A winter of discontent...

... with shares in Kleenex and Bronchostop!

It's been a while since the last post so there's a lot to catch up on, not much of it cycling related though! I struggled to title this with something that I felt was apt so the current reference may well get updated at some point soon.

Staffordshire Sunset 

So, the 2016 season ended with much disappointment in Thruxton and with it nine long months of racing. A short break from pedalling was in order to recharge the batteries after what I can only describe as my most successful season yet. It sounds good doesn't it, but after only two full seasons of racing and three years of riding the trajectory is still on the up!

Proudly taking home The Most Improved Rider Bowl

I was thrilled to take home the Most Improved Rider Trophy and to finish a close 2nd in the Midland Women's TT Series as well as be shortlisted for The Staffordshire Sports Performer of the Year (Female) accolade in December. It was an honour to meet Rio Gold Medallist Joe Clarke, from Stone, who was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award. I can report that Olympic Gold medals really are very heavy!!

Meeting Rio Gold Medallist Joe Clarke

The end of the season marks the opportunity to regain some work-life balance for me; spending some, mostly overdue, quality time with friends and family rather than constantly feeling like I'm fighting to squeeze normal activities around structured training. I love the opportunity to just ride my bike for fun, explore some new routes, spend longer in the saddle and simply enjoy pedalling in the outdoors. That's not to say that training for racing isn't enjoyable but it's a whole different focus and after ten months of intently studying my Garmin for live data it's always nice to take in your surroundings instead.

Everything was going swimmingly, the easy miles were wracking up, my motivation to pedal hadn't faltered even when the only opportunity to train was often at crazy o'clock before work in the dark and cold (the 04:45 date with the same stretch of tarmac became a ritual I was far too well acquainted with). Nothing wrong with this set up so far you might think, other than minor sleep deprivation but given I'm always extolling the virtues of being a morning person I'm struggling for anything to hang this 'excuse' on!

Enter house buying saga...!! Continuing with all the all too familiar pattern in general life that I would appear to attract the more difficult path in any given scenario, moving house was, unfortunately, no different! Not much of a newsworthy statement for anyone who has experienced the recent (or otherwise) pain of packing up your belongings and relocating them to another abode. Ironically that part, although time consuming is most definitely the most straightforward task (as long as you painstakingly label the boxes). Throughout December I felt like I had acquired another full time job - that of perpetually if not continuously chasing the Developer, our Solicitor, the Estate Agent, the Building Society for the mortgage and quite frankly anyone else who it would appear might have a hand in enabling this process to progress at anything resembling a respectable pace! Before the pair of us had a nervous breakdown and after a week of sleepless nights and multi-tasking like I've not experienced before (and never want to again) we somehow managed to get to the point where we started to move in to a partially finished house on December 23rd/24th!! Having been asked so many times why we wanted to move at this time of year, I feel I should clarify at this point that our offer was accepted on the property in early AUGUST with a view to completing in late OCTOBER!!!

I won't bore you with the details but suffice to say that in some ways this was just the beginning of the house related issues and perhaps we should have heeded the warning signs exhibited by an extremely lackadaisical developer and walked away... However, neither of us are in the habit of quitting and we will have a stunning house... eventually! Unsurprisingly with everything going on and the stress that this was causing not only was I struggling to justify the time to train it was perhaps no surprise that I eventually succumbed to what later transpired as a viral infection that I couldn't shake off. I spent the next six weeks going around in circles - full of cold, feeling too poorly to train... six days later - think I'm feeling better, let's go for an easy ride... next day back to square one... and so on and so forth. The simplest of tasks were exhausting and not being one to take time off work (or training) lightly, I started to feel somewhat despondent. All the effort I'd put in at the end of last year appeared to be to no avail as my fitness scores were in my boots, I didn't have the energy to do much about it and the new season was fast approaching. Meanwhile the National Champs appeared to have started on Strava!! Cue, stop looking at what other people are doing and concentrate on getting better.

Finally with a hint of some better weather and the recognition that I'm not invincible, things are looking up. Ultimately, for some on the amateur circuit, cycling is about win at all costs. For me family, work-life balance and making our new house into a home are bigger priorities this year. That doesn't mean I have any less desire to train hard, focus on some key events, to better myself as a rider or make the new team sponsors proud. It simply means that this year is about trying to achieve a better balance. A new location does mean new roads to explore though...! 

