"I was always being belaboured with 'What the fuck do you know?' This was coming from riders and staff." Rod Ellingworth, Team SKY Head of Performance Operations.
As far as a literary glimpse into the world of high performance sport goes, "Project Rainbow: How British Cycling Reached the Top of the World" could set a lofty standard. Detailing Rod Ellingworth's journey from rider to world-class coach, this book gives a warts-and-all insight into what it takes to produce top cyclists.
Ellingworth is what one would call a "real coach." After many years as a domestically-based rider in the nether world of lower division pro cycling, he secures as job with British Cycling as Talent Team coach. From there his career progression is pretty well-known: he establishes a prolific under-23 Academy nurturing talents such as Mark Cavendish, Geraint Thomas and Ed Clancy before ultimately being an integral part of Team Sky as well as guiding Cavendish to the Rainbow Jersey in 2011.
Yet there is so much more to this masterpiece than merely the story of British Cycling's rise to the top. Rather, it is the years of trials and tribulations along the way, the personalities and clashes thereof not mention the attention to the simple details of what makes good athletes great. A journey of an ordinary guy with a clear vision of doing something extraordinary and achieving it, the reader witnesses these challenges through Ellingworth's eyes. His logic, his thoughts and his observations provide fascinating - if frank - insight to the somewhat abstract world of professional cycling.
Ellingworth is self-deprecating throughout, particularly during what is a difficult transition from the Academy to top-level road racing with Team Sky. He seems "up against it" in the formative years of the now revered and respected men in black, at times almost bullied by various "old school" staff and riders when trying to implement new strategies and methods. "I was always being belaboured with 'What the fuck do you know?'" he relates during this rocky patch where change doesn't always sit well with those entrenched in a "mafia-like" system. But such are the challenges of creating a world-class environment and Ellingworth clearly does "know" a thing or two about cycling. The thing is that he doesn't seem to wear this on his sleeve like former rider and Sky directeur sportif Scott Sunderland. Just because he didn't race as a European professional doesn't mean to say he can't do the job, a;though others beg to differ. Quite the contrary in fact.
Ellingworth appears to be the antithesis of many a former rider now working in the management side of the sport. Even when he is interviewed for the Talent Team position in the beginning of the book, he is under no illusions that this job will require his all. This means shelving his own racing cold turkey, with a total focus on his new occupation. This is in stark contrast to several of his predecessors - and even counterparts - who continue training and racing fitting their jobs around there continued sporting ambitions. For Ellingworth it is the other way around where his life is accommodated around his job.
Cavendish's victory in the 2011 Worlds is the ultimate "mission accomplished" and this is where Ellingworth's story is particularly interesting. There are two photos in the book featuring him and one Jeremy Hunt, journeyman and vagabond professional rider who thrived and survived on the Continent for what seems like an eternity. The first is way back in 1994 where Ellingworth and Hunt are teammates in Australia; the second is almost two decades later with the Rainbow Stripes in British hands. This time Ellingworth is coach and Hunt is still a rider, and a key one at that.
Getting "old school" thirty-something riders to buy into working for the new crop of British cyclists? Ellingworth clearly does know a bit about cycling.
Then again, perhaps he always did.
