Women to focus on endurance track events rather than road

British Cycling is working on the next phase of its future road and track programmes, confirming it will take on a total of 25 riders for the 2010-2011 Olympic Academy. Both the men’s endurance (road and track) and sprint will feature eight each, mountain bike will have five, women’s track endurance three and there will be one BMX rider on board.

Performance manager Shane Sutton highlighted two examples of riders who have been able to step up to the next level. “Our under-23 squad continues to strengthen and this year Alex Dowsett and Lucy Martin have both been signed up to professional road teams for next season.” Team Sky-bound Dowsett is one of the standouts of the season, winning the European time trial championship and finishing second against the clock in the Tour de l’Avenir, the Tour of Utah and the Commonwealth Games.

Sutton highlighted a change for the women, saying that the emphasis on road has been phased out. “We’ve got an interesting situation on the Women’s Endurance programme with all the girls now being focussed on the Endurance track events rather than the road.

“The three Academy girls will be coached by Paul Manning, with Simon Cope becoming more involved in the training programmes for our Women’s Podium Endurance athletes and also working closely with the ODP female endurance riders in bringing them up to the high standard of performance that the Academy requires.”

Today’s release draws particular attention to the promising track rider Philip Hindes. The 18 year old finished second in the team sprint and fourth in the sprint at the world track championships for juniors. He’s German-born but his father is British.

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The lineup of riders is as follows:

Men’s Endurance – Road and Track (8):

George Atkins
Mark Christian
Andy Fenn
Sam Harrison
Tom Moses
Jon Mould
Luke Rowe
Simon Yates

Women’s Endurance – Track (3):

Katie Colclough
Hannah Mayho
Laura Trott

Sprint (8):

David Daniell
Kian Emadi
Philip Hindes
Becky James
Pete Mitchell
Lewis Oliva
Callum Skinner
Jess Varnish

Mountain Bike (5):

David Fletcher
Kenta Gallagher
Steve James
Annie Last
Lily Mathews

BMX (1):

Liam Phillips