News: Beeston Race Team

Feature on the Junior and Under 23 Beeston Race Team coached by former Olympic medallist in the Team Pursuit Bryan Steel

News: Beeston Race Team

Feature on the Junior and Under 23 Beeston Race Team coached by former Olympic medallist in the Team Pursuit Bryan Steel

Putting youth at the heart of our racing ambitions
Building on the success of our senior male and female racing teams Beeston Cycling Club (BCC), had a vision to develop a lasting pathway for young talented and committed racers.

In 2018, BCC began to develop a youth development programme (Youth & Junior) after identifying a lack of support and direction for riders and their families once Go Ride had been exhausted to both as a Youth and preparation towards Junior and onwards in some cases, towards a cycling career. BCC and some of our member parents, approached Bryan Steel, double Olympic Medalist to see how this could be achieved and it was quickly apparent that Bryan’s existing under 23 year academy would cross over neatly with our youth aims and goals.

So in 2018, the Bryan Steel Youth Academy was set up with support from BCC and what started with a small group of riders quickly grew and our vision for the Beeston CC Youth Race Team began.

Develop and promote talent
Our aims when we set out on our journey were quite clear, to promote the development of young riders from the Midlands area that had either been missed or fallen out of traditional BC programmes. We work with these riders progressing them to be the best they can be. With BCC and Bryan’s support, we are giving them the best opportunity to pursue that dream and hopefully make it into a reality.

A strong racing pathway
With Bryan’s Under 23 year academy and riders transferring over to BCC, we have established a clear and proven pathway for our riders from 14 years to under 23’s and senior racing. We have given our riders the chance to work with an Olympic athlete who has competed at the highest level and who is aligned with our ambitions. The riders not only benefit from Bryan’s wealth of knowledge of racing but also, if they show the right commitment and ability, there is a real opportunity to take their racing to the next level through his connections in Europe.

Developing legacy partnerships
Our Chairman John McCay, who spearheaded the senior racing teams and has a passion to establish BCC’s reputation as a club that develops young racers, has spent a great deal of time speaking with local and national businesses that have mutual goals around youth development and local sustainability. With these aligned values, it is clear that both parties benefit and we have been able to generate a good level of sponsorship to deliver our racing development programme.

Supporting parents and riders together
We do this by supporting riders through the academy on a training plan specific to their development in the same way only offered at either great expense to their parents or on the BC apprentice programme onwards. We believe that developing a riders’ race craft and personal development is more important than providing just kit. This not only takes a financial burden away from the parent, it also allows the parent to be a parent and not the pressure of being a coach. However we also support riders with kit part funded by Godfrey Sports in Nottingham ensuring that they have the platform to look professional as well as developing their race craft.

Working with our national governing body
We are working with BC regional development coaches to ensure that our pathway fits with BC’s development pathway. We assist parents of new riders at youth level to ensure that they are entering races to showcase themselves. We ensure that race selection is well managed to protect the riders’ development.

BCC & Bryan Steel Academy
Bryan Steel provides workshops to equip the riders with everything from nutrition to goal setting and during these difficult times that we have had, Bryan has been able to maintain this level of commitment by taking these sessions online. Other workshops focus on social media and how to help the parents understand their child’s racing programme.

During the pandemic, our racing development programme has proved its worth on many occasions to help keep them focused and feel they are part of a team. We have many team swift sessions to replace our normal team development rides that would generally be done on the road or track.

We are poised for great things in 2021
Into 2021, we plan to run teams at under 23, Junior and Youth. We have riders that have both grown through our program and those that have seen our program from the outside and chosen to join. Our program has riders that have received the recognition of the BC coaching team at both the Regional School of Racing and had a rider, Jack Pearson, selected on the BC apprentice program in 2020. Ed Hopkins, a teammate of Jack on that program, also saw our vision at Beeston CC and joined us for 2021.

• Under 23 riders will be targeting both National B road race and East Midlands Road Race league.
• Juniors will be targeting the Men’s Junior National Road Race, National track championships and regional racing, plus looking to gain experience in Europe.
• Youth riders will be looking towards national circuit series and national track events with regional racing to aid their development.

Our talented squads

Youth Riders – U14 & U16: We have a squad of all ages thus maintaining our pipeline of talent year on year.

Juniors Team 2021
Jack Pearson
Fred Shenton-McQueen
Ed Hopkins
Finlay Holland
Lucas Jowett
Lewis Holmes

U23 Team 2021
Jonno Oxley
Will Beech
James Alexander

Solid foundations for success year on year.
Beeston Cycling Club has invested heavily to support the race team providing them with the best race craft possible and the equipment to give them a professional image both on and off the bike ensuring that the riders know that we believe in them and they in turn want to perform when they pull on their BCC jersey. We encourage riders of all levels to speak to us regarding their aspirations of racing. Beeston CC is inclusive and welcomes all riders to join the club and race in our jersey if they show the levels of commitment and ability we will work with them to make them the best you can be. Alternatively if they just want to ride their bike the club has plenty to offer to promote this great sport and enrich their wellbeing.

Beeston Cycling Club – website: https://beeston.cc/racing/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/beestoncyclingclub

Twitter: https://twitter.com/beestoncc