Cycling Centre of Excellence.

Paralympian, Darren Kenny OBE, officially opened the Centre of Cycling Excellence, formed through the partnership of Winton Arts & Media College and the Bournemouth Arrow Cycling Club. Kenny has just been named in the GB cycling team for the London Paralympic Games and is still a member of the Bournemouth Arrow. The College’s location next door to the Olympic sized Velodrome at Bournemouth Cycling Centre inspired Ben Parnell, Head of Winton & Glenmoor School to set up the Cycling initiative. Local club, Bournemouth Arrow CC raised funding through sport England to provide 6 high tech Wattbike indoor trainers. Dorset Cycling Development group provided the college with 6 track bikes and rollers. The college has set up a dedicated Cycling Centre adjacent to the sports hall and British Cycling has already provided training to Winton College staff.
Ben Parnell says “I cannot believe how quickly we have managed to turn a vision of a world class cycling resource into reality. We now have everything in place to train the next Sir Chris Hoy. I want our pupils to have the opportunity to access world class resources, with the velodrome and Wattbikes. My experience is that if you invest heavily in young people then the return you get is ten times that.We want the next top class cyclist to come from here. How many school's have a velodrome in their back garden? There are so many things that I am proud of as the head of these two fantastic schools and we now have the best cycling facility for school children in the country. Well done to Bournemouth Arrow and well done to Nadine Lapskas, Mike Burke and Dan Ferris, the staff at the school who have worked so hard to make this happen. I am just thrilled that we have this chance!"

Nadine Lapskas added “ Bournemouth University will be using the new facility every Wednesday and we are offering it as part of our School curriculum, students can access the Velodrome, two of our staff are level 2 British Cycling trained coaches. British Cycling have been amazing, giving us a lot of training and the local authority gave us the funding for that training. From that we are offering out as a hub to other schools and also for after school use. We have had a lot of interest and it is really helping us develope partnership’s The demand for cycling is growing, the majority of our boys cycle to school and we encourage it. Mr Parnell is head of both the boy’s and girl’s so we intend to get the girl’s involved more, using the expertise of our coaches. We want to be the Cycling Centre of Excellence for the whole area.”

Alan MaCrae, Bournemouth Arrow’s development officer says, “The club are proud to be involved in this visionary centre. The opportunity for the club to provide coaching and support to the college perfectly balances the College’s provision of a first class facility as an urban base for the club. The Arrow’s coaching & activity programme links precisely with the college, giving a development pathway for students to progress in cycling competition as well as recreation through our involvement in British Cycling’s Coaching and SkyRide programmes”
Thought to be the “first of its type ever in the UK” the centre and the partnership between college and club, provide tangible evidence of a true Olympic legacy here in the heart of the Bournemouth Community.

Cycling in Bournemouth
 The UK’s first Olympic outdoor Cycle Track opened in Bournemouth Summer 2011

 Bournemouth’s first weekly Track Cycling League starts in April 2012


 Bournemouth’s first Track Cycling BH Championships takes place the week after the Olympics
 Competition across many Olympic events free to spectators.

Wattbike say:
“The Wattbike was created with British Cycling to provide an affordable indoor bike for training and testing that is suitable for everyone from school children to Olympic Gold Medallists. Within seconds you can be accurately measuring your power output, your pedalling technique and heart rate. The Wattbike Performance Computer is designed to be simple and intuitive to use. It records 39 parameters 100 times per second, but displays only the key information for the cyclist through seven different views. The rider has the option of viewing their data in Power (Watts), Energy (Joules), Speed (km/h) and Pace (time per km).”