Emma Pitt - A decade on the boards
by John Wann, CyclingCoach
I first saw Emma go up on the boards at Calshot when she was 5years old. She'd been watching her older brother and decided she could do that just as well: Click Here for Report Time has shown that she was right. In the past 10 years Emma has raced pretty much every race that there is on a bike and the more technically difficult they are then the more Emma relishes getting in the mix.
Rider Profile: Emma's particular strength is being mentally and physically tough enough to take herself to the limit in those settings where you are well into zone 4 and it's survival of the fittest. Her sustained pace behind a Derny and her ability to deliver repeated high intensity efforts in a Madison format are both impressive. We have worked hard in the past 9months to optimize this through some truly brutal interval sessions and after an Autumn of very painful turbo sessions Emma recorded an impressive 9% jump in her 3minute power on the Wattbike. Emma is the type of rider, that if you let her go, then you won't see her again (see below). A target for early 2015 is to refine her sprint and peak-power, if we achieve that then that should see some unstoppable form.
2014 Season: Performing well in the Regional Omniums in 2014 took Emma through to the National Omnium final. But it was the 2014 National Track Championships where Emma really hit form: First in the Points Race qualifier, where she lapped the field, with clubmate Amber Joseph, to go straight through to the final. Then in the Scratch Race qualifier where she again broke away, stayed away and cruised home first across the line. The National Finals in both events were always going to be tough as a year 1 u16, but leaving the field behind in both of these qualifying races showed her potential. Emma dominated the Derny paced events in 2014 Reading Track League and no other female could get close to matching her sustained pace. Her strong performances on the track led to an invite to compete in the prestiguous 2014-15 Revolution Series with Emma competing at the London Velodrome, Manchester and Glasgow in front of capacity crowds.
Emma will be at the Revolution "Future Stars" events 2015-16.
Major results in 2014 (First year U16)
National Circuit race: Hillingdon - 7th
National Omnium: Southern Series - 5th (Qualified for National Final)
National Track Championships: - Qualified for both Scratch and Points finals
School Games Track Championships: Represented Central region - 4th Madison
Reading track league: Womens Derny champion
Central league CX: youth girls champion 2014
2015 Season: The season started well with Emma being invited onto the British Cycling Olympic Development Apprenticeship (ODA) program to particpate in regular sessions with BC coaches at the London (Olympic) Velodrome and Lee Valley Road Circuit. Due to an unfortunate back injury Emma was forced off the bike in March-April, but then worked her way back into competition for the key National events.
2015 Results Update (Yellow=track; Blue = Road)
UK School Games & BC Inter-Regional Championships:
Team Skills Event 3rd (Bronze Medal)
British National Track Champs: Scratch Race: 12th
Prudential Ride-London Grand Prix U16F 1/8/15): 27th
British National Circuit Champs U16F: 27/7/15: 23rd
Pedal Heaven Eelmore series 8 U16F (17/562015) 2nd
Pedal Heaven Eelmore series 9 U16F (24/6/2015) 2nd