Dr Dave Nichols interview: cycling reimagined – the Loughborough Lightning approach
Loughborough Lightning, led by Dr. Dave Nichols, is aiming to revolutionise cycling by offering a comprehensive support system and facilities-based experience at Loughborough University. The team aims to set a new standard in cycling and inspire other universities to follow suit.
Loughborough Lightning is not your typical cycling team. Unlike most teams, there’s no annual pressure to find sponsors, no hunting round for support staff, or expecting riders to go out and find their own coaches, nutritionists or bike fit support.
Lightning enjoys the backing of a comprehensive team of coaches, physiotherapists, and other support staff that might rival the best Women’s WorldTour offerings – certainly outclassing the vast majority of domestic teams – and all anchored within the heart of Loughborough University.
The man leading that charge is Dr Dave Nichols, Cycling Programme Manager at the University and the team’s manager. Now in its third season as an elite-level team in Britain, Nichols believes the team provides a blueprint for a new way of looking at cycling. The British Continental sat down with Nichols at Loughborough Lightning’s recent team training camp to find out more.
Outside of track cycling, it’s not a facilities sport, but there’s no reason that it shouldn’t be. And it’s this transformation from a sport perceived as being done elsewhere to a sport that’s a facilities-based experience being done on the Loughborough campus
“What we’ve done is we’ve set out a vision of transforming cycling from a sport that’s perceived as one that’s just done somewhere else,” says Nichols. “When you think of most cycling and where we train and what teams are, where do you do it? You do it on the countryside lanes where you live and you meet and you go and ride around the middle of nowhere and you go to a cafe and you sit down. And that’s what cycling is.
“Outside of track cycling, it’s not a facilities sport, but there’s no reason that it shouldn’t be. And it’s this transformation from a sport perceived as being done elsewhere to a sport that’s a facilities-based experience being done on the Loughborough campus.”
Nichols, a Loughborough alumnus, has witnessed the university’s cycling culture transform from a student-run club to a performance-focused team. This transformation was inspired by the successes of other Lightning-branded teams on campus.
2022 Sportsbreaks.com Tour Series Round 3 Sunderland. Dave Nichols with Frankie Hall. Image: Will Palmer/SWpix.com
“When I started this role five years ago, there was no performance cycling team, it was an AU club,” Nichols explains. “And I was a Loughborough student 15 years ago and I was part of the AU club and it was a student club like every other university, being run by students, for students, as a committee.
“If we were to do this interview five years ago and I said “let’s go and see cycling”, we’d have probably walked to the fountain where everyone meets for their rides and then waved them all off to go for their bike ride. Right? Because that’s how cycling is done. Now we’ve got a hub and it’s a home and it’s not a place for riders to, to train and do their bike fix – although it serves that purpose – it’s where the cyclists now say, well, where do we meet? Who are we like? What is our identity? Where do we belong? Are we going to meet there?
“The cricket team has a pavilion. The netball team has a netball centre, we have a cycling centre. And it’s cool, like the riders will come in and they’ll sit and chat and have coffees and it’s not a transactional place. It is our home and we’ll have squad nights and we get people together. And to me, that’s building this high performance environment that you just can’t do if you don’t have a facility.”
If we were to do this interview five years ago and I said “let’s go and see cycling”, we’d have probably walked to the fountain where everyone meets for their rides and then waved them all off to go for their bike ride
The team’s base, while crucial, is just one part of an advanced setup that includes physiology labs, altitude and heat chambers, and access to an engineering department’s wind tunnel.
Couple it with access to staff experts in their field – Nichols has a PhD in environmental exercise physiology, endurance coaches Hayden Allen and Paddy Harrison have a PhD and are studying for a PhD respectively and the wider supporting cast assist Olympic-level athletes in addition to Lightning riders – and there’s a set-up built to support riders, on the team or just studying at the university, to be the best they possibly can.
