G B Para-Cycling Squad to train at Bournemouth Track!

Great Britain’s Para-Cycling squad will put the finishing touches to their Paralympic preparations on the Bournemouth track. Four members of the London 2012 team, Jody Cundy, Rik Waddon, Jon-Allan Butterworth and Verwoods Darren Kenny plan to spend 3 days from 31st July to the 2nd August at the Ensbury Park venue. As well as their individual disciplines, three of the four will contest the team sprint, so all four will be looking to impress the coaches. Kenny, Cundy & Waddon all won medals four years ago in Beijing and have a wealth of experience between them.

Jody Cundy

Rik Waddon

Butterworth however, will be riding in his first Paralympic Games The former R A F man joined the squad through the the Battle Back programme after losing his left arm in a rocket attack in Iraq in 2007.

Ahead of the Bournemouth camp, Kenny will be training in the mountains of Norway. Lead Coach Chris Furber says “Training in Bournemouth will fulfil a few different elements. It will enable us to convert some of the road form from Norway into some track strength work. It will also enable the riders that spend most of their time on the indoor track to develop more strength due to the wind and the grippy surface outdoors. It will also give us the opportunity to get away from staring at numbers, you can get a bit of number overkill in the run into the games, obsessing about hundredths of a second, the outdoor track will allow us to get away from that. And primarily it is an opportunity to get the four team sprint lads together to work on some sprint drills” The selection of the 3 for the team sprint will take place just before the holding camp begins in August. Bournemouth track is an “open venue” how does Furber feel about spectators coming along to watch the training sessions? “Absolutely,the more the merrier, it will be fantastic for us to go to Bournemouth and show people Para-Cycling, you’ll get a lot closer to the riders there than at the Paralympic games in London”

Great Britain Para-Cyclists:The Road to London Ramps up!

Great Britain’s Para-Cyclists began their build up to the London Paralympic games with an endurance camp in Majorca
The recent world track championships in Los Angeles drew a line under the qualification period for the games. Points gained during this qualifying period would determine each nation’s team size. The Majorca camp signalled the start of the final phase in the process. For so long the Olympic & Paralympic games have been on the horizon, now, they are just around the corner.

Based at Santa Maria, some 20 km inland from Palma, the location offered a mix of terrain. Rolling hills, mountain climbs and quiet lanes winding through orange and lemon groves providing the backcloth to the hard work. Long road miles formed a large part of the nine day camp and the mountains offer the chance for quality. Of course, other boxes have to be ticked; speed work was done behind the scooter and extensive and intensive intervals on the fast flat roads, even turbo trainers were in use. Wind and heavy rain on a couple of days was disappointing but not disruptive.

London is obviously the focus but world cup events in Italy and Spain are important stepping stones along the way. Lead coach, Chris Furber gave his perspective “The camp marks the start of the final phase running into the Paralympic games. It’s a time for us to spend some time away with the athletes in order to formulate and make sure we have their phased plans right.To make sure they have all the detail in there and they are comfortable with it. It is also an opportunity to get the guys together to do some important road miles before the summer season kicks off for the road guys. From here most of the squad go on to a period of track work again, which finishes with a camp in May. For the road guys this camp marks the start of season really, after this comes the build-up to the two world cups in Rome & Segovia. The Rome event comes before the selection deadline on the 6th June, so there are opportunities for people to impress ahead of that date. The Segovia event is more about ensuring we have the preparation right going into the games. It’s about practising race strategy, practising tapers, practising warm ups, all those vital things that we will do before the games to make sure everything is in place and works before we get to London. It also gives us a chance to ensure we are getting it right from a staffing point of view, a dress rehersal for everything. The world cup events will also give us a chance to assess the opposition. In Para-cycling you get very few opportunities to actually see everyone. There should not be any shocks in terms of who is there but there may be some shocks in terms of who has moved forward. Traditionally in Paralympic year people will take time off work, perhaps put a little more finance in, nations do move forward quite rapidly in the final months leading up to the games”

The squad were focussed and relaxed on the camp; however film crews from BBC’s Blue Peter and Sky sports reminded them of the importance of 2012.

Even with all the hard work there was still time for a bit of fun!

Sarah Storey plays up to the camera

Fiona Duncan & Lora Turnham give a wave

Coach, Chris Furber joins the days ride!

Shaun Mckeown fools around

Words & Pictures, Eamonn Deane

G B Para-Cycling Squad ready to go to work!!

The home Depot Centre complex is built on the sight of the 1984 Olympic Velodrome. As you would expect for the USA, the training facilities are impressive. The main Stadium is surrounded by football pitches, basketball courts and palm trees and as the song says “it never rains in southern California”. David Beckham and his L A Galaxy teammates have been training at the venue. Trying to watch, however, is frowned upon by the tight security.

The G B riders all seem pleased with the track, saying it is faster than expected. Having flown in last Saturday, they have shaken off the jet-lag and now want to get on with the competition. The three training sessions the squad have had on the track have gone well and now the talking stops.

Day 1 will see Sarah Storey defending her 500m Time Trial title and Helen Scott & Aileen Mcglynn(above) and Fiona Duncan & Lora Turnham in the 3,000m Tandem Pursuit.