The end of another racing year

The National Closed Circuit Championships at Thruxton in October marked the end of racing for another year. A snorkel, flippers and a wetsuit would have been more appropriate attire than a skinsuit and slick tyres! Having driven down to Hampshire in what could best be described as biblical conditions it was little suprise to see the car park mostly under water. If it had been any other event to finish the season off I'd probably have called it a day by this point but this was the last chance to try and make the podium at a National Championship event.

By the time we'd unloaded the bike and registered both of us looked like we'd been through the spin cycle. Thankfully I'd packed plenty of clothes as just setting up left us wondering if this was actually a triathlon by stealth and swimming to the registration desk was the first competitor sift. With trainers and socks already soaked it was then the turn of the garages come warm up area to undergo a deluge - thankfully enough people were on hand to rescue the kit before it went floating across the track. It had crossed my mind more than once at this point to abort mission and divert to the nearest coffee shop, however not only had I worked too hard to keep my fitness up when most of my more sensible friends had finished racing several weeks previously but I don't like unfinished business. 

Car heater on overdrive drying the socks!

The rain eventually stopped and the sun even tried to come out; things were definitely looking up! The course was only waterlogged in a few places so still plenty of scope to seek out those racing lines. Eventually it was my turn to take to the start line... give it was the last race of the year there'd certainly be plenty of time to recover! The circuit rode better than it had previously done but perhaps I was ready for the block headwind up the drag on the back straight this time. I overtook a few people but it's really hard to gauge where you are in relation to anyone else and you can't see the entire track. I knew the power numbers I had to keep in mind to prevent blowing up and stuck to them, there wasn't anything left for a sprint finish so it must have been somewhere near! 

Trying out the tri spoke at Castle Combe 

All I could do now was wait and wait and wait... Due to an apparent mix up with the timing chips the results were partially published, leaving me to think I'd done enough to secure a bronze medal, until realisation dawned that there were loads of times missing! I was eventually given 5th - a significant improvement on the 11th of last year and although not the result I'd have liked it was the best I could do on the day. In some ways the result was disappointing but in others it was a relief to get to the end of a long season; eight months of racing was starting to take its toll and the thought of a week of no training was looking very appealing! 

Thanks to Harry Walker of Revolver Wheels for not only his ongoing support but the loan of one of only two tri spoke wheels that are hot off the press this year. Although the conditions weren't right for the tri spoke at Thruxton I've no doubt it'll come into its own next year! 

The race of all races; the UCI World Amateur TT Championships

'Good is not good when better is expected' Vin Scully

My A race; the main focus of 2016; that goal right on the limits of my hopes and dreams... whichever way I look at the World Champs, they were always going to demand the very best performance from me. They created that mixture of excitement (how often does a bike race take you to the other side of the world?) but also an intense drive within me, or will to win if you like, which fuelled and focused my training ever since their announcement 12 months before.

Getting into the spirit of the Championships

The preparation wasn't all plain sailing - the training turned out to be the 'easy' part! I've always been a fairly disciplined and focussed person. I was lucky enough to be brought up in the country with animals and Mum's motto was always - if you want the pony you can get up at 06:00am and look after it! And so I did! Over the years the early starts have migrated from looking after the animals, to running and more recently cycling. So, getting up at 05:00 to fit training in wasn't an alien concept to me but as I'm sure you can imagine there were often times when it felt like halfway through the night, it was raining or I just didn't feel like it. However, that rainbow jersey was always there, in the back of my mind, that carrot when I needed it, and one thing was for certain - lounging in bed was not going to help me win it! With the training nailed (well, planned and executed to the best of my ability), a recon trip earlier in the year to achieve not only qualification but some general familiarisation too, it seemed that things were progressing nicely...

Not quite the city centre course that was billed

...Until the unexpected announcement that the time trial course was actually to be relocated to Rottnest island! Bosh! That was left-field to say the least. The fact that the course would be totally different to the test event, which was billed as THE course for the world's obviously wasn't something that we could have prepared for. Rotto is 'only' 19km off mainland Perth but it's still a boat ride away and an expensive one at that. Whilst it creates a picture-perfect TT course, it is also completely different to not only the qualifiers but pretty much any other TT course I've ever ridden. The beautiful Indian ocean sparkles around almost every corner, but those corners are also able to catch you out, they're sharp, often switchback and their surface is gravelly and sandy tarmac. Not to mention the turns, which on every occasion come off a fast descent and the wind - four different directions as you circumnavigate the island. Just in case you were short on things that might catch you out, don't forget to keep your eyes peeled for the island inhabitants - the pint sized kangaroos known as quokkas!


