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A Memorable Championship Week in Wales

Posted August 28, 2010 | 2010 National Junior & Youth Track Championships

Results from each day of the Championships

Larry Hickmott looks back at the week that will be forever be a memory in the lives of the young riders competing and writes “They may not realise it yet, but for the hundreds of young riders who competed in the championships in Newport (Wales) this week, it may well have been an event that vividly lives with them forever.

Day 5 Photo Album on Flickr

Walking into the track centre at Newport and faced with a venue packed with riders and families, I was taken back to my days racing as a Youth and Junior, days that were by far my happiest days racing a bike.

I may not remember a lot from those days from my racing as a Youth but I still remember the one and only national track title I won as an Under 16 in Australia. And, despite never making it to the level many of these young riders will and some already have, such achievements gave me the motivation to have cycling as a constant companion throughout my life. Something it still is today 34 years on from my own national championships.

With multiple World Champions competing in Newport this week, it certainly shows how healthy this sport is right now, something that wouldn’t happen without the dedication and commitment these young riders make to their sport. It wasn’t as if the World Champions competing in Newport had it all their own way either.

World Junior Women’s Omnium Champion, Laura Trott, not at her peak I admit, was given a right old shake by some under 16 riders on the final day (Points Race). The Junior Men who also made their mark at the Junior Worlds were also given a battle royal by the other junior men wannabees which shows that the difference between the very best and the also rans is not that much at all.

We can only hope this enthusiasm for the sport is something that stays with these young riders through out their lives even if, like me, they don’t get to ride the Tour de France or represent their country. It is after all such a wonderful sport where friendships borne out of weeks like the one just past, will live with riders for ever more. I know mine have.

In the track centre coaching some Welsh riders was a Masters rider, Geoff Cooke, who has ridden at the very highest level in the World as a sprinter and like the youngsters this week, has also ridden the Track Championships as a Junior.

“We have gone full circle since my day at the Junior nationals. I rode them at Coventry in 1960 when we had 140 riders and it was so competitive in the sprint, and the pursuit was the same. There were such vast numbers racing. Everyone would ride it in those days and in the Pursuit, you’d get 150 entries!”

“Then we had the Leicester years with Benny Foster and the guys that ran it there and the phenomenal amount of riders we used to get and the crowds was fantastic.”

Geoff explained that in those days the sport was held on outdoor tracks and it was a very different animal to what it is these days where everything is much more structured and planned for. No having to add in some ‘fat’ into the schedule in case of rain and riders are also much more wise to what they are doing for example.

The championships now are every bit as competitive as they ever were but do lack the crowds they used to get which is sad says Geoff. “I saw the racing yesterday and the Junior Keirin and the place should have been full to watch that. It was just phenomenal.”

The championship week is pretty spectacular says Geoff who has not only coached many of the youngsters competing but still races himself in Masters championships. Because he still races, and is still very much in touch with the sport as it is now and how it was when he represented the country, Geoff admits the quality of the riders is certainly better nowadays. “I look at the Under 16 Sprint when they are doing 11.3 or 11.2, that is just phenomenal for kids at that age. They go so much faster than we used to!"

The skill level for some of them too is right up there with the best he says. “In the ride off for third (Sprint), there was no skill factor and they just rode the bottom of the track like they used to in the old days but in the Gold medal final, they used all the track and made the mistakes that everybody does but the skill factor was definitely there.”

Geoff also had praise for the Endurance Juniors saying “we used to say about the Junior Points race, it’s a lot of good legs but no good heads but now, they have good heads as well you see. And the girls, it is breath taking what has happened with them. It used to be a bit of a procession but now they are phenomenal.”

Geoff though adds that while things are getting better, the sport does need to try and keep its riders, especially those who see the GB programmes as the only way to the top and a second way is needed to keep them interested and working hard to succeed within the sport. Geoff was not alone in saying the week was a success.

