tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-41627504879285914382024-03-13T12:35:56.861+00:00gbcycles ladies racing teamNEWS & RESULTSTeam GB Cycleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04986566213862005452noreply@blogger.comBlogger132125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4162750487928591438.post-74507949770254697092014-09-08T21:33:00.000+01:002014-09-08T21:44:34.373+01:00UCI World Champs for Masters and Amateurs, by KarenFor me, the culmination of the season had always been planned to be the World Masters races, this year taking place in Slovenia. At the beginning of the season I hadn't anticipated spending two lengthy spells of the season off the road, so in the end even getting to the start line was a mini achievement.<br />
After last years results I had high expectations of myself, not helped by seeing that last years double champion in my age group wasn't returning to defend her titles.<br />
In the run up to travelling, a frantic few days were had with a phone call a day to the lovely Glynn and Guy at Geoffrey Butlers as I had decided to pimp up my Cello Elliot before I went with brand spanking new 11speed Shimano ultegra group set. It eventually arrived with me on Thursday, when I was leaving on Friday. We got it fitted, just, despite the peculiarities of indexing an 11speed front derailleur. Couldn't have done it without my new best mate Adam Sayer!<br />
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I had decided I wanted to travel plenty of days in advance to get a chance to ride both courses in full before race day. What we experienced in those first few days was some of the most beautiful and peaceful riding ever, although for me it was mostly seen from the driving seat of a car supporting Chris on his longer rides that he could do. I don't generally do resting very well, but managed it without driving either myself or Chris up the wall too much.<br />
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Soon enough it was Wednesday, and there were practical things to do like registration, rider briefing and the time trial course recce. It was our first trip into Ljubljana itself (we had chosen to stay in a historical town Skofja Loka 45 minutes north of Ljubljana). My instant impression was of a very well organised event, streets ahead of last years championships in Trento. The TT recce was an interesting concept, as it was essentially a closed road bubble. I was surprised that most people were happy to just ride it in a peloton, but I wanted to see all the racing lines, bumps and so on whilst minimising the build up of lactic acid in my legs. The course was as pan-flat as they had promised, an out and back with risk of crosswinds through exposed field sections. Not really a course to suit me, but my time trialling has come on leaps and bounds in the last 18 months, so I was still confident that with the right focus I could put in a good performance.<br />
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Thursday morning came round and it was race day. I calmly and systematically got myself ready, not panicking about the bike check as I knew my set up was comfortably within the new UCI regs. There wasn't a decent stretch of Tarmac to warm up on which is my preference, so I had to subject myself to putting my bike into a bank of 12 turbo trainers immediately adjacent to the start. There was a lot of hustle and bustle going on, but I just zoned out and concentrated on doing my own thing. Then it was into pre-start and at 11:02:30 I was off. At 30s intervals you can see a lot of other riders, and immediately I could see the Dane who had set off 30s in front of me. My first thought was 'maybe I can catch her', and probably went a tiny bit too hard in the vain hope of doing so. But it became very quickly apparent that she was actually pulling away from me.<br />
There was a slight headwind on the way out which made it hard work. I kept having to switch gears to find a cadence and power output that felt efficient. At the half way point it became apparent that I wasn't making progress on catching anyone, and was in fact losing ground on most of the other girls. Then to see Mary-Claire Aquilana from Malta (one of the teams arch-rivals) catching me for a minute at that point and passing me like I was standing still destroyed my self belief altogether. It's hard to tell from my Garmin data whether I gave up at that point. I don't think I did, but on time trials when things don't go to plan the hardest thing is to keep pushing and hurting yourself. One more rider caught and passed me before I reached the finish. It turned out that she was the eventual winner, but only 7 tenths of a second faster than the Dane. I ended up in 10th place, 2min30s or so down, and feeling completely demoralised by the whole thing.<br />
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Coming off the start ramp<br />
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On the course<br />
<br />
I now had 3 days to get my brain and body back in shape for the road race on Sunday. Sorting the<br />
body out was the easy bit, with a short recovery ride on Friday and a slightly longer and harder ride<br />
on Saturday. Mentally though, it was a huge challenge. A Facebook messenger exchange with coach Garry Palmer, some checking of results from other races and lots of positive encouragement from Chris and teammate Jo Blakeley all helped, and I got myself to a place where I was starting to believe in myself again.<br />
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It was an early start on Sunday morning, but it was a beautiful morning again so all was good. We were surprised to get one of the best parking spots in the arena, yards away from where I needed to go to enter the start box. Confusion over starting arrangements continued through to Sunday morning. Was there a neutralised zone? Were we even going to stop outside of the city before the race proper? Which age groups were grouped together? In the end the organisers made absolutely the right decision; racing from the gun and all the women starting together at 9:30. I knew it wouldn't go hard from the gun with a long flat roll-out and over 4 hours of racing ahead, so my warm up simply consisted of turning the legs over at very low intensity for 15 or so minutes. Then it was into the start box with about 15 minutes to go to the start. I wasn't stressed about being at the front of the box as I knew it wouldn't matter in such a small peloton (72 riders) over such a long course on completely closed roads.<br />
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Despite this, it was still a bit skittish in the first few kilometres, and I even touched wheels with one of the Canadians, although we both stayed upright. I was surprised that a couple of the 'favourites' including TT winner in my age group Juanita Venter (South Africa) seemed willing to sit on the front and move the pace along, with 60+ passengers in tow. The first 'hill' on the course came after about 30km, was 4.7km in length with an average gradient of 4%. I had predicted that some of the favourites would make this hill work for them and indeed that was the case. Molly van Houweling from USA went straight to the front and put the hammer down. I was alert to it and got on a good wheel about 5 back, climbing comfortably with the strong girls. I didn't look back to see what carnage the effort had caused, but do know the peloton was down to about 40 in size next time I ended up at the back.<br />
After the steep climb, the course actually carried on climbing much more subtly for another 10km or<br />
so, and then we set off on an awesome descent into the town of Idrija. Again I had made a conscious<br />
decision to position myself near the front so I had good sighting on the descent. I was confident with<br />
my descending, and detected a split in the peloton forming behind me. It didn't stick, but it's good to know I can descend with the best in the world. A long drag along the valley saw the peloton reform, and you started to get the feeling that everyone was preparing themselves for what came next. From the town of Cerkno we had a 7km climb with gradients up to 11%. My plan approaching the climb was to swap bottles at the feed station at the bottom, then go with the leaders pace for as long as I could. There was no doubt in my mind at the time that was the best tactic. I got myself into a good position for grabbing a bottle, but in doing so I slipped back a bit too far in the peloton, so before I even started I was on the back foot and chasing. The steepest part of the hill was the first two km, and whilst I went past a lot of people chasing the leaders in the first km, I was to severely pay for this later. The pace the leaders were setting was just too high and in the end I had to watch them cycling away from me, having put my whole body into severe lactic overload. Hopes of a medal were disappearing up the road.<br />
The next 40km were probably the hardest I have ever ridden in a race. Firstly trying to hold wheels of girls who I should have been able to with no problems, then a frantic and fruitless lone chase on the descent. I was caught from behind by two other girls and a back marker from one of the men's races, but they were being assisted by two locals who had been out spectating. I got some help for a while, but again couldn't hold the wheel when one of the non-racing guys came to the front just after I had done my turn. I was getting a bit pissed off with him as I knew we shouldn't be getting outside help, and also knew if it was just the racers, I wouldn't have been dropped. We were seeing the peloton ahead of us again, and would have caught them under our own steam.<br />
Then, another 20km completely on my own on a subtly rolling road into a slight headwind. I was destroyed, and was nearly in tears, desperate to just climb off my bike and crawl into a hole. But no, I knew that wasn't the correct attitude, so I slaved on, and was actually still pushing out a very respectable average speed.<br />
I was so relieved when a large group came through from behind and welcomed me into their fold.<br />
Once again most were non-racers, but I didn't feel so bad about accepting help this time, partly<br />
because of my mental state and partly as I knew this time there was no chance that anyone would be<br />
dragged back into medal contention. I sat in for a while, and we kept picking up back markers from the men's race as we got closer and closer to Ljubljana. Then the girls who were racing took control and I started rolling through and taking my turn. We kept the pace high all the way to the finish, and I even managed a little sprint to the line to beat the other girl in my age group in our group. It turned out we were only 9 minutes down, and I was 13th from my age group over the line.<br />
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Whilst disappointed again, I knew I had done all I could and more. This was proved as I nearly blacked out whilst waiting for some food. I don't get like that often!<br />
In hindsight, some more lessons were learnt tactically, but there were positives as well as negatives. At this stage I don't know whether I will do next years race in Denmark, as it will be much more like a pure (but very long) road race. Now it's time to rest, recover, and get my shoulder properly fixed.<br />
A huge thanks has to go out to the people who have got me through a difficult year - coach Garry Palmer at Sportstest, physio Femke Nauschutz at Finest Physio, all the boys at Geoffrey Butler Cycles and my brilliant husband Chris who has put up with severe amounts of verbal abuse from a frustrated injured athlete.<br />
<br />Team GB Cycleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04986566213862005452noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4162750487928591438.post-85522938359052362412014-07-07T23:58:00.000+01:002014-07-07T23:58:14.986+01:00Tour weekend racing!So it's tour de France weekend! What to do!?<br />
a) head to Hawes to watch tour<br />
b) go for spin then drive 3 hrs to race a TT and road race next day!<br />
or <br />
c) be indecisive, and do neither!<br />
So I choose b!<br />
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So Sunday morning and awake at 5am! Didn't need to be up till 5:45, oh well!<br />
Early morning TT! We had two GB Cycles teams entered for the 2 up TT, Sandra and Nicola and Me and Brit. But no Brit this week, she was up in Ilkley with the tour going past her door, and also still recovering from illness keeping her off the bike! Instead Sandra and Nic and I rode the TT. Sandra and Nic riding the 2 up, with me riding it as an individual TT. The rain began to pour, and I'm no idea how I did, 26:18, for 10.2 miles. It was better than the last 10 tt I did, so I guess that's good enough! I have no real comparison time to compare too, having only ever ridden 1, 10 mile tt in very windy conditions the day after returning from a training camp!<br />
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Anyway the road race was my main focus for the day. No idea where it was the road race, but it was Norfolk somewhere, it was down south anyway! Luckily the rain had stopped, and it was a lovely sunny afternoon ahead. The course was interesting, mainly flat, but the twisty narrow roads made it fun.<br />
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Sandra, Nic and myself we're riding. There were no attacks first lap, I don't think! Sandra allowing for a warm up lap for once! Instead Hayley was straight to the front, and myself and a few others tried to keep the pace high in the first 1/2 lap, going through and off.<br />
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The race flew past with Sandra attacking plenty of times early on. Lap 3, of 6 and there had been no prime whistle, but I found myself 2nd wheel, so sprinted just in case, up the drag past the HQ. Next lap and I couldn't have been in worst place for prime, (boxed in, on inside, near back) But up ahead I could see we had no worries as Nic crossed the line first to take the prime :) awesome stuff! We all regrouped again, and I led us back up to the front.<br />
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Lap 4 or 5 and Sandra finally decides her legs are dead! Haha as if! Next lap and she's on front again, then she's off the front! I try to slow things down. All back together! Nic attacks again down the decent! Lap 5 and I know chances are, this is coming to bunch finish, so I say to Sandra, just let's chill out now, but I'm going to have one more go off front! Nic was already moving round to go again off front, but I come round her, and I attack down decent. But were all soon back together, and i'm wondering why on earth I just did that, as Nic flies past me yelling at me to get on the wheel!<br />
All these attacks happen several times throughout race, and I've no real idea now, how, when where or what order or anything happened in!<br />
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Then last lap, Hayley attacks, like only Hayley does inside the last 1/2 lap. There are 3 of us, so we had strength in numbers. I wasn't prepared to, let's all sit and look around and hope someone else brings her back! I knew we couldn't let her go! I got to front and tried to bring her back, luckily a couple of others came around me and helped to close the gap further. I managed to get back into the slip stream of riders. Last left turn and down a hill into the up hill sprint for the line. Harriet Owen was several riders forward and in the train on the left hand side. Me, I was on the right hand side, with no wheels to follow, no idea where Sandra or Nic were, they weren't on the wheel that was all I thought I was sure of. So I was biding my time, knowing that I had absolutely no wheels to come off. I sprinted, we caught Hayley at bottom, or on hill for line. Harriet Owen took the win, I started to fade, then Sandra came from know where flying past me! Up hill finish, she came straight from back of bunch straight to the front to take 6th place! Brilliant result Sandra, and well deserved! Nic and I finished in 16th, 8th position, with Nic getting the prime prize too. Overall a great fun race, and some awesome team work!<br />
