A top junior who medaled on the track at the Worlds and Europeans and had already represented Ireland at elite level, Xeno Young has switched his allegiance to Great Britain.
From Hillsborough, Co Down, Young is now aged 20 years and
has secured a place in the Great Britain Cycling Team Senior Academy.
It is described
by British Cycling as a “full-time
residential programme and involves significant periods of overseas training and
racing exposure”.
Those accepted into the programme are provided with an apartment, fully catered national and international training camps and racing opportunities and access to a 20-strong performance support team as well as coaching and medical services.
A grant of up to £5,000 is also available to each rider on the programme, which focuses on all Olympic disciplines.
A place on the British Cycling academy programme is typically for three years, though a rider’s performance and progress is constantly monitored and their place kept under review.
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Many of Britain’s
top riders including Mark Cavendish, Bradley Wiggins and Geraint Thomas were
among the first batch of cyclists to benefit from winning places at the
academy.
Gaining a place there is a big development in the career of Xeno Young and obviously means he moves away from the Irish set-up and into the British programme.
At the World Junior Track Championships in 2017 he qualified for the gold medal ride off against Johan Price-Pejtersen of Denmark.
He did a time of 3:15.5; a new Irish junior record by almost 3.5 seconds. Young was then edged out in the gold medal ride off by Price-Pejtersen, who was crowned U23 European TT champion in 2019.
Young’s silver medal in the individual pursuit at the
Worlds came one month after he had also claimed silver in the same event at the
European Junior Track Championships.
At those Europeans Ivan Smirnov (Russia) was quickest in
qualifying, posting a time of 3.16.462.
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Young was next fastest with a time of 3.19.063; a new Irish junior record at the time. In the final the Russian beat Young to the gold.
Smirnov in 2019 won gold in the individual pursuit and team pursuit for Russia at the European Games.
That 2017 Europeans silver medal was secured by Xeno Young 12 months after he had finished 4th in the individual pursuit at the Europeans as a first-year junior.
Young also represented Ireland on the road at the Worlds
and Europeans during both of his junior seasons.
At one point during his junior career he was top of the
UCI rankings in the individual pursuit and as high as second in the omnium
rankings.
He won the pursuit title and scratch race title at the National Track Championships as a junior and took silver in the sprint and pursuit and bronze in consecutive years in the kilo.
He also broke the 10 mile TT junior record and was part
of the junior team pursuit line-up that broke the national record; with Luke
Smith, Cathal Purcell and Tom Knight.
As a junior in 2017 he was 2nd to Ben Walsh in the TT at
the National Road Championships.
Immediately he left the junior ranks he was selected for
the national senior team for UCI World Cups.
He also rode the individual pursuit at the European Track
Championships last year and was 7th in the individual pursuit at the U23
Europeans.
In 2018 he represented Northern Ireland on track and road
at the Commonwealth Games in Australia where he was 25th in the TT. He was also
3rd in the U23 TT at the National Road Championships that year.
Young took silver in the scratch race at the elite
National Track Championships in 2019 as well as individual pursuit silver.
In 2019 he also claimed a number of wins at senior level on the road in Ireland including a round of the Mondello Series and the Emyvale GP.
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