A few of the Team UK Youth “crew” enjoyed an evening track session last night. Niklas Gustavsson, Filip Rudenstam, and mechanic Dave Hart joined the “mighty” Cwmcarn Paragon session at Newport Velodrome.

Mission was accomplished as everyone had a good workout, and left smiling!

Today I completed all the Sports Director duties that I possibly can, in advance of The Perfs Pedal race this Sunday.

There’s a bit more to the preparation than you’d think. Basically, using the race start time (11am) every element of the riders day is established. From the time they need to set their alarm clock, to ensuring every rider understands the “lay out” of the race finish.
This has worked really well with the previous teams I have worked with. Basically, thinking of the questions I’d ask as a rider, and ensuring all those answers – and mire are answered on 1 easy to read document.

Now, I can kick back, enjoy some Nutella with a Big Maggy’s coffee!

It won’t be for long though, as I’m back on the track again tonight!!

Keep it rubber side down!
See you on the road!!

Pov

Team Camp 1. Avon Tyrrel 4th & 5th Feb. 2011

Well!

The last few days have been pretty busy.

For the first time we managed to assemble pretty much all of Team UK Youth.
From “the get go” everyone got on really well, bags of casual wear supplied by “United Brands of Scandanavia” were gratefully received.

Saturday:
We rustled everyone up for some photo’s and interviews with the media guys before heading out for a spin around some of The New Forest roads….

During the afternoon we toured just a few of the 60+ acres of Avon Tyrrel and heard about how the place helps so many young people of the UK. (Check out http://www.avontyrrel.org)
We had great craic on the climbing tower racing each other up over 50ft of climbing walls!

The management team spent the evening running through some of the paperwork, and race planning for our first season of racing!

Sunday:

Managing to find some different roads we got the guys out on their bikes for a few hours – dodging the New Forest ponies, and with some very strong winds we did manage to get some drills done.

Quick wash up, fill up, load up the vehicles and we all headed home, excited by the prospect of our mission:
Spreading the word, raising the profile and awareness of UK Youth through the greatest of sports – and winning as many races as possible!!

Roll on next week – and The Perfs Pedal Race!!

In The Beginning…….

So here we go… in every sense!

It’s mid-January 2011 and all of the crew at Team UK Youth will be producing blog’s throughout the season, all on wordpress, and no doubt soon-enough they’ll all be interlinked.  That’ll ensure that interaction from supporters, sponsors and friends of the project will be as thorough as is possible!

From a supporter, or bike fans perspective these blogs should offer a great insight into the inner workings of a pro-bike team : with a message.

From my seat, it’s a little daunting.  Not known for being subtle, or one to use a dozen words when two will do… has made me many friends within the sport, but equally I’m sure there’s a few out there that aren’t keen on my relatively simple outlook on life, and even less complicated way with words.  I have a wry smile as I imagine that I may have my knuckles wrapped at some point for my work with this blog!  Let’s hope not!

Ok, to the point…

The sport of cycling is not unique in that results are only achieved through hard work and commitment.  It is however, one of the clearest examples of just that!

UK Youth is a charity that has it’s roots in the “Youth Club’s” that we all know, starting out in 1911 – obviously making this year very important to the organisation!  The Princess Royal (Anne) is the Patron, and Nigel Mansell OBE the President, supported by some of the countries most well-known companies, trusts and foundations.

In addition to the “Bike Club” project, Team UK Youth aims to be competitive at the highest level of cycling in the UK – raising the profile of the charity whilst demonstrating the work ethic that’s required to succeed.

Currently the team is split between Florida, USA – Sweden, and the UK all working hard in preparation for our team training camp in early February.  At this point I should have the opportunity to take some photo’s, and tell you more about my role as Directeur Sportif.

Until then… keep fit, healthy – rubber side down!  And hope, really hope… for me… that our team car’s have an automatic box!

“Over ‘n’ Out”

‘Pov’

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