DHL Sprint School – 19th August – Manchester
On Friday 19th August, the National Cycling Centre in Manchester hosted the third edition of this year’s DHL Sprint School, now into its 5th season. Young riders enjoyed the unique opportunity to receive expert coaching from top British Cycling coaches and star riders such as Craig MacLean and Dean Downing.
Rapha Condor Sharp pro Dean Downing tells us that the event was once again a resounding success: “DHL Sprint School went really well. I did some coaching with the kids, talking to them about how to prepare for a race, timings for when they should eat, et cetera. It’s good fun, good to pass some experiences on to the kids.”
Having temporarily abandoned his cycling career as a teenager, Olympic silver medallist Craig MacLean recognises the importance of providing young riders with as much encouragement and assistance as possible. “Well, I gave up cycling when I was 15! But having something like this to look forward to, it could have made all the difference to riders such as myself at that age,” said MacLean.
Former Great Britain national sprint cycling coach Geoff Cooke helped the kids to perfect their standing starts, as well as honing their skills in many sprint disciplines including 500m time trials, keirin, team sprints and match sprints.
Craig and Dean were on hand to provide coaching and advice to the riders, who took part in several off-bike workshops in addition to their hard work on the track. The workshops covered key topics such as nutrition, bike maintenance and racing etiquette, ensuring the kids established a broad base of knowledge to inform their future training and racing.
Many DHL Sprint School riders will be hoping to emulate the success of Team GB rider Louis Oliver, who kick started his GB career by attending a DHL Sprint School in Newport only a few years ago. “I was here at DHL Sprint School 3 or 4 years ago now, and managed to win the keirin final. From then on, guys like Geoff Cooke spotted me and recognized that I had a little bit of talent and managed to get me noticed by Olympic development programs as well as other Great Britain set-ups.”
Great Britain Talent Team coach Matt Winston was pleased with the effort shown by the kids, recognizing that “it’s a full-on day, the riders usually arrive quite fresh in the morning, and leave pretty tired at the end of the day.” Despite their tiredness, all involved left with the benefit of a day’s worth of intensive coaching from cycling experts, and can look forward to implementing all that they have learned to help them improve their riding as they continue to develop.
DHL Sprint School was set up in 2007 to provide 12-15 year olds with an opportunity to learn and practice skills relating to track sprinting. The scheme feeds into the DHL Future Stars races at the Revolution winter track series. It provides an alternative and inclusive way for children to improve their skills at any level and has also helped riders move into the Great Britain Olympic talent schemes.
The 2011 DHL Sprint School season concludes with three more sessions at the Newport Velodrome on 14th October, 11th November and 9th December.
