Whyte racer Billy Jo Whenman is also a familiar site to roadies. When he isn’t pounding the forests and single track on his Carbon Whyte 19, he is eating up the miles on the black top on his finely-tuned Wilier, either training or riding for the Sport Beans Wilier outfit. This feature is in this month’s Cycling Weekly magazine. You can read Chris Sidwell’s article here or get a copy of the magazine from newsagents.
Billy Jo Whenman is only 20 but he’s already done a lot of racing. Cyclo-cross, road, criteriums, mountain bike cross country and enduro, this true all rounder has had success in them all but he is about to specialise.
“I want to ride the mountain bike at the London Olympics in 2012,” he says. It’s a bold ambition, but as he points out, qualification is down to UCI points and he’s in as good a position from anyone in the UK to get them.
“I might not be part of British Cycling’s Olympic Programme but I’ma full time pro, supported by Whyte and their importers ATB Sales for mountain biking and I will be doing the World Cup mountain bike events in 2010 and 2011. Olympic places are awarded on UCI points so I’ve got the same opportunities to get them as Ollie Beckinsale and Liam Kileen. Anyway, if you are the best in the country they’ve got to take you,” he states.
Friday Ride
A lot of hard yards, racing, training and travelling stand between Whenman and his ambition and a lot of the training will be done on the roads and bridleways he has chosen today.
His ride starts in Sevenoaks, but normally he would ride their first from his home in Gravesend.
“I want to show you the good bits of riding in Kent. It’s a Friday and I have got a 12-hour relay mountain bike race on Sunday so we’ll start here,” he explains before pushing off into the lanes on a sunny September morning.
It’s perfect weather and terrain for cycling, the trees of Sevenoaks Weald are every shade of red, gold and green on the long steady climb to Ide Hill.
Whenman looks as much at home on the road bike as he does off-road and so he should after putting in some good performances with the Sport Beans Wilier team this year.
“ATB Sales also import Wilier bikes which is why I race on the road for SB-W,” he explains.
In 2008 he won the London GP circuit race – the prelude for the final stage of the Tour of Britain and he also won the tough Tour of Dengle Marshes in Essex. This year his road focus has been in the Tour series. He found it tough but learned a lot.
“It was much faster than I expected and competing against teams like Rapha Condor and Halfords was very tough. We just had to go in and follow the rest and hope for the best but I think we did ok.
“The downside though, that training for the series may have affected me at the mountain bike nationals. I might have been Ok if it had been flat but it was hilly. It only took a couple of weeks after that to get my MTB legs back though,” he says.
Lots of one hour sessions where Whenman just went out and sprinted out of corners on a small circuit, plus weekly televised races, weren’t the best preparation for a two and a half hour slog off road but he still ended the series as second placed Under 23 rider in the National series and well inside the top ten elite riders in the country.
Whenman first made the podium back in 2003 and has been a regular since. In 2008 he rode the mountain bike Tour de France for Great Britain and wont he 75 km enduro series as well as racing on the road.
He is a stocky rather than a willowy biker, with a punchy style. He is best suited to flat courses or ones with short, sharp climbs.
“But I am working on it. I am doing a lot of training in Tuscany, doing a lot of long road climbs so I will improve.”
His dad Jim was a good racer and has been behind Whenman since he started and ATB’s Paul Lasenby has been his coach and mentor.
“Paul was third in the worlds when he raced and national champion. He has given me all his old training programmes, which I do, but he is also someone to talk to and discuss ideas with.”
You can read all the finer details of Billy’s route in the magazine.