Team Profile: The Independent Pedaler

A small team from Canterbury in Kent, the Independent Pedaler, have had a mega season in time trials with wins in the blue ribbon events, the 10 and 25 championships

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Team Profile: The Independent Pedaler

A small team from Canterbury in Kent, the Independent Pedaler, have had a mega season in time trials with wins in the blue ribbon events, the 10 and 25 championships

The name of the team comes from Aaron Hudson-Tyreman’s cafe which happens to be called The Independent Pedaler and one look at their website and you will see the strong connection to cycling.

My first introduction to the team, besides seeing them win time trials week in, week out, was at the British championships when I rocked up early and who was already there in a prime position, the Independent Pedalers of course and they certainly looked the business.

Aaron says of the cafe, “in essence the cafe is simply the tool through which I was able to create a Time Trial Team that was originally conceived to help Chris (Fennell following a meeting about chocolate coffee beans which we sell in the cafe.”

“This brought another local rider, Emma Lewis to the cafe and we all sat and spoke about what I thought was possible if we simply went about the task properly, rather than in the traditional train a bit, race a bit kind of way. Having spoken at length to Sean Yates about my ideas on working with Chris and Emma, he presented Emily and Joss as the missing parts to the team puzzle and my interest in seeing what we could do on the women’s circuit”.

“Sean was really positive about their strengths as riders and they simply needed the right environment to excel. I strongly believe that Time Trial racing is the pinnacle of bike sport, if we accept that bike racing is an A to B race with the fastest being the winner, nothing reflects that more than TT racing, from the highly technologically advanced kit, bikes, aerodynamic testing and training. Much like Formula 1, things flow down from TT development into all other areas of bike racing not up!”

The team and their Trophies from 2019 – the team thanks Stewart from the CTT for bringing them down to the team’s launch.

“I have raced all over the world at a mediocre level and through the military understand more than anything the strengths of psychological management at elite level, which is where I work extensively with my team. It is in their heads that we have created champions, their physiology and how we fine tune that is what makes them fast. The kit amounts to a small proportion of their success and no matter how many people may argue that the ‘best kit’ matters, it is only relevant at an elite level if you have the physiology and psychology to match it”.

“The desire to pull together the right people who could support one another and actually be a team in a very individual sport was one of the more difficult undertakings, and I would warn anyone wishing to replicate the model it is not simply about trying to find fast people in the vain hope they can all play nice.”

“There is a huge psychological balancing act at play and the higher up the competitive apex you get, the more you have to be willing to put in the hours as a mental coach. We have managed that process by eliminating the perpetual white noise that competition creates and accepting a ‘No Excuses’ policy on our outcomes.
Taking responsibility and sharing concerns by being as honest as possible with one another knowing full well that the major motivator is to beat your team mate and accepting that this does not make you a bad person, so long as you can do so with humility and a desire to do so because of commitment and not their own misadventure”.

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The Team Kit
“The kit we use is pretty much the same as anything anyone can buy off the shelf, from Pyramid rings, HED wheels, SRAM ETap and a generic carbon frame which we specifically have stripped and repainted to ensure no poor aerodynamics from a factory finish effect the flow.”

The skins suits are from NOPINZ and other than that we are simply very lucky to have some off bike clothing supplied by Under Armour and I have worked with Pro Vision on Team jackets and t-shirts to give the guys a real sense of esprit de corp. I don’t have a huge budget, but I focus intently on the details and making sure everyone is properly serviced come race day and I have constant dialogue with the team throughout the week.”

Into 2020, we shall approach the year in a similar way, with the exception of Joss going to Team DROPS full time and another local rider, young Alex Clay coming onboard, we have already started to build for next year.

Emma will captain the women’s team as we focus on Team competitions and Alex will start to learn more about the skills necessary from Emma and Emily at the races, with the hope that Joss will be able to guest for us when the UCI calendar permits. Chris will in turn simply continue his development.

He is only 24 and there is no need to burden him with expectation in a sport which really you do not fully mature in until your late 20’s. We shall see how the adaption to training load goes and so long as we do not start excepting too much, I believe he will develop in to one of the best TT riders of his generation.”

Thanks to Aaron for the team profile and we’ll have some Q&As with the riders coming up in the next few weeks. 2016_ShuttVeloRapideAdvert

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