Helping your child’s faith when they are passionate about their sport

The pathway to making it in elite sport is as demanding as the racing itself: it offers a serious challenge to the ambitious young sportsperson. In cycling, the convoy of team cars following in the dust behind the peloton is representative of the impossibility of arriving at this level without support, quite often in the form of parents or guardians. The reality of elite sport is that most don’t make it, some crash out, and many give up the chase before they reach the top level.

What’s it’s like to be a family in the world of elite cyclists? What are the best and worst bits? 

Richard: Watching Flora at the Paris-Roubaix (a very famous, difficult cycling race) was a highlight. But it’s not been simple to get here, the first lockdown coincided with a period of disappointment for Flora when she didn’t make an academy squad, she’s worked hard to make it to the senior level. 

Rosslyn: It’s great to see Flora in a professional team set up, the level of support is far greater than we could offer at race days. But getting used to her being away and supporting from a distance is hard. She’s looking to move to Belgium next year, so it will take some adjusting to get used to that. 

Flora: I’ve surprised myself at senior level, it hasn’t been too much of a shock to the system, I love being part of a team set up where my job is to race to support other riders. On the other hand, I’ve been doing A-Levels alongside racing, I love cycling because it takes me away from that stress sometimes, but I must remember that I’m not a full-time pro yet!