Talking to officials and riders alike, the Championship week was certainly a success if what they had to say is anything to go by. Numbers were up and the racing in many of the events was every bit as exciting as any senior race I’ve seen at any level. The Junior Men’s Points was a blinder as was the Junior Men’s Keirin too.  No doubt there were many more great races I didn’t see.

Day 6 Photo Album on Flickr

Under 16 going on Elite
There were also riders who made a name for themselves, like Jonathon Dibben. As the results came into BC HQ from the very first day, Jonathan Dibben’s name was at the top of the results for Under 16 Boys and a National Record showed the wins were full of quality.

“It has been a good week” he said modestly. “I started out wanting to target the Pursuit record because that is something I have been thinking about all year. I got that and it kick started the week and the form kept rolling and I was going well. I was in Assen three weeks ago and that has given me plenty of form.”

Jonathan has ridden the championships since he was an Under 10 and says of this year it was a long hard week but a good one as well. Being well placed as a competitor in the sport, he admits the quality of the competition is going up. “The bunch races have been a lot harder to win this year because everyone knows how to ride them and are a lot more switched on.”

Unsurprisingly, Jonathan is keen to move on and taste the success his trade teammate Dan McLay (World Madison Champion) has tasted this year. “I’m looking forward to getting to the level the juniors this year are now at. Seeing Dan being a World Champion, that’s something next year or the year after, I hope I can have a crack at.”

Jonathan wasn’t the only talented Under 16 rider. Female Under 16 rider, Emily Kay, had a good week too and in the final race of the week, pushed World Junior Champion Laura Trott all the way in the Junior Women’s Points race. Emily admits it had been a really good championships with two championship jerseys and a national record as well as two Silver medals. “I’m really pleased” she said unsurprisingly.

Asked how it felt racing a World Champion in the Junior Women’s Points race, Emily replied “It felt really good to race with a girl you know is the best in the World, who has raced against the best and beat them; she’s amazing. To come second to her is a pleasure.”

“I have another year as an Under 16 and my ultimate dream is to be an Olympic champion. I have a really good club around me (Halesowen A&CC) and I have other people to train with like some one who has been on the ODP and been a European champion. Being part of the Talent Team has also brought me on and I’m coached by Matt Winston.”

Emily says her favourite event is the Pursuit. "I started off thinking I was a bit of a sprinter and then last year I won the Pursuit as an Under 14 which is an event I really enjoy; just you against the clock. This is what I have trained for all year so I was a bit nervous coming into it but I knew there was no pressure on me because I’m a first year Under 16 so I could race free of pressure and I did quite well.”

Finally, Emily admits that the Under 16 races are getting really tough. “The level is really strong and you go into a race and there are a number of girls who can win it and you just have to be on top of your game to compete with them.”

Another Under 16 rider to make a name for himself at the Championships was James Berryman from the Sportcity Velo in Manchester. Speaking after he’d won the Under 16 Boys 500 metre Time Trial, he explained that his start in that event had been a bit dodgy but after he’d realised that, he put his head down and went for it.

“Last year I didn’t do as well as I should have because it was the first year of doing the Nationals but this year I’ve learnt a lot and applied it here. I have trained really hard all year for this before tapering down in the final week so I’m fresh.”

James paid tribute to his coach Matt Winston and said the highlight of his Championship week was winning the Sprint. “I didn’t think I was going to win the event but then Matt made a mistake thank god in the first heat (finals) and then I just went for it in the second one. I was bit nervous before it all but you just have to deal with it.”

World Class Juniors
The Championship week also saw many really good juniors competing, riders who if put in a Senior Elite race would hold their own and they’re still not 19 years old. Some of the juniors, like Victoria Williamson have only been in the sport for a year or two while others like her Welwyn Wheelers club mate, Laura Trott, have been in the sport for a decade or more.

