Dan Lloyd is the ultimate no frills pro.  He always delivers exactly what his team needs, and always responds to a straight question with a straight answer.  Nothing has to go in through an ego and come out the worse for it, which made him the ideal man to ask when Russell Clarke needed someone to help mentor the young riders of the John Ibbotson Fund. 

Ibbotson was a pro racer who loved cycling.  He raced in Europe, but he was doing so with the undiagnosed, hereditary heart condition that lead to his untimely death in 2005, shortly after the end of his pro career. 

A number of young, talented and very fit sportspeople have died of similar conditions, which led to the setting up of a charity, Cardiac Risk in the Young (www.c-r-y.org.uk).  It raises awareness about and sponsors screening to detect the kind of heart problem Ibbotson had, plus other abnormalities.  So Ibbotson's friends set up a fund to raise awareness of the charity and to fund young racers who want to live his dream.  And they all go through CRY's heart screening programme. 

Heart Screening

We've done articles on this subject before in Cycling Weekly but it's so important it's worth repeating. 

Young people should get screened as a matter of course and the CRY website, www.c-r-y.org.uk, carries details of how to do this. 

However, it's worthwhile getting checked out an any age.  I was at a screening session where Russell Clarke, who I'm sure won't mind me revealing he's not 21 anymore, volunteered to be checked out.  He's raced and trained for years without being aware of any problems, but the cardiologist saw something.  It was later revealed that Clarke had a defect with the electrical signalling in his heart, which was rectified by treatment called an ablation.