DID YOU KNOW?■ In June 2009, £12,000 worth of bikes were stolen from Sam Harrison’s garage. He got one of them back when he spotted someone riding it 10 minutes awayfrom his house. ■ Harrison is a keen guitar player. His favourite music to play is Oasis.■ He had his appendix removed in 2010.

Harrison (l) in full flow

18 febrUarY 10, 2011 www.cyclingweekly.co.uk

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WHeN a rider wins a World Cup gold in his first major senior event at the age of 18 he makes a statement. Sam Harrison did just that in the omnium in beijing last month.

“I was over the moon. I was waiting for that one mistake and it never happened,” he told Cycling Weekly.

Harrison is gratifyingly modest in his self-appraisal. “Getting the win was definitely a bit of a shock. I’m not going to expect anything special again. I’ll go at it exactly the same. I can’t now expect to always win.”

The event was won by podium finishes in the kilo, the pursuit and the elimination and a top five in the flying lap, an event that Harrison has only done three or four times before.

He puts the success largely down to his preparation, after Chris Newton, the british Cycling academy coach, encouraged him to do extra omnium work over the winter.

“Whereas before I was doing a lot of team pursuit work, I’ve been doing lots more on the omnium events,” he explained.

Harrison’s progress has been impressive. Two years ago he was riding in the U16 National Championships. Last year he claimed two Junior World Championships silver medals and gained Commonwealth Games

experience. Now he’s World Cup-winning material.

Tactical maturityOf all of these events, it was the Commonwealths in Delhi

that Harrison believes prepared him most for his

recent success. He says they helped him hone the tactical maturity needed to win big races. He also finished fourth in the points race, something he thinks has given him motivation.

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IN THe NeWS

2008■ U16 british National Track 2km pursuit, points race and scratch race champion

2009■ Madison bronze and team pursuit silver in the european Junior Track Championships

2010■ Silver medals in the omnium and team pursuit at the Junior World Track Championships■ fourth in the Commonwealth Games points race

2011■ Wins omnium gold medal at the track cycling World Cup third round in beijing

Will Harrison’s (left) luck hold out?

rISING STar HITS HIS STrIDe

Sam HarrisonTHe WeLSH rIDer who recently won gold in beijing tells CW what he’s got in store

facts Date of birth: 24/06/1992from: near Newport, Wales

Team: british Olympic academy

“Getting the win was a shock. I’m not going to expect anything special again”

Jon Mould (team-mate)“He’s got enough talent to go all the way. We’ll see what he can do on the road this year. I had glandular fever as a first-year and for the first two months coming back I was with him every day. He gave me a bit of a kicking, but he really helped me back.”

Chris Newton (Olympic academy coach)“Obviously he’s being fast-tracked to podium level. He will eventu-ally be stepping up to Olympic level. He might not be far off the 2012 shortlist. I can see him going down the track avenue first then onto the road — very much like how bradley [Wiggins] did it... If you watch Sam on the track he looks very much like bradley in his style, the way he moves around, the way he moves the bike, and his build — they’re both skinny, but produce so much power.”

“before, I was trying to ride with pure strength, doing stupid moves — doing 40 kilometres on my own, doing big turns on the track,” he says. “The first time I used my head more really was in the Commonwealths.”

Before Beijing, Harrison’s results formed a pattern of second places and narrowly missed medal opportunities. He has two silver medals from last year’s Junior World Championships, a silver and bronze from the 2009 european Juniors, not to mention second places in the junior cyclo-cross Nationals, Welsh Junior road race Championships and the Junior Tour of Wales.

He admits to having been worried: “I’ve never had that little bit of luck to win.”

With this run now broken, be sure to watch out for him. at his current rate of progress, he’s destined for very special things.

Harrison thinks he’ll be riding the omnium again at the World Cup in Manchester next week. Then there’s a long road season ahead. He also has a few specific goals.

“I’m going to have a shot at the euro or Worlds time trials,” he ambitiously states. “There are also quite a few stage races with time trials in them which I might have a go at as well.”

WHaT THeY SaY…

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