Kate Cullen: Britain's Forgotten Hero

At the 2007 British National Track Championships Scotland’s Kate Cullen surprised a lot of people when she ‘did the double’ and claimed the National Points and Scratch Race titles.

Despite a number of riders not signing on, the Scratch race was blessed with a large field making it hard for any rider or team to control, consequently a number a breakaway attempts were made, however they were all in vain as the race ended in a bunch sprint, with Cullen's sprint too strong for Janet Birkmyre and Katie Curtis.

The next day saw Cullen use her sprinting prowess to great effect, winning four of the first nine sprints, and scoring in all but one of the remaining primes to claim victory in the Points Race.

British Cycling is crying out for a quality female endurance rider for the Points and the Scratch race due to the lack of experienced and talented riders in this area. However for reasons unknown to Cullen and the vast majority of the cycling world, BC consistently overlook the talented Scot.

Following on from her success at the Nationals in October, Kate decided to ride in the Track World Cups, and as it was highly unlikely British Cycling would select her, she decided to join a track trade team.

“I was due to join a team but with only a week until the entries for Sydney closed, it was still not confirmed I was on the team, so I was advised to find another team or set up my own.”

Luckily for Kate, the Braveheart Cycling Fund quickly stepped in and paid for the team registration and clothing, with Wolfson Microelectronics offering to pay for other expenses such as flights, accommodation, insurance and car hire etc.

Proud Scot - Cullen in City of Edinburgh colours

“Wolfson are a microelectronics company, which started out in Edinburgh. They design sound and ‘touch’ chips for products such as iPod, iPhone, xBox, Tom-Tom etc etc”

“The architectural firm I work for designed a house extension for the founder/MD of the company and Chris Hoy’s uncle was the financial director so they already knew about track cycling”

“In a day between myself, Graeme Herd, Marco Librizzi, Doug Dailey and Paul West we got Braveheart registered with BC and got contracts written up, insurances and doctors letters signed and bank transfers made.”

“The team registration lady at the UCI was incredibly efficient and the team was registered with the UCI as soon as the bank transfer was confirmed.”

“As I had a restricted budget (but still £1000's) I could not afford to fly someone to Sydney or LA to help me. So through friends of friends I managed to arrange someone to act as my manager and mechanic (for race days) and also get the loan of rollers and a rear disc (which I agreed to replace if trashed).”

“As I was travelling alone I was restricted to what I could take. I already had 2 bikes and a set of race wheels. For Copenhagen, Marco could afford to come due to cheap flights and we could share a room- this made the experience a lot less stressful.“

But, what support did our National Points and Scratch Race Champion, and medalist at the 2006 Commonwealth Games receive throughout the World Cup campaign from British Cycling?

“Gold membership, but I pay for that, I did nick a GO Bar from the GB team in LA and a Baby Wipe in Copenhagen”.

Bearing in mind the lack of support Kate receives from BC and having done more than enough to warrant selection for the forthcoming Manchester World Championships, does Cullen hope to represent her country?

Kate riding the 2007 Manchester World Cup for Recycling.co.uk

“My main aim for 2008 is to medal in the Scratch at the Worlds, so would like the opportunity to ride; I have raced consistently in the Scratch at the World Cups without good access to a track, but the points has been a disaster”

Looking further ahead, what about the Olympics in Beijing?

“The Olympics is out of the question for any Points rider who has a good Pursuiter from the same nation, due the ridiculous Olympic qualification criteria. The chosen Pursuiter is expected to double up and ride the Points. A nation can not take an additional rider for the Points.”

Ok, just like the Kilo/500m TT decision, we can’t do anything about the UCI and it’s Olympic policies, but in isolating our best bunch race female endurance rider, what the hell is BC playing at?

The current standard of our female endurance ‘team’ leaves a lot to be desired, with the powers that be appearing to have abandoned all hope of success in this area in 2012, with the 16 out of 18 Olympic Medal target. (BC aims to medal in 16 out of 18 of the events at the 2012 London Olympics).

“There are some good riders coming through at the moment but having ridden the World Cups this year I know the standard is very high – there is a long way to go but it is achievable.”

The fact that Cullen was the only British female in the Points and Scratch at the World Cups suggests BC have already given up on emerging talent by choosing not to provide them with the chance to gain experience in the World Cup series like it does with their male counterparts.

However when you look at the age of the majority of women who are winning the track endurance races they are not youngsters, a lot of them have been on the circuit for years.

“Success is very unlikely to happen over night. I also think there needs to be a bigger ‘pool’ of female riders of all ages rather than just focusing on a select few.”