Nichols expresses surprise at the prevailing approach to coaching within both British domestic teams and the WorldTour. “I’m not sure there’s any other British domestic team that coaches their riders. And even in the WorldTour, teams are not necessarily coaching their riders. And on the women’s side, they’re certainly not,” Nichols remarks, highlighting what he regards as a significant oversight in the sport’s development strategies.
Image: Ian Wrightson/The British Continental
His Loughborough Lightning team, however, is pioneering a different approach. Nichols advocates for a model akin to that of football teams, where a central coaching strategy aligns with the overall team objectives rather than leaving preparation to individual riders and their personal coaches. “It’s almost like the preparation for competition in cycling is done by someone else, and the teams just deliver race days. Why don’t we treat it like a football team?'” Nichols says. He questions this status quo, proposing a more cohesive and integrated method of preparation.
“Each player doesn’t have their own coach who’s training that player to be really good at football and then they turn up on match day and the manager goes: ‘These are the tactics for match day. Let’s play a really great game of football,’ have a debrief after, and then everyone goes home does their own thing for three weeks and then play another match,” he observes.
Let’s have the team manager or the DS look at the course, look at the tactics – how are we going to win this race? And then let’s train our riders to deliver on the tactics to win that race
Loughborough Lightning’s strategy involves centralising training and support, focusing on tactics, physiology, nutrition, psychology, and more to ensure each rider is optimally prepared for race days. “Let’s have the team manager or the DS look at the course, look at the tactics – how are we going to win this race? And then let’s train our riders to deliver on the tactics to win that race,” Nichols explains. This approach is aimed at maximising the team’s performance and leveraging every available resource to secure results.
His plan doesn’t come from a place of ignorance. An international-level rider who progressed to coaching before joining his alma mater in 2019, Nichols worked at Team Dimension Data in the era where Mark Cavendish was adding stage wins at the Tour de France and was the ‘coach, physiologist, nutritionist and strength and conditioning lead’ for Louis Meintjes when the South African was targeting the podium in the race.
At Loughborough, he’s created facilities – free to access for the team’s riders whether they’re students or not, of which six of the 14-strong squad are – that are world class. But now, the focus is shifting to taking all that support, research and training, and translating it into success on the road.
With a five-year plan which includes progressing to be a UCI Continental team, Nichols has recruited a squad which this year includes up-and-coming racers like British Team Cup race winner Georgia Lancaster, double national track champion Jenny Holl, as well as the infinitely-experienced Mary Wilkinson, a former winner of the Lancaster Grand Prix.
2024 British National Track Championships – National Cycling Centre, Manchester, England – Women’s Scratch winner Jenny Holl of Loughborough Lightning. Image: Simon Wilkinson/SWpix.com
Despite the the significant university investment and the carefully assembled squad, Nichols acknowledges the challenge of securing enough sponsorship to match the team’s ambitions, including progressing to a UCI Continental team level.
“The university invests an awful lot of money, about £250,000 plus a year into cycling, which is an astronomical budget,” he says. “But most of that is spent here preparing our riders for competition, and a very small proportion of that budget is actually left over to go and deliver races.
We want to go to Continental level and bring in a fairly large amount of cash sponsorship so that our race day delivery matches that of our back room delivery, because I think when that’s combined, we’d have one of the most powerful offers out there and a really credible team
“We don’t have a really expansive calendar. We’re not traveling around Europe every week. My goal at the moment is – you might have seen it last year – we want to go to Continental level and bring in a fairly large amount of cash sponsorship so that our race day delivery matches that of our back room delivery, because I think when that’s combined, we’d have one of the most powerful offers out there and a really credible team.”
To be in a position now where the team is seeking sponsorship to carry on its rise upwards is a testament to the progression made from the team’s earliest days of racing on Zwift with four riders and skeleton support. As well as growing the team on the women’s side, there’s plenty of ambition to grow Lightning and have it match the University’s other Lightning-backed teams, which includes a national championship-winning Netball squad.
“The first race we turned up to, we didn’t even have any chairs. We didn’t have a team car. It was like, okay, what are we doing here? And every year it’s got more professional, more resources. It’s grown and developed,” says Nichols.
