My 10 point plan to London 2012
Just what is it that I do?
Imagine you’re back at school, it’s sports day. You have just been picked for the 4x100m relay. Your man two you have to grab the baton, run for your life and then pass it on. Consider then the effort you will have to put in and the thought of not dropping your baton.
Now imagine once you have handed the baton over carrying on running behind the person you have just given it to, then running on the front again and repeating it another four times. That is Team Pursuit. This is the effort that is required for me to ride At the Olympic games to try and bring home the gold medal.
2012 promises to be a once in a lifetime year for all of us that aspire to wear the Team Great Britain uniform at the London Olympics. Like so many other things in life the route to the Olympics is complex, full of twists and turns and with many opportunities to get lost. So I have a map that I'd like to share with you. It is a ten-point strategy that I hope will steer me in the right direction to the Olympic Velodrome and my dream.
1) Perseverance
As you will see my younger self isn’t what you would describe as a natural athlete. Having found my love of cycling though I had a grim determination to never give up. My local cycling club recognized this though and I was awarded “Trier of the Year” for 3 years running! I never gave up though, even in the face of real adversity when I was diagnosed with Supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) and had to undergo remedial heart surgery. This all paid off though and slowly my fitness came, results followed and at the second attempt I made it into Great Britain’s Youth Academy.
2) Team Work, harnessing People Strength
Team Pursuit is what it says; it is about a team working together to chase down the opposition who are there to do the same. As I have already said, it demands an epic physical effort by each of the four of us and in a way that means we end with the same amount of riders that we start with!
Dissecting a race will show that it is a hugely tactical thing. Each of us has a role and must ride in a way that fulfils our roles and keeps us at maximum strength throughout the whole course. For instance Man 1, our lead out rider has enormous strength and his role is to get the team to our optimum speed as soon as possible. By his nature he will expend an enormous amount of energy and tire easily. He will therefore ride a relatively short distance. Ed Clancy is our man for this and is amongst the world’s most powerful riders. Man 2 therefore needs to take over and maintain that speed, Man3 & 4 are the real engines of the team and they will do longer turns at the optimum speed, keeping us at our agreed race pace and for legs that allow the rest of us to recover enough to fulfill our next turn. Bradley Wiggins and Geraint Thomas are legendary in their ability to ride huge turns at world record-breaking pace. Me? My abilities mean I can ride Man2, 3 or 4; balancing an ability to accelerate quickly with having an engine that means I can do long turns.
We have a motto that I think explains this perfectly
“Only as strong as your Weakest Man. Strongest man is as much a threat to the team as the Weakest.”
3) Get Over disappointment
I live in a world of fierce competition and things that you cannot control or change. For example
The Manchester World Cup early in 2011, was built up to be a big target for the team this year. With all riders putting themselves up for selection. The team was to be made up of 5 riders with a good chance that the line up would change between the qualifier and the final. Unfortunately I had been having a few bad weeks in training, caused by a build up of fatigue. I still however managed to make the 5 selected. In the week before competition I came back to my normal self. This was great for my confidence.
Unfortunately though I found out I wasn’t going to be riding either of the rounds. This was heart rendering for me. It was even harder when one rider was struggling in the final and was dropping the pace.
Unlike the year before it wasn’t my turn to compete this time around. I had no time to dwell upon this and needed to immediately re-find my motivation. I had the World Championships coming up, along with the Tour of Sardinia where I was riding in a Team GB shirt. I was helped by a former World champion saying to me “They know what you can do Andy some of these riders they still unsure about performance mentally”
This showed that riders had confidence in what I could do I would deliver in race exactly what I had showed in training, it wasn’t my day on that day. But I am sure as I can be I will make it my day in August in 2012!
4) Manage risk
Every day, every one of us has to assess and then manage the risks that confront us. It will come as no surprise then to learn that we have to do this not only leading up to a race but during it too. Things happen that you simply cannot control, but it is how you deal with them that will make the difference.
In 2010 we came second in the World Championships, losing by 100th of a second. We were determined therefore to go one better in 2011. However Ed Clancy fell ill and I twisted my foot. Risk assessing the options, considering the balance of the team and those available it was decided that we both should ride. We rode in the heats and qualified 3rd. We would therefore be riding off in the bronze medal final. Ed however really was not well and further reconsideration took place. It was decided that he should withdraw and the team ride in different positions; sad for Ed but a great opportunity for a new rider to the team, Sam Harrison. With a change to tactics forced upon on us, the team rallied and we won the race for bronze medals.
Because we assessed the risk and made properly thought through decisions we were able to salvage something and although not get the gold medal we wanted, still managed to gain a creditable third place and bronze medal. It doesn’t end there though. These lessons were thrown immediately into the team planning and ideas formed about how to reduce this risk in the future.
5) Know you competition
It is of course vital that we never turn up on race day without knowing who will be on the starting line with you, their strengths, their weaknesses and what their strategy may be.
This throws up a real difference between the road and the track. The road throws up its own competition; the state of the roads you will be riding on and the weather. The track is a more controlled environment and means that you know your competition but can also control things more directly by concentrating upon your own team, its performance and the target times to ride.
There is of course our own internal competition for places in the team, which is healthy as it avoids complacency and keeps every rider at the peak of their performance.
It is therefore drilled into us that we can only control the controllable. What we cannot affect, we have to put aside and concentrate upon ourselves.
6) Long Term goals
Aim for the stars and reach for the moon
What does this mean for me? Of course I have hopes and dreams that I want to achieve, but I am realistic to know that my best path of getting there is to set goals that by achieving them, keeps the big goal in sight and my motivation high.
7) Remember your Supporters
I am in a team and we are part of a much bigger team, every one within it being a vital link in the chain that empowers us to reach our goals.
Within cycling there are the
- Mechanics
- Coach
- Nutrition
- Careers
- All the office staff.
There are the teams that I race for Team GB and Rapha Condor Sharp
And of course there is Davies Group, whose sponsorship is not just financial but gives me huge encouragement.
Remembering them is one thing, remembering to thank them is another.
Thank you
8) Marginal Gains
As an elite athlete I live in a world where it becomes fractions of margins that is the difference between winning and losing. We therefore concentrate upon making small improvements across a whole range of what we do and the equipment we use to perform. By making a 1% improvement in ten things we can make the same 10% improvement in one thing.
9) Fail to Prepare - Prepare to Fail
Fundamental in all our lives, this is policy that British cycling works to. We have bi-weekly reviews of each rider, their goals; short and long term and are they on track.
All staff are involved and it is almost like a board meeting were the rider is treated like a company.
10) Enjoyment
Simply put, if you don’t enjoy something you will never give it your all. I have been so fortunate to find something that I excel in that I love so much. Cycling is hard to not enjoy, both physically and mentally. I make many sacrifices that a “normal” life would give me but this is not hard, whatever I do one day I can do knowing that the next day I will be doing what I love
RIDING MY BIKE!
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