The Medal Factory
Having conquered the world at Rio 2016, the British Cycling track squad is already preparing for Tokyo 2020. Cyclist goes behind the scenes at the Manchester Velodrome to meet the riders and staff who make up the most successful team in British sport
Behind the scenes with the men and women of the GB track squad who keep striking gold
When Britain’s world-beating track cyclists reflect on Rio 2016 it is those euphoric celebratory laps and tearyeyed medal ceremonies that light up their memories. But it is here, inside the empty cauldron of the Manchester velodrome – the headquarters of the British Cycling track squad – that the foundations for those moments of glory were laid.
When Cyclist arrives at the velodrome on a foggy spring morning, the sprint squad are already hard at work, to a soundtrack of rumbling pineboards and encouraging cries of ‘hup!’ from the coaches. Callum Skinner, the Olympic team sprint champion, is grimacing through a series of leg-shredding standing starts. Katy Marchant, bronze medallist in the women’s sprint, is chatting with physios about a knee injury. The young sprint trio of Ryan Owens, 21, Joe Truman, 20, and Jack Carlin, 19, are recovering in the track centre, their chests heaving through sweatdrenched jerseys. In this winning environment, past and future champions train side by side.
‘I had three weeks off after Rio, then started planning what happens next,’ says Jan van Eijden, the German former track cyclist who oversees the sprint programme. ‘We’re thinking about Tokyo but also the next World Championships [in Hong Kong in April]. When we were in Rio, Kevin Stewart, the Olympic Development Programme and Academy coach, was here preparing the three young guys who were so successful at the Euros and World Cups. Someone is always thinking about the next step.’
This relentlessly progressive attitude is shared by the riders. ‘It’s been tough getting back into training but the only thing I think about is the
feeling when I crossed the line and won the medal,’ says Marchant, 24. ‘You want nothing more than to feel that again. Some days I could happily lie in bed because my legs and arms are hurting, but the team helps us through that. There’s great morale in the track centre. Me and Becky [James, silver medallist in the keirin and sprint in Rio] had a really great relationship before the Olympics. Things were highly competitive between us but we pulled each other along.’
Ryan Owens is another young rider helping to maintain the winning momentum. His ambition is to become an Olympic champion like Sir Chris Hoy, and he already has the colossal thighs and polite manners of his idol. ‘Obviously I think of Tokyo but I’d love to ride at the Worlds. The first race I watched here was in 2008 when Hoy won the sprint. I remember the buzz and I thought, “I want to ride in that one day.” I’d love to be a world champion but one step at a time. I just want to get my head down and see what position I’m in when selection comes round.’
Van Eijden believes experienced riders gain as much from training with young riders such as Owens as the prodigies do from rubbing
‘It’s been tough getting back into training but the only thing I think about is the feeling when I won the medal’
shoulders with medal-winners. ‘The hunger comes from the squad itself. When you have young guys doing well – Jack did 17.3s in the 250m time-trial a few times, which for the time of year is up there with the top guys – the experienced riders have to be going well too. And riders have new challenges too. Take Phil Hindes [double team sprint champion], who wants to become an individual sprinter.’
‘We have timing loops underneath the track and each bike has its own timing chip so we can track speed, cadence, power and timing splits’
Body and mind
British Cycling recently underwent an independent investigation into alleged sexism and bullying and admitted in a statement that it has ‘chosen to embrace the recommendations and findings’, but while the controversy continues, the riders and staff here are focused only on the hunt for medals. Riders are supported by a network of nutritionists, physios, mechanics, psychologists, performance analysts and strength coaches.
‘Within a four-year Olympic cycle athletes will have about 8,000 meals so they have to establish good habits,’ says nutritionist Lauren Delany, who’s started posting healthy recipes for pork and pea orzotto and protein panna cotta on Instagram to grab her hungry athletes’ attention. ‘For most meal plates, we work on a simple rule of thirds. A third of the plate will be fuelling foods like carbohydrates, a third will be colourful vegetables, and a third will be protein-based recovery foods.’
As the sprint squad is in a strength-building phase, where gym progress is prioritised over track speed, they are ravenous. ‘For breakfast they might have an omelette with smoked salmon and loads of veg. We might throw in a smoothie so they get a lot of milk and oats and fruit. And there always has to be good quality coffee – they will kill me if I don’t say that!’
While there are no medals to be won today, lead psychologist Ruth Anderson, pinched in 2015 from the Australian Institute of Sport, likes riders to hone their mental strategies in training.
‘If you practise psychological skills when you’re not under pressure it becomes habit. Relaxation strategies such as abdominal breathing can have a profound impact in competition. Each athlete has strengths and vulnerabilities. Someone outgoing might be easily distracted. Someone introverted might ruminate too much. We individualise strategies to manage that.’
As the riders swirl at blistering speeds around the velodrome, performance analyst Lewis Marsden is staring at his laptop, deciphering the training data. ‘We have timing loops underneath the track and each bike has its own timing chip so we can track things such as speed, cadence, power and timing splits,’ he says. Exactly which nuggets of data are released to riders depends on a balance of coaching instinct and psychology. ‘Some athletes are data-hungry and some only want drip-feeding the key bits of information. We also look at the relationship between track performance and gym performance and marry all the numbers into one solid database.’
Power games
After lunch the athletes head to the gym. With its booming music, clanging weights and banter it’s not dissimilar to any normal gym – until you see the size of the weight plates. Jack Carlin is
Jack Carlin is performing single-leg presses, his face purple from the effort. He’s pushing 270kg per leg
performing single-leg presses, his face purple from the effort. He’s pushing 270kg per leg.
‘About 80% of maximal cycling power comes from the hips and knees so they’re a big focus,’ says strength coach Martin Evans. The order of the athletes’ training schedule is carefully planned. ‘There’s some evidence that a higher body temperature in the afternoon leads to increased force and power output. In a strength phase, we do the gym at the best time and manipulate track training accordingly. But in a phase when the bike performance is the focus – like nearer the Worlds – the track takes priority.’
Owens is balancing himself on two dip bars while kicking his legs out in front – a complex routine worthy of a gymnast. ‘We like sprinters to do exercises where there’s a strong link between the hands, elbows and trunk working together,’ says Evans. ‘They don’t necessarily need more upper-body muscle but they do need a strong chain to transfer force on the bike.’
Working closely with the gym team is head physio Phil Burt, a British Cycling stalwart since 2006. ‘A big focus now is injury-prevention,’ he says. ‘The main issue is days lost. You lose 15% of the squad to injury and 25% to illness at some point. During that time, everyone else in the world is getting better. So we do regular injury audits and monitor riders using apps. They each have daily warm-ups and if they can’t achieve the right range of movement, they don’t lift.’
Burt has drawn praise from Laura Kenny for his saddle sore project, which resulted in female riders using downward-tilting saddles and adapted skinsuits. ‘We used pressure mapping