Two Keighley district cyclists have been selected for the British Cycling Olympic Academy programme.
They are Cullingworth’s Hannah Mayho, who is well on the road to recovery following a serious road accident in May, and Oakworth’s Tom Moses, who is a year younger than Hannah at 18.
Both have been chosen for endurance events, with Moses earmarked for track and field, while Mayho is purely seen as a track specialist.
The Academy, which is a vital stepping stone to the 2012 London Olympics, includes Sir Chris Hoy, Mark Cavendish and Ed Clancy among its past members.
Moses, who had a strong summer on the road, which included winning the national Buckley Series, and Mayho, who has been on this programme for the past two years, will be able to take advantage of world-class facilities at both the Manchester Velo-drome and at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield, which will help Moses train for forthcoming track events.
Mayho, who broke her left femur and fractured her right wrist in an horrific crash with a car in Belgium, which also injured four of her Great Britain team-mates, is no longer under the care of her specialist.
“He was based at Wigan and is the top man in the country,” said Hannah’s mother, Helen, “but Hannah is still getting help from British Cycling, and mentally getting back on a bike and getting into traffic was a strain.
“There have been a few near misses since as far as traffic is concerned but Hannah hasn’t got where she is today by being soft.
“Her weaker leg is now as strong as her other leg and, although she has no major competitions before Christ-mas, she will continue to build-up towards the World Track Championships in Manchester in February.
“But the accident definitely cost Hannah her place in the Commonwealth Games – she had already had the injections and been measured for her kit before the accident – and possibly also the European Track Championships in Pol-and.
“She has just returned from a training camp in Majorca.”
The Academy’s team of coaches, including multiple world and Olympic medallist Chris Newton and Paul Manning, will set the 25 selected riders realistic goals.
Moses, who finished 17th in the World Junior Road Race Championships in Italy in the summer, was delighted to hear about his placement, and said: “I was happy to find out I was part of the Academy because I knew the huge success of previous Academy riders.”
The programme will be based in Manchester until March when the team will move to either Belgium or Italy for the start of the road race season.
It is here that Moses, who is in an eight-strong men’s endurance squad, will be competing in races such as the Junior Paris-Roubaix, where he was sixth this year, and The Tour of Flanders.
Moses will be educated on things such as exercise physiology, performance lifestyle and nutrition while he is at the Academy to help him succeed in the endurance races throughout the winter and summer seasons.
Performance manager Shane Sutton said: “We’ve got an interesting situation on the women’s endurance programme with all the girls now being focused on the 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.”
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