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i<br />
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<br />Team GB Cycleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04986566213862005452noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4162750487928591438.post-4600522718110673612014-06-30T21:43:00.003+01:002014-06-30T21:43:54.668+01:00Gran Fondo Sportful Dolomiti, by KarenSome people seem to think I'm never at home. Sometimes I think they might be right. That's a little bit what it felt like whilst packing to fly off to Italy for a week in the mountains culminating in an epic 204km long Gran Fondo - the Sportful. It was first suggested to me sometime last autumn by our friend Paul who had ridden the Fred Whitton and Marmotte with me last year. I remember at the time being very hesitant about signing up but by the time we were actually flying out it was one of my key target races for the year.<br />
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It ended up that Paul didn't join us; he was afflicted with a crash-inflicted broken collar bone a week after I had bashed up my shoulder. There seemed to be an element of irony in it all. In 2013 Chris had suffered the agony of having to watch Paul and I ride the Marmotte. Was Chris going to end up being the only one of us fit enough to ride the Sportful in 2014?<br />
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As you'll know from previous blog posts it didn't work out this way, so a week before the race, bikes went in boxes, car and plane, touching down at a very hot Milan airport. 5hours of scenic driving later we arrived in the beautiful village of Mezzano at the foot of Passo Rolle.<br />
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The first few days were all about big miles and hitting the hills before tapering from Thursday in preparation for the race on Sunday. This was made particularly challenging as a mini heat wave settled over Italy and we were riding in temperatures of 40+ degrees. I was pleasantly surprised by how my body coped with this; in the past I haven't trained or raced well in extreme heat (although that was in my orienteering days). Lots of passo's ticked off with my favourite day probably being Passo Fedaia (better known as Marmolada) and Passo Pordoi. The day of 8min climbing intervals up Passo Brocon was also very enjoyable. By the end of Wednesday I felt that nothing in the Dolomites could defeat me and confidence was high for Sunday.<br />
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A few chilled out days later, race day morning dawned and for once the alarm clock woke us before the resident cockerel. 4:30! You have to love your sport to do that, trust me! But with the start at 7 and a half hour drive to get into Feltre it was essential. I was very groggy for the drive but once in Feltre I soon became alert and ready to go. We headed for the start boxes at about 6:30. There was a lane dedicated to women so I said an early goodbye to Chris, paid a visit to the cafe for the loo and claimed my place.<br />
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If I had understood the Italian commentator, I think he would have been building the atmosphere right up to the start of the race, and then we were off. The first 10km or so were flat and very very fast. I made a conscious decision to cruise rather than try to kill myself ducking and diving my way through the peloton. I saw a few girls go past me but wasn't worried at this stage. Soon enough the gradient kicked up for the first climb of Cima Campo. Having ridden this already earlier in the week I knew it was a nice steady climb with no steep ramps. I set a good pace at the top end of my aerobic range and started passing a lot of riders, male and female. Faster guys were coming past me, but it got a bit of a wake up call when a girl came past on a guys wheel. I let them go for a bit, but then thought that they weren't getting away from me and that if she was allowed a tow, then I was too! I picked up the pace and got back on their wheels all the way to the top. By this time it was definitely wet, so I threw on my new Sportful Hotpack jacket and set off on the first descent. I quickly overtook the girl who I had climbed with (she was very cautious in the wet) and wasn't losing too many places even to the men. I powered past the split of medio-fondo and gran fondo courses and the first feed and on towards the foot of the Passo Manghen - the biggest climb of the day. This is one of the lesser known dolomiti climbs but has some Giro history of being an epic. Over 20km long with nearly 1,500m ascent; gradual at the bottom but the last 7km with an average gradient of over 10%. I loved it! Once again I managed to get into a group, although it split up after the feed and for the steep bit. It was getting colder and colder as we climbed, and there was a decent amount of snow still lying at the top. I made a bit of a mistake stopping twice in short succession, firstly for jacketing up then for the feed, immediately before another technical and wet descent. I was so so cold that my whole jaw was shaking with chattering teeth, but amazingly my hands didn't go Raynauds so I still had control of my brakes. Close to the bottom I was picked up by a group of about 6 guys and I took a few risks to stay with them for a tow along the valley. The group had swelled to 20 or so as we got to Predazzo and the foot of Passo Rolle.<br />
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A couple of the faster climbers then sat on the front of the group and stretched the pace a bit. I was more or less comfortable so went with the pace. The group of 20 was whittled down to 5 by the feed, where I carried on when others stopped. One guy came with me and I elbowed him through to do some work. We shared the load until about 4k from the summit where the fast climbers came back past. I couldn't go with the pace this time so summited on my own. A quick stop at the feed for liquid and I set off on a finally dry descent, zoom zoom all the way down. I picked up the same group of guys again for the final valley run before the last climb, Croce d'aune, made famous by Mr Campagnolo in the 1920's. I had to de-jacket again but this time couldn't hook back onto the group again afterwards. I must learn to do it while riding! Although much shorter than all the other climbs, it was hard work after 180km and some steep ramps meant it really did hurt. I still had some company, including one of Stephi's Maltesers who I had a quick chat to. Topping out after just over 8 hours riding time gave me a huge buzz and with just a fast descent to go I now knew I was on for an amazing time. What I was especially pleased about was that I still had power left in my legs for pushing on when I got to the flatter part of the run for home, and even a big of a sprint finish up the cobbles to the square in the centre of Feltre's old town. My clock said 8hrs26 but I knew that excluded feed stops. What a ride! So many of the guys I had seen en route called me over to speak to me to say how strong I had been and what a good race I had ridden. Good glowing feeling inside :-)<br />
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I didn't know for sure that I had made podium, or what the arrangements were, so I went back to put my bike away, get my recovery drink and have a shower. It was while I was dressing after my shower that I heard the British national anthem playing over the tannoy then the women's scratch results read out. Doh! I had missed my moment of fame and pride, having won the 30-39 age group! I rushed back up to the finish to claim my prize but didn't get them to redo the ceremony. However, one of the other girls did persuade them, so I did get to stand on the podium in my GB Cycles kit in the end.Team GB Cycleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04986566213862005452noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4162750487928591438.post-10677723947902079232014-06-11T20:55:00.000+01:002014-06-11T20:55:05.480+01:00La Look UWCT qualifier, by KarenSo, April was a tough month for me after my crash at Tour of the Reservoir kept me off the road for 4 weeks. During that time I was spotted in some very strange places sitting on my turbo trainer with my left arm firmly strapped to my body. At times during that period I believed that my whole season was scuppered and all that hard training over the winter would be lost.<br />
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The results of my ultrasound scan in early May was a big turning point as we established there was no damage to my rotator cuff tendon. This was good news and led to a different mental approach to pain management; no longer should I believe that pain meant damage, instead it was something that was just there and could be worked through just like pain in legs, lungs and every other part of your body that hurts when you ride your bike hard. A conversation with my wonderful physio Femke and we agreed that we would get my shoulder ready to race 10 days later (at which point I hadn't even ventured back out onto the road). 8 days before the race I managed an uncomfortable 30 minutes on the road, 7 days before this crept up to 75 minutes, and 6 days before I went and hit the hills for just under 3 hours. If nothing else, the mental approach to pain management was working.<br />
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We had decided that driving to Nevers in the Loire Valley was the best travel option, leaving British shores early on the Friday morning. The plan was to get there with enough time before the race to fully recover from the journey and have some course recce time. We also wanted to enjoy the scenery and each others' company. After some pretty miserable weather in the weeks preceding, we were blessed with glorious sunshine all weekend although the wind was strong if you were caught out on the road alone. We had time for a couple of hours on the hilliest section of the course on Friday afternoon, although I managed to find a lovely specimen of 'rue blanc' to get me back to the car. Then on Saturday we rode the last 25k which also had a tasty climb in it and a very fast run in to the finish. As we went to register on Saturday afternoon the excitement was growing and we even found some other Brits who had made the trip, including Nikki Juniper. Not to mention some superbly good deals in the Look shop. Saturday night was all about getting bikes and bodies ready for the next days ordeal.<br />
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Sunday morning dawned bright and breezy, and after a quick breakfast we jumped on our bikes to head down to the start. Organisation, and toilets, seemed to be somewhat lacking, and as usual everyone was going into the start boxes early to get the best possible position. Contrary to what was expected, start boxes were by race number rather than category, so it was impossible to see who you were racing against. Given the size of the field, I knew it would be the 'top 3' criteria rather than the 25% that would apply to my age class so I had to try and keep an eye on where all the other women were.<br />
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After a long wait, we were off. I had a good start but it was surprisingly fast right from the gun. Very early on Nikki and Nick came past, shouting at me to jump on their wheel. I tried to follow them through the flowing peloton for a while but decided it was using up too much energy that I wanted to save for later. There were some interesting moments early on when the road narrowed for one reason or other. There were some dreadful squealing brakes which made every dicey moment sound much worse than it was. The hills soon enough started to spread the field out, and I found myself climbing better than those surrounding me. There were two other girls nearby who I was keeping an eye on. By the time we got to the village of La Machine the peloton had broken up into a number of smaller groups.<br />
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I was with 2 other women in my group and we could see two more groups on the road up ahead. No one else seemed interested in bridging to them, so I went into time trial mode, cruised up to and past the first group then onwards towards the second group. About 3 other guys came through to take a turn and I didn't dare to look back to see how many others we had dragged across the gap. Amazingly, that group then bridged to another (I presumed front) group just before another climb towards Saint Saulge blew it back apart again.<br />
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By now we were onto the section of the course that I had pre-ridden with several tough climbs. I put myself into a good position at the start of the first two but towards the top of the second I started to struggle and didn't have time to recover before the third and longest of the day. This meant I started in a bad position and drifted backwards through the bunch then out the back. There was little I could do to respond on the climb so instead had to descend fearlessly to chase back on. Fortunately the chase was successful, despite my compact chainring which was proving to be a disadvantage.<br />
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I sat in for a while then moved up through the bunch again as I knew there were some tricky descents coming up along with a bugger of an 18%er that I wanted clean road for. During this period I managed to have conversations with the two other girls to establish they were both also in my age group. This meant I needed to start thinking tactically about how to beat them.<br />
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One last nasty climb saw me drifting backwards again and a speedy chase back on once again saved my bacon as it was critical to be in a group for the last 10k burn-up to the finish. Again I was looking to move up, and had decided to go for the tactic of sneaking away off the front before the mad cobbled sprint. It was hard to get through the bunch by this point as no one wanted to give an inch. Remember that this is a 50+ strong bunch where only a maximum of 10 people are really racing for anything significant (women and 60+ men), very frustrating!!! Eventually I managed to get through and went for my diving attack off the front. It was countered immediately, not by the girls but by several of the guys who weren't really racing for anything. Ok, I thought, that's fine. Let's just make sure I hold my position in front 10 and there may be a chance the other girls won't get through. That was hard work but was going fine until a roundabout less than a kilometre before the finish where I got squeezed slightly and lost my position. On the final uphill kick it probably wasn't a surprise that I didn't have much left for a sprint and ended up finishing 4th woman out of 3 in our bunch (yes there was one female in disguise who I had missed completely for the majority of the race).<br />
<br />
Several anxious minutes later I was very pleased to find out that although I finished 4th in my race age group (35-49), I had still finished 3rd in my UCI age class (35-39) hence qualifying for the final in Slovenia in august. Sigh of relief, lots of tactical lessons learnt and now the build for Slovenia can start with a vengeance.<br />
<br />Team GB Cycleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04986566213862005452noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4162750487928591438.post-70679679158669887572014-06-05T15:21:00.003+01:002014-06-05T15:58:26.821+01:00Shrewsbury GP <div class="MsoNormal">
<b><u>Believe in your
dreams enough and one day they may come true<o:p></o:p></u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On Sunday the 25<sup>th</sup> of May exactly that happened.
