Mark Cavendish to Cat Ferguson: British Cycling Academy celebrates 20th anniversary

Mark Cavendish, Laura Kenny and Geraint Thomas are just some of the hundreds of names to have come through the Great Britain Cycling Team academy, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year.

The pathway, founded in 2004 by Rod Ellingworth, has become a key conveyor belt for talent within British Cycling. It began in Manchester with six teenagers – including an 18-year-old Cavendish – and has since helped elevate 472 riders to the top of the sport, across all disciplines. Over the last two decades, its graduates have won over 1,300 international medals.

“There was a massive gap that existed between those riding at the elite end and those coming into the system,” said British Cycling’s Jon Bartlett, remembering the beginnings of the academy he now oversees. “There just wasn’t a vehicle to grab those riders and develop them, in terms of giving them the riding opportunities, the training, the competition and the international exposure.”

The first intake, which counted Cavendish and triple Olympic gold medallist Ed Clancy, began as an experiment, with the riders living together in a house in Fallowfield, Manchester’s busy student district. “There was a bit of a track focus to start with, but they also did a lot on the road, and it just grew from there,” Bartlett told Cycling Weekly.

Today, still supported by National Lottery funding, riders as young as 16 years old are recruited into the track, road and mountain bike pathways, while the BMX disciplines start at 15. Applications open every year for new riders, and anybody can apply. “It’s an open-door policy,” said Bartlett.

Ellingworth’s original vision for the academy was to build a medal factory for international success, particularly the Olympics. The results have been unprecedented. Since the Beijing Games in 2008, two thirds of Olympic medals have been won by pathway riders, including three by Emma Finucane this summer.

“It’s about being at the front of it,” said Bartlett, asked how the success has been maintained. “Obviously technology is very different now to 20 years ago, how people communicate is very different, so being relevant all the time, I think, is quite important. Then you just layer in some of the best practice and gold-standard approaches around talent development. Some of those things never change.”

Of the current crop, the most exciting prospects are in the women’s endurance squad, according to the academy head. “I think Cat Ferguson is an obvious one. Imogen Wolff. Those two, and Carys Lloyd,” Bartlett said. “That women’s endurance squad just keeps coming through. I think from the [junior] track worlds into the road worlds, that squad won seven world titles [this year].” All aged 18, Ferguson, Wolff and Lloyd will ride on the women’s WorldTour next season.