Iona at Peterborough Crit

Iona at Peterborough Crit

Monday 4 November 2013

A Month Gone By............by Sandra

Time has flown by since the Ras Na Mban, it seems now like a distant memory, but a great racing memory for me, made all the better for seeing the highlights on Eurosport at the beginning of October. Let's hope next year maybe Eurosport may do an hours coverage.....

After the Ras we had a shop open day, 5 of  us came and visited GB Cycles in croyden, to not only see the shop, and thank George and Stephen for their support for the season, but to also see the boys there and chat to any customers about racing and what we have achieved as a team this year. We were well looked after, with cups of tea, and of course we did walk away with some some great kit.

On the Sunday we had all entered the gorrick series MTB which was close by, so waking up to see constant persistent rain was ok wasn't it? because it was off road......and that's what mountain biking is all about???
Whilst we watched Steph show us how it should be done, we saw Claire and Bonny from team Zappi's were also giving MTB a go, something new and outside of road, TT, and crits.
Steph having missed her start time made it look easy, and so it was time for me, Linda and Iona to take the course.
Having done a practice loop, we realised that with the sticky wet deep mud we might be spending a lot of the time running through certain patches or maybe falling off!!!
Thankfully due to my age I only had to do 2 laps, although I felt a bit cheated, but 2 laps of the stickiest wettest and most brilliant course was enough, as I waved Iona on for her 3rd lap (only because she is a bit younger than me), I washed my bike off , in one of the now rather huge puddles which looked more like a small lake!!!

I have to say it was fantastic for the bike handling skills, and leg strength, loved it and definitely will be doing some more, and I'd like to say it would be great to do it in the dry next time please.

Next was a weekend with Brit , Iona , Nicola and myself, we had all entered my local hill climb! Do not underestimate little suffolks flat hills,

But before the hill climb, we had Hillingdon, Brit Iona, Stef and I travelled down, and bravely watched Iona race, it certainly highlights why we ride as a team, and how with your best team buddies to race with, how you can work together, you can learn so much from watching! Sadly though, whilst Iona triumphed and got the win after working so hard throughout the race, my car along with a few others had been broken in to and Iona only had left what she was wearing during the race!! But it did not dampen our spirits, we still drove home singing to S club 7's reach for the stars, and prepared ourselves for race two of the weekend.

The weather for the hill climb was a lot better than last years torrential rain, the sun was shining and it was fairly warm, (on a bike I have to say),  but the wind was right where you don't want it, in the head!,!
There were a record number of entries this year, which was great, with 5 of us girls entered.

I'm  not sure I've ever got it right apart from the first time I rode that climb, ever since then my times have gone up, I'm not sure if it's because I'm analysing it too much now, , but it was still a hard effort, and I'm pleased to say Baby Tate came away the victor by a near 8 seconds and was 20th out of 52 overall, so a big hand to her. Below are photos courtesy of Cycle Club Sudbury.

Sandra 
Brit

Iona

Nicola
There was some fantastic support out on the hill, all chearing us on as we came around the corner, which pushes you that little bit further.