My dream ambition of winning an Elite Town Centre Crit became a reality. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.65pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
The
Shrewsbury GP returned this year after 20 years of not running; consequently
there had been a huge build up to this event in Shrospshire with many news
articles <span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">and an official Shrewsbury GP website
drip feeding the public with news about the event in the weeks prior to the
event. The biggest news being Jo Rowsell MBE,<span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;"> T</span>eam Pursuit World
Record holder, 4 x Team Pursuit World Champion, <span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">Individual Pursuit World
Champion </span>and Olympic Medallist had entered and was set to ride the
event. With the knowledge of Jo riding I knew the race was going to be an
exciting one!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.65pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.65pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">Arriving at the event the atmosphere was electric, the
music was pumping and the crowds were in their thousands. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.65pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">Standing on the start line I felt quite nervous as I
had never ridden a course quite as tight and technical as the course set out
before me. The course started out on a straight of cobbles before sweeping
round into a short sharp climb. It then consisted of a series of corners
sweeping down into a very tight bend onto the cobbled 200m finish straight. I
knew being on the front on the start line was crucial if I was to keep up with
the leaders due to the narrowness of the circuit which wouldn’t allow for much
movement once you were in position. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.65pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.65pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">The countdown began…5…4…’God I need a wee’…3…’not sure
if Im really ready for this’…2…’oh crap’…1…’go go go!’.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.65pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">From the off Jo Roswell hit the front like a bullet
out of a gun and set a hard fast tempo stringing out the bunch behind. I knew I
had to stick on her wheel like glue or else id be out the back so I did just
that! After 2-3 laps I had a quick look around to see how the bunch were
looking and to my utter surprise realised there was only myself, Harriet Owen
of Matrix Fitness and Lydia Gurley of Merlin Cycles following my wheel with Jo
infront. ‘Wow’ I thought, maybe this could go quite well.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.65pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">Jo set the pace for the majority of the race putting
in a couple of attacks to see if she could separate herself from us but with no
such luck. I tried to take some laps leading our group to help Jo out as I felt
that it wasn’t right she did all the work whether she’s an Olympic Champion or
not! I was feeling pretty comfortable at this point and was starting to get
abit giddy knowing if we continued in such a way I was going to get 4<sup>th</sup>
as a minimum. At 30 minutes however, a group of about 6-7 riders caught us from
behind and I thought…bugger! But then <st1:place w:st="on">Iona</st1:place>
comes charging past onto the front and I was very pleased to see her! It seems
Jo wanted to keep our group away however as she immediately attacked up the
short climb and that was it…back to the four of us in the original breakaway again.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.65pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">The crowds throughout were phenomenal banging on the
side boards, cheering and clapping their hands, ive never felt so electric in a
race being in the front group with so much support behind us. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.65pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">Coming into the final 5 laps with our group having an
extensive lead on the next bunch back, I felt so comfortable yet I never
thought I was going to win it I was just so happy that I was potentially going
to be in the top 4 in an Elite Crit. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.65pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">On the final lap Lydia attacked up the climb and I
knew I had to be 1<sup>st</sup> or 2<sup>nd</sup> wheel minimum coming into the
final cobbled corner so I jumped onto her wheel and dived through the last
series of corners into the final cobbled corner where we had to negotiate our
way through a bunch of riders we were lapping in maybe the worse place possible
on the course! I took abit of a do or die line through the corner and saw the
finish line approach. <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Lydia</st1:country-region></st1:place>
moved to the right which gave me a clear line to the finish which I hardly ever
get so I took the chance and sprinted my heart out leaving nothing left in my
legs. I came over the finish line and was actually very confused! I thought ‘Oh
my God I think ive just won it!’ But I was so surprised I just didn’t believe
it until the commentator came up to me and told me to come up to the podium for
an interview on my win! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.65pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.65pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">Iv only ever felt as happy as I did that evening once,
and that was when I won Bronze at the U20 World Age Group Triathlon in Budapest
2010 as a 16 year old and the feeling was unspeakably good! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.65pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">After the podium presentation I was whisked away for
interviews and a prize presentation in which I received a pair of Bontrager
wheels, a pair of Podium glasses, a bunch of gorgeous flowers, an amazing glass
trophy and £500 cash prize money! What a haul!
And what made the evening that much better was that my boyfriend Rob
Watson won the Elite Mens Race to make it the double! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.65pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">We had a very happy car journey home with our prizes
retelling our races to each other over and over not quite believing we both had
won!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.65pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<st1:place w:st="on"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">Iona</span></st1:place><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;"> also did very well getting a 5<sup>th</sup> place and
taking home £80 </span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">J</span><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.65pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.65pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">I am very grateful for the hard work and efforts of
the organiser of the race and everyone involved in making it such a successful
evening including all those that came out to watch.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.65pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">I am also so grateful to my teammates, friends and
family, boyfriend and coach for helping me to achieve one of my biggest
ambitions in cycling. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.65pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.65pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">Brit Tate<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.65pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
Our Breakaway group consisting of myself, Jo Rowsell MBE,
Harriet Owen and Lydia Gurley</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-m9KNKP4FyIc/U5B8f6l8aKI/AAAAAAAABBU/glyMPjArEKE/s1600/shrewsbury+breakaway.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-m9KNKP4FyIc/U5B8f6l8aKI/AAAAAAAABBU/glyMPjArEKE/s1600/shrewsbury+breakaway.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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Managed to get my arm up in
celebration after the initial shock</div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3H9yvI33ILA/U5B8xuPCPlI/AAAAAAAABBk/GPww2uEhz6c/s1600/shrewsbury+win.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3H9yvI33ILA/U5B8xuPCPlI/AAAAAAAABBk/GPww2uEhz6c/s1600/shrewsbury+win.jpg" height="320" width="212" /></a></div>
Prize Presentation with the Mayor of Shrewsbury<br />
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</div>
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9C9XAp4uYxg/U5B8ledZoDI/AAAAAAAABBg/lFqqcFb3twg/s1600/shrewsbury+podium.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9C9XAp4uYxg/U5B8ledZoDI/AAAAAAAABBg/lFqqcFb3twg/s1600/shrewsbury+podium.jpg" height="212" width="320" /></a></div>
Team GB Cycleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04986566213862005452noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4162750487928591438.post-41623164797005172462014-05-11T22:22:00.000+01:002014-05-11T22:28:26.682+01:00Bedford Classic (Off-road challenge) <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">I really like this course, a few short hills and some good
downhill sections.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Five laps, totaling 40
miles, so it was a good distance for me at this stage in the season.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My aim
for this race was to ride nearer the front, I wasn’t sure how my legs were
going to be because I hadn’t eased up training prior to the race.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Sunday ride was a good 4 hours with some
efforts up hills (you know who you are...Jim)!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">So the race went to plan, I rode off the front at one point,
right into a head wind and then was left there (as is only right if you
attack). It was good fun and I was feeling strong throughout, I even enjoyed
the hills...well as much as you can...</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">I'm going for some really interesting (!) photos in this post, and I took this picture (not on my bike I might add) but because this was hill to the finish. I had been riding near the front on the 3rd and 4th laps, there were a few attacks but no one kept away. On the last lap I was about 15 back, everyone trying to get the best position, we all went for it up the hill, I was coming up for 3rd when a rider next to me tumbled, I did a bit off-roading on the verge but stayed upright. The group went by I clipped in and rode to the finish, a bit disappointing but still really pleased with my performance overall. Definitely my best road race so far. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Well done to the rest of the team in the team series race, thanks to Steve as always and a big thank you to Physio Trevor for easing our aching limbs. :-) </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">May 5th 2014</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Linda</span></span></div>
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Team GB Cycleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04986566213862005452noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4162750487928591438.post-62937929795919589502014-04-29T16:23:00.001+01:002014-04-29T16:23:44.278+01:00A Weekends RacingThis weekend was about the Cheshire Classic. But before we get to that let's talk about Saturday. Saturday was a small local crit in York, and I'd decided to ride it, just because, yep just because. .......because I wanted to! No other good reason, if there's a race I'll usual try to ride it regardless of if I should or not!<br />
<br />
Now after returning from Tour ta Malta and Sicily training camp two weeks earlier, I'd managed to nearly train myself into a black hole the previous week, with no rest followed by a Easter weekend of a planned 4 days of back to back racing, (I say planned as I had to finally admit defeat and pull out of 2 day stage race, and that's a first, I never abandon a race!) Here you see the flaw in the plan with trying to enter every race possible!<br />
<br />
So anyway back to last Saturday! Today was going to be first day back on bike after forcing myself to have complete rest week (well 4 days!)<br />
There were 20 women on the start line, and Brit and I hoping for something a bit more interesting than the usual 2 up team time trial of a race! So we were happy when they didn't handicap the start.<br />
<br />
The race went of steady enough, I came to the front straight away and decided to make sure it at least stayed a decent speed. Next thing and a lap or two laps in Brit shouts and comes around me to take a turn. Apparently we have a gap! Wow ok so I hadn't even attacked and 3 of us were away. Someone had simply let a gap go on a corner and it had caught quite a few of the stronger riders napping! Brit and I pressed on all to aware that we had escaped a few potential threats in the bunch behind!<br />
Our third break away companion didn't seem keen to work but we solved that problem, when Brit let my wheel go forcing the other girl to chase! <br />
<br />
The race was only 30 minutes today, and we worked well with a good lead over bunch. Up until 8 laps to go when I thought I'd mix things up a bit, and through in a few attacks. I had no expectations to get away but it at least forced the other girl to chase.<br />
3 laps to go and stale mate, she didn't trust us now and working together was long gone!<br />
Now we were in was cat and mouse, the pase slowing as Brit and I tried to force her through. It certainly made things interesting. We were be caught again by lapped riders we had just caught. And apparently we weren't far off being caught by bunch! With two laps to Brit took up front, before I took over, this was was going to be a long lead out with 1 1/2 laps to go!<br />
<br />
I led the sprint out from last corner, and just tried to hold it right to the line, and hope no one but Brit can get round! This time however I managed to hold on for the win, Brit in 2nd (but she'll be back :-)!)<br />
<br />
Now for Cheshire Classic!<br />
There was 3 of us riding, myself, Jo, and Nicola. Sandra hadn't made the start sheet, so our suicidal attack from the gun trump card was missing, but she was there in force riding the course in reverse to yell support at us as we passed each lap!<br />
<br />
This year the field was stronger than ever, and this proved true of the pase, fast from the start! But for some reason today none of this bothered me. Early on Eve Roade up and said something like, u can do this, get stuck in there! I don't know why but I moved up! I kept losing position on the climb a few times, but it was certainly easier moving up the bunch than in previous years. Wheather the faster pase was shelling out more of the dodgier riding I don't know, but it certainly felt like a safer bunch than a lot of flat team series races andoso for once I was happy to be in the bunch.<br />
<br />
End of lap 2 and I was out the back of bunch over fast section after top of climb! We flew past Sandra shouting to get back in there! Legs wouldn't go any faster but by the dual carriageway, me and another rider made it back to bunch.<br />
<br />
The first lap it was like they sprinted up that climb. Subsequent laps it eased a little and I felt that I could maybe survive a bit longer.<br />
<br />
Lap 6 of 12 tho, and it was finally the prime lap that caught me out, the one time I hadn't managed to move up bunch before climb and I find myself without a wheel to follow as they sprint into the hill for the line. I'm gone and out the back! Damn if only I could of survived till top of climb I might have had a slim chance of getting back on, but not now!<br />
<br />
Instead I caught Hannah Walker, who had been in an earlier break. We worked together for another 3 laps before we were pulled out with 3 to go.<br />
<br />
