Nigel the coach

Nigel Whyte is 48. He has three sons, two are in the British BMX Olympic Team. He's fit and full of energy. The club members young and old love him.

“I was always a footballer. I made it to semi pro. One season I was playing for three different teams at once,” he says. “I was always the guy up first thing in the morning waking everyone else up.”

On one of my visits, it’s a damp autumn night and I’m at the track-side with two dads. Training should have ended half an hour ago and some of the mums point at their watches. But Nigel is miles away, watching from the centre of the track high up like the captain at the helm. The dads tell me he's brilliant.

Later, Nigel explains the passion he has for helping the kids. “Even if it’s for two hours then it’s two hours well spent, a distraction - especially for the naughty kids. Those kids who might be going back to nothing. For me, it’s the whole thing. I say to them: 'Have you kept your bike clean?’ When they do then I know they are keeping their rooms at home clean. ‘Have you prepared your kit for tonight's session?’ I ask them. If they have, then I know they are preparing their homework.”

The club runs like clockwork. CK asks a rider if he arrived on time when he's leaving. He didn't and CK asks him in a firm but friendly way to work towards that goal, to get serious.

While we’re chatting, a procession of small kids on tiny bikes wearing their crash helmets, line up to shake Nigel's hand. They want to show him they are ready to ride. He greets every one of them in turn by name.

Later, Esreal, tells me that Nigel built a bike for her youngest son Chrystian, the two-year-old brother of club rider Chrystiano. “He did this out of his own money,” she says. She shows me a video on her phone of the tiny BMX turned upside down in her living room with her youngest son spinning the wheels with his hand. It makes me think of how kids obsessed with bikes from every generation have taken their bikes apart in living rooms and kitchens.

“Nigel tells me he’s a natural,” she says.