Different Roads, Same Dream
Four young cyclists, four very different journeys, and perhaps a little reassurance for the parents among us.
There's something I've been thinking about for quite a while now.
After spending years standing beside circuits, cyclo-cross courses, velodromes and muddy fields all over the country, I've had countless conversations with parents about their children's cycling.
One subject that comes up remarkably often is progression.
Should we be looking at another club? Is it time to join a development team? Are we missing opportunities? Should we be doing more?
I understand it. I'm a cycling parent myself, and when your child loves something and seems to be doing well, you naturally want to give them every opportunity to succeed.
Sometimes, though, I wonder whether we're putting ourselves, and perhaps our children, under unnecessary pressure to find the right pathway.
From what I've seen, there really isn't just one.
Over the years, I've been fortunate enough to work with some fantastic young athletes through the School Games, grassroots cycling programmes and Sundorne Racing School. I wanted to share the journeys of four riders I've had the pleasure of knowing: Kristian Larigo, George Bromley, Aisling Charlesworth and Xan Crees.
Four very different people who have taken four very different routes through cycling. I think there's something we can learn from all of them.
Does being the fastest at 12 mean you'll be the fastest at 25?
Before getting into their stories, there's a piece of research worth mentioning.
A systematic review and analysis published in Sports Medicine in 2024 examined the performances of more than 13,000 athletes across Olympic sports, comparing how they performed as juniors with their results as adults.
The findings were rather interesting.
Being successful as a junior turned out to be a surprisingly poor predictor of success as an adult.
In fact, the researchers found such a weak connection that junior results accounted for just 2.2% of the differences they observed in adult performance.
Put simply, knowing how well someone performed as a junior provided very little indication of how successful they would become as an adult.
Just because your child is winning everything at 12 doesn't necessarily mean they'll be winning at 25. Equally, the child finishing halfway down the field today might turn out to be an exceptional adult athlete.
That doesn't mean junior results are worthless, or that every child has an equal chance of becoming a professional. The research covers a range of Olympic sports rather than cycling alone, and there are plenty of other factors involved.
It does, however, suggest that we should be careful about deciding too early who has talent and who doesn't.
Which, when you think about how differently children grow, mature and develop, makes quite a lot of sense.
With that in mind, let me introduce you to four rather interesting cyclists.
Kristian Larigo – Sometimes you just need to find the right discipline
I first met Kristian when I was managing the West Midlands Road and Track cycling team at the School Games, and what a pleasure he was to work with!
He's one of those young athletes who just gets on with things. He didn't need someone telling him to warm up, reminding him to prepare or constantly checking that he was doing what he should be doing. He knew what needed doing, and he did it.
It was also lovely to meet his family, who are incredibly supportive and have clearly played a big part in helping him become the polite, grounded young man he is today.
What's interesting, though, is that track cycling wasn't originally his thing.
Kristian came from BMX, where he'd spent years developing his skills and racing, even making it to the World Championships. After years of competing on the same circuits, and a broken wrist ahead of one World Championships, his enthusiasm for BMX was beginning to fade.
I think that's quite important. It's easy to assume that when a child starts losing interest in something, it's because they're no longer motivated or don't want to put the effort in. Perhaps they've simply had enough of that particular activity.
In Kristian's case, British Cycling's talent identification programme recognised that the abilities he'd developed through BMX might transfer rather well to track sprinting.
With encouragement from his father, he decided to give it a go.
In a rather entertaining interview with SportsAid, Kristian admits that track cycling wasn't exactly appealing at first. In fact, he thought Lycra looked a bit ridiculous!
Once he started riding on the track, however, he discovered that he actually enjoyed it more than BMX.
The rest, as they say, is history! :)
He progressed through the Great Britain Cycling Team's talent pathway and, in 2025, became both a junior European and world champion in the team sprint. He's now working towards the next stage of his career in senior track cycling.
Not bad for someone who initially wasn't particularly interested in riding around a velodrome!
There's another part of his SportsAid interview I particularly liked.
He talks about how much the support from his family and SportsAid has meant to him, particularly with the costs of equipment, travel and international competition.
He's also been working towards his Level 1 coaching qualification, hoping to return to the BMX track where it all began and introduce other young people to cycling.
Kristian's journey is a reminder that the skills developed in one discipline might eventually open doors somewhere completely different.
Sometimes changing direction isn't giving up. It's simply finding something that suits you better.
George Bromley – Knowing what suits you
George is another young rider I had the privilege of managing as part of the West Midlands team at the School Games. A lovely young man with a smile every bit as wide as his talent.
George started cycling indoors during COVID before joining Beeston Cycling Club and developing into a very capable road racer.
One of my favourite memories of George comes from the School Games.
Although he'd ridden on the track, he wasn't particularly experienced in track racing and had never raced a Madison before. If you're familiar with the Madison, you'll appreciate that it's not the simplest event to learn at a major competition. It's fast, tactical and requires riders to exchange places through hand slings, often while a great deal is happening around them. Fortunately, we had Julie Cooper on hand to provide excellent coaching and encouragement.