Jo was still hanging in there, well more than hanging in there, taking turns on front, getting in breaks, and making it her mission to mark the strong riders, it certainly worked and she hung in to finish with the bunch, great riding Jo, onwards and upwards!<br />
<br />
I too strangely enough enjoyed the race, despite being dropped, it was still a good race for me and progress on last year's result! <br />
Now for over coming the bug bear of Bedford and the flat horrid courses, with cars around every bend and choppy riding! It's never a favourite race of mine, but all I need to do is believe it's an absolutely fantastic course, and all will be fine ;-)<br />
<br />
Iona<br />
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<br />Team GB Cycleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04986566213862005452noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4162750487928591438.post-37319206595599011622014-04-14T21:52:00.001+01:002014-04-14T21:52:03.961+01:00Tour of the Reservoir 12th April, by KarenAfter our success at Capernwray and Jo's awesome result at Tour ta Malta, it had the potential to be another day for the GB Cycles climbing whippets on 12th April at Derwent Reservoir in Northumberland.<br />
<br />
This race was put in my calendar months ago when it was first publicised, and a long time before it was added to the National Series. So I was targetting it as a key early season race with ambitions of doing very well. I managed to persuade Jo to come and join me, while the other girls were still enjoying the sun in Sicily. I had previously ridden most of the course as part of a triathlon and also went out to pre-ride it last weekend in preparation. It wasn't super-hilly but with prevailing winds whipping down the reservoir it was going to be a tough race.<br />
<br />
We all lined up in the square in Blanchland just before 9 on Saturday morning - about 60 women took to the start line. We did a couple of nervy neutralised miles then the racing started. Epic - Scott with 9 riders in the race were always going to be the dominant team and so it turned out right from the flag dropping. As always there was a lot of fighting for position in the early kilometres and I thought I had done ok getting up to the front quickly, but found myself swamped going into the big climb for the first time. No one pushed the pace so the whole field was bunched up. I had an inexperienced rider in front of me who was making me nervous. I was proved right when she wobbled and fell into the verge right in front of me, leaving me nowhere to go. I fell as gently as I could, stayed calm, picked myself up, popped my chain back on and off I went again, with the whole field up the road ahead. I chased hard, catching up and overtaking the back-markers quickly, but then started to struggle in the crosswinds on the top. A few others were around with me, and together we managed to get back on just before the road turned into the headwind. I moved straight through the field back to the front ready to watch and cover any moves from Epic - Scott or Matrix.<br />
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<i>Karen sitting comfortably in the lead group</i><br />
<br />
The next lap and a half saw the field gradually being whittled down, and at the end of lap 2 attacks were starting to fly off the front only to be caught again. I was there and feeling comfortable (although hadn't realised that Jo had been having mechanical problems and had been dropped) when disaster struck. On the descent into Edmundbyers Hayley Jones (Pearl Izumi Sports Tours International) lost her wheel on the slightly greasy road, sliding out right into me; nothing I could do to avoid hitting the tarmac very hard and sliding across it for what felt like an age. Then I felt someone else go right over the top of me. OK, is anything badly hurt? No, I don't think so, but a quick decision that I wasn't going to carry on any further. I picked me and my bike up to see who else was down. As well as Hayley and me, it was Mel Brand (Epic - Scott) and Liz Malins (Fusion RT). Everyone else was looked after by team cars but after a quick check over by the paramedic I was left on the side of the road in pain with no extra clothes and an unfunctional bike.<br />
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Having sent one spectator to go and send a message to Mr Red Riding Hood at the feed zone, another very friendly spectator lent me his coat and let me sit in his car until I was picked up. By this time I had realised that there was very little non-painful movement coming from my left shoulder. Mr Red Riding Hood (my knight in shining skoda) eventually arrived a whole lap later with Tom and Eve's dad also in the car. I got bundled in while the bike was put in the boot, and we drove round to the finish.<br />
<br />
By this time in the race, a 2-up break of Alexie Shaw (Epic - Scott) and Nikki Juniper (Pearl Izumi Sports Tours) had gone clear, and with Matrix seemingly lacking fire-power in the bunch the gap was never going to close. Jo was storming through the tail-end of the now disintegrated peloton, having sorted out her mechanical problem. On the final sprint Nikki outwitted Alexie to take an impressive win. But as always Jo was our hero, having pulled herself back up into 25th position. Here she is crossing the finishing line.<br />
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This new race on the calendar was a great success. Hopefully next year the girls will get to do the full two-day race that the men do, which will certainly sort out the women from the girls.<br />
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And just in case you are wondering, the shoulder is not broken, but it has a visit to my very friendly shoulder physio tomorrow to see what is wrong with it!Team GB Cycleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04986566213862005452noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4162750487928591438.post-6920644010567867822014-04-11T18:03:00.000+01:002014-04-11T18:07:46.116+01:00Post Tour Ta Malta training and mostly eating camp in SicilyAfter a very physically and emotionally taxing four days racing in Malta, mainly down to suffering with a violent stomach bug/food poisoning over the last 2 days of the tour, I was definitely ready for some chill out time, recovery rides and then some productive training in the sun (without horrific stomach pain!) before returning to the UK.<br />
<br />
Our Sicily group consisted of Iona, Sandra, Steph, Michelle me and Rob. We spent two days off the bike in Malta recovering after the Tour doing some sight seeing in Valetta the old capital city of Malta which was definitely needed as I was still suffering from some of the post effects of the stomach bug so I did a lot of sleeping too! <br />
<br />
At 4am we woke up to ride down to the ferry which was a surprising nice ride considering it was just past dawn! My legs were still very heavy from the Tour so it was nice to spin them out before we rode later in the day in Sicily. We all had a good sleep on the ferry before we got picked up at the ferry port by our lovely host called Salvo in Sicily. Later that day we had an easy 2 hr spin out to Milo were I was starting to worry if my legs would ever feel the same again!<br />
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The next day, after a humongous pizza and a good sleep my legs suddenly reappeared! We set off up Mount Etna for our first climb of the training camp. It was a long 20k climb so 1hr and 30 mins later we arrived at the top of Etna. The mist was really thick at the top and the temperature as sub zero with not much of a view to see except the team saxo bank car that we all got very excited about, we all huddled into the restaurant for a quick coffee before we descended. At this point however both me and Iona shivering badly so when we started descending I really suffered. My body completely froze up and I don't think iv ever been as cold on a bike and thats saying something as iv been in some bad situations in the uk! Then I got a puncture! Rob very kindly sorted out my puncture as I couldn't feel my fingers! I decided I needed to go home to get warm so Rob very kindly escorted me home and the girls carried on to do abit more of a ride. When I got back to the hotel I got straight into bed and slept for 4 hours! All the girls rode really well today and climbed great!<br />
<br />
Day 2 I finally felt like I was recovering from the stomach illness and was excited to ride up Etna again, today we were riding up the steepest side of Etna and as soon as we hit the climb me Rob and Iona hit it hard! I loved this climb it was my favourite climb so far since iv started cycling...just a brutal climb for 1hour 30 mins! It was a much better and warmer day thankfully! So when we got to the top we got an amazing view and took a lot of pictures which I didn't think we would get to do considering how cold it was at the top yesterday. We had a guide today a lovely guy also called Salvo, it seems everyone in Sicily seems to be called Salvo! After the ride Salvo invited us to go to meet his Mum who ran an old people's home at the most of Etna she cooked us a three course meal which was amazing including all homemade wine, vegetables, and olives. We had a lot of banter although only Steph could understand Salvo who couldn't speak any English and we couldn't speak any Italian so it was a rather amusing meal signing to each other.<br />
<br />
I am currently sat here about to go to tea with the team and I can officially say I have my appetite back yeppeee! Tomorrow we are planning an easy 2 hour ride before we head back to Malta for one day then fly back to the UK on Monday :(<br />
<br />
It's been a great four days in Sicily the girls have been great fun and have all ridden really well and I definitely want to come back here to batter myself up Etna some more next year!<br />
<br />
That's all for now, next race Nigel Measom 2-day stage race then Cheshire Classic...bring it on!<br />
<br />
Baby Tate <br />
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D<br />
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<br />Team GB Cycleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04986566213862005452noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4162750487928591438.post-64286109619400670122014-04-04T17:56:00.001+01:002014-04-04T17:56:01.844+01:00A few pictures from Stage 2 Tour ta Malta St Martins RR.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />Team GB Cycleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04986566213862005452noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4162750487928591438.post-77671315922484472562014-04-03T19:48:00.000+01:002014-04-03T19:48:15.418+01:00Tour ta Malta, Stage 1Today was TT day! There had been a last minute change of course a couple of day's before we were due to fly out to Malta. So instead of the 3 laps and 15 miles of the coast road, it was moved to a straight bit of dual carriage way on top of a hill! With 7 laps!<br />
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On route to course!<br />
<br />
1. One of the motor bike marshalls drove into the kerb and fell off!<br />
2. Nic thought she had a puncture, but no it was just the shorts!<br />
3. Eve realised her wheel was not in straight and was rubbing against frame. (She wondered why the hill was such hard work!<br />
43. We got there, and rode course!<br />
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What else can we tell you! <br />
<br />
Oh we must thank the lady who owned the pet shop!<br />
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TT time!<br />
Jo managed to miss the turn point on first lap! She headed straight round roundabout instead.<br />
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Anyway we rode the tt, I caught several people, and it was very windy!<br />
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Results in and as per usual they were dubious! Jo was in 4th despite the missing turn and adding on valuable time. She did a 33min 43sec, so we thought she might stand a good chance of a podium place, but no! Instead the winning time was 32 min!<br />
With all of us in the first half of field, and 5 of us the first 11, we are set for road race next day and the best course of the tour, despite the rather bumpy decent and corners!<br />
<br />
Iona<br />
<br />
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Team GB Cycleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04986566213862005452noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4162750487928591438.post-10243907283289171622014-04-01T07:22:00.000+01:002014-04-01T07:22:18.880+01:00Victory for Jo at Capernwray, by Karen<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Vz8RklLnbWU/UzpYQbIhIcI/AAAAAAAAA8s/OedYf0DCAI8/s1600/DSC_0410.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Vz8RklLnbWU/UzpYQbIhIcI/AAAAAAAAA8s/OedYf0DCAI8/s1600/DSC_0410.jpg" height="132" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Just before the start</td></tr>
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The CDNW series of races is going from strength to strength, and the 3rd race in the 2014 league took place on the Capernwray course on 30th March. The course used to be a National Women's Series race, last used in 2012 when Karen first experienced the course. It is a proper hilly course, so Team GB Cycles set their climbing whippets loose to run havoc with the rest of the field.<br />
<br />
<br />
With clocks changing on Saturday night, it felt like a particularly early start, but nevertheless the sun was shining and it warmed up quickly enough, and it was shorts and short sleeves once the race got going. The rollout and first climb of Sunny Bank was neutralised, then the flag dropped and off we went. This was the first CDNW race I had ever done, and I must say the atmosphere in the peloton was a sheer pleasure. We were all looking after each other and there was a bit of time for chatting and getting to know some of the other girls. There were a few attacks in the first lap, none of which worried us at all, knowing that subsequent climbs of Sunny Bank would make the race. Soon enough we were back round, and despite the voice in my head telling me that I didn't really want to be on the front, I ended up there and cranked up the pace, not looking back until the top of the hill to see what damage I had done. Yes, all the usual suspects were there - Lynn Hamel, Claire Martin, Eve Dixon, Ness Whitfield and some others who I didn't recognise - a group of 10 or 11 in total. A quick whisper to Jo acknowledging that stage 1 of the plan had been executed and a check on how each of us was feeling, and on we went. Again, lap 2 saw a few attacks off the front, but soon enough they were pulled in with most riders taking a turn in pace setting and chasing. Yet again I found myself on the front climbing Sunny Bank although let others take the prime. Lap 3 went the same way again and soon enough we were half way round the last lap and another quick whisper with Jo to check how we were feeling.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Near the top of Sunny Bank</span></td></tr>
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Going into the bottom of Sunny Bank for the last time, both of us were watching Lynn Hamel, expecting her to launch an attack; I was second or third wheel, with Jo coming round the outside to take the lead, and steadily she opened up a gap. Come on Eve, Lynn - are you not going with Jo? No movement. OK, I'll go then, and suddenly we had a 10s then 20s then 30s gap and as we climbed it grew all the time. I said "Jo, we've only gone and done it" to which the response I got was "we haven't yet" and we kept on pushing. Because Jo had been sitting in the bunch for the race while I had been doing a bit more work, and because she is an amazing climber, she eventually gapped me and flew up the hill to take a brilliant win. Lynn managed to find something to close the gap to me, but I was aware she was approaching and had a final kick left to make sure she didn't come past me. 1-2 for Team GB Cycles. Massive hugs and smiles and a bit of couldn't quite believe that we'd done it ensued. It was a brand new feeling and incredibly satisfying to be sitting in a peloton mid-race and knowing that there was no one in the race to be daunted by and actually really believing that we could win. I can't wait for the next climbing whippet outing at Tour of the Reservoir on 12th April.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Jo taking the win.</span></td></tr>
