With spring rapidly approaching, the road racing season is on its way again and this means it’s time for another National School of Racing!

As many will remember, last year’s Mallory park session was massively oversubscribed and another session was added just to accommodate all the under 14 applicants.

The session will again be road-specific but to make sure we can cope and cater for the ever increasing number that want and require this kind of session, we are going to run two or potentially three sessions. This will be held at different motor racing circuits throughout Great Britain. 

With NSRs we aim to give younger riders the opportunity to have a taste of the discipline, skill, speed and endurance levels which will be required of them in the future. For this reason, we also include first year under 14 riders.

This is a Talent Program session and the Talent programme in its two tier form is in place to cater for riders only with the birth years listed below who honestly meet all the criteria.

• Born in 1997, 1998, 1999 or 2000.  For the girls' sessions we want to accommodate riders in the junior category so any female who is a junior rider in 2013 is also very welcome.
• Regularly racing at a regional and/or national level.
• Have evidence of participation in Go-Ride club or holiday scheme or BC or British Triathlon GROUP coaching sessions.

The reason for the criteria above is that on many occasions, we have had a numerous riders attending sessions who are complete novices. Dropping such riders into sessions as technically testing as this, at the speeds we run the sessions at, has caused safety issues for those riders as well as other riders around them. It is also often a very negative and potentailly off-putting experience for young riders who are just starting to get involved in the sport. Our main objective is to create a real and fun learning experience which does not de-motivate or injure our young cyclists.

If you feel this rules you out of the NSR, we advocate that you should look to take part in some local club activity or Go-Ride Racing and holiday club sessions. From this you should then aim to move on to some lower-level regional racing. Together with our Go-Ride colleagues, we can steer you in the right direction. You can find a list of your regional go-ride contacts here, who will be more than happy to advise you further.

N.B. For this event you will need road bikes only (no tri-bars please).

Sessions

• Session 1 will best service Wales, Southern regions and South Midlands.  This will take place at the well-established cycling venue of Castle Combe on Tuesday 19 February. Click here to enter online.

• Session 2 will be to service riders based in the northern regions and north Midlands and will take place at the very exciting new cycling venue Cadwell Park on Thursday 21 February. Click here to enter online.

• Session 3 will best service Scotland and will take place in East Fortune on 29 March. Click here to enter

Please note that we can accommodate a maximum of three groups of 40 riders (Girls, Youth A Boys and Youth B boys) on each session and the closing date for the sessions is 05 February 2013.

Coaching

It is also our other objective is to offer coaching CPD.  If you are a qualified coach, importantly working with a Go-Ride club and wish to shadow or assist us on the day, there are a number of logistical roles we need help with. If you are interested then please contact Rob Sharman by email at robsharman@britishcycling.org.uk by Wednesday 5 February. We will then aim to give a role for the day either on or off the bike. Session plans will be forwarded to those individuals nearer the time.

Please note that this day is not about selection for the talent team in any way - it is purely about a lesson in racing.