The recent UCI Junior Track Cycling World Championships in Cairo (Egypt) saw the participation of 258 riders from 46 nations, including 15 countries making an appearance for the first time. For some, it was the most important competition of their careers so far, which is why the UCI Solidarity programme and Wahoo – specialists in indoor bike trainers and accessories - joined forces to support these young international talents before and during the five days of racing. Before the UCI Worlds kicked off on 1st September, the UCI World Cycling Centre (WCC) organised a training camp at the Cairo Velodrome for 28 Juniors – eight females and 20 males – from 12 African nations: Algeria, Burundi, Ethiopia, Mali, Morocco, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda. The initiative was part of the UCI Solidarity Programme to develop cycling worldwide, particularly in regions without the necessary resources to help their best athletes reach their full potential. Thanks to Wahoo Fitness’ provision of their KICKR integrated technology, the UCI WCC coaches and national coaches were able to perform power-profile tests on these athletes and evaluate their power outputs over several protocols. Not only did these tests benefit the riders, they also enabled coaches on a parallel coaching course to learn about top-end scientific and analytical training techniques. This will allow these coaches to better monitor their athletes in the future. The continuing collaboration between the UCI and Wahoo Fitness will see the development of robust protocols that will help the UCI World Cycling Centre team establish an agile talent identification and talent confirmation methodology across all the UCI’s continental satellites. It will also enable affiliated National Federations to support their cycling development activities. To this end, seven Wahoo smart trainers were presented to the National Federations of Egypt, Morocco and Nigeria, to the African Cycling Confederation (CAC) and the WCC Africa satellite during the UCI Junior Track World Championships. Wahoo's CEO Mike Saturnia said, “We were delighted to support the riders on the UCI Solidarity programme with Wahoo KICKR smart trainers as they prepared for the UCI Junior Track Cycling World Championships. Giving these young riders - who come from so many different countries and backgrounds - the opportunities to train and develop is vitally important work. To then see them progress to racing on the world stage is truly inspirational.”
The UCI International Relations, Development and WCC Director Vincent Jacquet said: “Our ambition is to develop cycling worldwide by detecting talent, ensuring they have access to effective coaching and monitoring their progress wherever they are in the world. Wahoo is the ideal partner for helping us meet these ambitions thank to their responsive and adaptable solutions.”