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Karen taking second, Lynn Hamel third.</div>
Team GB Cycleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04986566213862005452noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4162750487928591438.post-54796574536217878482014-03-29T23:00:00.003+00:002014-03-29T23:00:52.648+00:00March and season start!<strong>Racing thus far!</strong><br />
<br />
After a weeks training in Spain at end of Feb it was back to racing with the first of a series of crits at York and Prissick circuits.<br />
<br />
Last weekend 22nd March, it was a full weekend of racing. While Sandra, Nicola, Linda, Steph and Kim headed to Hog Hill, which saw a field of 100 riders! <br />
Brit and I headed north to Middlesborough for the Prissick Crit. It was Brit's first race back after a month off the bike due to illness.<br />
It was also the first outing of the season, for our new team shoes, many thanks to Northwave, i-ride and Geoffrey Butler Cycles!<br />
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There were 5 of us for the start of race. Within the first 2 laps we'd lost all but one other girl. I decided to attack, I got a gap, but she brought me back. Then Brit attacked, and I was left having to chase back on! Next thing the other girl attacked Brit! I bridged across to Brit then set about reeling in the escapee! She was strong, but eventually with 3 laps remaining we closed the gap.<br />
Into final lap and I was leading it out, however the other rider wanted to have lead into final bend, but I came back round her, and kept lead. Only for me to ground pedal on inside of bend. I heard Brit yell form behind, as the other girl started to come round me, it was a head wind finish! Having to check my speed out of corner having grounded pedal on inside of bend, I tried to keep the momentum. But no good she had the gap, and Brit was chasing for 2nd place. We well and truly attacked ourselves into the ground trying to get rid of our fellow rider. Only to get beaten by her, we later found out that she was a youth rider!!! <br />
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After race: 4:30pm and Brit and I started the road trip down to Sudbury, a 4hr drive south, to race Ipswich road race next day. We arrived down in time for Lasange, yum, thanks Sandra!<br />
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Next day, race day! Nic, Brit and I we're racing. Sandra after a good race at Hog hill previous day, decided to take an easy day and not race, instead she was the all important team back up, cheering us round course!<br />
The race came down to a bunch of 12! The three of us tried several times to split the bunch further, but by last lap it was probably going to come down to a bunch sprint. I got stuck on front last lap. Brit didn't want to get boxed in. By the time we got to final hill, before line, I went too early, Brit came off my wheel at the point I SHOULD have been starting the lead out! <br />
Brit still managed a well deserved 4th place, and Nicola in 5th. I rolled in 11th after having gone way too early into the final hill! Oh well we live and learn, we'll get it right next time. <br />
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<strong>This Weekend</strong><br />
<br />
This weekend, and today's race Saturday 29th March. Brit and I we're racing at York again today. Jo Blackburn also came, and guest rode for us. So as we lined up on start line, the race was handicapped, 13 against 4! 3 of us in handicapped group in Geoffrey Butler Kit! <br />
We worked well together the 4 of us. Until we caught the bunch. I attacked the bunch out of the hairpin, into the tail wind finish straight. We got rid of most of field, then i kept it going for two laps, and we finally got rid of all but our fellow Albarosa rider. Albarosa girl was out numbered 3 to 1. With 10 laps to go, Jo did a hard turn out of hairpin, and I just let her go! <br />
A few laps down, and the Albarosa girl seemed to have no intension of closing the gap to Jo! Silly girl, you should never let a time trialist up the road! I think she was far too concerned with marking Brit and myself to care that one of our team mates was half a lap up!<br />
Unfortunatly Jo somehow managed to come a cropper on the hairpin with about 5 laps to go! Think she caught her pedal on inside of corner. Brit and I slowed as we passed Jo to check she was ok, as Jo was in middle of track on final hairpin. It was then the Albarosa rider decides to attack us! <br />
<br />
Time to re asses, so Jo was out, such a shame she was on for the win! <br />
I was going to lead Brit out form final corner. Perfect with tail wind finish. Jo was still on ground in track, and we we're having to take the inside line round final hairpin carefully. Last lap and I was on front, but Brit was third wheel, not where she needed to be! After trying to swing off to allow Brit to come round Albarosa rider, I had to rely on Brit being able to get round her in finish straight. Into final hairpin, I lead into bend. Only to find the first aid guy had put his bag in the middle of the hairpin, on the inside, which was the line we had been taking previously. There was a man in track waving us round to outside of bend, which is the line I took. I led out sprint form that final bend. We caught some lapped riders and I had to go wide, allowing Albarosa girl to come through on inside. Nearing line, and i saw someone coming round me on my right, hoping it was Brit, but it wasn't! I kicked again to accelerate a bit more, next thing, meters form line, and next thing the Albarosa girl manages to veer into me! I have to check my speed and try stay upright! Damn 2nd again for me!<br />
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Brit no where in sight, rolls in after us. Turns out she managed to ride into the damn paramedics first aid bag!!!!! I mean come on who on earth thinks it a good idea to put a bag in middle of track when there's a race going on! Luckily Brit was ok, and stayed up right, but that was the end of any hopes for the sprint for her!<br />
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Luckily Jo too was ok, just a bit bruised and a ruined bran new skin suit, but apart form that all good!<br />
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So all in all an eventful couple of weekends racing! Let's hope that's all miss haps out of way! <br />
Next stop Malta 3 day's form now, bring it on! <br />
<br />
IonaTeam GB Cycleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04986566213862005452noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4162750487928591438.post-35339333049520066982014-03-22T08:53:00.001+00:002014-03-22T08:53:58.553+00:00Wheeler's 25 mile Wonder
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Coalville Wheelers 25 mile 2up TTT</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The course consisted of two laps of a course around
Griffydam, close to the Women’s Team Series race in Coalville later in the year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My teammate was Kath Pyke, a former pro rock
climber and a very strong rider, Kath was happy to guest for Team GB and wear our
team colours. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thanks Kath<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">J</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">It was a fast start, on a downhill section on a lovely
winding road, this was definitely my favourite part of the course.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Time trailing for 25 miles was new to both
Kath and myself so our main aim was to keep the pace steady and make sure we
worked as team.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The first half of the
course was flattish and then through a village with speed bumps and cars to
negotiate. The course turned lumpy before heading back along a slight uphill in
a head wind, but then it was onto the second lap and the nice downhill winding
road...but no chance to ease off here! </span><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ScT5lRjgtzI/Uy1OMQQHkmI/AAAAAAAAA70/7Nc05e5WeyU/s1600/ttt1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ScT5lRjgtzI/Uy1OMQQHkmI/AAAAAAAAA70/7Nc05e5WeyU/s1600/ttt1.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">We returned to the clubhouse for a good spread of
cakes and hot drinks, all buzzing from the event.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Thanks to all the Wheelers and the Pymm family for the
excellent organisation and looking after all the riders with the tea and cakes
also to Gareth for lending me the Cosmics (who needs brakes hey)!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Overall, good fun and a great experience – Kath </span><br />
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Team GB Cycleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04986566213862005452noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4162750487928591438.post-79527814110168706992014-03-03T21:53:00.004+00:002014-03-03T21:58:18.847+00:002 Up TT If you go down to the woods today.............<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 13px;">If you go down to the woods today...............</span><br />
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The 2nd of March saw Stephi and myself heading further south to the new forest to ride a 2 up 10 mile TT .</div>
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Now as a team we do seem to have a fascination with zoo's , and singing children's nursery rhymes such as daddy's gona take us to the zoo tomorrow, not the normal run of choice motivational songs!!! (Iona) </div>
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The day was slightly overcast but dry, and the location lovely right in the new forest.....</div>
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Stephi and I duly got our faithful steads ready, with much phaffing to be done!! </div>
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Onto the rollers and the turbo, and we were happily warming up.</div>
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A little time later, Stephi and I went down the rode for a bit just to get a little bit of 2 up practice in.</div>
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For both of us it was the first time we had ridden our TT bikes since last season, so a few adjustments here and there and we were almost ready to get down to the start......</div>
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On the way down, I spotted a few little donkeys in the road, we casually passed them by and over the cattle grid (Not sure Abe my TT bike likes cattle grids) down to the bottom of the road, and just to the left for the start.........</div>
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After last minute Important tasks to be done, we timed it to the start with perfection, mouth going dry, heart starting to race, 30 seconds to go, phaffing to get the position right, 5,4,3,2,1 off we went......it was about a mile to the first turn, which I have to say came up quite quickly, with the turn negotiated, it was a bit of a windy up and downy road , thus far the course I thought was nice, we were really enjoying it, and the scenery which will be more evident later on in this blog.....</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sandra and Stephi</td></tr>
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Had we reccied the course first we would have noticed a bit of a shortish sharp climb up to the next left turn, but we dug in deep and put a good hard effort in up to the left turn thanking the marshals as we went by. </div>
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As this road cleared of bushes and houses it proved to be a bit of a cross wind which was hard going but nonetheless we kept working hard, another bit of a small drag then another left where we were now on the top of the hill form the start.</div>
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There was a lovely swooping downhill to another stiff drag, however we did get held up by a car that got stuck behind another 2 up team. One final left hand turn and we had the finish in our sights, pushing harder and harder as you do, we crossed the finish line, happy with our efforts.......</div>
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The course was varied and interesting, and the wildlife a welcome site.</div>
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We started off the day seeing a couple of donkeys, then we saw horses, and then a couple of happy chomping pigs searching for truffles!!!</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our Friend</td></tr>
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But there was one species we couldn't identify!! </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kQPuFIeDLAk/UxT4j4okvEI/AAAAAAAAA7g/_1FGNuojpxE/s1600/IMG_0245.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kQPuFIeDLAk/UxT4j4okvEI/AAAAAAAAA7g/_1FGNuojpxE/s1600/IMG_0245.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We have called him Steve, we realised he liked Coffee!!!</td></tr>
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We cooled down, and then went to the Nomansland Reading Room, to check the times, and we were pleased to see that we had won the ladies side of the competition, which was really nice. </div>
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We received some lovely prizes of Water bottles and some lovely flowers and some prize money, a totally well organised friendly event, of which I am certain we will be back again soon. Thank you to Antelope CC for a lovely well organised event.</div>
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Team GB Cycleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04986566213862005452noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4162750487928591438.post-29160644366292089422014-02-25T22:16:00.001+00:002014-02-25T22:16:39.696+00:00A suffolk Sportive followed by Death by Little One... Or was it?<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 13px;">The title of this blog tells a tale, a long tale.....</span><br />
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Once upon a time the little One (Nicola Soden) came to sunny suffolk to ride a suffolk sportive, followed by a bit of more riding on the Sunday. </div>
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Friday night came, and the little one arrived after a long trip from Manchester, (neither of us had any better offers on valentines night) so fed and watered we set to bed ready for the Amis Velo Valentines Sportive the next day.</div>
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On waking up we both talked about the winds the night before. We decided to text Mary as she too was meeting up with us and see what she thought about the current wind situation.</div>
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It was decided that it was far far too dangerous to go out on a sportive, so we ate, we watched TV and then at about 11:30/12 we decided that we would go out.....Hmmmm thinking the winds had died down it appeared that the winds picked up, and were rather gusty, and we both agreed a wise decision was made earlier in the day to not ride the sportive, especially as we both got blown across the rode at certain points.</div>
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Sunday however I found another local sportive, so not all was lost. Mary sadly couldn't join us, as she was riding with others, going slightly further afield, so 100km of sunny suffolk roads were to be had, we turned up, got asked if it was because of us arriving that the sun was shinning......... Now in normal circumstances I don't fall for quick witted chat up lines , and come back equally quick with a more quick witted response, instead we just agreed that yes, it was down to us, only to be told, I've asked 5 others so far........either way it made us chuckle, a good start.....</div>