George took it all on board and went out to race so well that the commissaires actually commended him for how safely and competently he'd ridden.
I was rather proud of that.
Before the Games, we'd invited George to join us at Shrewsbury Sports Village for a Sundorne Racing School session. It gave us an opportunity to get to know him better ahead of the competition, while also allowing our younger riders to train alongside someone of his calibre. Sometimes, simply having a stronger rider in the group is enough to encourage younger athletes to push themselves that little bit harder. No special coaching or motivational speeches required!
What also stood out was just how pleasant George was to work with. Friendly, approachable and always positive, he fitted in immediately and was a genuine pleasure to have around the group. Talent will always get noticed, but character matters too.
Since then, George has gone on to achieve some very impressive results.
In 2026, he won the National Junior 10-Mile Time Trial Championship in 19 minutes and 53 seconds, becoming the only junior rider to break the 20-minute barrier.
I also came across a race report from the Shropshire Cycling Clubs Association in which George described winning a particularly windy time trial on his first outing with a new TT bike.
What I liked was the way he'd planned his effort around the conditions, keeping something in reserve for the difficult return leg. Although he also admitted he'd slightly misjudged where the finish line was!
Even when you're winning, there's always something to learn.
George is now preparing for another exciting chapter, with plans to join ASPTT Nancy in France.
What particularly interests me is the thought he's put into that decision.
He hasn't simply looked for the biggest name or the most impressive jersey. Instead, he's considered the location, the terrain and, perhaps most importantly, the type of racing he wants to do. It's something I've noticed in interviews with other young riders making the move into more competitive racing.
Finding a team that offers the right calendar, suitable terrain and opportunities to develop your particular strengths can be far more valuable than signing for the most recognisable name.
If you're a rider who enjoys climbing, for example, having access to hilly races and terrain that suit your ambitions is going to be rather useful.
George seems to have a good understanding of what he's good at, what he enjoys and what he wants from cycling.
That's something I'd love to see more young athletes develop.
After all, the purpose of joining a development team should be to help you develop, not simply to give you a different jersey! :)
Aisling Charlesworth – Sometimes your local club is exactly where you need to be
Aisling has been part of Fibrax Fenwick's Wrexham Cycling Club since she was four years old. What she's achieved while representing that club has been rather special.
In May 2026, she won the under-17 editions of both In Flanders Fields and the Tour of Flanders in Belgium.
At In Flanders Fields, she attacked with four kilometres remaining and rode away to victory. Two weeks later, she was winning the Tour of Flanders in a sprint.
She also won SIX national youth track titles, all while proudly wearing her Wrexham Cycling Club colours.
There's sometimes a feeling in youth cycling that once a child starts becoming successful, they should be looking to move to a bigger club or a more prominent racing team as quickly as possible.
Aisling is a good example of why that isn't necessarily true.
Of course, she's had opportunities beyond her club. She's benefited from wider coaching, development activities and racing against increasingly strong competition.
That's exactly how it should work. A local club doesn't have to provide absolutely everything. It can be the foundation from which a rider explores other opportunities.
What impresses me about Aisling isn't simply her results. It's that she's remained so connected to where she started.
At the club's Go-Ride sessions, she's something of a hero to the younger children. She makes time for them, talks to them, takes an interest in what they're doing and is genuinely approachable.
They've watched her go from riding in their local club to winning major races in Belgium, and now preparing for international junior competition.
The wonderful thing is that, to them, she's still Aisling.
She's one of their own. Someone who's ridden the same sessions, been part of the same club and experienced plenty of the same things they're experiencing now.
I think that makes a difference.
It's one thing to watch a professional cyclist winning a race on television. It's quite another to see someone you know, someone who's trained where you train, heading towards that level.
For 2027, Aisling has signed with AirTox Carl Ras Junior Women, a Danish development team with a talent partnership with Uno-X Mobility.
It's a fantastic opportunity and a well-earned next step.
Her story offers a useful lesson for parents who worry that their child needs to join a particular team to get noticed.
Xan Crees – And what if you weren't the exceptional junior?
This is perhaps the story I most want parents to think about.
Many of you involved with Sundorne Racing School will know Xan, who's been one of the fantastic coaches we've had working with our riders.
Today, she's a British gravel champion, a former British elite cyclo-cross champion and the founder of her own professional racing project.
Her journey, however, wasn't the sort of junior pathway we often associate with future professional athletes.
Inspired by the London 2012 Olympics, Xan started cycling with Derby Mercury and became particularly interested in cyclo-cross.
She was a good young rider and had some respectable results. I certainly don't want to suggest she wasn't competitive.
Yet she wasn't one of those juniors who seemed destined for professional cycling from an early age. She wasn't selected for British Cycling's junior academies, and her biggest results didn't arrive until her twenties.
