New Coach for Best GB Juniors
3rd February 2005by British Cycling
Twenty-eight year old Darren Tudor is the man charged with doing for the nation's Junior riders what Rod Ellingworth and Simon Jones have done for the Under-23s and full senior squad respectively.
The former WCU coach will be working with the best junior men and women in the country and providing them with the coaching and support necessary to help them bridge the difficult gap between the Talent Team and the lower echelons of the Elite GB programme.
A former GB and Wales International, Darren turned to coaching in his early twenties, becoming a WCU regional coach for South Wales before moving on to the post of Assistant National Coach (under then national coach Shane Sutton).
By 2003 he was head of the WCU's Talent programme, which mirrors its English equivalent and he found himself working with such talented riders as Geraint Thomas, Tom Smith and Ross Sander.
Darran's new role, provisionally titled Olympic Development Coach will bring him into contact with the best 16 and 17 year old Track and Road Riders - sprint and endurance, male and female - in the country.
Darren sums up the role: "We'll be looking to give the juniors a more structured, more year-round approach. We're still thrashing out the details, but we have a first training camp planned for February, where we will be looking at about 40 riders. Basically, once we're up and running we'll be looking to do with the Juniors roughly what the under-23s have been doing - that's lots of skill based work, particularly on the Track, with junior year two riders also looking to performing at world championship level."
This is a bit of a departure for the GB team, which has not put much emphasis on performance at Junior world level in recent years. Darren point out the reason behind the change of approach: "Simon Jones (GB head coach) has identified that riders can ride, and win at the Senior world championships in their very early twenties. The team wants to develop skill levels at an earlier stage in riders' careers, leaving them free to concentrate on their conditioning when they reach under-23 level."
Darren cites Geraint Thomas as a rider who is already, despite still being in his teens, ready for competition at the highest level. It is possible, even likely, that Geraint will be part of the GB Team at this year's Track Worlds, alongside fellow teenagers Ed Clancy and Nikki Harris.
Asked what he will be looking for in riders, Darren refers back to Geraint: "he's always been prepared to work and is willing to do whatever you put in front of him. He's also ambitious and he's definitely a good listener."
Add a prodigious talent and that's your template for the sort of riders Darren will be looking for in his new role.