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So we register sit in the car wait, then get ready..... We decided we would go in the medium group that went off first, reason I think, not wanting to hammer it, however , hammer it we did, I know what I was thinking "I don't want my heart rate to be here , not for this long, not now" trying to follow a good wheel as well Prooved difficult so I ended up 2 behind Nic's watching hers as the person in front of me weaved about like a wiggly worm.....</div>
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Still thinking 45 minutes in, ok we are hammering it, and I don't want to be here, saw Nic stick her thumb up and I thought "oh blast, she's signalling she's ok" so I muttered a long resounding yeeeeaaaap</div>
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Silly Sandra Dee</div>
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I then decided to pull alongside and say, "I think I fancy a bit of a recovery" and to my delight we both sat up, discussing the fact that we both didn't really need to be going this hard.....and that left about 12 guys in the main group...</div>
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We carried on our merry way, recovering, then picked another group, and then puncture, yes my faithful turby decided he wanted to have a rest, so on the side of the road, puncture fixing we set off again.....</div>
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Now I'm not really too sure at what point things happened , but let's just say, I didn't feel the full sandwich, and legs were dead , maybe too many hard efforts, heart rate way too high for what I was doing, and so I guess you call it the wall or the bonk....so, being a local I knew a few shortcuts and we got back to HQ still with 58 miles in the legs, but me feeling not the best....I was nursed back for about 20 miles by Nicola, I tried not to moan too much....</div>
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The best suggestion all day was lets get chips on the way home, so back near mine the little one popped out of the car and bought back salt and vinegar soaked chips, I took one chip, it hit my lips and mouth and nom nom nom, a chip had never tasted so good, it was as if my body wrapped itself around this one chip and the sensation of yummy yummy and give me more , and lots of other yummy noises were made, so home and chips and lasagne .....just the job.......</div>
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The following weekend was up in Manchester , with the peaks on the menu, so lots more efforts up hills etc, including Wynnats pass and Mam Nick........ so having bonked Sunday, I spent a bit of time loading food, maybe I'd cut the wrong things out, and hadn't got the right stuff in my body, but that whole week I loaded, road when I wanted to leading up to a fitness test on Friday, which I have to say went fairly well.....</div>
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Friday I arrived in Manchester, told that I was going to be fed properly ready for Saturdays ride.....sounds good to me, I never argue where foods concerned, unless there is none!!</div>
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<span style="line-height: 16.5pt;">So like a savage who hasn't eaten for a week, I sit down to diner and rip into the garlic bread pulling it apart with the eagerness to taste the smell of garlic, .......whilst happily eating I notice Nicola staring at her lovely painted green wall........there are a few spots on it.....what can it be??</span></div>
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Garlic from the ripped into garlic bread???</div>
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Nooooooo.......</div>
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Ahhhhhh but yes,, and it has stained said wall</div>
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So just found out Nic's rest day is re painting her wall, </div>
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Watch out I'm back in 2 weeks time 😝 </div>
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Saturday morning came, we left later than planned, but we set off to Sett Valley Cycles in New Mills To get brakes sorted on Nic's bike, by the wonderful Stu and Sam, and also to be told all the horror stories of today's steepest of climbs, which silently un nerves me, especially when boys shake their heads, </div>
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When it comes to downhill and bomb holes I never like to look, I just want to go, otherwise I analyse far too much and that nasty chimp sits on my shoulder talking me out of such things..........so we left the shop, down the hill and boom, cerveee punctured, it sounded like an air compressor going off, so he too wasn't keen on too much hard work today..........so back to the shop, once again for the 2nd time all sorted and off we went, for real this time, no turning back, no punctures, up snake pass and other bumps I'm not used to in suffolk, but with doubt in my head, following last weeks bad Sunday ride, it had affected me, can I do it? will I do it?the doubt monkey was talking a lot louder than I normally let him, and my confidence monkey was no where to be seen. </div>
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This is when you need your team mates around you, this is when you need the right things to be said, even if it is said in silence, you know your team mates understand, having been there before themselves to have had all the doubts that are now filling up in your head.......</div>
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But I hadn't been like this in a long time, doubting if I could climb, visualising myself walking my bike up the 25/28% ramps of wynnats pass.......instead of my usual positive visualisation work that I do , on the approach I slowed back off Nic's wheel having an argument with myself, I was really winding myself up about something that now I can see is so simple, something you should enjoy..... </div>
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But it was a confidence issue, so basically failure isn't an option, was repeated over and over and over, knowing Nic would be just up front ahead of me helped, she said the right things prior to me slowing up......but once over that cattle grid, that was it........ </div>
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Failure wasn't an option, the walking the bike up had gone, focus was now the option, focus and a few expletives to ones self over took that doubt monkey who was left sitting at the cattle grid.......... It was hard, it was windy, I could see Nic climbing, and I could see how it was, but kept calm and just plugged away, to the cattle grid at the end, it was shorter than I thought, but done, and I said to Nic at the top, "I NEED a hug" didn't get one, just got to man up really, but job jobbed, and so it was now a few moments away to filling ones tummy monster with food.......I felt good, the confidence was back, and the doubt for today was gone..... </div>
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We set off downhill then up to go down Mam Nick, then to a nice little cafe to get some lunch.</div>
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Leaving the cafe behind us we <span style="line-height: 16.5pt;">set off again concerned that maybe the light was against us, up Mam nick and then off we set.....</span></div>
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The last bit of a test for the day was Long hill, which was about 4 miles gradual to the top, which we did together to the top and then back down and back to the start some maybe 10/15 minutes away from the start, pretty chuffed that we got another 58 miles in , but Hilly, so both happy and both ready for a good feed.</div>
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Saturday evening saw us pretty tired, got some good food, and Sunday we had a more flattish ride around Cheshire, a thoroughly great weekend, absolutely loved it, and really needed a good ride to just give back that lost confidence, Nic really helped, and that's the beauty of team mates, we are always there for each other, and always willing to help out, it's what Team GB Cycles is all about.....as well as the racing 😄.</div>
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Team GB Cycleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04986566213862005452noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4162750487928591438.post-20878770946321325242014-02-19T22:33:00.001+00:002014-02-19T22:33:04.025+00:00In Spain with Iona.........<div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">
Day 3 and another 4hr day planned. This time up the climb we had descend on the first day, Val d' Ebo. Then the roller coaster of a road, as it's nothing but steep ramps up and down.<div>
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Just over 2 hrs in and after just stopping for water, going up another series of ramps, my right gear lever decided to just stop working! Brand new cables, cables are fine, the shifter just breaks! Fantastic! So luckily i'm stuck in a gear I'm able to get home in, well over the ramps at least, 39/25! But after that not so lucky as it was down hill all the way! Down the super highway from Castells....not so happy, it was spin spin spin, aero tuck trying to carry as much speed as I could in the 53/25!</div>
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By the time we got back to the apartment I'd come to the conclusion that pedaling is over rated!</div>
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Next thing new shifters for bike, so a trip to local bike shop! It could have been worse I guess, (apart form the cost), at least it happened day before a planned easy/rest day.</div>
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Tuesday, day 4.</div>
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After a couple of trips to bike shop, I finally got my bike back at 2:30, half an hour after the bike shop supposedly shut for lunch!</div>
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Bike back and I notice there was a chain ring bolt missing! Grrrr another trip back to the bike shop then, from where I'd just been, only problem, it now didn't open again until 4:30!</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Is it really that cold in spain? I wasn't even dressed like that for a ride in the dark here :-)</td></tr>
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So an hours spin on the bikes, then back to shop and new bolt for chain ring. Finally problem solved! For the past 3 day's my bike's been creaking up every hill, and felt like something was moving when climbing out of saddle. So hopefully that was the issue all along and so maybe it's problem solved! </div>
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Report back tomorrow, a long 5 or 6 hour day is the plan!</div>
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Team GB Cycleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04986566213862005452noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4162750487928591438.post-60047010448401635592014-02-19T18:35:00.001+00:002014-02-19T21:29:14.664+00:00Team Training Weekend in Lumpy Leicestershire<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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So the weekend started off on Friday night, with ride fuel
of chilli and jacket potatoes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had a
longish ride ahead the next day so it was an early night, well for all apart from
the sleepover girls in the room downstairs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There was raucous laughter and loads of giggling going on, I nearly
moved my bed downstairs so as not to miss out...Apparently it was something to
do with a half naked man swinging on a huge metal ball (don’t ask!!) or was
that Saturday...</div>
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Anyway, back to the cycling, the plan was to do one of my normal
winter training routes which was around the Vale of Belvoir, the flattest route
around, apart from a 19% climb out the Vale (well done little Soden for QOM on
that one)! </div>
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The wind gave us a real battering throughout and I had a
good lesson in what I should be eating by bonking half way round (how embarrassing),
but we carried on and feedback was that the Yorkshire lasses enjoyed the flat terrain
as it was a nice change from the norm. </div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Srhqnm2wtOs/UwT4k91echI/AAAAAAAAA6s/E6Fgy20sn2I/s1600/photo+2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Srhqnm2wtOs/UwT4k91echI/AAAAAAAAA6s/E6Fgy20sn2I/s1600/photo+2.JPG" height="239" width="320" /></a></div>
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Saturday night included a feast of bangers and mash by head
chef Karen (spot on) and more sleepover laughs.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On Sunday, I decided to take the GB team out around the
Charnwood Forest and sample a few of the hills, including (hill climb race) Polly
Botts, Beacon Hill and the lumps around Whitwick.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>Overall a fantastic
weekend, great to ride with teamies, thanks all! </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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<div class="MsoNormal">
by Linda </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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<div class="MsoNormal">
Feb 2014 </div>
Team GB Cycleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04986566213862005452noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4162750487928591438.post-71121716856297692482014-02-17T22:00:00.003+00:002014-02-17T22:01:14.928+00:00Iona out in Spain with Team GB CyclesFriday and a train ride to the airport.<br />
<br />
Then just in time for the winds to pick up, it was a bummpy take off from Manchester airport, as we left the gale force winds behind and headed for the warmer sunnier weather in Spain!<br />
We arrived at apartment late, so time for cake!<br />
<br />
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<br />
Not much cake left now!<br />
<br />
Day 1, glorious sunny weather and 25 degrees for the first ride, a steady 3 hr 40 min warm up.<br />
Time for a water stop.<br />
<br />
Top of Val d' Ebo.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6fa0yztXw6M/UwKGazf06dI/AAAAAAAAA6g/srDvhNJV0Eg/s1600/20140215_151410.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6fa0yztXw6M/UwKGazf06dI/AAAAAAAAA6g/srDvhNJV0Eg/s1600/20140215_151410.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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View for the balcony, got to go in at some point!<br />
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<br />
<br />
Day 2 and up Col d' Rates climb, not too long not too steep, awesome climb! <br />
Reached the top, to find next to ride up was Lizzie Armistead and the rest of her team. We were then all nearly mowed down by the cafe owner at top of Rates, as he accelerated his car towards us, angry that we we're standing in the way, blocking the entry to his cafe!<br />
<br />
Back along the main road, and a road i don't remember too fondly, as it came at the end of a 6 hour ride last year, and it drags on and on!<br />