That's quite interesting, particularly when you look at how much attention we sometimes give to results in the U12, U14 and U16 categories.
We naturally notice the children winning everything. It's worth asking, though, what happens to those who aren't quite at the front, or who aren't selected for a particular development programme.
Xan continued racing, went to Loughborough University to study Natural Sciences and kept working on her cycling.
It certainly wasn't always straightforward.
In 2022, she was working at Subway to help pay for trips to race cyclo-cross in Belgium. Now, that's a rather different picture from the one we sometimes associate with professional cycling.
No glamorous team bus, no guaranteed salary and no big organisation paying for everything. Just someone who loved racing enough to work shifts to help finance it.
I don't think we should romanticise how difficult that must have been.
Racing internationally costs a lot of money, and having to fund it yourself isn't easy.
Xan kept finding ways to make it happen.
In 2023, she became British gravel champion. Then, in January 2025, she won the British elite cyclo-cross championship, beating riders including Cat Ferguson of Movistar and Imogen Wolff of Visma–Lease a Bike.
That's quite an achievement.
Rather than waiting for an established professional team to offer her a place, Xan decided to create her own opportunity.
She brought together sponsors and support to establish OGT powered by USE, her own professional racing project.
In an interview with Cycling Weekly, she explained how, despite years of racing at a high level and receiving equipment support, she'd never actually been paid to race.
So she decided to see whether she could make that happen herself.
Xan's journey hasn't been straightforward, and it certainly hasn't followed the conventional academy-to-professional route. She's kept developing, kept racing and eventually created an opportunity to compete professionally on her own terms.
I'm not suggesting that every young cyclist who isn't winning national races at 15 will eventually become a champion. Her story does, however, challenge the idea that we can identify everybody's potential at a particular age.
It also raises an interesting question about the opportunities we provide for young people once they're no longer juniors. While a great deal of attention goes into identifying and developing young talent, some athletes are only beginning to discover what they're capable of when they reach adulthood.
Development doesn't suddenly stop when you turn 18.
So, what should we actually be doing?
I don't want this article to sound as though I'm against development teams, academies or national pathways.
I'm absolutely not.
I've been involved in developing young cyclists for years, and through Sundorne Racing School, we're working with some very talented riders.
We want them to improve, be challenged and take opportunities that will help them progress.
One of the reasons I started the racing school was that I could see talented children scattered across different clubs who weren't always getting the opportunity to train with enough riders of a similar standard.
Some were simply too young for the formal development pathways.
So why not bring them together?
Give them the opportunity to work with excellent coaches, train alongside other fast young riders and learn from one another.
Something else mattered to me too. I wanted them to get to know each other.
Cycling can be a surprisingly individual sport, particularly when you're travelling from race to race as a parent and child.
I love seeing our riders arrive at events around the country and immediately recognise friends from other clubs and regions.
That's part of what we're trying to build.
Sundorne Racing School isn't a club, and it isn't an academy. The children remain members of their own clubs. We're simply providing another opportunity for them to train, develop and enjoy cycling together.
Our little philosophy has always been fairly simple:
Fast kids. Nice kids. Community-minded parents.
That fits rather well with what we've been discussing.
The next step for a young rider shouldn't necessarily be joining a bigger team.
It might be attending a specialist coaching session, trying track cycling for the first time, gaining some international racing experience or simply having the opportunity to train with faster riders.
Perhaps they're perfectly happy where they are, and moving them would achieve very little.
I think the important thing is understanding what the young person actually needs.
Are they being challenged? Are they learning? Are they enjoying themselves? Do they have good people around them?
Are they developing the confidence and independence to start making some of these decisions themselves?
Ultimately, it's their cycling journey, not ours.
A final thought
I don't know what the future holds for Kristian, George, Aisling or Xan.
Perhaps we'll be watching them at the Olympics one day. They might achieve things none of us can currently imagine, or their lives might take them in completely different directions.
Having had the pleasure of working with them, what stays with me isn't simply their results.
It's Kristian's independence and willingness to give something back. George's enormous smile and his enthusiasm for trying something new. Aisling making time for the younger riders in Wrexham. Xan finding ways to pursue her ambitions when the conventional opportunities weren't necessarily there.
They're all very different people, and I'm delighted our younger riders have had the opportunity to meet and learn from them.
As parents, I think we sometimes become so focused on finding the next opportunity that we forget how much children can gain simply from enjoying the one they're already in.
There's nothing wrong with ambition. I think it's a wonderful thing, particularly when it comes from the young person themselves.
Let's give them time to discover what they're good at, what they enjoy and where they want to go.
Some will become professional cyclists. Most won't. That doesn't make their cycling journeys any less worthwhile.
If they come away with great memories, good friendships, confidence and a lifelong love of riding bikes, I think we've done a pretty good job.
Who knows? That young rider finishing halfway down the field today might just surprise us all in a few years.
Different roads. Same dream. And plenty of ways to get there.
Happy cycling!
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