Image: Ian Wrightson/The British Continental
Now his vision extends beyond the women’s team; he aspires to establish a men’s elite development team alongside a women’s UCI Continental squad, believing this combination would make Loughborough a formidable force in road cycling nationally.
My vision for cycling here would be a women’s UCI Conti team and a men’s elite development team. And I think the combination of those two would make Loughborough a really powerful force in road cycling in the country
“Women’s cycling was the obvious route and it’s snowballed and grown from there,” he reflects. “And it’s not that we don’t do men’s cycling, we just don’t have a men’s race team. So there is an equivalent male version of Lightning for the training side and the male students. But you have to be a student to be on the men’s side of the endurance programme. They get exactly the same offer that we we run a men’s training camp the same as this one, but they’re all in different kit and they’re riding for their teams.
“The offer is identical behind the scenes. We just don’t have a race team. And I like to think that that won’t be permanent. It’s just where we’re at. And my vision for cycling here would be a women’s UCI Conti team and a men’s elite development team. And I think the combination of those two would make Loughborough a really powerful force in road cycling in the country.”
The support the team, and associated cycling programme, has had from the university has led Nichols to his ‘blue sky idea’ for shoring up the future of the British cycling scene, one that involves universities being in the vanguard of domestic road racing and rider development.
Image: Ian Wrightson/The British Continental
“There’s no other university with a team presence at nationals, so you’ll have individual riders, but we’re the only university that has a race team that acts and looks like a race team,” Nichols points out. This distinction is not just a matter of prestige but highlights a potential shift towards institutional support in the cycling world—a move that could offer much-needed stability and longevity to the sport.
The traditional cycling team model is fraught with financial uncertainties, heavily reliant on annual sponsorships for survival. This precarious situation makes long-term planning and development nearly impossible. Nichols critiques this model, questioning, “How do you move away from the current business model that basically isn’t a business model? You’re relying on sponsorship every single year just to survive.”
As long as Loughborough University keeps doing sport and wants to invest in cycling, this team can exist forever
Loughborough University’s model presents a viable alternative, Nichols argues. With the institution’s commitment to sports and willingness to invest in cycling, the Lightning team has a foundation that other teams can only dream of. “As long as Loughborough University keeps doing sport and wants to invest in cycling, this team can exist forever,” Nichols asserts confidently, highlighting the potential for enduring success.
This innovative approach has not gone unnoticed, with Nichols suggesting it could serve as an inspiration for other universities. The adoption of a university-based model could revolutionize the domestic cycling scene, providing a stable and sustainable pathway for the sport’s growth. “Is it a different business model that says could universities be the future powerhouses of domestic cycling? Maybe,” Nichols muses.
For Nichols, this model not only offers a solution to the financial instability plaguing many teams but also opens up new avenues for talent development and engagement in the sport. The Lightning model will be one to watch in the coming years.
Featured image: Ian Wrightson/The British Continental
Loughborough Lightning is not your typical cycling team. Unlike most teams, there’s no annual pressure to find sponsors, no hunting round for support staff, or expecting riders to go out and find their own coaches, nutritionists or bike fit support.
Lightning enjoys the backing of a comprehensive team of coaches, physiotherapists, and other support staff that might rival the best Women’s WorldTour offerings – certainly outclassing the vast majority of domestic teams – and all anchored within the heart of Loughborough University.
The man leading that charge is Dr Dave Nichols, Cycling Programme Manager at the University and the team’s manager. Now in its third season as an elite-level team in Britain, Nichols believes the team provides a blueprint for a new way of looking at cycling. The British Continental sat down with Nichols at Loughborough Lightning’s recent team training camp to find out more.
“What we’ve done is we’ve set out a vision of transforming cycling from a sport that’s perceived as one that’s just done somewhere else,” says Nichols. “When you think of most cycling and where we train and what teams are, where do you do it? You do it on the countryside lanes where you live and you meet and you go and ride around the middle of nowhere and you go to a cafe and you sit down. And that’s what cycling is.
