotype, is an expression of their training, their personality (are they highly motivated, or confident?) and, most importantly, their genotype - their actual physical capabilities as governed by their genes. The genotype provides a hard ceiling to what a person can physically accomplish. Forget the old saying about 10,000 hours of practice being what separates a champion from an also ran:
10,000 hours means something very different for you and I than it does for Alberto Contador.
With hard data and harder hours proving unhelpful, the important thing becomes the environment in which developing athletes ride. Do the rides suit them? Do they have easy access to the knowledge of more experienced riders and, most importantly, are they having fun?
“One of the main motivators for kids is other kids,” says Debbie, “Having a team environment where kids can learn from each other, share tips and tricks and outdo each other is very motivating. We often think of cycling as an individual sport, but having a sense of ‘team’ is motivating for kids. The best thing adults can do is take a step back and let the kids get on with it.”
In the early days of Maindy Flyers the presence of adult cyclists was, according to Debbie, a hindrance.
“There were times when the senior clubs would put obstacles in our way. There was very little time given over to the kids at track league for example - just a few one lap races over the two hours. We had 30 kids coming to the track league but there was nothing for them to do, and there was no enthusiasm to do anything about it because the organisers were worried that it would impact on the seniors’ track time. In the end we decided to set up our own league and take all the youngsters away from the track league. We called it the ‘mini-league’ and it’s still running today. The senior track league isn’t.”
The practicalities of setting up a youth team or club are often hampered by the differences between younger and older riders. A kids football team can play on the same pitch as an adult team, but a grown-up club run can often be too fast or too long for young cyclists, who aren’t interested in getting the miles in. One of the main tasks facing Debbie when she set up Maindy Flyers was to make it ‘child sized’ - doing things like short cyclo-cross sessions in the park, or 60 metre races on the track.
Having the track was vitally important for the younger riders, as many parents aren’t keen about letting their seven-yearolds out on the road. On top of that, you need volunteers or staff - those same adults who don’t necessarily want to share their track time need to share their experience. Michael Guilford, a British Cycling accredited coach who has set up on- and off-road development teams for his club, VC Meudon, has taken a direct approach to providing coaches for the development teams.
“The way I set up VC Meudon Devo is simple, in that the coaching is paid for, so there is less need to manage volunteers, which is time consuming and can easily fall to pieces. You can apply for grants to train or employ coaches and pay for venue hire.”
There are a number of grants on offer, from government, regulatory and corporate bodies. Some major manufacturers (Specialized, SRAM) have funds or foundations for youth development and British Cycling’s HSBC Go-Ride scheme can be incredibly helpful. According to a British Cycling representative, the scheme is really paying off. “Over 80 per cent of the current Great Britain Cycling Team, across all disciplines, started out at a Go-Ride club, and this includes the likes of Geraint Thomas, who started out at Maindy Flyers. Go-Ride Clubs provide coaching sessions for young
“People always want to know if we could see from the start that riders like Luke Rowe and Geraint Thomas were destined for the top, and the answer is, ‘No!’ Geraint couldn’t ride in a bunch. He once finished 6th in a national championship circuit race. He’d started his sprint at the back of the group because he didn’t like riding in the bunch!
people in traffic-free spaces, helping them to get into cycling and supporting riders to realise their potential, and now there are over 360 Go-Ride clubs across England, Scotland and Wales.”
The clubs also represent the first link in the chain that eventually leads to the fabled British Cycling Podium Program. Riders identified by coaches at club level can be nominated to join the Regional Schools of Racing: “British Cycling has recently expanded its talent development pathway and supports riders from club level to the Great Britain Cycling Team,” the spokesperson continues. “The team has introduced Development Centres as part of the pathway, running sessions in each of the English regions. The centres, run by clubs and volunteers and supported by British Cycling regional staff, provide group coaching sessions and race scenario training drills for young people.”
