SportsShoes Blog

I’m back out in Belgium now and training and racing on the road! Late March and April has seen me enter the start of a huge block of racing, starting with the first World Cup of the road season, Trofeo Binda in Varese, Italy. Being my second World Cup on the road, in addition to Plouay GP at the end of last season, I knew what sort of standard to expect, as all of the big hitters would be there! As there isn’t a U23 category on the road for females, all of the road racing we do is senior women’s so the standard is always pretty high! The race included a large lap of about 60km with 2 nasty, steep climbs and a long dragging ascent, then continued on to an 18km finishing circuit with more climbs to complete the race distance of 136km! After the first steep climb the race split into about five groups and I ended up in the third group of about 20 along with my team mate Katie. From this point we rode on towards the finish circuit, keeping the pressure on along the flat to try and catch the group in front but the group was simply too big to work together and there were only about 5 of us doing any turns on the front, so we never made contact with the main bunch again. When we entered the finish circuit we were told we had to stop and were pulled out of the race. This can sometimes happen in road racing, as the commissaries (race organisers) have to stop the traffic for the race, so if the race is too split up then this makes it difficult. So, in the name of safety anyone who is too far back has to stop. In fact, over half of the field didn’t finish. However, Nicole finished in 6th which was a good start to her World Cup campaign.

The next weekend, Sunday 4^th April brought the second World Cup to Belgium! The 118km course for Tour of Flanders looped in and around the Oudenaarde area for the first half of the race, then ended up in Ninove. Again, it was a tough course but in a completely different way to Binda. There were lots of long, flat cobbled sections, ranging from about 500m to 2k and also 9 climbs. However, none resembled the climbs from the first World Cup, in any way shape or form! Some were cobbled, such as the Bosburg and the Muur - the last two climbs - and others were on normal roads but ranged from in distance and gradient. The race started off well and I fulfilled my role for the team which was to be active at the front of the bunch for the first 26km before the first cobbled section, then lead Nicole into the cobbles as far up in the group as possible. I managed to take her into the cobbles in the top 10 so was pleased to have got my job done, but keen to stay in the top group as long as possible. I got over the first climb, the Kluisberg, in the main bunch, which showed a definite improvement in my climbing, but on the flat roads after the climb, misfortune struck as my chain snapped in two! We race with radios so that we can have contact with our manager and coach, Simon and the mechanic, Martyn who ride in the convoy of cars that follow the race; so I called over the radio that my chain had snapped so that they could give me a spare bike. Unfortunately, as my teammate Lucy had crashed a little while earlier, the car was at the back of the convoy so it took quite a long time to actually reach me. By that point, not only had the first group completely gone past, but the second group, third and fourth, as well as other small groups of riders… so it was pretty much race over by then. I wanted to finish as far up as possible though, so I kept moving myself up and finished 108^th. I was pleased to have made it to the finish of such a tough course but disappointed that my chain had snapped on a day when I had good legs.

The day after Flanders was GP Dottingies, which was again quite local to our Oudenaarde base. The field contained a lot of riders from the World Cup so that fact, combined with a race distance of 121km, cross winds and tired legs meant that it was to be another hard day in the saddle! I made a lot of stupid mistakes, such as getting caught near the back in the cross wind section and starting the climb at the back of the bunch, meaning that fairly soon I was gritting my teeth and struggling to stay with the race! I didn’t end up finishing the full race distance, as I ended up too far back so consequently was pulled out. Again, disappointing, but not really that surprising considering my bad positioning and fatigue from the previous days efforts.

