The highs and lows of 'K33/10'...

After stopping the clock at exactly the same time as Jessica Rhodes-Jones at the Janet Kelly Memorial last year and sharing the trophy, I was keen to go one better this year. I had given myself some time just to keep the legs ticking over rather than starting a block of training and the legs felt good for having done this. I often feel that I'm going into races with fatigued and/or sore legs, or perhaps this is just my brain telling me that is the case! However, on this occasion I woke up feeling good - this rarely happens so it was a very welcome feeling. (Quick, note down the formula so that it can be repeated!!)

Having signed on, collected my number, driven the course to check for any rogue road furniture or pot holes that might have appeared since I last rode the course, it was off to the normal warm-up spot to set up. So far so good... With the turbo set up, Garmin ready to go, my number on and the weather feeling warm everything was looking good for what I hoped would be a decent ride. I jumped on the bike, went to change down a gear and... nothing. I must have missed the button, I'll try again... unquestionably NOTHING. So, due to various issues with trying to achieve a UCI legal set up, when I bought Percy last year the decision was made to have Di2 (electrically operated gears). As distinct from a motor on the bike!! The Di2 runs off a frame mounted battery and generally requires charging no more than 3 times a year, or that was the case last year! Indeed when I checked the battery level indicator the day before it had over 90% charge - which I had deemed more than adequate to warm up and ride a 10 mile time trial on.

The fault finding started with cables - there must be a loose cable... No, this appeared not to be the case (as far as we could see). A quick phone call to Swinnerton Cycles in desperation to see if they could shed any light on the issue; not all that easy when they are 80 miles away! Barney talked Paul through how to try and manually get the chain onto the big ring so that at least I had one reasonable gear. This was easier said than done given the Di2 automatically trims and adjusts the mech as it changes gear. It wouldn't hold on its own so Paul, thinking on his feet, decided to try jamming a spare 2032 (watch) battery to hold the chain on the big ring - I don't recommend trying this at home (let alone for racing)!! Within the space of 5 minutes we had gone from 'OK, we're going home, it's just not our day' to 'come on, we can do this, we've got one gear!' I must admit I was finding it hard to keep my head by this point but with one gear I started my warm-up routine and Paul sped off to HQ to see if anyone might have a spare battery they were prepared to lend me. Unsurprisingly the answer was no but more disappointingly was the general feeling that it was my fault for not preparing properly. Those who know me well will know that in paying attention to the minutei I generally leave no stone upturned. To me, at least, there is a big difference between poor preparation and unforeseen equipment failure.

Trying to concentrate on the job in hand at the start

Having kept a lid on my now shortened, warm-up - knowing that with only one gear it wasn't going to be as well controlled as it would normally be, I was cutting it fine to get down to the start. A late start penalty really would have added fuel to the already well lit fire. Goal number one became get out the saddle and get off the start line safely! The usual performance anxiety nerves vanished as this wasn't a level playing field any more, it had suddenly become a 'try your best with what you've got' scenario and I had no idea how it would pan out as riding a fixed gear TT has never been on my agenda, let alone a gear that I wouldn't have chosen!

I made it safely off the start, goal number one accomplished. I was frantically spinning my legs very quickly as there is a small descent within 200m of the start line. Thankfully the first third of the course is quite rolling, so it flattened out and enabled me to feel like I was actually engaging some power and then climbed. For the first time ever on this course I was out of the saddle, on the base bars, watching my cadence drop and drop some more. Gears make life so much easier!! I started to pick up a cross tailwind on the middle third of the course, so was once again finding that I was trying to ride a far higher cadence than I'm used to. This was only to get worse in the final third when the headwind that had made life somewhat 'easier' for the first section was now a tailwind. I clearly don't do a very good impression of a beautiful smooth Singer sewing machine! With a cadence tipping upwards of 120 rpm I was well and truly out of my comfort zone and this wasn't helped by seeing the power numbers plummeting accordingly. Still, I hadn't gone home, I hadn't bailed... (yet!) and the finish line was creeping ever closer so it would soon be over.

A very pleasant surprise to have secured 3rd place

I snuck back into HQ to give my number in and creep out with my tail between my legs but was pleasantly surprised to see that I had actually made the podium. Somehow I had rescued something from this outing and finished 2 seconds off 2nd place, to take 3rd.

Mascot Penguin with the Charlie Grieg Memorial Trophy

Thankfully, for the next race on K33 - The Charlie Grieg Memorial - I had pre-emptied any battery woes by charging it the night before and leaving the battery off the bike and Swinnerton Cycles kindly lent me a spare battery just to be absolutely sure! The weather wasn't quite as good as it had been for the above race; still a headwind out and tailwind back but a stronger headwind with quite strong cross-wind gusts. There were a few moments where my front wheel was caught and my ability to ride a straight line vanished! I didn't feel that I executed this ride particularly well, my pacing was off in the first third which threw me a bit and I had to stop myself cursing at the traffic at both roundabouts which led to braking and losing all the speed I'd built up. Just the nature of racing on the open road, sometimes you get a good clear run and other times it's decision time - is there room to squeeze up the inside, what is that car doing...?!