Finding funding for setting up a cycling club or employing coaches is a massive step forward, often helping remove the reliance on the goodwill of volunteers. It’s another area where British Cycling provides support to developing riders, via their guide at https://tinyurl.com/ y8atka68. Grassroots cycling Back in 1995, when British cycling was a desperately undernourished sport, setting up Maindy Flyers relied on Debbie’s ingenuity as much as it did on finding sufficient funding:
“We had some old track bikes already at Maindy. They had been stolen and knocked about and then found in various back alleyways around Cardiff, they were nothing special. They didn’t fit many people - the smallest would have been a 19 or 20-inch frame, which wouldn’t fit a seven-year-old. We started converting old road bikes into track bikes with 20-inch and 24-inch wheels. Some were found in skips, others cheap in the back of the local paper. You have to remember that there were no road bikes for kids back then like there are now, so finding these old kids racing bikes was really special. At one point we put an advert in the local paper asking for anyone who had old bikes laying around in their shed to donate to Maindy.”
Even when you’ve arranged facilities, equipment and coaching, there is still one more variable to deal with: the kids themselves. Mark Walker has worked with professionals including Alex Dowsett and Helen Wyman, and is also the senior lecturer on Writtle University’s Cycling Degree course. Between those two roles, he’s well placed to identify the different coaching demands of younger and older riders.
“A big pitfall for some of the younger riders in particular is that their organisational skills are severely wanting and I often have to give tips and advice on how to manage their lives as much as teaching them how to train and race. I have sympathy. When I was 18 years old I never used a diary, but if you have a busy racing schedule with school or university and a part-time job on top of that then there is no way you can achieve all you want without planning ahead.”
Michael Guilford agrees. “Motivation changes, particularly through later teenage years. Younger riders tend to soak things up and join in where possible, older riders start to become more independent, sometimes aloof. It’s important to be flexible and constantly gauge where riders are at and how they are changing. Youngsters sometimes struggle to communicate what’s important to them, so I use some simple questionnaires, and then clarify through face-to-face questioning and observation.
“In terms of training methods, youth riders tend to get good at cadence and sprinting, as they only race on restricted gears, so I try to make sure riders are progressing in this area. I often see 2nd year Youth As and Junior riders winning sprints in senior races because they have adapted effectively. This ability tends to stay with them in their adult years. For newer riders, training on rollers can be a good way to push this speed ability.”
Finally, of course, comes the point when you have to let go. The nature of youth clubs and development teams is that a rider’s time with them is finite. Both Michael Guilford and Mark Walker have had the sadness of seeing riders leave to
“Some youngsters are flattered when they get into a team and they develop the delusion that that have somehow hit the big time and get quite cocky” Mark Walker
join senior clubs or other teams, only to struggle when they do.
“Some youngsters are flattered when they get into a team and they develop the delusion that they have somehow hit the big time and get quite cocky,” says Mark Walker. “This is when they have to work twice as hard as before.”
“They often feel that they need to ‘push up a level’ by getting on a better team with better kit,” says Guilford. “I have seen several riders have a good year, move to a team outfit with high expectations of themselves, have a difficult year then drop out of the sport altogether. On the other hand, we had Ed Bishop start as a 2nd year Youth A, quickly progressed to 1st Cat as a Junior, then as a first year senior he went to Belgium where he got to race pro kermesse races against riders like Niki Terpstra.”
For Debbie, the eventual exit strategy was always part of the goal. “The club was set up with the explicit aim to pass riders on to other clubs when they were old enough. Even today the club has an upper age limit of 16. The idea was that this would also encourage those other clubs in the Cardiff area to volunteer with the Maindy Flyers so that the kids would be able to make an informed choice when it was time to move on. Because the kids were having fun with their friends, people in other clubs saw it made sense to put their kids into the Maindy Flyers rather than their own club. So, even when kids were riding well and winning national competitions when they were 12 - like Geraint and Luke Rowe - they stayed in the club until they were at an age when other clubs could help them more.”