Obviously, I didn't know half these things about the Rotto course before I got there. I had to make my decision on whether to go or not based on a 2D map and a rough calculation of how much extra this announcement was going to cost. The major blow was that my recon earlier in the year was now obsolete and my training hadn't focussed on hilly, technical TT courses (with an ocean view!). The irony is, I would have relished that sort of training if I'd known there was a need for it.





Rottnest Island - a real jewel in the Indian ocean

Anyway, fast forward an awful lot of indecision, initial failed attempts at trying to secure some sponsorship followed by a more successful than I'd imagined 'go fund me' page and I found myself in Perth once again. It's at this point that I would like to thank Richard and his team at the Fitness Warehouse and Paul of KStat Consulting as well as the many friends who backed me - your support was invaluable! The cool spring air and horizontal rain showers were somewhat of a shock to the system after what had been a pretty warm week or two in the UK. Having been pre-occupied with work, how to pack Percy (TT bike) and pretty much everything I needed into the bike box as my hold luggage AND keep it under 30kgs (yep, it was quite a challenge), had clearly meant that I had failed to check the weather properly. It didn't appear that shorts and short sleeve jerseys were going to cut it for the next fortnight!! Thankfully, some of the NZ team were staying in the same accommodation and had packed for an arctic expedition. I was kindly leant a warm jacket, which undoubtedly prevented me from going down with pneumonia!




One of the local quokka population

A recon of the course early on in the week alerted me to the findings mentioned above but also introduced me to another GB team member. Julia, who was to become my partner in crime for the Championships as well as a firm friend. We got lost on Rotto (even I have to admit that is pretty difficult), took apart and built our bikes countless times between us - for the transfers to and from the island and generally kept one another sane when the organisation appeared to be attempting to test our psyche to the limit!


Thankfully, after what can only be described as a boat ride from hell the day before the race - it was so windy that the boat was lurching frantically from side to side and raining that much that we were soaked within minutes of being outside - waking up to sunshine on race day was a true blessing. Despite the fact that we also woke to the announcement that the race schedule would be delayed by an hour, probably due to the weather the day before and the barge being delayed, the atmosphere was pretty relaxed. My start time of 10:43 had become 11:43, so not too much drama for me. My only concern was that the wind direction has a tendency to change around midday which would mean a greater time riding into a headwind. This would be an obvious disadvantage to someone, I just hoped it wasn't me!




Focus Face

After my usual warm up it was time to head over to the start. One last tense moment while the Commissaire popped Percy in the jig to check he was set up to UCI regulations... thankfully the gremlins hadn't visited overnight and tweaked his set up!! It was actually pretty warm stood in the queue for the start ramp; the rain and gales of yesterday had been replaced with 21 degrees of lovely WA sunshine. Eventually it was my turn; all of a sudden the ramp looks steeper and the clock seemed to be ticking down faster! Twenty seconds... all clipped in and ready to go, ten seconds and the Garmin is set to record the forthcoming torture, five seconds and the other commissaire has her hand in front of me ready to count me down 5, 4, 3, 2, 1... charge!!



And my campaign is underway..

A brief front wheel wobble and I'm off. Hurdle number one, get down the start ramp safely - tick! Hurdle number two, safely across both sets of railway lines (quite where they go on the island or what purpose they serve baffles me) - big tick! Up the first two inclines in the saddle and in the big ring - tick! Around the first technical section known as 'Jeannie's Lookout' without flying over the handlebars - massive tick and sense of relief! Catching the rider in front of me by 7km, who also happened to be the French national champion - panic! I was keenly aware of the non-drafting rule which meant that I couldn't get within 250m of her and had to pass with a 2m gap... easier said than done on a technical course on narrow 'roads' with plenty of sharp bends. In hindsight perhaps this was one of my downfalls - not being decisive enough and trying to get past as soon as I possibly could. Instead, I stayed back, waited for an appropriate point, which happened to be one of the descents where I knew that the bend was wide enough for me to make it even on a poor line. I had already lost time though and knew I had to make it up. There were two 90 degree right turns left, both off fast descents; I couldn't afford to get either of them wrong or I wouldn't be finishing at all. I erred on the side of caution and was cleanly through both - double tick!





