DHL Sprint School 4 – Building up to Beijing

Double World Champion and UK National Sprint Coach, Jan Van Eijden came down to DHL Sprint School in Newport on Friday June 13 to work with the Talent team coaches training the 62 young riders who attended the fourth session of the season.

RegularSprintSchool stars Craig MacLean and Jamie Staff were unable to attend, so, in their place, Jan donned GB kit and spent the day working with the riders on the track, giving them invaluable tips and advice.

Guy Elliott, CEO DHL Northern Europe, was delighted: “He was working with small groups of riders on their technical skills but also found time to individually coach several riders including some who were not as used to the boards as others. He was so patient and supportive.”

The riders focused closely on 200m TT, using watt bikes to race one another and work on their speed and endurance over both 200m and 500m. They finished the session with Keirin racing, one of Britain’s strongest disciplines, in preparation for the DHLSprintSchool race at Future Revolution later this year.

Working with the Olympic team, Jan is used to coaching the best of British talent, and was surprised by the number of talented riders at the DHLSprintSchool. “It was a fantastic day and it’s great to see so many youngsters are being given access to high level training,” he said. 

“Spending the whole session out on the track meant I could work closely with the riders, several are very talented and all of them worked extremely hard. I hope to see some of them progressing through the ODP.” 

Rob Hayles has also joined the DHLSprintSchool sessions, working with the up and coming star, Becky James at the thrid session on May 30. Rob was also full of praise for the DHL initiative, saying, “It’s fantastic. When I was growing up we used to have the winter sessions that Geoff [Cooke] used to run down at Calshot but they were few and far between. These sessions are brilliant.”

With just two sessions remaining, the riders still have a lot to learn before Future Revolution but their progress has been clear to see with riders improving their personal best times almost every session.