This year, the Championships had three World Champions competing, Simon Yates, Dan Mclay and Laura Trott. The Welwyn rider admitted that she wasn’t at her best for the Championships but Laura still managed to show her rivals home on more than one occasion winning three titles.

Coming back to the Nationals after the Worlds, Laura (pictured above in the stripey jersey she won in Italy) admits the atmosphere is different and that she does feel under pressure. “I feel more pressure now than I did at the Worlds because when you get to the Worlds, you have already proved you are the best British rider. Then, you come back and do this almost straight after and it’s like you’re almost not the best British because you’re not the fittest. I guess you’re always going to get that pressure from other people which is good but I don’t like it when people beat me and they’re like ‘I’ve beaten a World Champion’”. 

Winning three medals at the Worlds was Laura says, better than she expected. “When I went out there, I didn’t even know I was doing the Omnium or the Points race. I hadn’t done a Points race since the last Nationals and didn’t have a clue how I was going to do so to win Silver, I couldn’t have asked for any better really. I was only two points off the win and that was because of not knowing where I was in the race.”

“I had set my heart on winning the Individual Pursuit as that is all I have really been training for and I really wanted the World Record. I was only 0.2 off it but now I’m 0.4 because the winner broke it. I couldn’t have done any better though. I beat my PB by four seconds so it was the best I have ever ridden really.”

It was in the Junior Women’s Omnium, an event she has done as a youngster like the Under 14’s and Under 12’s did during this week at Newport, but at the Worlds as a Junior, Laura didn’t know what to expect.

“I knew I could do a good Pursuit and good 500 TT. I thought if I could go into the second day leading, I’d stand a good chance to win it overall. I did go into the second day winning after I got a third, a first and a second on day 1. The next day though, I felt the pressure because I was leading and knew everyone was out to get me.”

“In the Scratch, you could tell (I was being marked)  because no-one was letting me go up the road and marking me all the time and I only got eighth in that because of a lack of concentration and not targeting the win and instead, targeted people which I shouldn’t have done really. But the pressure got to me in the end.”

“In the 500, I just gave it everything and that was that. That event was the highlight because I did  a PB and because I won the overall as well.” After yet another long week, this time at the Nationals, Laura said she wanted to thank the Olympic Development Programme for helping her realise her dream and specifically her coach Darren Tudor. There are a lot of pressures on young riders like Laura with school and training and she says the GB programme helped her with both of those which was an enormous help.

One of Laura’s titles at Newport this week came in the 500 metre Time Trial where she beat by the narrowest of margins her Welwyn teammate, Victoria Williamson (pictured above) who also competed at the Junior Worlds in the Sprint events. 2010 was Victoria Williamson’s second National Track championships and talking about her week in Newport, the British Junior Women’s Sprint Champion said “my times have been okay here after coming back from the Worlds. Here I did a 12.2 after doing an 11.9 at the Worlds so it wasn’t bad.”

Despite having competed for GB in the Junior Worlds a few weeks ago, riders like Victoria still feel the pressure of a National Championship week. “Even though I have been to the Worlds, there are still nerves when you come to these championships because you come here trying to prove why you were selected to go to the Worlds and why you’re on the Olympic programme. So there are still pressure and nerves, definitely.” 

But nerves didn’t mean Victoria couldn’t enjoy the week long event. “Yes, I have enjoyed the week here, definitely. It has been good to get some racing with people I know like Laura and the highlight  was winning the Sprint. I never won a national title in athletics so to come and win a national title in cycling is really good. I’m really enjoying my cycling!”

Victoria is not alone in that and despite the pressure and need to win during the Championships week, there was also plenty of smiling and laughter from riders and helpers alike. The week is over though for another year and the riders can now relax and think about their next goals on the bike. For some, like Laura Trott and Simon Yates, there are even bigger events to come like the Commonwealth Games but for many, the week will simply be another great memory with many more to come.

Related Link

Results from each day at the Junior & Youth Track Championships