They may not have been picked for the team traveling to Beijing, but Rob Hayles and Craig MacLean aren't letting that get them down.
The pair have over 20 years combined experience of racing at the highest level and are helping the next generation of Olympic hopefuls by passing that knowledge on at the fifth school of 2008. 68 talented riders descend on Newport for another fantastic training session with sprint stars Craig MacLean and Rob Hayles helping out the talent team coaches.
?I?m really pleased I could come to Newport on Friday as I've not managed to make a Sprint School since the first one this season in January. It was great to see the kids again and they?ve all progressed really well over the last few months," MacLean said.
Working on training for Keirin racing as well as several Watt bike power sessions, the young riders were pushed hard all day. To finish the session, the fastest boys and girls from the days heats challenged Craig and Rob to a race. Craig won comfortably, however, Rob wasn?t so fresh and came in fourth behind one of the most talented boys in the group, Charlie Heffernan.
?It really is a fantastic opportunity to be able to ride with and be coached by current and ex world champions, I'm really pleased to have been chosen to go this time and I hope that there will be many more that I can take part in to really push myself and improve my riding.?
Of the girls, Emily Kay was the only one fast enough to reach the final and despite being just 12 years old, finished comfortably in sixth place, only a few seconds behind the leaders.
There?s just one more session this season, which will take place after the Beijing Olympics on the 5th September. British Cycling coach, Tim Buckle has a great session planned for the youngsters and is thoroughly enjoying his first season at the head of the Sprint School coaching plan.
?Over season 2 what we have done is deconstruct the sprint discipline into its different events and worked on the skills that are particular to each one. In all the sessions we have stealth coached the guys and worked coaching points into competitive play but, In session 6 the plan is to bring these skills back together and see the guys really use them in the actual events. In every session we have learnt by doing but session 6 will have a real competition feel to it and we should see some hot racing from the guys using all their new learnt skills. I just want to finish by saying thank you to all the volunteers coz without these dudes season 2 would not have been what it has.?
