As a British Cycling Go-Ride club, riders from PPYCC are eligible to be put forward to British Cycling for entry onto their talent development pathway.
https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/talentdevelopment
Development Centres
Development Centres (DC) are the first step on the British Cycling talent pathway, these sessions are open to all riders of certain ages, are run across each of the British Cycling regions, across multiple disciplines and are based out of British Cycling facilities. Riders can access any DC anywhere across the country.
Many PPYCC riders take advantage of Development Centres to improve their race craft and to have the opportunity to train at a high level with the region’s up and coming riders.
Regional School of Racing
Riders who perform well, show promise at their club, in regional competition and at Development Centres can be nominated for a Regional School of Racing.
The next step up from Development Centres is the Regional School of Racing. The PPYCC coaching team nominates riders in Youth A and second year Youth B to take part in RSR sessions run by British Cycling talent coaches. There are selection criteria for RSRs which riders must meet to be eligible, and British Cycling then selection the final rider list which is by invite only.
National School of Racing
For those riders who wish to pull on a Team GB jersey, then the NSR-Foundation programme is designed to develop and confirm a cohort of riders annually onto the Great Britain Cycling Team programmes. This programme will support the holistic development of skills and habits towards pursuing a career as a full time bike rider. From here, it’s onto the British Cycling Junior Academy, Senior Academy and Podium Programme.
What to expect at an RSR
Izzy Stone wrote the following report of her second RSR:
“I attended my second RSR at Cyclopark in Gravesend, The conditions were warm for early April and fortunately the rain stayed away this time! The size of the circuit is a great match to the 21 girls riding. The course at Cyclopark is wide enough for the less confident riders and tight enough when riders were added for some of the more challenging and technical parts of the day.
The day started off with an indoor workshop of goal and personal motivation setting, we were shown by Tim how to set them, taking in certain factors like, Specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time based factors. These are called ‘SMART’ targets. My age group is also at an important period in school life regarding exams and mock exams, which must be taken into account while setting personal performance goals before the track season finishes. After the workshop we recapped and went over details from our previous RSR February session, from basic bunch skills, we started to focus on attacking, such as when and how to do it.
We looked at break aways and how to conserve energy most efficiently, We did this by using echelons and chain gangs. After developing these skills further we introduced more people into the group, to make the scenarios more live or race like. Finally we looked at quick acceleration and bridging gaps to a break away. To finish we split into two groups, when you were called you had to bridge the gap to the group of riders in front of you. I enjoyed the day and all the sessions were extremely useful to take forward into races and other scenarios at PPYCC.”