Caleb Hill, British Youth Track Sprint Champion 2016

I first met Steve when I was 13 and had just completed my first season as a competitive cyclist, racing as a second-year Youth B rider.  I had had some success locally but I hadn’t achieved anything on the regional or national stage.  Steve obviously saw some potential and offered to coach me.

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He asked me if I would like to be the National Youth Sprint Champion within two years. To be honest, I thought he was joking, but I had nothing to lose so I went along with his plan because he seemed to know what he was talking about.

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It wasn’t until much later that I realised he really did know what he was talking about – he has won numerous national, international and world championship titles himself and he had coached many others to the same level.

He started by assessing my strengths and weaknesses - there were many of the latter -and then he devised a plan to address the weaknesses and further build on my strengths. I followed his advice and watched myself improve in every area as I became stronger, fitter and faster.

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When I finally competed in the 2016 National Youth Track Championships, I was in the best condition I had ever been in.  I won the match sprint title and in doing set a new British record for the flying 200-meter TT of 10.951s - the first youth rider ever to dip below 11 seconds.  A month later I won the inter-regional match sprint title, further lowering the flying 200 record that I had set to 10.904s.  Later that year I was accepted onto the Great Britain Junior Academy Sprint team.

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I have really enjoyed working with Steve and I am sure that I wouldn’t have achieved any of this without his help and guidance.  He always listened to what I had to say and understood that my training had to fit around my life and family.  I was confident that if I committed to Steve’s training plan and worked hard, I would achieve my full potential.