British Cycling

It’s a sunny Saturday in September. The perfect opportunity to relax in the garden and reflect on my experience at the British Cycling talent ID weekend I attended last month.

We all know I am athletics obsessed. You only have to check who I follow on Twitter to learn I am an avid fan. Whilst injury has prevented me from competing in over 3 years, my commitment to the sport still remains.

Thus when British Cycling advertised their search for a female visually impaired stoker for the Tokyo Paralympics back in June, my immediate response was dismissive. For years people have been encouraging me to try cycling and for years I have whistled the same tune, ‘no I love athletics.’

Although initially reluctant to put myself forward, the amount of messages I received from different people urging me to go for it started to get my cogs whirling. I had nothing to lose, it didn’t mean I had to quit athletics, wouldn’t it be worth finally finding out if it was a sport that I could excel at. After all I have seen multiple athletes transition from athletics to cycling. There must be something good about it.

With gyms closed and no access to a bike it wasn’t as if I could prepare myself for the weekend as I would have liked. In truth during lockdown my motivation and ability to train was proving a challenge. Nevertheless, the prospect of the weekend marginally improved my drive to exercise.

Prior to the weekend I was informed there would be 3 bike tests. 3 x 6 second sprints, a 1 minute effort and a 3 minute effort. Being a sprinter I was looking forward to the 6 second sprints and the others not so much. Based on the results from the tests on the Sunday we would be split into 3 groups that would indicate if we had Tokyo potential, Paris potential or currently lacked potential. The thought of being placed in the final group somewhat terrified me. Despite having nothing to lose that result would be a slap in the face.

The talent ID weekend was being held in Manchester. Thankfully I didn’t need to arrive until the afternoon meaning it wasn’t a too early start. To give you some context, I have never been to a velodrome, never worn cycling shoes or ridden a turbo bike. This caused some apprehension. My mum travelled up with me and was soon ushered away to the stands leaving me alone with the British Cycling staff and the other hopefuls. Being left without direct support also unnerved me.

Various British Cycling people came over to chat and help me set up. However, as soon as they came over it wasn’t long before they disappeared again. I didn’t fully understand how the gears worked on the bike, the person helping me didn’t fully understand I couldn’t see when they told me to push the black leaver. I asked if they could sort the gears for me, I assumed they needed to be set on a specific setting anyway. I was left to warm up and was told after 5 minutes had past to pick up the speed. Not being able to see the timer of course I had no idea when it was time to change up and so just turned over gently.

For the actual test part we were all allocated an individual. For the 6 second sprints we had to go from a static start. I had no clue what position my pedals should be in to get the best start. On my first sprint the bike moved everywhere to my surprise. That kind of thing never happens with the bikes in the gym. My second sprint felt better and the power output reflected this. My final sprint was better again and my competitiveness that had been lying dormant for so long began to trigger. I vocalised that I could do so much more. This led them to letting me have a fourth attempt where I added another 40 odd to my power output. I could see my potential, I hoped they could too.

The person helping me with my bike clicked the gears for me before the 1 minute effort began. Fuelled up from the sprints I was ready to go all out. I was then stunned when I pushed down on the pedals to discover I could hardly turnover. The resistance was stupidly tough. I assumed everyone was on the same resistance and pushed on as best I could. The desire to stop was overwhelming. However, I knew not finishing the effort would be embarrassing. So I kept repeating to myself ‘don’t’ stop’. When I got off the bike my left knee was throbbing and I had some soreness near my right knee that when I got home I found was swollen. The effort had flared up an old injury and caused another with the 3 minute effort still to go.

I made it clear for the 3 minute attempt that I would not be having the resistance that high. Feelings of frustration flooded me. My legs were on fire. The 3 minute effort actually turned out to be a 3 minute 30 second effort. They take your best 3 minutes from the set time. I managed it relatively well but all things considered knew it wouldn’t be amazing. After the tests had been completed I learnt that the gears could have been set to whatever you wished. This infuriated me even more. As a totally blind person who had never used a turbo bike before it wasn’t explained to me enough how to set the gears and know what they were set on. It wasn’t made apparent before the tests that we could choose the setting. I thought for it to be fair everyone would have to be on the same setting.

I returned home that night and wasn’t enthusiastic about returning in the morning. I knew my ability hadn’t been showcased. My visual impairment hadn’t been understood. All of the females attending the talent ID weekend had a visual impairment but having no useful vision left me in a minority. In athletics there are 3 classifications for the visually impaired, in cycling the visually impaired are altogether.

It was an early start on Sunday to get back to Manchester. The only real reason I was returning was to cycle on the velodrome to say I have done it. It was becoming apparent that I was unlikely to continue with cycling in the future. All of the hopefuls were grouped together to find out which group they would be in. it was like waiting for the X Factor results. They decided to read out group A and B together first then we would be split again. Names started to be read out and I was relieved to hear mine. They had thankfully acknowledged I have some kind of potential.

For a moment I dared to believe that I would be put in group A. it quickly became obvious I hadn’t. in fact my name was bottom of the group B list. I don’t know if names were in any particular order yet it appeared I had just scraped through. I then had to sit and wait for hours before I was given 10 minutes on the velodrome with a pilot. I’m not going to lie I did enjoy my brief time on the back of the tandem. However, the vibes I was getting from the British Cycling staff told me blatantly that I was not on their radar for the future.

The following week I received a call from British Cycling confirming that they were not interested in me at this time. It was no surprise. I didn’t hesitate in providing my feedback when prompted. They did comment that my 6 second sprints ranked me quite highly. Initially following the weekend I was of the firm belief that me and cycling were done. Having time to think about it all the experience was extremely beneficial. It has reignited my competitive spirit. My heart still lies with athletics. Yet I am struggling to accept that British Cycling didn’t get to witness my capability. I want to prove I have potential, prove I can, prove them wrong.

18 visually impaired females attended the talent ID weekend. British Cycling have chosen 3 to progress to the next stage. It was brilliant to see so many visually impaired females participating in sport.