First ride on my new Bike Pure bike

                              Today I went on a little spin on my new Bike Pure bike, in order to get used to riding it (eg. Shifting from small to big chain ring, cornering etc.) before my first race on the bike on Sunday at the National Women’s Team Series round at Banbury. I most certainly love the look of the bike …. matching the team kit perfectly! More importantly it is also superb to ride; it’s light and it certainly feels like a much stiffer and responsive frame than my last bike, so probably really great for sprinting! Can’t wait now to start racing with it. 

Andy Morrison Memorial RR

4 out 6 of the team decided to head back to Bedford the following weekend for another road race. This time a slightly less hilly 30 mile race, on a simple triangle shaped circuit, with a long slight downhill, then up a long drag with a bit of a kick at the end, and then along a short straight with the finish line at the end of this road. The circuit was made tougher by rather strong winds, especially down the finishing straight. There was a decent sized field of 40 women and the pace of the race was quite high. It was a relatively uneventful race, with one attack halfway through the race which stuck. The group was unable to pull her back as many of the riders didn’t even know that someone was off the front! The race for me went fine, it wasn’t necessarily my favourite circuit and going up the hill 15 times certainly began to hurt at times. I finished 7^th overall after coming 6^th in the final chaotic bunch sprint. Fortunately I didn’t get caught up in the crash in the middle of the group, but unfortunately my teammate Lucy did and took a nasty tumble – get better soon! Well done to Frankie as well finishing 12^th. 

Bedford 3 Day – 3^rd to 5^th May  

This weekend was the biggest women’s stage race in the women’s calendar, the Women’s Team Series event at Bedford; this definitely looked like an action packed weekend of racing with 5 stages in just 3 days!! It was a really fun weekend with all my teammates (lots of time to bond – such as whilst waiting 2 hours for our food to arrive in a restaurant on the Saturday night!) , combined with lots of fast tough racing up and down hills - you could definitely say I was shattered by the end!!!... however, very glad I did it and I can’t wait to come back stronger next year and do it all again!

The first stage was about 35 miles, on a relatively flat circuit (there were some hills but they didn’t hurt your legs too much so they were fine). This race went well for me, I felt comfortable sitting in the top third of the group (a total of 90 women in the race) and still had enough energy left in my legs at the end to be competitive in the sprint finish! I was in a good position in the group going into the final corner before a long-ish drag hill up to the finish. Unluckily for me there was a crash which happened right in front of me. Luckily I didn’t get caught up in it but I had to brake and therefore lost my good position within the group. In the end I finished 25^th out of 90 which I was really pleased with! However, I was slightly annoyed as I did have energy left over after the sprint at the end. I overtook lots of riders in the finish but as I started from too far back, because of the crash,  I couldn’t get a better result. So ensuring I’m in a better position at the end is definitely a high priority for me. Well done to all my teammates!! We all managed to finish in the top 60, so a great result for the team today, definitely one of the top teams in the GC.

After the first stage

The second stage was a Team Time Trial of about 5 miles; the first TT that we’ve done together. We had a great positive atmosphere within the team, really pumped after yesterday’s good result. We all warmed up together and ensured that we sorted all of our tactics out e.g. starting order, which side we pull off, length of turns etc. The TT flew by as it was only 5 miles, we worked well as a team, as all of us are quite evenly matched. We had a slight hiccup on the last corner, a combination of heading into quite a sharp corner fast and maybe not the best line, causing some pulling on the brakes and unfortunately Sophie had to take her foot out. I was at the back of the group at the current time and I could see all of this happening in front of me so I took a shorter route inside the corner to avoid it. We would have lost a few seconds here therefore but 4 of us managed to cross the line together as we were very close to the finish. In the end we finished 10^th out of 16 teams, which we were pleased with as it was our first ever TT as a team so with more practice we’ll be able to do even better!!

