How does someone become a professional ie paid cyclist ?

[Ian H]

You get placings in regional events, and placings mean points, then compete in a few national events, move up to elite category. You might have a coach like mysuch as my club's, who has connections in France & sends promising young riders over to ride with french clubs.
British Cycling records all points and categories.

 

[Ian H]

I think the reason for this is that the logistics around putting on an MTB or cyclo-cross race are a lot easier than a closed roads road race...

Few local road races are on closed roads. Even the Tour of Britain only has a rolling closure.

 

[rogerzilla]

The problem is that many cat 1 racers are already in their mid- to late 20s so only have a few years of top performance left in their legs. It's the juniors that the pro teams need to find. Grab them at 17/18, give them three years' training and minor races to build the legs and then hope they're the next Pog.

 

[dodgy]

Few local road races are on closed roads. Even the Tour of Britain only has a rolling closure.

Still closed for the duration of the event. But yes, not many closed road races, which underlines my point about emerging talent coming from the off-road disciplines.

 

[Sharky]

You need the basic ability in the first place, but it helps if your parents were pro or good cyclists as well and were able to guide you in the early years. Examples would be Chris Boardman, Bradley Wiggins, Victoria Pendleton. And there was a rider in this years tdf and the commentator said "and his father took the stage in 198x"

 

[Hacienda71]

There are lots of road races on open roads plus TT's and hill climbs, then you have crits on motor racing circuits, parks and purpose built tracks. In addition there are a number of Velodromes around the country that tend to be fully booked for months to come. So I don't think, excluding Covid interruption, it is availability.
I suspect the reason you get youngsters coming from MTB is that it is a more natural and in many senses fun route in and a natural progression from BMX for some. It is viewed as being cooler with a lot of kids. Road racing seems more of an adults sport imho. That does seem to be changing as younger riders like Tom Pidcock are thrust into the spotlight. Even he says he enjoys MTB most though.

 

[Dave7]

Surely he needs to actually ride in organised races not just do the Sunday club run?

I would think so but I want to try and understand the process

 

[Ming the Merciless]

By winning a few of them?

I once won the sprint to the pub. I got signed up by Black Sheep Brewery

 

[Dave7]

You start with local/regional races and then national ones. If he's in a local club then it's the local/regional races. As they move up categories - 4th>3rd, 3rd>2nd, 2nd>1st, 1st>Elite then access to 'big races' starts to open up; i.e. access to E/1/2 races rather than 3/4 or 4th only. British Cycling's 'Event' list is a useful starting point, filtering by the rider category, although others such as TLi exist. Note that it's not just road/crit races, but cyclo-cross, track, grasstrack, MTB, cycle speedway, etc. And time trials through Cycling Time Trials.

So they start as a Cat 4 racer, get used to racing in the 4th's or 3/4 races and develop racing skills. That might get them noticed by a low-level team or they race under their club. Getting results gets them points - which allows a rider to move up a category. Once they're into 2/3/4 races then it's more likely that a rider is part of a team for Cat 2 riders and above, but not always. Some of the bigger events give priority to a team entry, with individual club/team riders getting the spare or reserve places.

So son no. 2's got 35 points as a British Cycling Cat 3 rider and needs 5 more to become Cat 2. To date this year I've got 15 points, which moved me from Cat 4 to Cat 3 once I'd got 12.

Keep going up the categories and bigger possibilities open up ...

Very helpful that thanks.
As someone who has only ever cycled for pleasure, club cycling is not something I understand.
I imagine these "clubs" must be elite ie not your average group.

 

[HarryTheDog]

I was in a club with Connor Dunne and Alex Dowsett who both turned pro and my daughter raced a couple of pro races ( Fleche Wallonne and Tirenno adriatica ,unpaid though)
Connor and Alex basically won loads of races as a junior and also knew the right people , Connor is related to ex pros and Alex was mentored by a ex pro. They were both brilliant amateurs but also knew the right people. Amateur races for youngsters are mainly Crtiteriums where you get National points, once a junior you can race senior races including road races.
If a good Youth you can carry over points and when you are a junior which counts as a senior in road points you can start as 3rd car straight away and work your way to 1st cat.
but cannot reach elite status even if you get the points to do so.

My daughter got noticed as a 14 yr old by British cycling by winning at crit and CX events and got put forward for their race school programme and got invited to training weekends etc run bt BC . She also was a National Junior 25 Tt champpion and second in the 10 , she was also was the Eastern region senior womens crit champion when a first year junior. The word gets round and she got signed by a womens National team, being a womems team actually only one of their riders got paid, they did get teams frames , wheels and clothing but had to provide their own , bars, brakes and gears. She gave up as she had a old injury from horse riding which meant she go not train hard enough to go any further.
BC run a programme for youngsters, Cavendish and several others went through it, mainly track based. Loads get put through at the 14-16 year old level but at junior level they can go to a olympic programme when my daughter was up for selection to go to the olympic programme, BC decided that year only 2 women would go through , 6 men did though. This is based on what BC think their potential is, ie if none look they will get a medal then they pick none. May have changed now though.
I have know a guy who started in his early 20's and basically worked his way up through the road cat system to elite then got signed by a continental team. Took him around 4 years . His job was as a fitness trainer so got the time to train, also helped he again networked his way with people he met and knew .

 

[matticus]

I imagine these "clubs" must be elite ie not your average group.

I think all BC clubs are the same. You just join one to get your licence and in theory you can work your way through all the race categories.
(in fact you don't even need to speak to anyone in your club - do all your training on your own and in the races - if that's what floats your boat!)

In practice riders tend to migrate to more focused road-race+sponsors clubs, but I don't believe it's required. At amateur level you can win most races without a big support team - just a few mates with water bottles for the longer races!

It's easier to win with a team of strong riders supporting you in the bunch, but that makes much less difference in the lower category races.

 

[DCLane]

BC run a programme for youngsters, Cavendish and several others went through it, mainly track based. Loads get put through at the 14-16 year old level but at junior level they can go to a olympic programme when my daughter was up for selection to go to the olympic programme, BC decided that year only 2 women would go through , 6 men did though. This is based on what BC think their potential is, ie if none look they will get a medal then they pick none. May have changed now though.

It's pretty much the same - one of my son's team-mates has just got through the first stage as a female rider - but they're also running a pilot for those that haven't made it that my son's part of. It's far less aimed at medals/olympic and more developing riders with potential on a less formal basis.

 

[cougie uk]

Very helpful that thanks.
As someone who has only ever cycled for pleasure, club cycling is not something I understand.
I imagine these "clubs" must be elite ie not your average group.

You imagine wrong.

My club had about 150 members but probably only half were active riders.
We had kids racing that we supported by paying towards their expenses right up to 80 year olds pootling round. Oh and ex members racing in the Grand Tours too.

Huge range of experience and skills throughout the membership.

On a Sunday there would be three or so club rides for various levels plus more unofficial groups of pals going out.

Any decent club should cater for a wide range of levels - it's rare for someone to be elite when they start.

 

[mustang1]

Don't bother with alley cat races though - they only get noticed for the wrong reasons.

 

[Arrowfoot]

Don't bother with alley cat races though - they only get noticed for the wrong reasons.

Thats crazy dangerous. You depend on other road users keeping to their lane.