After a recovery ride on Tuesday and a 4 hour drive to Holland, the next race was Drentse 8, a 141km race in the Drenthe region of Holland. With the next World Cup, Ronde van Drenthe taking place two days later, the field contained most of the World Cup riders, plus a few others from Dutch teams. It was quite windy again with cobbles and crosswinds to catch you out but this time I was prepared! Having learnt from my mistakes on Monday in Dottingies I fought my way to the front of the bunch and managed to stay there – finding that it makes life a whole lot easier being in the shelter of the top 20 rather than hanging on at the back as there is a lot less physical effort required! It was a good race and I was pleased with how I rode, keeping a good position, going with attacks and even picking up 3^rd place in one of the ‘primes’ (sprints within the race, usually for points or money.) With around 25km to go, a group of 11 riders, including GB rider Lucy Martin, attacked and gained a 15 second advantage on the main bunch. This gap fluctuated between 10-20 seconds but was still maintained until the finish. I was hoping to be competitive in the bunch sprint, but with around 15km to go the effort of the race really caught up with me and I was cramping up big style! There was no way I could do more than 2 pedal revs out of the saddle, so tried to sprint in the saddle and rolled in at the finish for 49^th place. However, this was the best race I have ridden so far this year so was really happy and also chuffed to bits for Lucy who came 8^th and got the prize for the best young rider.

Well I’m now a full time cyclist, exams over and done with and no more school…and it feels great! Moving out to Belgium happened a bit later than planned, as I picked up a knee injury whilst studying for my exams….the combination of sitting at my desk for long periods of time, lack of bike maintainance by myself and being in rigid shoe cleates lead to right knee pain.  This meant that, instead of finishing my last exam and getting on a plane out to Belgium I had to go over to Manchester and spend a few days there, going in to see physio Phil Burt at the EIS.  I also changed my pedals to Speedplay which are fairly new pedals which allow greater movement in the cleate so that you can find the right pedalling position…..all very technical…but yeah I’m fine now!

Once I’d got that sorted, it was back in training for 2 weeks, doing a mix of long rides, rollers and 10 minute time trial reps, then to the U23 European Road Championships in Hooglede, Belgium.  I finished 35th in the time trial, with other GB riders Katie Colclough in 10th and Lucy Martin in 37th.

The road race then took place a few days later, and at 135km it would be the longest race I’d done so far (by a good 50km!) and one which my coach said he was not expecting me to finish.  My priority he explained, was to help out riders such as Katie Colclough and Annie Last and finish as much of the race as possible.  Having saying that, I was eager to finish, but in hot temperatures, a fast pace of racing and a high standard of riders my race was over at 108km.  I was disappointed but knew that my preparation hadn’t been ideal.  GB had an excellent result though, with Katie finishing in 2nd place behind Chantaal Blak of Holland, and in front of current senior silver medallist Marianne Vos who came 3rd.

From Hooglede, some of the Academy girls returned to the UK for a mid season break, others to a pre European Track Champs training camp, whilst I stayed in Belgium.  I’m currently staying in Westmeerbeek with some other cyclists but will move back to Oudenaarde in a couple of weeks when everyone else returns.

Last weekend saw me make another trip to Oudenaarde, Belgium for a bit of training and a 100km road kermesse race. I flew out on the Friday night and arrived at the house at about 9pm, tired but glad to be there! Saturday was spent going out for a ride on the nice quiet roads, a brief bit of revision then sorting stuff out for the race the next day.

During the afternoon we all met our coach down in the town, at the Tour of Flander’s cafe to have individual and team meetings to dicuss plans for the rest of the year. The cafe was great, one wall had loads of team jerseys pinned up on it, then there was a table featuring some of the signatures of past Tour of Flander’s winners!

The next morning, we all packed our race bags and drove to Burcht, a town in Antwerp. After signing on the riders gathered at the start line to begin and were told that any groups more than 1 minute 30 behind the lead group would be pulled out of the race…it was then that I realised it was going to be a fast one!

As soon as the race started I knew it was going to be hard, it was the constant change of pace that I struggled with as its something that is achieved by racing frequently. I tried to place myself at the front of the race, but once I got there, I didn’t have the legs to maintain the speed and so dropped back. Myself and a few others tailed off the back and despite my best efforts to stay in contact with the bunch I was dropped and was eventually pulled out.

I then spent the rest of the race riding round the course the other way to get a few miles in and watched my teammate Katie Colclough take a solo win!

After all this the girls went back to Oudenaarde and I went back to the airport and back home to complete the last 5 weeks of school!

http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/web/site/BC/gbr/EventReports2009/20090511_Academy_Women.asp