“Outside of track cycling, it’s not a facilities sport, but there’s no reason that it shouldn’t be. And it’s this transformation from a sport perceived as being done elsewhere to a sport that’s a facilities-based experience being done on the Loughborough campus.”
Nichols, a Loughborough alumnus, has witnessed the university’s cycling culture transform from a student-run club to a performance-focused team. This transformation was inspired by the successes of other Lightning-branded teams on campus.
“When I started this role five years ago, there was no performance cycling team, it was an AU club,” Nichols explains. “And I was a Loughborough student 15 years ago and I was part of the AU club and it was a student club like every other university, being run by students, for students, as a committee.
“If we were to do this interview five years ago and I said “let’s go and see cycling”, we’d have probably walked to the fountain where everyone meets for their rides and then waved them all off to go for their bike ride. Right? Because that’s how cycling is done. Now we’ve got a hub and it’s a home and it’s not a place for riders to, to train and do their bike fix – although it serves that purpose – it’s where the cyclists now say, well, where do we meet? Who are we like? What is our identity? Where do we belong? Are we going to meet there?
“The cricket team has a pavilion. The netball team has a netball centre, we have a cycling centre. And it’s cool, like the riders will come in and they’ll sit and chat and have coffees and it’s not a transactional place. It is our home and we’ll have squad nights and we get people together. And to me, that’s building this high performance environment that you just can’t do if you don’t have a facility.”
The team’s base, while crucial, is just one part of an advanced setup that includes physiology labs, altitude and heat chambers, and access to an engineering department’s wind tunnel.
Couple it with access to staff experts in their field – Nichols has a PhD in environmental exercise physiology, endurance coaches Hayden Allen and Paddy Harrison have a PhD and are studying for a PhD respectively and the wider supporting cast assist Olympic-level athletes in addition to Lightning riders – and there’s a set-up built to support riders, on the team or just studying at the university, to be the best they possibly can.
Nichols expresses surprise at the prevailing approach to coaching within both British domestic teams and the WorldTour. “I’m not sure there’s any other British domestic team that coaches their riders. And even in the WorldTour, teams are not necessarily coaching their riders. And on the women’s side, they’re certainly not,” Nichols remarks, highlighting what he regards as a significant oversight in the sport’s development strategies.
His Loughborough Lightning team, however, is pioneering a different approach. Nichols advocates for a model akin to that of football teams, where a central coaching strategy aligns with the overall team objectives rather than leaving preparation to individual riders and their personal coaches. “It’s almost like the preparation for competition in cycling is done by someone else, and the teams just deliver race days. Why don’t we treat it like a football team?'” Nichols says. He questions this status quo, proposing a more cohesive and integrated method of preparation.
“Each player doesn’t have their own coach who’s training that player to be really good at football and then they turn up on match day and the manager goes: ‘These are the tactics for match day. Let’s play a really great game of football,’ have a debrief after, and then everyone goes home does their own thing for three weeks and then play another match,” he observes.
Loughborough Lightning’s strategy involves centralising training and support, focusing on tactics, physiology, nutrition, psychology, and more to ensure each rider is optimally prepared for race days. “Let’s have the team manager or the DS look at the course, look at the tactics – how are we going to win this race? And then let’s train our riders to deliver on the tactics to win that race,” Nichols explains. This approach is aimed at maximising the team’s performance and leveraging every available resource to secure results.
His plan doesn’t come from a place of ignorance. An international-level rider who progressed to coaching before joining his alma mater in 2019, Nichols worked at Team Dimension Data in the era where Mark Cavendish was adding stage wins at the Tour de France and was the ‘coach, physiologist, nutritionist and strength and conditioning lead’ for Louis Meintjes when the South African was targeting the podium in the race.
At Loughborough, he’s created facilities – free to access for the team’s riders whether they’re students or not, of which six of the 14-strong squad are – that are world class. But now, the focus is shifting to taking all that support, research and training, and translating it into success on the road.