Picking up some speed as it flattened out

The 'home run' of 6km had a flat but very narrow section of road with lots of tree roots and a generally poor surface. By this point I didn't even notice, the focus was the rider in front of me, who I was catching quickly. I passed her and knew I also needed to catch the rider in front of her before it narrowed even more. There was a third rider who I caught and we ended up going into the left hand turn parallel - it went straight into a climb before the final descent and 1.5km run in to the finish. My plan was always to get out the saddle here, blast up the hill and empty the legs completely in the last 1.5km. I left her in my wake as I wound up my surge to the finish. It was hurting, really hurting but it seemed to have gone quicker than I'd anticipated, or perhaps I'd lost track of time? I crossed the line, with mixed emotions - happy that it was over, I hadn't crashed or had any near misses but really disappointed that I'd caught and struggled to pass the French girl where I did and wasted precious seconds in the process.




Such a scenic course

Results were available online, so I logged on with baited breath to see how I'd done. 4th. The place that everyone dreads. At the sharp end of the field but not on the podium and certainly not commanding any rainbow stripes. I was absolutely gutted. One small part of me had hoped that I'd done enough to make the podium at least but it wasn't meant to be. The only consolation was that I had beaten all the Aussies in my category and I had actually ridden faster than the U34s so had I been just a little younger would actually have been crowned World Champion! I later found out that I was also the best placed of all the GB team in the TT, both male and female - however it did little to alleviate the disappointment. I did, however, come away with a lot of positives - I've learnt a lot, ridden a course of a lifetime and have a new focus - attempt to win those rainbow stripes next year!!




What an amazing recovery ride...

The World Champs marked the end of the season for many but not for me. With one race to go, it's time to regroup and get back to one last block of training to try and finish the year on a real high...

Blue ribbon weekends, a seeded ride and a series win

Great things never came from comfort zones...

I can't believe how fast the season is going, it really doesn't seem like much more than a few weeks ago that the RTTC National Championships were a distant focus - those big races somewhere near the end of the season! Now they've been and gone in a flash, as has the Castle Combe series finale. The conditions couldn't have been more different if they'd tried, it was like totally different seasons; the '25' being baking hot and the '10' being wet and windy and Castle Combe in the middle being pleasant.

The National 25 kicked off the first of the two RTTC blue ribbon events that I was riding, so a trip back down to Peterborough was required, in fact the course wasn't far away from the Tour of Cambridgeshire HQ. As we were driving down the M1 we noticed the warning on the gantry 'A1 closed further ahead', little did we realise that the diversion route for this traffic was to be part of the TT course... 

Having signed in at HQ and collected my numbers (back and arm numbers required at National Championships), we set off to drive the course. It took us at least 10 minutes to work out that we must've come out of HQ a different way as we'd not seen the start and were far from sure where we were but had seen a race sign on one of the (many) roundabouts and several photographers parked up. We knew we weren't a million miles away but quite where we were on the course was a bit of a mystery! Eventually we saw a small homemade sign in the grass just before one of the (lost count of how many by now) roundabouts indicating 'lap 1 - turn, lap 2 - straight on'... This must be the loop point then, so the start couldn't be far away. 

With the start eventually located, the course driven, and a few parking places eyed up it was time to get cracking. I know Summer is preciously short in the UK so we mustn't complain when we get a hot day, but at a sultry 28 degrees it was a bit too warm for racing for my liking! Paul adopted the umbrella trick to try and keep the worst of the sun off - which does make a welcome change from the rain but even so it was still humid and airless. It was so hot that a few of us cut our warm up routines short, some just rode steadily to the start and one of my friends was to be found rapidly shoving ice cubes down her front!! That seemed a pretty good shout at the time I must say! 

