Verulam Reallymoving Racing Team will compete in six disciplines of cycle racing in in 2023 - Road Racing, Track (indoor and outdoor), Time Trials, Cyclocross, Mountain Biking and Gravel Racing.
For many of the senior and veteran riders in our team, the principle focus of our team is on road racing and time trials, but we have been hugely successful in cyclocross, gravel and mountain biking too.
Our coaching programme is tailored to prepare for road racing events and to learn/practice the skills needed to compete to the best of the riders ability in their category.
Our riders race as a team, supporting and encoraging each other, and celebrate successes together.
A number of riders in our team successfully compete in Cycling Time Trials (CTT) events and have had numerous successes in both individual and team time trial events.
Under British Cycling rules youths compete on closed-circuit races rather than on open road races. However when racing in Europe, for example on out trips to Belgium, our youths and juniors get to experience racing on closed roads and often in larger fields of rider numbers.
We tailor our training to the race duration and tactics needed for our youth team members to do will in circuit races, whilst introducing them to training with the senior squad in order to ready them for longer road races as they progress to junior and senior events. Several of our youths have been selected for the British Cycling Talent Development Programme and as such take part in Regional School of Racing (RSR) coaching sessions led by British Cycling's coaches.
Cycle racing in the UK has clearly changed it’s nature over the last few years, with less emphasis on road racing, but the cyclocross, gravel, and mountain biking side of the sport having really taken off. At the Central League Cyclocross at MK Bowl in the summer of 2023, for example, there were over 100 competitors in mid-week races, with a high proportion of women and youths in those events.
As a race team we’ve embraced that shift, as evidenced with our youths taking wins and podiums at a national level in cyclocross and MTB racing. We’re not neglecting the tarmac side of racing, with our strong squad of senior men as well as the Masters. We’re actively trying to encourage more women into the sport - our team are currently racing senior women's criterium and cyclocross, and have been taking women's time trial wins – but we’d still love to get more women racing in the team and will continue to push for that.