So perhaps BC need to implement a system similar to that of the men’s 100%ME squad, but on a much larger scale given the severity of the problem with the women.

Perhaps the problem stems from the standard of events offered to women during the domestic track season, with events like the National Women’s Omnium Series failing to offer beneficial racing/training for promising riders.

“I haven’t ridden a Women’s Omnium for a couple of years now as it is easier and more beneficial for me to race crits in the Netherlands, the Edinburgh GP did have an Omnium but it was badly supported as it a long way to travel, just like for me to go to England”

“There are too few track races for just Women throughout the whole year. Women can race track leagues with the men but the tactics and flow of men’s and women’s racing is quite different, so women need to race women.”

“More effort could be put in to taking female riders to race the UCI Giro Track circuit in Italy or to Trexlertown, which have had good international fields”

Kate's boyfriend Marco Librizzi

“Britain could also attempt to put on an international track meeting for women or push for Revolution to bring over some good endurance riders from Europe”

Even the Rotterdam Six Day had a Women’s Madison, but yet again British Cycling didn’t send any riders, unlike in the Men’s events when Academy members regularly competed in the Six Day series, experiencing a lot of success in the UIV Talents Cup courtesy of Jonny Bellis, Peter Kennaugh and Adam Blythe.

It is quite remarkable that Kate has achieved her success whilst working as an Architect, juggling the commitments of training with that of working for a living.

“During the past year the longest I have been at home at one time is 2 weeks. When I am home I spend my time training (usually 30 mins rollers in morning and a turbo or road session in afternoon)”

“As I train on the road, turbo, rollers and a cycle path (on my track bike) I can be quite flexible as I am only restricted by the weather so I seem to fit everything else in. I train between 15 and 20 hours a week.”

“I do not have children and Marco Librizzi (my boyfriend) who was a sprinter knows how important training is, so that makes it a lot easier.”

“Today for example I have been training and drawing plans, sections and elevations for a house extension. I am not working full time as an architect at the moment due to the amount of time spent away and arranging the logistics of getting to the World Cups on a tight budget.”

Obviously training to be an Architect takes up a lot of time, so how did Cullen get into such a time-consuming sport as Cycling?

“I was studying architecture at the Glasgow School of Art, for my final project I was looking at cycling within the city, this lead to me hypothetically designing a velodrome.”

“I visited Manchester Velodrome and had a go on the track, which I really enjoyed so when I moved to Edinburgh I started riding at Meadowbank in 2002 and it all followed on from there”

Kate passes Hannah Mayho in the 2007 Derny Champs

Followed on indeed, as Kate went on to claim the Bronze Medal in the National Sprint and 500m TT in 2002 and 2003, also adding the Silver Medal in the Scratch in 03 before achieving her first National Title in the form of the British Derny Paced Championships in 2005.

Come the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games Kate was in the Scottish squad and one of the medal favourites in the Endurance events, where she took a well deserved Bronze Medal in the 25km Points Race.

So what then does Kate consider as the key reasons for her success?

“Wolfson Microelectronics putting up the money to allow me to race aboard, I also have a good network of people i.e. Braveheart Fund, Marco, Allister Watson, Harrie van der Horst (from the Netherlands who has helped many female riders – he is a very wise man)), Alex and Christine Wharton  to name a few”

Cardiff GP Organiser Alex Wharton, a good friend of Kate Cullen

Despite also riding in the Sprint in Melbourne and during the early parts of her career, Kate has never considered herself a true sprinter.

“I am not sure why I was known as a Sprinter as I have never trained as a sprinter, perhaps it was because I was fat ?!?! I was fast from the start but I was just too overweight and unfit for the endurance races in the first couple of years, as I didn’t come from another sport”

“I rode in the Sprint at the Commie Games to support the event due to lack of entries, and I did an 11.925s 200m TT, my lead in was awful, so I’m quite intrigued to see how fast I can be with the proper training; however without access to an indoor track, top end speed is very hard to achieve.”

Again we come back to the issue of one of our best riders, the National Points and Scratch Race Champion having no access to an indoor track, and no support from British Cycling.

In many ways Kate is similar to one of her heroes, Major Taylor, but whereas people discriminated against him for being black, she is discriminated against for being outside of British Cycling’s ‘inner-circle’. However just like Taylor, Cullen has and will go on to achieve great things despite everything that the powers that be put in her way, a true Braveheart…..

Wolfson Microelectronics: www.wolfsonmicro.com