Eventually it was my turn to be counted down at the start. The first section was all about keeping on top of the gears and then attack the undulating section to the roundabout. This is perhaps a good point to mention the number of roundabouts given there was a ridiculous amount of them, I think it was 10 in total! After roundabout three was where the road surface was terribly leg sapping. Apparently it had recently been resurfaced, I wonder if the highways team knew what pain they were inadvertently inflicting?! However, all I could do was pedal hard and that is what I did, my minute woman was within reach and swiftly passed, I could also see my two minute woman up ahead, shortly after she was caught came the drag up to the turn point (roundabout number 5?!), on the exit of which I caught my three minute woman! It was now a lonely road ahead with literally nobody in sight, just the Tarmac and me and that wretched wind (of the weather variety). It was like pedalling treacle, I must have looked like a slow motion video to anyone watching. 

Roundabout number 4 was busy, all the traffic was coming off here for the diversion so a sneaky manoeuvre up the inside to avoid getting caught was called for. It was busy through the next two roundabouts but had quietened down by the third, which was the point at which we went back on ourselves to ride that loop again... Oh joy! Suffice to say it felt far harder the second time around! In fact I was feeling so hot that I was wishing one of the spectators would accidentally throw a bucket of water over me. The final run in to the finish could have been far better, I stayed down on the aero bars and misjudged my exit point; having to run very wide. I then thought that the line was just down the hill, but no it was half a mile further on... Bother, not what you need when you've wound the legs up to try and drain the last ounce of energy out of them about 400m too soon! 

Back at HQ I was very pleasantly surprised to see that I'd managed 13th place. Although that might not sound like much to celebrate there were plenty of quality riders behind me, including Clarry the world hour record holder and both the silver and bronze medalists from the World Amateur TT finals in Denmark last year. It seems I wasn't the only one to have suffered in the heat.

Definitely the motto for the 25... a very tough day

No sooner had the legs recovered from this then it was Castle Combe time again. As it was the finale and they'd foolishly said they had nothing better to do, my parents came along to support. Their last outing to support me involved a crazy train journey from Copenhagen at an obscenely early hour to get to Aalborg for the aforementioned Denmark TT. At least this time they only had a 45 minute drive, although I believe the scenic route may have been taken! Much to their relief, I was far easier to spot being in my Pro Vision Skinsuit (there were complaints that 'we all looked the same' in our GB kit in Denmark) and being a circuit TT if they missed me the first time around at least they had five more opportunities!! 

I needed a win to secure the series but I also had the thought of a course pb in the back of my mind. The conditions were hard to judge as the headwind had moved further around the track than it had been previously. I had the benefit of my minute woman being the lady that I thought would also be a close contender for the win. For the first time in the series I actually had a target other than my power numbers. There was no sign of her out on the track ahead of me, so she must have had a rocket propelled first lap! I was starting to panic, just a little, when half way around lap two I caught sight of her in the second chicane. I'd caught her by the bend up the start straight and could feel some relief. Now it was 'just' the challenge of riding as hard as I could for the remaining three laps. Knowing the series was at stake tonight, there was an element of caution through the chicanes, unlike the May race where it was an edge of the seat kind of night! I wound the last two laps up as much as I thought I could without blowing up before the finish, resulting in the last lap being my fastest ever by two seconds. Unbelievably I'd just missed a course pb and my own course record by 0.2 seconds!! The series was secured 4 - 0 so all in all a pretty good evening and a nice end to what has been a really good series hosted by DB Max and Kinetic One.

The picturesque Castle Combe village

Another week and another race... The second of the two RTTC National Championships, this time the '10' in Dorking, Surrey. Yes, that is quite a trek for a short event! Friends who had travelled down earlier in the week were posting photos on social media of the monsoon that they were looking at out of their motorhome window. We could only hope that the forecast was correct and it was due to clear by my start time. Courtesy of my 21:13 in Hull earlier in the Summer I was seeded 8th - an equally proud but scary thought given the calibre of riders who were going earlier in the field. In fact you could be forgiven for looking at the startlist and thinking that it wasn't a Time Trial at all but a National road race. Many of the names on there were from professional road teams who would never ordinarily ride a time trial outside of within a stage race. This made it all the more unpredictable, although (all things being equal), the top two were always going to be Hayley Simmonds and Anna Turvey.

The strongest field ever for the National 10

The start turned out to be literally a few hundred metres from Dorking Fire Station so with my Staffs Fire ID badge in hand I set off to ask the duty watch if we could park and warm up on the yard. Being the kind bunch that they are, nothing was too much trouble and we were soon warming up in one of the vehicle wash bays as the heavens had opened again. This was really handy and I'm very grateful to blue watch for their hospitality and kind offers of (what we do best in the Fire Service) cups of tea!!

