Hayles Chases Rainbow Bands in Individual Pursuit
13th October 2004by Article and photos by Larry Hickmott
A winner of two medals at the Olympics, silver in the Team Pursuit and Bronze in the Madison, Great Britain rider Rob Hayles has added a number of major medals to his collection this year. There were two Silver medals at the Worlds in May (Team and Individual Pursuit) and many more medals of different colours including gold in Worlds Cups. At the time we spoke at Manchester on day 1 of the British Track Champs, Rob had yet to start his national championship campaign which centred around the pursuit events, Individual and Team where he went on to yet again pick up more silver medals riding for Team Persil.
After the Olympic goals for the team and the riders have now been written into the history books, Rob was looking forward to competing in the Nationals, explaining that if his form was okay, he would be experimenting with gears for the individual pursuit. Whilst in the GB office where we met he was discussing with head coach Simon Jones changing his position on the bike. His big goal now is the Worlds in March and with the track season, at least for international riders, having been brought forward by three months, there isn't much time to sit back and bask in the glory of medals won at the Olympics. That said, Rob's partner at Athens, triple Olympic medalist Brad Wiggins seemed relaxed enough watching the national championship racing on day 4!
"I had a break straight after the Olympics" Rob told me "and missed the Tour of Britain so I could get my break out of the way and have now been training for the last month. Hopefully I haven't lost a lot of my form and I have been training relatively hard in short efforts, nothing over two and half hours, to try and keep some kind of fitness for this and then I'm doing the first World Track Cup in Moscow (November 5-7)."
Asked if lopping off 3 months of the international track season makes it hard to come back so soon after the Track Worlds and then the Olympics, Rob explained that "its going to be really strange. Its certainly going to be different and will take some careful planning as its becoming a winter sport. I'm going to be treating the period between the Olympics and the next Worlds as the same season to be honest."
Asked if getting the track events over and done with during the Winter season will give him more of a break during the summer when the riders are normally preparing for major track events, Rob replied "possibly. I have planned pretty much everything up until the Worlds so the next five and half months is pretty much laid out and I haven't looked beyond that. My initial thinking is to use what ever form I have from the Track Worlds to do some racing in the UK and whatever I have to do with the plan (GB). Then perhaps have a break during the summer which would be nice".
One of the things that many who only ever pay attention to what the GB riders are doing at major events like the Olympics fail to see is the treadmill that these riders are on in the run up to a major competition. There is the stage racing around the world to gain the endurance, the World Cups to get places at the Worlds and then the Worlds themselves. It isn't so much the physical damage being inflicted as their program is quite closely watched but the mental strain in a sport where mental strength can be just as important as a rider's physical talent on a bike. I asked Rob, who has ridden as a professional in Europe for several years prior to coming back to the track program, what was worse, the GB treadmill or that of life as pro road rider?
"The most difficult to handle is the road side, the way the pro racing is set up, even for team leaders is difficult enough with what I have seen with Dave over the last few years and the way he was treated. You are literally there to do your job whereas now I am really enjoying to getting stuck in to being an athlete and getting the best out of myself on certain dates other than just racing day to day, week to week."
"Now, its about careful planning and using certain races and the training to get you on form for those certain dates. You have to be prepared to getting a kicking in races to use them as training. I really found the last year at Cofidis difficult and really wasn't enjoying it. It seemed the worse I was going, the more races they wanted to put me in because they presumed that was what was going to bring my form on, more racing. When really the best thing to have done would be to have had a break and got back to basics doing some training and then start racing again. But you can't do that with the pros."
"I had three pretty hard years on the road and then this year has been a pretty emotional year. I have only done two major events, the Worlds and the Olympics, and being 10 weeks apart, emotionally that was quite draining so having the breaks in future will be very important."
When Rob first came back into the GB fold full time, he was brought in for the Team Pursuit and although I'm told by others he was nervous to begin with, the Sydney Olympic bronze medallist soon settled in and was an integral part of the silver medal winning team in Stuttgart (Worlds 2003). This year though has quickly seen Rob going back to his roots, the Individual Pursuit. It was in the Olympics of 2000 that he was fourth and then followed that with a bronze at the Manchester Worlds. He then switched to the road and this year, whilst still concentrating on the Team Pursuit, he branched out into the Individual event and almost took a shock World title in Melbourne.
He certainly gave his Spanish rival a good shake and went so close to breaking him but that elusive rainbow jersey is still a major goal and rightly so. "Especially after this year, I know what I am capable of doing just off Team Pursuit work and so now what its about is juggling the two but my ambition is for the Individual but run that alongside the Team Pursuit for sure. I am definitely still motivated for the Team because with the team we have got, I don't want to let that go at all."
Asked about his training, Rob explained "I am looking to back up my rides from one round to another especially as I hear now that the Individual is now just two rides so gone are the good old days of doing five rides to get a medal! So it's a case of doing a storming qualifying ride to get in the top two and then obviously having enough to be able to go for the big one".
Rob says that there's a lot of motivation in that and after this years Worlds where he was 2nd fastest in qualifying, Rob went on to say that unlike previous years, in the future its going to be important to put in two of your best rides on the same day."
Rob then went off to experiment on the track and came away with a silver in the National Championship event behind GB teammate Paul Manning in the Individual Pursuit. Both riders are closely matched and in Melbourne were second and third fastest in qualifying for the Individual event. With the British championships now done and dusted, Rob has to juggled the personal appearances at club dinners and so on with his training for Moscow but is enjoying the demands on his time since winning two Olympic medals adding "I dread to think what a certain double Olympic Gold medallist has been up to!".
Our best wishes to Rob for the coming months...
Interview supplied by British Cycling