With a five-year plan which includes progressing to be a UCI Continental team, Nichols has recruited a squad which this year includes up-and-coming racers like British Team Cup race winner Georgia Lancaster, double national track champion Jenny Holl, as well as the infinitely-experienced Mary Wilkinson, a former winner of the Lancaster Grand Prix.
Despite the the significant university investment and the carefully assembled squad, Nichols acknowledges the challenge of securing enough sponsorship to match the team’s ambitions, including progressing to a UCI Continental team level.
“The university invests an awful lot of money, about £250,000 plus a year into cycling, which is an astronomical budget,” he says. “But most of that is spent here preparing our riders for competition, and a very small proportion of that budget is actually left over to go and deliver races.
“We don’t have a really expansive calendar. We’re not traveling around Europe every week. My goal at the moment is – you might have seen it last year – we want to go to Continental level and bring in a fairly large amount of cash sponsorship so that our race day delivery matches that of our back room delivery, because I think when that’s combined, we’d have one of the most powerful offers out there and a really credible team.”
To be in a position now where the team is seeking sponsorship to carry on its rise upwards is a testament to the progression made from the team’s earliest days of racing on Zwift with four riders and skeleton support. As well as growing the team on the women’s side, there’s plenty of ambition to grow Lightning and have it match the University’s other Lightning-backed teams, which includes a national championship-winning Netball squad.
“The first race we turned up to, we didn’t even have any chairs. We didn’t have a team car. It was like, okay, what are we doing here? And every year it’s got more professional, more resources. It’s grown and developed,” says Nichols.
Now his vision extends beyond the women’s team; he aspires to establish a men’s elite development team alongside a women’s UCI Continental squad, believing this combination would make Loughborough a formidable force in road cycling nationally.
“Women’s cycling was the obvious route and it’s snowballed and grown from there,” he reflects. “And it’s not that we don’t do men’s cycling, we just don’t have a men’s race team. So there is an equivalent male version of Lightning for the training side and the male students. But you have to be a student to be on the men’s side of the endurance programme. They get exactly the same offer that we we run a men’s training camp the same as this one, but they’re all in different kit and they’re riding for their teams.
“The offer is identical behind the scenes. We just don’t have a race team. And I like to think that that won’t be permanent. It’s just where we’re at. And my vision for cycling here would be a women’s UCI Conti team and a men’s elite development team. And I think the combination of those two would make Loughborough a really powerful force in road cycling in the country.”
The support the team, and associated cycling programme, has had from the university has led Nichols to his ‘blue sky idea’ for shoring up the future of the British cycling scene, one that involves universities being in the vanguard of domestic road racing and rider development.
“There’s no other university with a team presence at nationals, so you’ll have individual riders, but we’re the only university that has a race team that acts and looks like a race team,” Nichols points out. This distinction is not just a matter of prestige but highlights a potential shift towards institutional support in the cycling world—a move that could offer much-needed stability and longevity to the sport.
The traditional cycling team model is fraught with financial uncertainties, heavily reliant on annual sponsorships for survival. This precarious situation makes long-term planning and development nearly impossible. Nichols critiques this model, questioning, “How do you move away from the current business model that basically isn’t a business model? You’re relying on sponsorship every single year just to survive.”
Loughborough University’s model presents a viable alternative, Nichols argues. With the institution’s commitment to sports and willingness to invest in cycling, the Lightning team has a foundation that other teams can only dream of. “As long as Loughborough University keeps doing sport and wants to invest in cycling, this team can exist forever,” Nichols asserts confidently, highlighting the potential for enduring success.
This innovative approach has not gone unnoticed, with Nichols suggesting it could serve as an inspiration for other universities. The adoption of a university-based model could revolutionize the domestic cycling scene, providing a stable and sustainable pathway for the sport’s growth. “Is it a different business model that says could universities be the future powerhouses of domestic cycling? Maybe,” Nichols muses.
For Nichols, this model not only offers a solution to the financial instability plaguing many teams but also opens up new avenues for talent development and engagement in the sport. The Lightning model will be one to watch in the coming years.
Featured image: Ian Wrightson/The British Continental
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