Clancy BriggsBlog

Happy New Year from all of us here at Clancy Briggs.  Well, what a year that was!  

No-one could have foreseen how 2020 would turn out and we are so grateful for all your support.  Our fledgling academy was barely off the start line when Covid hit but we’re looking forward to a much stronger and consistent 2021.

We’ve ended the year with 200 active members, our pop-up activities such as our cyclo-cross masterclasses have gone brilliantly, and we couldn’t have hoped for a better year given the circumstances.

Like the rest of the UK, we’re hoping that 2021 will see us return to some normality so that we can build on the great start we made last year.

Although many businesses already offer a 1-2-1 coaching service, there’s not much out there specifically for juniors and under 23s.  We’re developing a new offering for young people to ensure they get a well-rounded view of the sport and how it can fit in with their lives.  We’re not doggedly focused on creating cycling monsters, but much more focused on teaching this age group the right things at the right time.  Often the most successful career cyclists weren’t going at it in a massive way in their teenage years, so balance is critical for this age group.

We’re also launching our 1-2-1 programme for seniors too – watch this space for further details coming soon!

This is one thing we do need to thank lockdown for!  Launching CB LIVE last year for our members who could no longer go to the track was fantastic!  

It worked so well, particularly for 10-18 year olds, so we’re bringing a virtual Youth & Junior Development Programme to all kids across the UK from January 2021.  

Find out more about the Youth & Junior Development Programme

Talking of going nationwide, we are working hard on our franchise programme to ensure more kids cycling academies can open up and down the UK.  Every academy will have the same quality of coaching and breadth of expertise available to share with young, developing cyclists.  

If you’d like to find out more about becoming a Clancy Briggs franchisee, get in touch.

We’re delighted to say that all our brilliant partners have agreed to support us again in 2021.  

We have both been personally involved with Condor for the best part of a decade riding for Condor supported teams and as they’ve looked after Ed through 2 Olympic games, we’re so pleased that they’ve agreed to continue being a Clancy Briggs partner too.

We also have a brilliant partnership with Hope, who provide our academy bikes. You may have read that Lotus & Hope are also providing the 2021 Olympic bikes too - a great partner providing top notch engineering.

When it comes to clothing and kit, we were supported by both Kalas & Madison Clothing in 2020 and they’ve agreed to continue that support in 2021.  They are both fantastic brands producing quality items for our coaches and members.

We’d also like to give a shout out to Lazer Sport for providing helmets to keep our coaches and riders safe during academy sessions.  

And finally, thanks to Hex Signs & Graphics who help us look good whilst we keep the show on the road!

All of these partners provide the support we need to ensure we can get as many kids on bikes as possible – we couldn’t do it without them!

We’ll be doing a lot of talking about the Olympics in the coming months!  

Ed is working hard training for this year’s delayed Olympic games in Tokyo.  There’s more competition than ever and everyone is fighting for their place in the final line up.  Since it would be Ed’s 4th Olympic games, he’s used to the pressure by now!  We’ll find out at the end of May whether Ed will be racing in Tokyo and we’ll be taking you on his Olympic training journey over the coming months.

We’re hoping as a Clancy Briggs team to get out and enjoy some UK races in 2021.  Last year, most events were cancelled, so we have everything crossed that we can make up for it this year.  We’re looking forward to seeing as many of our members as possible at these events.  

We’re also planning to create some of our own Clancy Briggs racing opportunities for our riders, including races for those kids who have never raced before, so that they get some first hand experience of what it’s really like.

We ran two sell out cyclo-cross events last year with Ian Field and we have another coming up on 24 January 2021 with Nikki Brammeier.   Watch this space for even more masterclasses coming up in the Spring & Summer focused on road and criterium racing.

UPDATE: 05.01.21 PLEASE NOTE THIS MASTERCLASS IS NOW POSTPONED AS A RESULT OF NATIONAL LOCKDOWN

And we wouldn’t have it any other way!  Thanks again to everyone who supported us in 2020.

We look forward to seeing you either on the track, at an event or via CB Live in the near future.

Best wishes for a happy and healthy 2021.

Ed Clancy OBE & Graham Briggs