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Team GB Cycleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04986566213862005452noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4162750487928591438.post-20314917070417448402014-01-16T18:53:00.001+00:002014-01-16T18:53:29.141+00:00A couple of months winter training in the life of Baby Tate After the team weekend at my house which was great fun including lots of banter, Christmas was dawning closer. A couple of weeks before the team travelled up to the Tate Household I had just started out training with a coach which I have never done before in cycling. After finding someone who I felt I would work well with I took the leap and began the programme. I have really been enjoying the training plans and my coach is great! Hes detailed with his plans, he understands how work can affect cycling, and also seems to have picked up how my head works when it comes to training very quickly! This has been great for me particularly when it came to being ill for over a week and a half (still have some symptoms remaining) during the week of Christmas as he guided me step by step each day as to what I should do depending on how I felt and iv never felt so stress free during a period of time off training. <div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I feel finding a coach in cycling is a really hard task, but I would definitely recommend making the effort to find someone you feel you will work well with, if you havnt already, as its such a great help to have that support behind you, more mentally than physically in some respects!</div>
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After a dramatic Christmas, involving my Nan going into Hospital and eating loaded potato skins and scraps from the fridge for Christmas dinner, I was out from training for nearly 2 weeks with a cold. Coming back into training now that im feeling better, winter training is commencing as per usual, cold wet days on the bike but with the excitement of the up and coming Spain training camp with afew of the GB girls and the prospect of competing in the Tour Ta Malta warming me up and keeping me going through the tough weather conditions. </div>
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I have also been planning and looking at the race calendar for the up and coming season with my main targets being the Elite Crits and the Womens Tour Series. I am really looking forward to competing with my teamies and getting some great memories like I have from last year!</div>
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Sorry its not a very exciting blog but thats all for now, Baby Tate x</div>
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P.s Iv also bought a GBcycles coloured woolly hat, very pleased! </div>
Team GB Cycleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04986566213862005452noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4162750487928591438.post-22631490042924296882013-12-14T21:26:00.000+00:002013-12-14T21:26:56.832+00:00Team training weekend in IlkleyEnd of November and time for our first team training weekend of the winter. We all headed to Brit's in Ilkley, West Yorkshire for the weekend. I was first to arrive, with living the closest it was just a hop across the boarder from East to West Yorkshire. The rest were to arrive much later, with an accident on the A1 not helping the others in their attempts to get there. Brit and I went to a spin class Friday, while we waited for the others to arrive!<br />
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10pm before eventually Sandra and Karen arrived. Then Jo arrived just in time for chocolate fondue and to find Karen, Brit, Chris, Rob and Sandra hiding in the pantry! I had left the room, so they all decided to hide, like small children! Giggling coming from the pantry and the joke was back on them as they emerged form the pantry, I jumped out on them and they nearly wet themselves!<br />
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Next it was chocolate fondue time, and Brit decided on chocolate face paint!<br />
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Nicola then arrived, along with new team mascot bears for everyone!<br />
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/kathsteddysuk" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/kathsteddysuk</a></div>
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Next day and it was a ride out to Malham. Time for a photo stop and a sit in the road (not a single car in sight!).<br />
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Then it was down the awesome decent into Arncliffe, dodging sheep on way down!<br />
Bottom of the climb and we met Chris and Rob, who had ridden out other way to meet us.<br />
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Caffe stop at the trout farm! Then it was back to Ilkley via Burnsall, Barden Towers and Bolton Abbey, an awesome bit of road to ride!<br />
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That evening it was out for food in the little village of Appletreewick.<br />
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Next day was an easy hour and a half's spin. As few of the group had long car journey's back to the deepest darkest south!Team GB Cycleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04986566213862005452noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4162750487928591438.post-24171773505715984202013-11-27T12:28:00.003+00:002013-11-27T12:28:32.895+00:00Our big Sudbury Adventure <br />
Our BIG Sudbury adventure weekend<br />
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Setting off at 1pm on Friday we arrived at Sudbury Sandra's 5 and abit hours later. We were greeted with a scrummy lasagne and a bubbly Sandra to make us feel at home. After being rebel children staying up until midnight watching Pitch Perfect laughing at the cheesiness we hit the hay. A leisurely morning eating bacon sandwiches was a very relaxing start to what was going to turn out to be a rather dramatic day. Arriving at Hillingdon circuit Steph, Sandra and myself not riding for various reasons clustered around the start line to support and cheer on Iona who looked rather lonely out there on the track with no team mates. 12 riders set off from the start line, after afew laps of pissing about Iona took to the front to drill it and try drop some of the weaker riders, 1 lap later it was still together and the bunch, although successfully strung out, came back together. This seemed to be the format for the rest of the race with Iona making some great efforts on the front managing to split the pack on a couple of occasions but with no help from any of the other riders it was inevitable that the bunch would reform after each effort. Coming into the last four laps Iona attacked up the hill successfully thinning out the bunch. 2 laps to go Twickenham CC attacked and caught some dropped men from the Elite race. 1 lap to go Iona bridged the gap with another junior. It was coming down to an exciting sprint finish which Iona won in style...good job Iona!<br />
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Arriving back at the car Sandra was only to find her back car window to have been smashed and Iona's red bag and puffer coat to have been stolen! There really are some awful people in the world. They stole over £1000 worth of Iona's processions including her car keys...yes slight problem how are we going to get home!? After the police had taken there notes and given out victim care cards, the evening consisted of ringing banks, phone companies, insurance companies and autolocksmiths to cut a new key for Iona's car. Iona was a superstar, she took it all in her stride and I was so impressed how she handled it all...if it was my bag I think it may have all been abit more dramatic!<br />
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With the previous days trauma pushed to the back of our minds for the morning we set off to compete in the Sudbury hill Climb that I had been somehow persuaded to do for 'a laugh'. After a good warm to rage against the machine it was my turn to travel to hell and back with Sandra and Nicola having already been there. 5...4...3...2...1 and I was off like sh*t off a shovel. Rounding the corner the head wind hit me sapping the speed out of my legs. Nearing the top there wasn't much left and crossing the line I thought I was going to faint...so I probably did it right then!<br />
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Coffee, cake and a good chat in HQ was to follow...the main reason for attending obviously! Results time... And we couldn't quite read the writing...but then it was written that I won! Sandra got 1.10.9, Nicola was third with 1.08.08, Iona got 1.17 (up for debate!) and I won with 1.00.07. The girls did great and made it a very enjoyable day which considering I hate hills is pretty special!<br />
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With the locksmiths awaiting his £140 payment for a new key when we returned home Iona felt the sting in the bum but again took it very gracefully with Sandra very kindly lending her the money until Iona could get her new bank card an access her money. That's what this team is so great for...you always know they have got your back!<br />
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Gobbling down beans on toast for lunch we were then ready for our 5 hour journey home.<br />
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It was a great weekend as it always is with the GB girls full of laughs, drama and two wins for GBcycles! Thanks Sandra for having us and persuading me a hill climb would be a good idea! :)<br />
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Brit x<br />
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Team GB Cycleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04986566213862005452noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4162750487928591438.post-79103969539658758552013-11-15T13:26:00.001+00:002013-11-15T13:26:19.836+00:00The end of one season or the beginning of the next?<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Due to the fact that I was racing Chrono des Nations on 20<sup>th</sup>
October, Mark decided that I might as well train for one more week and enter
the BUCS Hill Climb on Saturday 26<sup>th</sup> October.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">The Hill Climb is an event that I have always said I would never
enter. First, I don’t really like
hills. Secondly, I don’t think I’m a
particularly strong climber. Maybe I
just have a mental block on climbing since I was pretty heavy when I first
started cycling and so struggled more than most when the gradient started to
increase. Given that I’m now much
lighter I should be fine on all but the steepest ramps but the idea of doing a
hill climb still terrified me! I think the other problem is that the event was
the BUCS HC. Over the past 2 years I
have been one of the strongest riders at all of the BUCS events I have entered
and so the competitor in me really didn’t want to turn up at the first event of
the BUCS 2013-2014 season and get a kicking.
For whatever reason, the suggestion of entering BUCS HC led to several
arguments in our house but, in the end, Mark got his way (which I think we both
always knew he would) and I entered.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">The week before the event I ate (even) less than usual in an attempt to
be as light as possible on the day of the race (it worked – I was 62.7kg on the
Saturday morning which is the lightest I’ve been in my adult life!). Mark was
tasked with the job of ‘slimming down’ my
road bike to give me the best possible chance of getting a good result. Off came bottle cages and the big ring,
saddles were changed to save 100g and skewers were weighed to find the lightest
combination. We did debate whether to take
off the front mech or not but decided that it would be catastrophic if I dropped
my chain during the climb and had no way to get it back on. We also moved my power2max from Pegasus (my
TT bike for those of you who haven’t read one of my blog posts before) to
Artemis (my Scott Foil RR bike) so that I would be able to pace my ride
accurately and not set off too hard – Curbar, the hill the race was on has two
steep sections, at the beginning and end, and those who set off too hard pay
for it in the later stages of the race.
When we were finished the bike was pretty light (though disturbingly
still quite a way over the UCI weight limit), though it did look a little silly
with only a 38t chain ring!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">There were 4 women and 5 men competing for Cambridge at the Hill Climb
and I was the last woman off in the BUCS South event. Being the last rider off
was both a blessing and a curse. Having
never ridden a hill climb I had no idea what to aim for or how I would go. When Cassie McGoldrick (Cambridge fresher who
rode for Wyndymilla this season) came back down the hill after her ride with a
time of 7.16, I was concerned that I wouldn’t make it on to the podium (the
winning time in 2012 was 7.17 by Molly Weaver).
Another of the Cambridge women, Holly Page, had ridden in 2011 and
finished 2<sup>nd</sup> so I really needed to perform well to even make it into
the Cambridge 1<sup>st</sup> BUCS team (made up of the first 2 Cambridge
riders).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Cassie telling me about her race as I warmed up ready for mine</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Soon enough it was my turn to race.
I had been told that the starting holder was not doing a particularly
good job and as a result a few of the women had ended up in the grass verge
after starting. I decided to make sure
this didn’t happen to me and so was slightly bossy, giving him clear and
concise instructions to move me out/in! It worked – I got a clean start,
attacking the first 10 pedal revs before sitting down and settling into my
rhythm. I tend to do most of my climbing
in the saddle and only got out of the saddle around the hairpin bend in the
steep section near the top of the climb.
I knew at this point that I was going pretty well, being slightly ahead
of the time markers I had set myself and able to see my 1-minute woman. I gave it everything I had in the final push
to the line and then stopped dead, barely able to unclip and support myself. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Nearing the finish...</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Checking the results board in HQ told me that I had finished in 7.04.4,
putting me in 1<sup>st</sup> place after the BUCS South event! Natalie Grinczer
had recorded a 7.11.7 for 2<sup>nd</sup> and George Schwiening, a GB
triathlete, was in 3<sup>rd</sup> with a 7.15.6. We all waited anxiously for the Northern
women to race. As more and more riders
finished, the top 5 remained unchanged.
It was looking as though the medals were going to go to Cambridge,
Birmingham and Bath until Georgia Taylor-Brown from Leeds Met finished in
7.15.1, knocking George Schwiening out of the bronze medal position by only 0.5
seconds. However, there was celebration
in the Cambridge camp as the time for the final rider came in. Not only had I won but mine and Cassie’s time
combined had given Cambridge team gold! We finished with 3 riders in the top 6
(Cassie was 5<sup>th</sup> and Holly was 6<sup>th</sup>), which is an amazing
result. The Cambridge men also came away
with team bronze, making 2013 our most successful BUCS Hill Climb to date.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Medals!</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">In total the BUCS Hill Climb attracted 300 riders – a huge field! I was
obviously over the moon at the result and extremely proud of how far I’ve come
in the past few years, but I still can’t say that I enjoyed the experience! I
struggle to see the attraction of hill climbing; it feels strange to be going
so slowly whilst putting in so much effort and putting out so much power! It’s
a massive contrast to time trialling, where I am often hitting speeds of nearly
30 mph. Would I do the event again
though? Yes, I probably would.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
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<span lang="EN-US">So with that I reached the end of my 2012-2013 season, but what is odd
is that I ended with the first event of the new BUCS season. It feels a bit strange to now be taking a
break from the bike, though I am enjoying not having to get up early to fit in
a training session before work! I’m now looking forwards to next season and
working out where I can improve from this year.
