A row within British Cycling has raised the issue about how far riders should be expected to curtail their everyday lives away for cycling so they stay injury-free and continue to improve.
The big news in British Cycling today is the criticism by the federation’s technical director Shane Sutton of one of his riders who is out of the World Track Championships following a motorbike accident.
Sutton was referring to the team pursuit rider Katie Archibald who came off a motorbike in wet road conditions.
The 21-year-old from Scotland was in a race against time to recover for the Worlds in London after she ruptured a posterior cruciate ligament and fractured her elbow in a 70mph motorbike crash in Alderley Edge, Cheshire.
She already has multiple World and European team pursuit and individual event titles to her name and is a key rider for Team GB women’s team pursuit line-up.
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Sutton, a former pro from Australia known for his no compromise approach, said Archibald was wrong to ride a motorbike.
And he added that no rider should not doing anything between now and the Olympics in the summer that would so much as “dent” short term recovery during their training towards Rio.
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Sutton told The Telegraph he was shocked to hear Archibald had fallen off a motorbike.
“She made a bad choice,” he told cycling correspondent Tom Cary.
“That’s what I said to her: ‘Everything you do between now and the Games is about choices. You know, do you choose to go on the p*** with someone when you really shouldn’t? Because every time you do that is a little dent in your recovery process.’
“That was a really bad choice on her part but it’s not for us to sit here and tell her she can’t ride a motorbike.
“They are grownups. They have a life to live. And of course you could get hit by a car riding your bike. These things happen.
“But life is about choices. And the choices you make will govern your outcome. And she made a bad choice there. Inexperienced, raining, riding your motorbike… crazy.”
What do you think of Sutton’s comments? How far should elite riders being financially supported by a national federation curtail their everyday lives to advance on the bike?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments section just below, or on Facebook under this story's post.
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