Sue Semple 2nd, Fay Barrington 3rd

Despite all of the above, I was pleased to take the win from a strong ride by Sue Semple (Born2Bike) in 2nd. It helped to make amends somewhat for the previous outing on this course. Racing is full of ups and downs, time trialling less than road racing due to the more controlled nature of the event, however there are still those unpredictable things that catch you out. There are a few more items on the pre-race checklist now!

When less is more

Exactly a week after the ToA I was due to ride A10/19, a fast Midlands course and one of the MWTTS counting events. Having been full of cold for almost the entire week I had sensibly had a whole four days off the bike, five depending on whether you consider a short, little ring leg-spin to check that you can still pedal a ride or not! Despite the fact that I hadn't actually felt well enough to train, so it definitely wasn't a case of lazy-itis, this had played on my mind somewhat. Having watched my TSS (freshness indicator) increase exponentially as my CTL (a measure of fitness) plummeted, I was really equivocal about whether the sensible thing would be to withdraw gracefully. It's a fast course, there were some strong riders on the start sheet and I needed to take maximum points having apparently misinterpreted the MWTTS rules and entered too late for my round 1 win to count. All valid points but ultimately excuses! It was only a cold, four/five days off the bike wasn't going to be season-ending and worst case scenario it would be a good training session - after all I was pontificating about how many of those I'd missed so now was a golden opportunity to bank a good one.

Race number seamlessly in my NoPinz speed pocket, warm up done and I was on my way to the start. It was pretty chilly for an April morning and in my eagerness not to cut it as fine as I sometimes have, I found myself getting chilly while I waited for the three riders in front to go off. One minute seems a comparatively long time when we were set off at 20 second intervals in ToA... Eventually I was off, trying to keep in mind that my heart rate would likely be elevated due to the rest and to keep an eye on my power without panicking that my cardio system was going to spontaneously combust.

... and away from the start I go! Come on legs!!

I knew I had to maximise the opportunity of what is billed as a fast course, so set out with my usual mindset - pedal hard and then pedal a bit harder! I'd not ridden this event before but had driven the course so knew that I had to keep my wits about me at the roundabouts. I had a car on my outside so had to stay wide but having had a glance in his direction he seemed to be aware of my presence so I maintained as much pace as I could heading up on to the dual carriageway. At least I was heading in the right direction, geography and directional awareness is not my strong point!

I could see that my heart rate was starting to climb on the way back and pedalling harder was only adding to this. I decided not to look at it as given how much my legs were starting to hurt it might have set alarm bells off that I was going to blow up ahead of the finish! Paul has often said to me that there would be benefit in blowing up in a race and failing to finish (well crawling the last few [hundred?] metres) so I know just what it really feels like to strike that fine balance between giving absolutely everything and finishing with something still in the tank - I really didn't fancy today being that day. I was nearly at the finish, or was I? That final stretch on the single carriageway was longer than I'd remembered... a whole half a mile longer! That feels like an eternity when you've wound up what is left in your legs for one final push, it was like a slow motion replay, except it was everything I had!

On returning to HQ to return my number and sign myself as safely back in, I was barely through the door before Deb excitedly said 'quick, you've just missed the presentation...' Still in a relatively dazed state I looked at her enquiringly as she said 'you've come 2nd'. Wow, I hadn't expected that!! Although I technically counted as 2nd senior female in the prizes, I had actually finished 3rd overall in a closely fought battle that had seen only 6 seconds between 1st and 3rd place. Top rides by Lauren Creamer, NCC-Group-Kuota-Torelli & Chris Melia, Born2Bike RT for 1st and 2nd (with only 1 second between them)! Thanks to Alastair Semple and Born2Bike for organising a great event.

2nd senior female - thanks for organising Alastair

The moral of the story is that less would appear to be more on some occasions. Whilst it's not an excuse for avoiding hard sessions or being demotivated, I think, certainly in my case, when you're feeling under the weather it can be hard to allow yourself adequate time to recover. When you have a massive will to win and a love to pushing yourself to your limits but just don't feel like training, don't beat yourself up - listen to your body, you can't do much without it and it will all come good in the end!!

Some excellent times in the top 10

From Ayrshire to Albi...

... via the Craters of Kilmarnock!

Having said that priorities are a little different this year, my key goal was a good qualification spot for the World Masters Time Trial Championships which are being held in Albi, France in August.