The perfect warm up in the dry!

I had a massive 4 minute gap at the start as my 2 minute woman (and friend) was poorly so I knew I wasn't likely to see anyone out on the road at all. The weather stayed dry but was exceptionally windy. I lost all confidence in my front wheel at about a mile in as a massive gust of wind literally tried to snatch it from underneath me. It was almost a case of coming onto the base bars for stability but I just managed to hold tight. That answered the question of why we'd seen numerous juniors on the base bars when we drive the course earlier. It was heavy going on the way out, with a headwind and violent crosswinds taking it in turns to test us to the limit. The way back didn't feel much better as the few little drags seemed like mountains with the legs having already been battered in the other direction! 

Having a fight to keep my front wheel facing forwards!

And if I thought all this was hard work, the hardest race of all is yet to come - the World Amateur TT Championships back in Perth, Australia...

Shifting up a gear... taking on the 'Mighty V' for a lifetime best

"Focus all your effort on what is in your power to control" John Wooden

After the highs (and a couple of lows) in June, the start of July brought about the much anticipated trip to Hull to ride the famous V718 course. I'd purposely not ridden this course last year as I'd felt there was a lot more work to be done on the fundamental aspects to improve my riding and racing. Fast forward a year and I think it's fair to say I'm a much better rider (there's still lots to learn but I'm perhaps not quite the relative novice that I was twelve months ago).


Thankfully I'd allowed myself plenty of time to get there as given the  unpredictability of the motorway, or should that be predictability that there *will* be a delay, I was duly held up for 45 minutes on the M1. No panic, I'd allowed an extra two hours! Well, when you are as directionally challenged as me and often think that you know better than the satnav (when clearly you don't!) contingency time comes in handy.




Time trialling can play havoc with your mind if you're not careful!

I was feeling really positive about the task in hand, I knew it was a fast course, I didn't know anyone on the start sheet and I already had a good vibe as Mike from Team Swift, who was organising, had called me a few days previous telling me that I had been a reserve but was replacing #21. I was probably as excited as I was nervous but totally focussed on the task ahead. In my mind this was my one chance this season to ride my best time (no pressure?!!)


If I had a £5 for the amount of people that directly associate V718 with a fast time then I could probably afford to ride full time! Yes it is a 'fast course' however fast is relative, it is very wind dependent, traffic dependent and unfortunately you still have to pedal hard! It was a very warm evening and I was mindful of drinking plenty, especially having had a long drive up.




Pedal hard and then pedal some more

Eventually it was my turn on the start line, here goes... Shortly after the start you are headed straight down the slip road to join the dual carriageway, one of the fastest starts I've experienced. I was greeted by the sound of a lorry blasting his horn at me, incredulous at the idea that a cyclist would dream of coming on to the carriageway. Looking over my shoulder it was perhaps clear that he'd not noticed the 'race in progress' signs or was just feeling cantankerous, either way I certainly wasn't going to argue, a few seconds here could be made up later and I'd like to go home in one piece!


I got to the turn quicker than perhaps I had expected and was ready for the incline to the first of the roundabouts and no traffic - what a bonus! There was traffic on the second so back on to the base bars in case I needed a braking manoeuvre! I had my minute man in sights at the second of the roundabouts but he made a hastier exit than me and it took me another half a mile before I caught him. We'd had a little chat at the start as I'd noticed that he had travelled from Gloucestershire (where my family are now based) and he gave me an encouraging shout as I overtook.


Once I had passed him was the point at which I really had to dig deep, my legs were hurting, my lungs felt like they might burst at any second and that figure in the distance to chase was now chasing me! I started to tell myself that 'I would ride a fast time', this mantra got me to the finish. I'm sure I must have wasted valuable energy which should have translated into pedalling by the number of times that I repeated this to myself! I was so glad to see the finish! I was so relieved to have made the finish without blowing up that I had forgotten to stop my Garmin. I looked down and saw 22 minutes something... It was a while since I'd crossed the line and started to ride back nice and easy to HQ... looks like a definite PB...

1st female guaranteed...

A super fast time lurking down there!