 

Riding as a team to the start of our Team Time Trial

Our Team Time Trial

In the afternoon, we did the third stage, an 80km road. The race was really fast and I had some bad luck towards the start of the race. I decided to have 1 big bottle on my bike which was going to be enough to last me the whole race so I hadn’t arranged with my dad about to use the feeding station. Unfortunately on the first lap I hit a bad pothole and my bottle fell out of my bike!!! Luckily I didn’t puncture or have any other problems from the pothole but it meant that I had nothing to drink and it was a very hot day! As I’d never seen anyone exchange bottles between teammates in these women’s races before I assumed that we weren’t allowed to… and none of our parents were at the feed station so I couldn’t get anything to drink. Also in races usually I eat to keep my energy levels up but I couldn’t do this either as my mouth was so dry I couldn’t swallow them. So this was a major problem for me in this race. The race was fast and I stayed in the group for as long as I could, only dropping off going up the hill with 1 lap to go. I then had to ride a 10 mile lap all by myself which was fun too ... haha. Overall I’m quite pleased with how I did in this race considering I didn’t have anything to eat and drink! Most importantly I’ve learnt from this race, that I need to ensure that my dad is at the feed station so that I can get more to drink if I need to. After today’s stage, all of us girls were shattered so it was nice being able to relax a bit in the evening and watch a movie together.

Warming up as a team before the race

Me by myself on the last lap after dropping off the group

The fourth stage was an individual TT on the same course as the Team TT. Waking up early this morning was very difficult as the first 3 stages had already exhausted me enough … and we still had another 2 stages to go!! My TT started off well but it went downhill when I hit the hill in the course, where my legs suddenly seemed to completely die on me and so it took quite a while for me to get back up to speed. I finished the TT strong, having recovered from the hill. Really spookily, Paige and I got exactly the same time in the TT!! … crazy haha.

my Individual TT

The fifth and final stage was a 74 km race with a rather unfriendly looking hill up to the finish. I don’t usually like steeper hills but for some strange reason, I actually liked this hill as I felt strong going up it comfortably in the top half of the bunch. At one point in the race all of our team were actually riding in a group of 6 (2 rows of 3) which I thought was quite neat, until there was a crash going up the hill and it meant that all but one of us got stuck behind the crash! It was definitely a load of bad luck for us all! Also as it was on the middle of the hill it literally took me several attempts to get my foot clipped in and start riding again. All 5 of us rode together as a group for a while with no chance of catching up with the main group who were way in the distance. I was really gutted being caught up behind the crash as I was feeling really strong. Gradually the 5 of us split up and I caught up with 2 riders ahead whom I managed to work well together with and we kept the pace high. When we reached the hill and the end of the 4/6 lap I assumed that we would be called to finish that lap as if you were 10 minutes behind the lead group you were pulled from the race. As the laps were soo long and it took ages for us to start riding after the crash I assumed we must be at least 10 minutes behind so I semi sprinted up the hill to make sure I was first over the line. I was first … but we were not pulled so we set off on another lap. When we reached the end of the 5^th lap I was certain that now we must be 10 minutes behind …. so I sprinted again! But we were still under 10 minutes behind as we hadn’t lost any more time than we had lost at the beginning because we were keeping up a fast average speed. Ok so now I was getting tired sprinting up that hill but we did end up catching a couple more riders because of this so it did pay off in the end. The last time up the hill I came 2^nd out 6, just pipped on the line! Overall really pleased with how I performed in this race as I felt strong, but just gutted to have my race ruined by being stuck behind a crash so early in the race.

Craft Base Layers and Bib Shorts Review

Massive thanks to Craft for my new base layers and shorts.

Cool Mesh Superlight Sleeveless Base Layer – Women

Over the last few weeks, the weather has certainly taken a turn for the better. There’s definitely been no need for arm or leg warmers anymore; and with the sun beaming down on you and generally high temperatures I soon realized that my current base layers simply weren't keeping me as cool as I would like. However using my new Craft base layer has really helped me stay fresh and comfortable, even in fast tough races which last 2 or more hours. The base layer has an excellent tight-fitting fit. It is so lightweight and comfortable it’s almost impossible to tell that you are wearing it underneath the jersey! - except from reaping its benefits of keeping cool. For me, it’s an ideal base layer to race in warm or hot conditions so I highly recommend getting one.

Bib Shorts – Women

Another really great fitting product. I particularly like the quality and feel of the material. Also the rubber grips at the bottom of the shorts don’t leave any weird mark or line just after you take them off, which I have found annoying in the past with some shorts.

Pre training session in my Craft bib shorts and base layers