David Daniell: Into the Limelight

As we all know Jason claimed victory in the Team Sprint, Keirin and Sprint at both the European and Junior World Championships.

In Athens last year David produced the ride of his life to record a time of 1m 04.451s and claim victory from Kenny and Spanish rider Hodei Mazquiaran Uria.

"I just wanted to do my best and give it my all and see what would come out. I did my best to hold the black line and this is what came out of it."

The victory was just rewards for all the hard work Daniell has put into his cycling.

"It was fantastic, and means more to me than my Junior World Team Sprint victory, as this is all about me and the hard work I have put into my cycling”

In the ACT Easter Monday meeting at Manchester Velodrome earlier in 2006, Dave recorded a time of 11.476s to finish sixth in the 200m TT and then didn’t feature in the later rounds.

However, Dave’s dedication and commitment to cycling meant that he totally changed as a rider throughout the summer, and this led to his selection for the European and Junior Worlds.

“I owe a lot to my coach Iain Dyer, he organizes my weekly training schedules and helps me to improve my riding”

“He gave me the confidence I required to move forward and progress onwards and upwards in such a competitive sport”

Like many of his teammates on the Olympic Development Programme, David is unable to dedicate all of his time to cycling, due to his college commitments. Consequently his training plan needs to be designed so that he can make the most of his spare time. Living in Middlesbrough also makes it difficult for Dave to train on the track, as it’s over one hundred miles to Manchester Velodrome, consequently the majority of his training is done at home.

“My training schedule is quiet busy when you include college and socialising but I have organised it so each one fits together well and leave me enough time for other things”

“Tomorrow (Tuesday) I have college in the morning, I come home and go to the Gym in the afternoon and finish the day with a Roller session in the evening.”

Such a level of organisation is one of the reasons Dave considers himself to have become successful, as an organized approach to his training allows his to dedicate more time to improving his cycling.

“Iain Dyer taught me the right ways to train and organised my training plan so that it would make the most of my potential, so I would like to thank him as I see his help as being instrumental in my success, and hopefully this will lead to further success in the future.”

In 2007 David can move out of the shadow left by fellow Junior Team Sprint World Champion Jason Kenny’s domination and make a name for himself; by winning a gold medal in an individual event at National, European and World Championships.

“Unfortunately the Kilo has been withdrawn from the 2008 Olympics in Beijing which is really disappointing and I personally think it’s a mistake, as it’s a fantastic event. This means that I will concentrate on the individual sprint events like the Keirin and the Sprint”

Obviously, Dave also aims to retain his Junior World Team Sprint Champion’s jersey in Aguascalientes this year, and will most probably be partnered with his fellow World Champion Chris Lyte and newcomer Steve Hill of Brooks Cycles.

“It felt great to get the rainbow bands and I feel it has opened the door for this year’s achievements, also I now know that I can contend at the top level in cycling and most importantly achieve, so I really do hope we can defend our title this year”

Like many of his Great Britain teammates Dave got into cycling through the British Cycling Go-Ride scheme. The talent team came to his school in Middlesbrough and Dave’s talent was instantly spotted.

“Looking back, it all started on St David’s school playing field, racing around a track made up of cones in a bid to beat the clock. Seems like a lifetime ago now, but it gave me the taste and desire to take it a step further.”

The Talent Team coach for the North East Division, Phil West then took Dave under his wing and started to put him through his paces.

“I started turbo-training sessions at Acklam Sports Centre, which comprised of three-minute endurance tests and rev-out sprint testing. It was here that I was first spotted by Phil West, who invited me up to Leeds to participate in more testing.

It wasn’t long before Dave had joined Cleveland Wheelers and was offered a place on the British Cycling Team.

“I was so pleased to have been offered this opportunity and to have been recognised for my talent. It is hard to believe I didn’t even own a bike at the time.”

However, at this stage Dave was still considered as an endurance rider, and not the superstar sprinter that we now all know.

On the advice of Phil West he attended a Sprint Camp, where Dave’s natural sprinting talent shone through.

“The Sprint camp took me away from the comfort of endurance racing. As it turned out, I was pretty good at the sprint races, even though it was an area I hadn’t had any involvement with before.”

It wasn’t long then until Dave was chosen for the Olympic Development Programme and given access to the wealth of knowledge and training resources that his heroes Craig Maclean and Chris Hoy benefit from.

Whilst not cycling Dave is an avid football fan and if ever the cycling career didn’t go to plan would like to give a career in football a try. He also enjoys listening to the Fratellis, who recently won the Best Newcomer award at the 2007 Brits.

2006 also saw the start of the new Interland series with British Cycling taking a number of its young riders over to Europe to race against their counterparts from the Netherlands and Belgium.

The Interland sprint events have been dominated by the British squad and in a recent event at Alkmaar, Daniell took the silver in the sprint narrowly missing out to Chris Lyte. However the first four riders were all from the United Kingdom, with Peter Mitchell, Steve Hill filling the top four.

However, Dave got revenge on Lyte in the Keirin where he easily beat Steve Hill and the Netherlands’ Yorick Bos to the Gold medal.

The Keirin is an event in which David has achieved a lot of success in throughout the winter with the aforementioned victory in Alkmaar and his success in the Revolution 16 Keirin, meaning all bodes well for a successful 2007 season.