After a long cool down by the time I got to HQ it was pretty full. There was still a few riders out on the course but the majority were already tucking into the impressive spread that Team Swift had been busy preparing. Savoury rolls, flapjack, cake, tea and coffee... A ham salad roll was just what I fancied along with a massive glass of squash - that's how tired I was, food and drink before results!! As I was originally a reserve rider I was tucked down in the bottom right hand corner on the results board. A lifetime best of 21:13 and also fast enough to place me firmly on the 'all time fastest female' list, WOW! With only a couple of riders yet to come in I was not only 1st female but also 1st overall at this point. All of a sudden the tiredness disappeared and I turned into the proverbial Cheshire cat!


People watching at this point was rather interesting. Nobody's gaze had reached the bottom corner where the reserves had come in and had attributed the win to someone on the main results. This is perhaps one of the attractions of time trialling for me - it's just you against the clock, you ride your socks off and then discuss it and any other random subject in a village hall over a cup of tea after. There's no fuss, no big crowds, rarely a prize presentation and in this case I went home feeling very happy but with most people in that room none the wiser than I'd just ridden myself onto the all time fastest female list or ridden one of the fastest times in the country this year and finished 3rd overall to boot! If that had been a road race... perhaps a different story!

It's official, new PB on CTT :-)

It didn't take long before I started to analyse my race and wonder... If that lorry had moved over, if I'd not dropped onto the base bars for those cars on the roundabout, if I'd squeezed out a few more watts... Could I have gone sub 21?!! Now, there's a challenge, although it might have to wait until next season now.

Races of truth on K33/10D in Alcester

Victory is sweetest when you've known defeat - Malcolm S Forbes

The season generally includes at least one or two trips down to Alcester/Harvington to race on K33/10D; a nice course two thirds of which is on single carriageway roads with the last third being a steady drag up the dual carriageway. As with most courses it rides differently depending on the direction of the wind and of course the traffic around on the day. It's generally a headwind in the first third with a crosswind thrown in for good measure if you're unlucky. 

My first race on this course this year was the Janet Kelly Memorial hosted by Beacon Roads Club back in May. It was a warm day but not baking hot. This year was the 38th running of the event and the trophy is awarded to the fastest female on the day. This was also a round of the Midland Women's Series so both points and a trophy were to be awarded and I was desperate for the points having not yet got any on the board due to being away for round 1 and round 2 being rained off. 

Previously won by the great Beryl Burton

Compared to my last race on this course last year, where I had to overtake a horse and cart and then 2 miles later almost went into the back of a car that suddenly decided to take a right turn with no prior warning other than slamming on the brakes, this was pretty uneventful. Slowing at all three roundabouts for traffic already on the carriageway and annoyingly almost coming to a stop at the last due to cars everywhere but that seems to be customary this year - hopefully it'll even out as the season goes on.

As I crossed the finish line, barely able to shout my number to the timekeeper, I caught up with a lady who'd finished a moment or so before me and didn't know how to find her way back to HQ. I rode back the scenic way with her, not fancying a return trip up the dual carriageway, even though it was shorter. She was delighted to have finally broken 30 minutes - it was nice to see genuine astonishment on her face that she'd done it. Meanwhile I wasn't entirely sure what I'd stopped my Garmin at, so I was riding back oblivious... Until I rode into the car park at HQ to be greeted with "it's a tie", cue blank look from me, "sorry what's a tie?" It transpired that both myself and Jessica Rhodes-Jones from the host club Beacon RCC had ridden 23:42 to win the trophy! We were almost a minute clear of 3rd placed rider Keri Parton from the RAF.

Jointly winning the Janet Kelly Memorial Trophy

My next visit to K33/10D was the weekend after ToC and following a week of being poorly so expectations were pretty low. This time it was for the Charlie Grieg Memorial TT. The way out felt REALLY hard, in fact so hard that I was actually considering spinning around at the first roundabout and riding back to the start. With the roundabout approaching there were decisions to be made... Of course I was going to carry on, I don't give in that easily!


It didn't get any easier, time trialling never does; you just go faster. I didn't dare look at my Garmin as I wasn't expecting anything too hot - 22:58! Wow, that's a course PB, in fact a season's best, perhaps that's why it was hurting quite so much and there was me attributing that to a week of pretty much being wiped out. If I was impressed with my time, then friend and fellow MWTTS series competitor Liz Powell, managed to pull a really impressive 22:22 out of the bag!

