Last week we caught up with World Ranked 6th, Team GB Pro BMX rider Ross Cullen! Ross made his start as a young rider in Lancashire at Preston Pirates BMX Track and has gone on to compete worldwide, now hoping to secure a spot at Paris Olympics 2024. His passion for bikes has never wavered and he comes from a family of passionate cyclists. We caught up with him at Delamere Forest in Cheshire to see how his training is going and what exciting goals he has planned…
My name is Ross Cen and I’m a 22y old professional BMX athlete so I started BMX when I was 7 years old um came from a family that loves cycling my mom or dad or anyone in the family would never professional never did any racing um but just just
Out a love for it and then I think from then on it progressed into Club races Regional races and within four years I’d competed at my my first world championship so it was quite a quite a quick start to be fair so in my eyes press and Pirates be
Met Club is actually been the best club in Britain for a few years and the coaching stru they’ve got there is absolutely unreal and they’re really good at bringing kids up to the level they need to be and introducing new families to it um I think it’s a great
Spot and you should check it out especially if you’re into C I used to always Lov just going out riding my bike doing some skills work but now as a professional you you’ve got to do a little bit more in the gym a little bit more start stuff which I
Absolutely love doing um I think on the bike I love doing starts I love the power aspect to it changing the gear doing some big gear starts always good fun um and in the gym I think I love squatting uh there suit to it that now
You get a little bit older you start enjoying building a bit more muscle and getting more powerful and so the whole thing about training is absolutely great so I think as a BMX racer in probably a general cyclist a big obstacle and a big problem is crashing
In injuries um we’re quite used to hitting the deck and if you go through a year without a serious injury you you’ve been looking you’ve had a good one um I think that especially this year the main thing got a few smaller crashes mid year but a few niggles with knees and
Shoulders that didn’t help so I think it’s just overcoming them and letting them heal properly before I got back to race it is is one of the most important things for long gity in sport so my main goal coming up especially for next year is to be at the
Paris Olympics and it was great being in Tokyo as a reserve but this time I’m hungry to get on the start line and I’m going to do all I can and hopefully meet selection but in the meantime next year I want to retain my top eight world
Ranking and that was a really positive part of this year was was becoming sixth in the world is absolutely great so retain the top eight world ranking and try and get on the start line in Paris would be absolutely great so I think more recently I’ve noticed and I think people will notice
That BMX and probably second as a whole is in my eyes as much mental as it is physical you can have the strongest and fastest legs in the world but if you haven’t got the head for it you’re probably not going to perform um so recently I’ve been doing a lot more
Mental training and a lot of visualization and I enjoy watching stuff back and understanding and learning from more from my mistakes than what’s good it’s always nice watching a good race but you learn more from your bad races um so yeah I think mentally there’s a
Lot that goes into it but it’s all part of the game I think my favorite riding spot of BMX wise is acting the UK in Glasgow and it helps our perform every time we’ve had a race but there’s something about that track it’s just it’s just really technical really deep and I’ve always
Enjoyed every camp and race we’ve done there um it’s just a solid facility in my eyes I just wish the weather was a little bit better we don’t get to go up there too much in Winter cuz it’s it’s probably unridable and but yeah if Scotland can sort the weather out I
Think we’ll be up there a lot more so I think in not only as an athlete but I think as a human nutrition is really key and people think you only have to really focus on it if if you’re striving for something but in my eyes everyone should be looking after the
Nutrition and food is fuel at the end of the day so whatever you put in your body is what you’re going to get out so I think if you’re really struggling you don’t have an idea you can seek professional help by nutritionalist but equally there’s enough information on
The internet today you can just quickly search up on your phone make sure you’re getting the right proteins your Macros your carbs everything just just make sure you’re at the right levels and I think you’re uh you’ll be a lot happier at the end of the day like I said if you
Put better fuel in the car it’s going to go faster think of that with your body if you eat better you’re going to you’re going to be a much better person so I think I have quite broad sponsorship and people that have helped me over the years and still do um
Probably too many to name but an important one today the ones at don’t well notice for example is Merlin Cycles they provided me with as you can see in the background a beautiful gravel bike that has helped my community training over winter um and a little bit comfy
Than a road by C on um it’s been absolutely key and part of My Success for sure so when I’m not riding um I enjoy sitting and watching Netflix most days cuz I’m absolutely wiped out and rest in sky but when I’m not doing that I I enjoy shooting videos I I create
Content with a few a few friends and and family members for a bit of a laugh um and I’ve got a real eye and enjoy filming and taking pictures if you want to check that out you can check out RC visuals on Instagram and it’s in my bio on my Instagram page as
Well oh