 Victoria Pendleton and Jamie Staff share their wisdom |
British track cycling has been on a long, hard road to be able to compete with the world's best.
Topping the table last April at the World Track Championships in Mallorca, Great Britain finished with an impressive tally of 11 medals, including seven golds.
Although that bodes well for next year's Olympics in Beijing, staying at the top can prove as tricky as getting there.
That desire to stay ahead was why GB riders Victoria Pendleton and Jamie Staff were handing down their considerable knowledge to an eager group of youngsters at the Newport Velodrome last week.
The GB set-up already has an Olympic Talent Team, a youth programme designed to identify and develop the best riders from under the age of 16.
But places are limited and some riders just miss out, develop late or simply slip through the net.
So was born the DHL Sprint School, designed to allow more young riders, typically aged between 12 and 15, the opportunity to access world-class coaching.
"You're only an athlete for so long and we need that depth of talent coming up through the ranks," said Staff, a former BMX champion who now boasts regular medal success on the track.
"We're successful now but we've got to make sure we keep backing that up, that's the difficult thing.
 | You will break your collarbone, it's the rider's injury, |
"There's a tonne of kids here today, so if you're talking about maybe two or three or four of those making a career for themselves in five or six years' time than that would be fantastic, it would be job done.
"We've been very successful but it goes in cycles - literally, hah! - as in Athens, around 2004 and 2003, we weren't too successful but hopefully this Olympics we will be extremely successful.
"But the hope is that we can carry that on to London where we'll be on home turf, so that's the aim to make sure we have the talent ready for 2012."
The Sprint School is a three-year programme that asks every track league in the country to nominate two girls and two boys per school.
There are six schools each year, with up to 70 places available on each, split between the velodromes in Newport and Manchester.
This year's runs until August and then culminates on 13 October with a race meet for the youngsters - Future Revolution that mimics the Revolution professional series - to put their new-found skills to the test.
Pendleton - who took three golds in Mallorca in the keirin, sprint and team events - agrees that it is the technical and tactical side of track racing that is so hard to master.
"It's hard to learn the skills and practice some of the techniques," she said.
"So this is a great chance for kids to learn about a specialised area of the sport - sprinting - that doesn't get much focus in the UK at this sort of level.
"There will always be kids coming through, but giving them a little bit more of an idea of sprinting specifically might help prepare them to get onto other development schemes within British cycling.
"I found it really hard as a kid to learn about sprinting, and really I've only just figured it out to be honest!"
As well as tips on the track, Pendleton and Staff were grilled by the youngsters in a question-and-answer session in the classroom.
There were plenty more questions on tactics and training, about the equipment the GB riders used and the funding they received.
 Pendleton claimed three golds at this year's World Championships |
Food was another favourite, with Pendleton assuring some of the girls that there were very few bad snacks or calories when you were burning them off on the track so quickly.
Although the 26-year-old from Stotfold did admit to falling foul of the team nutritionist from time to time.
But the most lively subject was injuries, not how to avoid them - "you won't" - but how to prepare for them.
"You will break your collarbone, it's the rider's injury," Staff told his wide-eyed audience.
"I've had crashes where I don't want to get back on the bike again, but you always do... if you want to win."
The British youth squad coach, Geoff Cooke, and national sprint coach, Iain Dyer, are also on hand to help hone skills.
"There's good coaches here and they've brought along myself and Vicky Pendleton to help give some guidance as well," added Staff.
"One of the problems sprinters have, compared to endurance riders, is getting enough racing opportunities to learn the tactics needed to make the most of their physical abilities.
"These events encourage more kids to get into track racing and give them the education they need to take up the sport seriously.
"There's a lot of senior riders on the British team right now, but they're working really, really hard at bringing new kids into the sport and then once they're in developing them.
"Myself, I'm getting a little bit into the senior years as far as being an athlete goes!
"There's guys knocking on my door ready to take my spot, which sucks for me but is great for British cycling."
As well as access to coaching, a lack of facilities has also been a problem.
The velodromes in Manchester and Newport, plus an undersized indoor track in Calshot near Southampton are the sum total of venues in the UK.
A fourth will be built in London in time for the 2012 Olympics, although another planned for Edinburgh is in doubt due to funding problems.
 GB riders are keen to develop the next generation |
Staff agrees that the situation is better than when he started in the sport, but pleaded with government, both national and local, to do more.
"It's different racing outdoors on the velodrome, there is quite a few scattered around the country but I think quite a few of those are in poor shape," Staff said.
"That's not going to attract the youngsters in but having a facility like this, and another one being built in London will help attract more kids into the sport.
"That's what Britain needs to do as a whole. If you look at other nations like Australia, they're so successful because they have so many sporting facilities.
"If you haven't got the facility there, how do you expect kids to get into the sport. It's plain and simple.
"You only have to go back 10 years or so and we had Chris Boardman and a couple of others on the track.
"But we're starting to provide more services and sporting facilities and it is bringing more kids into the sport."
Pendleton is also singing the same tune, ruing the limited facilities that hindered her early development.
"This would have been perfect for me, literally there was only one occasion in the year I used to get to practice on a proper wooden velodrome, racing against people of a similar ability, and that was the nationals," she added.
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Interview: British track cyclist Jamie Staff