Podium at Charlie Grieg Memorial

The season has just got a whole lot faster all of a sudden! Things are definitely looking up for July :-)

The ups and downs of racing

Hit and miss on the form front...

The first weekend in June brought the trip down to Peterborough for the Tour of Cambridgeshire. We were very lucky to have support from Motiva in the form of a brand new VW transit van for the weekend. This made transporting Percy and both the road bikes and all the associated bits and bobs so much easier, especially as it wouldn't physically have all fitted in my car! Packing light for a weekend of time trialling and road racing was a test too far for me - well you never really know what the weather is going to do from one minute to the next let alone a few days!

Transport courtesy of Motiva - thanks very much

We'd booked into the Premier Inn which was as close to the Arena as we were going to get with some 4,000 cyclists attracted by the opportunity to 'qualify to win a rainbow jersey'. After the success of the inaugural event last year word had certainly spread far and wide for this year; although the Gran Fondo accounted for most of the surge in numbers, split between those interested in racing and those out for a nice spin on closed roads in the sportive. 

Turbo session anyone?

Despite being relegated to a different part of the Arena complex (having been upstaged by Bill Bailey), Tom Caldwell and his ToC team had done a good job of setting up a great turbo zone for us to warm up in and transit to the start ramp. Signing on and warming up had gone trouble free so all that was left was to ride hard and stay safe out on the course, the rest would have to take care of itself. 

Ready to roll...

Eventually it was my turn at the top of the start ramp, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1... Out the arena doors, out of the show ground and finally onto the open (well closed on this occasion!) roads. It seemed to start relatively ok but my legs felt like they were already tiring by the time I got to Bullock road, which was barely 3 miles into the course. It was just at this moment when I was glancing at my power meter to see if it agreed with my legs when my 30 second 'marker' came past me... Bother. Not only past me but up the climb like her bike was on fire (unfortunately, for me, it wasn't). Thankfully there were two other people for me to pass on the climb but this didn't help the fact that I recognised that empty feeling in my legs which is generally present far closer to the finish than the start. 

 

Digging in up the hill

There were a few more people to pass as the course went on, a group of three who appeared to have decided that it was a team time trial (and there's me worrying about catching and passing quickly in case the Moto commissaire thinks I'm making it a 4up TT). All too quickly I'm flying down the hill in the homeward direction at 60kph trying to engage my best aero tuck, at least it didn't matter what the power meter said at that point, it was all about energy conservation! The return leg from where the descent finished to the main road seemed to take an eternity. There was no doubt about it I was struggling; this most definitely wasn't the race plan, I should be winding it up now but clearly there was nothing to wind up. To say I was pleased to see the show ground was an understatement but I certainly wasn't very happy with the time on the digital display at the finish. 

Sometimes you think you've got everything under control and you've planned and prepared as well as you know how to but the universe has other ideas come race day. Yes I slept badly the night before, yes I was more nervous than normal but that shouldn't have had that much of an effect. As it happened I woke up feeling under par the next day, so much so that I decided I didn't want to contest the road race. This turned out to be a very wise decision because as the day went on the more unwell I felt. 

Paul had a cracking road race, despite having been unwell recently and barely ridden his bike for the preceding 10 weeks he 'took it steady' and finished 12th having been in the bunch sprint for 5th. He's a truly talented rider and if he'd felt more confident in his health and fitness I've no doubt he would have gone with the three rider break, thankfully he heeded my note of caution on the start line (no heroics)! Given I wasn't well enough to drive home that evening he also had the 'pleasure' of the 3 hour return journey with me trying my best to stay awake. 

Start of Paul's race

Unfortunately I missed round 3 of the Castle Combe series which was 3 days after ToC due to the virus that had wiped me out apparently overnight. This was disappointing on two counts - I didn't want to relinquish my series lead and secondly the forecast was for a perfect night which would mean fast times. Given my competitive nature and inability to give in I did consider going to race but that didn't seem so clever when I'd barely made it out of bed for the previous two days and certainly hadn't considered riding my bike! This was a theme that continued for most of the week and I started to wonder whether I needed to withdraw from my race the following Saturday. I was still wondering whether I should go or not two hours before it was time to leave...There's nothing like leaving it until the last minute! 

... To be continued...!!