Meet The Dream Team - Ed, Graham & Ali
If you're thinking of joining our ground-breaking new Youth & Junior Development Programme, then you're going to want to know all about our brilliant coaching line up.
Ed Clancy OBE, Graham Briggs & Ali Slater have literally taken part in thousands of races between then, most of them being extremely high profile in the cycling calendar.
Cycling Legend, John Herety, describes them as the 'dream team' of the coaching world:
“They were part of what was the best criterium team in the world at that time when all three of them were riding together. They’re the dream team for a coaching set up and I know they’ll make the sessions fun and informative all backed up by a pedigree of having raced at the highest level in the UK & Internationally”.
Ed Clancy OBE
Ed Clancy has won medals almost every single year since 2004.
Having been a part of the Olympic gold medal winning British team pursuit group at each one of the last three Olympic Games and a six-times world champion, Ed’s not ready to hang up his jersey just yet: “One last hurrah in Tokyo and then I think that will be me done!”
Ed really is about as qualified as you can get when it comes to understanding, developing and encouraging kids’ cycling ambitions. Whether they’re dreaming of having fun on bikes without stabilisers or aspiring to go to the Olympics themselves one day, Ed is determined that the Clancy Briggs Cycling Academy will help their dreams come true.
Ed explains more:
“The Clancy Briggs Cycling Academy is a passion project of mine - I’m so pleased to be able to give kids a taste of what it’s like to really feel the freedom of cycling and work at something with your friends. At the same, they’re getting physically active and having loads of fun, what could be better?”
John Herety knows Ed will make a great teacher for young riders:
"Ed is a detail person. He's very analytical, he will dissect things. In terms of explaining to a young rider how they should do something, he's extremely gifted at breaking things down for them."
Graham Briggs
As a teenager working at a bike shop in Rossington it was suggested to Graham that he have a go at racing. He started at some cyclo-cross races in Sheffield and went from there.
He started doing some national mountain bike series’, eventually got a road bike and started doing more training on the road before starting some road races, which led quite quickly to success.
He was third at the Junior National Championships and never really went back to mountain biking after that.
In 2007, John Herety gave Graham a spot on his team.
Career highlights for Graham include winning the National Championship in Beverly in 2011 and a big stage race in France in 2014.
As Graham explains:
"I'm probably most proud of winning the stage race in France because nobody expected it! It was a 5 day stage race and people would have me down as a sprinter who wouldn’t be able to win a stage race. It’s nice when you do something that people don’t expect."
John Herety has been a big supporter of Graham throughout his cycling career:
"Graham is extremely passionate, emotionally intelligent and will have a really intuitive approach to the kids. When it comes to race skills, Graham's tactical knowledge is incredible, he can see what the kids need and draw on his own experiences to guide them."
Ali Slater
Just like Graham, Ali started out on his mountain bike and then competed at cycle-cross races.
When he turned 18 he got onto the British Cycling programme with the under 23s squad.
Since turning senior, Ali's taken part in over 300 races.
A career highlight was right at the end of his time riding for the JLT team - he won a stage of a race in France, the final, hardest stage of a race called Kreiz Breizh Elites which is a UCI event.
Ali is really delighted to be coaching our Youth & Junior Development Programme:
"I think it’s really fun working with youngsters. I’m particularly passionate about the Youth & Junior Development Programme. As I’m a racer and someone who is competitive, it’s great working with the youngsters who are aspiring to race themselves."
And John Herety feels that Ali is well qualified to get the kids engaged:
"Ali’s the most reliable rider I’ve ever worked with. He was always there, always solid, quite analytical but he’s also very tactically astute. As a team member, when Ali spoke up in meetings, he was always listened to by the other riders. When he spoke, everyone else listened."
What Next?
Subscribe to our virtual Youth &. Junior Development Programme