Hopefully the good results will keep on coming!<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Team GB Cycleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04986566213862005452noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4162750487928591438.post-22921629700081923252013-11-11T22:06:00.000+00:002013-11-11T22:06:53.133+00:00Parlez-vous anglais?<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11pt;">I had been hoping to compete in my first UCI time trial back in June; the
Celtic Chrono has previously attracted some top female riders and was meant to
take place on 16</span><sup>th</sup><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> June so my plan had been to use it as a warm up
for the British National TT.</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Unfortunately
this year’s event was cancelled due to a lack of funding.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Thus my first UCI race was the Chrono Champenois in mid-September. The
women’s event is a UCI 1.1 and takes place in Betheny, near Reims in Northeast
France, the week before the Worlds.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Mark and I set off bright and early on Saturday 14<sup>th</sup>
September to get the tunnel over to Calais.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The drive from Calais to Betheny was ~3 hours so we made it
to sign-on mid-afternoon with plenty of time to look at the course.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unfortunately our laughable grasp of
French meant that communicating with the staff in HQ was impossible, luckily
the NZ coach was on hand to help us find out what hotel we were staying in
(hotels for UCI races are normally booked by the organizer so I had no idea
where we would be sleeping)! I had planned to ride the course but the bad
weather dictated that we would just drive it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I made a film on our second lap to review in the hotel as
the long course (one single 33.5km loop) meant that there were a lot of turns
to remember.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Although we had the name and address of our hotel, checking in was more
complicated than it should have been (not helped by our language skills!).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The first hotel claimed that they were
full and sent us down the road to a different hotel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After being sent to-and-fro a few times we started to worry
that we would be sleeping in the car.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Luckily at that point the organizer showed up and arranged a room for
us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The next morning we woke to glorious sunshine and headed down to the HQ
nice and early.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mark had a DS
meeting at 10am so I went out for a short spin to look at the first section of
the course and get a feel for wind direction etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The meeting was entirely in French but he managed to get the
crucial information from the Australian and New Zealand coaches.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wasn’t racing until after 2pm so I
had a relaxing morning sitting in the car in the sunshine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I signed a few autographs and had a
couple of photos with local children (being a cyclist is like being a minor
celebrity in France) and generally tried to relax.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Aussie team parked next to us and set up their array of
Scott TT and road bikes (for warming up on).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Basically, it made my set-up look horribly amateur:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;">I got decidedly nervous during warm-up and then spent most of my 15
minutes in the holding pen feeling pretty sick.</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Mark had headed to the car ready to follow me onto the
course so I had nothing but by own thoughts to distract me.</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">We had worked out a series of car horn
signals (not quite as pro as having a radio) so that Mark could communicate
with me if I needed to look up/speed up or if I was catching someone/being
caught.</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Once on the start ramp my
nerves were replaced by determination and I attacked the race right from the
word go.</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">I thought I raced well,
from my overall power to my line choices and cornering.</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Mark was impressed too, which is high
praise! He has never followed me in the car before so I think it was
interesting for him to actually watch me race.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EcjACs9xuyg/UoFTfnmbkjI/AAAAAAAAA1U/JmFamGfYkfE/s1600/2013-09-15+12.06.48.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EcjACs9xuyg/UoFTfnmbkjI/AAAAAAAAA1U/JmFamGfYkfE/s320/2013-09-15+12.06.48.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt;">My following car!</span></div>
<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: 11pt;">I was a little disappointed that I ended up finishing 17</span><sup>th</sup><span style="font-size: 11pt;">
– I thought that I would have placed a bit higher.</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Still, I was pleased with my ride and how close I was to
some big names – I was definitely in the mix! Also, I felt like the experience
of riding such a big event would help the next time I raced a UCI event,
certainly in terms of my nerves!</span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The race was won by Ellen van Dijk, who had a margin of nearly 2
minutes over Carmen Small and Shara Gillow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Van Dijk obviously then went on to win the World TT Championships
the following week, with Small in 3<sup>rd</sup> – to be only 3 minutes behind
a World TT bronze medalist over a 33km course proved that with a little bit
more work I can be competitive in these events (incidentally, I finished only
10 seconds behind the Swiss athlete who placed 21<sup>st</sup> at Worlds).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">In between Chrono Champenois and Chrono des Nations I rode the
Individual Pursuit at the National Track Championships.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My form was good heading into it but I
made the stupid mistake of arranging to socialize the week before the
event.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This resulted in me
catching a cold.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I did everything
I could to recover quickly and by the Wednesday (the day before the IP) I
thought I was better.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Unfortunately though it seems I was not quite over it and by the 2km
mark of my race I was really struggling to breathe – it seems there is nothing
like a 3km max effort to see whether you have recovered from an illness or not!
I still managed a time of 3.54, which is a 1 second PB, but in all honesty I
felt like I was capable of much more had I been at full fitness.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">After the track I had just over 3 weeks to fully recover and make
further improvements before Chrono des Nations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My training reached a new level of brutality but I was
hitting the best numbers I’ve ever reached over all durations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When the start sheet was released a few
days before the event it was fairly intimidating, featuring the best of the UK
time trailing scene along with top pros including Olga Zabelinskaia, Amber Neben,
Elisa Longo Borghini and the ever-green French time triallist Jeannie
Longo.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I knew it was going to be a
tough race but I was determined to do my best and see how close I could get to
the professionals!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The journey to Les Herbiers was long (it was a 6 hour drive from
Calais) and we struggled to find the HQ for registration when we arrived as the
road closures were already in place (again our non-existent French let us down
quite a lot!).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After driving
around the town for about an hour we saw a team car go around a road-closure
barrier.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We followed it through
and, to our relief, found ourselves in the start/finish area where sign on was
happening.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Luckily the commissaires
spoke good English and gave us an official-looking piece of paper with the name
of our hotel on it (no repeat of Chrono Champenois thank goodness!).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The plan was to drive the course twice,
before riding it on the TT bike to get a feel for the corners.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The course was continually rolling with
some fairly tough uphill drags and a couple of terrifyingly quick
descents.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I prayed for a dry
race-day as I really didn’t want to have to tackle some sections of the course
in the wet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I rode the course
with Mark following in the car I realized that the wind might also make life
difficult during the race – the only front wheel options I had with me were my
Zipp 808 and a box-section training wheel – like hell was I using a box-section
in a UCI race!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>During my practice
run I was using my race wheels to get as accurate an idea as possible of the
likely race conditions – it turned out that these were “very windy”! At times I
felt like I was being blown all over the road by the cross-wind and the
downhill sections were especially scary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I hoped that the wind would ease a little over night but knew that I
would have a challenging race ahead of me if it didn’t…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The following morning was sunny, though it had clearly rained heavily during
the night.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We packed up the car
after breakfast and headed back to the race area (which was only 1.5 km away –
our hotel was actually on the course).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The atmosphere when we arrived was crazy! There seemed to be people
everywhere and members of the public were walking around, hoping to get
autographs from their favourite cyclists.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I was asked several times if I had any signed photo postcards and was
met with disappointed looks when I said that I didn’t – clearly I will have to
get some made if I go back to Chrono des Nations next year! When Mark started
setting up my bike he noticed that my back wheel had gone completely flat
overnight having been fully inflated the previous afternoon – I had a slow
puncture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then followed the
fastest tub change I have ever seen in my life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Off came the old tub, the remnants of glue were removed with
ethanol and hexane (being a Chemistry PhD student has its uses) and on went a
new tub, secured with tub-tape.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
would have been stressed about the whole matter but I didn’t have time as the
change was so quick! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IM14KxyZwg0/UoFTxUgg6eI/AAAAAAAAA1c/bzmSYBitEPs/s1600/2013-09-15+09.29.52.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IM14KxyZwg0/UoFTxUgg6eI/AAAAAAAAA1c/bzmSYBitEPs/s320/2013-09-15+09.29.52.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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GB Cycles car ready to go!</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LkBL1wfZtgQ/UoFUWC4SuYI/AAAAAAAAA1k/f98RyNPa3Lg/s1600/2013-10-20+14.48.04.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LkBL1wfZtgQ/UoFUWC4SuYI/AAAAAAAAA1k/f98RyNPa3Lg/s320/2013-10-20+14.48.04.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Slightly more branded other team cars!</div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The only other thing to worry about was the bike check.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I hadn’t changed anything on the bike
since Chrono Champenois but the bike check there was so relaxed that I was
still worried about it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It turned
out that my saddle was pointing down by 0.5° too much and so I had to take the
bike back to Mark to adjust it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
ended up going back and fourth three times before the bike checker finally
okayed my bike.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">It was soon time to warm up on the turbo and once I’m in to my routine
the time seems to fly by.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Before I
knew it I was on the start ramp listening for the beeps and waiting to be set
off.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The roads had completely
dried out by the time I started racing but it was definitely windy! There were
sections of the course where I really struggled to control the bike but the
fact that the roads were completely closed meant I wasn’t going to be blown
into the course of an oncoming vehicle – always a bonus. Overall I think I
handled the conditions well, only coming out of the tribars (other than in the sharp
corners) on one double bend that looked exposed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mark and I had decided to use the same car-horn signals as
at Chrono Champenois.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However,
whilst he was fairly quiet there he decided to employ liberal use of the horn
at this race.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It felt like every 5
minutes I was getting a double beep for “speed up”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At times I genuinely wanted to take my hands off the bars
and make a rude gesture but I obviously didn’t! It worked though – I crossed
the line (after a near miss with a cat who was leisurely crossing the finishing
straight) in 30.46, under the 31-minute mark that Mark and I had talked
about.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In previous years a sub-31
would almost guarantee a top 10 finish and so this was the time I was aiming
for.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unfortunately, not this year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The caliber of riders competing meant
that my 30.46 was only good enough for 19<sup>th</sup>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One definite positive was that I
finished just 20 seconds behind Julia Shaw (I said going into the event that I
would be happy to finish within a minute of her and so I was definitely pleased
to be so close).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was also only
1’21 behind Zabelinskaia, Olympic bronze medalist – there are obviously still
improvements to be made but I’m not a million miles away!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Hopefully I will be able to return to both Chrono Champenois and Chrono
des Nations next year and improve on my performances from this year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think that the main area in both
races where I was losing time on the pros was on the uphill sections and I hope
to be much leaner next season, which will definitely help with this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I really enjoyed the experience of
racing on closed roads in a country that welcomes cyclists – bring on more
French racing next year!!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Team GB Cycleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04986566213862005452noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4162750487928591438.post-72701874785819399692013-11-10T18:08:00.001+00:002013-11-10T18:08:49.371+00:00Team GB Cycles hit the cyclopark ...... by Sandra, Iona and StephiI met Iona and Stephi at the cyclopark today after much discussion about whether or not there was a womens race on today, we decided last night that we would show up anyway.<br />
<br />
On speaking with the organisers, they confirmed there wasn't a women only race.<br />
<br />
Having woken up not feeling not the full ticket, and arriving at the park slightly shivering, Stephi took my entry, so Poor little Iona wouldn't be racing on her own again for a 2nd consecutive week!!<br />
<br />
The idea of the race was handicapped, so the Cat 2 men went off first with 16 laps to go, followed 30s after by the cat 4 men, then 90s after them the Cat 3's set off with each 15 laps to go.<br />
<br />
The race started after a 2 minute silence for remembrance day, Iona and Stephi setting off with the Cat 3 men.<br />
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It was a perfect day for racing and in fact being on the bike, the skies were blue, the track dry, with a nice head wind, I could get used to watching, although I made the right decision not to race, which enabled me to try my hand at taking some shots on the iPhone....<br />
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<tr><td><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-C5pHyrBntLA/Un_AmxJO4JI/AAAAAAAAAw4/bceQSLuGntc/s1600/IMG_0033.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-C5pHyrBntLA/Un_AmxJO4JI/AAAAAAAAAw4/bceQSLuGntc/s320/IMG_0033.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">Iona</td></tr>
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The girls rode really well, and it was a good safe hard workout for them both...... They both eventually came in together after 15 laps of the track , and i think that was smiling :-)</div>
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<tr><td><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mDZWGgzrJZg/Un_AsppHw_I/AAAAAAAAAxA/ugas4EpfT10/s1600/IMG_0034.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mDZWGgzrJZg/Un_AsppHw_I/AAAAAAAAAxA/ugas4EpfT10/s320/IMG_0034.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">Iona and Stephi</td></tr>
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But even though we were there together, we still found Poor little Iona in a corner eating alone..... :-)</div>
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<tr><td><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-m1Eham6wVqM/Un_AvqnbtYI/AAAAAAAAAxI/sblEEKTvTNI/s1600/IMG_0035.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-m1Eham6wVqM/Un_AvqnbtYI/AAAAAAAAAxI/sblEEKTvTNI/s320/IMG_0035.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">Iona Alone again</td></tr>
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<span style="color: purple;">Actually once Steph and I had finished racing, we headed to find Sandra sitting all alone with her hot chocolate waiting for her Panni! The conspiracy continues .............Sandra!</span></div>
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However once we joined her, we met this lovely chap, who came up to us showing the below photo, asking if it was any of us. </div>
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He kindly took this photo at the Surrey League Team Time Trial we did back in september, in preparation for the Ras Na Mban, so thank you Hamish Brown for the photo below, its a great shot of Myself, Iona and Michelle Forster of London Pheonix who guested for us in Ireland.</div>
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<tr><td><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yaebJHG3Gwc/Un_Aw29Rc_I/AAAAAAAAAxM/GFrYuwFft0o/s1600/IMG_0036.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="182" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yaebJHG3Gwc/Un_Aw29Rc_I/AAAAAAAAAxM/GFrYuwFft0o/s320/IMG_0036.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">Courtesy of Hamish Brown.<br />
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Team GB Cycleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04986566213862005452noreply@blogger.com