This year saw the addition of a Scottish qualifier in the form of the Tour of Ayrshire (ToA) Chrono as well as the now well established Tour of Cambridgeshire (ToC) Chrono, which falls in June. I have historically not done particularly well at ToC, so the opportunity to try not only a different but an early season qualifier was music to my ears! A couple of friends were going up to recce the course as they had family near Kilmarnock, so I joined them. What an eye-opener that turned out to be - let's just say it put a whole new perspective on pot holes, sorry craters! Never have I been so glad to recce a course before as it really was a case of finding the safe line to ride and not the usual fastest racing line! To be honest I was even questioning whether it was a course for a TT bike in that state - did I really want to 'risk' Percy and my race wheels on that course?! Certainly food for thought and a call to the organisers to enquire what the plans were to rectify the surface, which clearly was in need of some attention. 

May as well enjoy the scenery now as I won't notice it come race day!

Having recce'd the course numerous times, perfected the art of dodging the pot holes, craters and gravel, it was just a question of getting some more training under my belt and a race to wake my body up to the new season once again. That first race was to be round 1 of the DB Max/Kinetic One series at Castle Combe; the series that I won last year. Unfortunately this didn't quite go to plan, my Di2 battery had decided to discharge itself on the journey down, so that meant only one gear! A couple of laps of the track in the one gear confirmed that conditions were unbelievable; the usual wind wasn't present & it was pretty much a 'float' night. Perfect... if you had the right gears, or just any gears! With ToA less than two weeks away I really didn't want to take any risks and eventually decided that trying to maintain a cadence of 100+ to put out any decent speed/power really wasn't the best preparation for a key race. Sadly, I gave my apologies and got back in the car, for what was to be a seemingly never-ending journey on the A38 due to M5 overnight closures. Do you ever get that feeling sometimes that these things are sent to try us?!!

Having left no stone upturned in my preparation for ToA, I was confident of giving my best come race day - until that dreaded feeling when you wake up at 02:00 am with a raging sore throat and a temperature that is. In my semi-awake state I just decided that all would be fine when I woke up at a more civilised time... No, definitely going down with an ill timed cold! Bother.

The event car park was miles from the start area, literally, by the time we got there I felt like I'd already done my warm up! The warm up tent was busy but there was room for me on the end, the combination of being full of germs and tucked in the corner of the tent certainly led to my temperature soaring. I was rapidly hatching a Plan B race plan - start easy and see how I felt, do not over cook it in the first half; you've got to get back! 

The rolling section after the main climb

So, my start time came and I'd convinced myself I could only do my best with what I had on the day. I knew where the, by now infamous, pot holes were, that I had to leave something in the tank for the second half of the course and then give the final run home everything I could muster. What would be would be! I stuck to the plan, carried a little more speed than I'd anticipated into the Z bend as there was a slight tailwind here but managed to keep cool and most importantly keep my focus on where I was going! I'm very glad I did as I later heard that one of my friends had badly overcooked this and parted company with his brand new carbon for a race ending crash. It wasn't a course where you could switch off and just think about measuring your power, there was always something coming up, whether it be keeping the legs in check going up a climb, a tight turn or a dodgy patch of road surface. 

Coming out of the bend that caught a few out

With the key sections safely negotiated my focus turned to pressing on to ensure that I was approaching the finish with as much as I had to give. I had been conservative on the first part of the course, feeling under the weather had I been too conservative? If I had I couldn't turn the clock back, I just had to hope I'd done enough... The only results displaying back at Race HQ were the men's but eventually I found the live women's results on the internet - I'd just done it, 6 seconds was the margin between a stripey jumper and the first step of the podium and 2nd place! Phew!

My first stripey jumper!

It was a mixture of relief and excitement rolled into one - mission accomplished, qualification slot achieved in the best way possible in less than ideal conditions. I could enjoy the moment in the knowledge that I could focus on the rest of the season knowing that the most important piece of the jigsaw puzzle - actually qualifying for Albi - was in the bag! 

Thanks to Clair and Alan for putting ToA on my radar and taking me to recce the course, Georgia and Richard for being excellent hosts and Paul for braving a long train journey to Scotland to be race support on the day. Thanks to Harry Walker for my #RevolverWheels, courtesy of my complete faith in the performance of both the Asymm disc and 60 front I didn't have that last minute worry that so many others seemed to be wasting energy on of whether they had the right wheels for the windy weather! Any weather is #Revolver weather!! Thanks also to Paul, Craig & Richard of Swinnerton Cycles who did a great job in ensuring that Percy was race ready after our little false start. 

Lovely looking blue and green race kit this year courtesy of Pro Vision Clothing and the sponsors behind the team: #GJCFurniture #FortressDistribution #TanitaEurope #ProVision

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...