UCI World Championships for Masters, by Karen

My final races of the season took place in Trento in the Italian Dolomites, and were the 2013 edition of the UCI World Championships for Masters.  The races were the culmination of a year long series of races through which most competitors qualified for the final.  As I made a late decision to attend the races, I was fortunate that British Cycling were able and willing to nominate me for a wild card place for the final.

We travelled out to Trento via Milan on 19th September.  There was a team relay on that day, but I didn't try to fit this into the schedule.  My first race was the time trial on the morning of Friday 20th.  The route was certainly a challenging one, a 4km alpine descent, undulating valley road and a 2km climb back to the ridge before a final subtle uphill drag to the finish.  The race organisers described it as a TT for specialists, but it certainly wasn't a typical GB dual carriageway TT.  With 30s start intervals, it was inevitable that I would see other riders.  After my previous experience of TTing abroad, I was fearful that I would be shown up, and a poor start without getting clipped in before I set off didn't help to calm the nerves.  But having the two girls who started 60s and 90s before me in sight before the top of the first climb gave me more confidence.  I had made a tactical decision to race on my climbing wheels rather than my TT wheels to give me a feeling of security on the fast descent, and this helped too.  On the flatter part of the course by Lago di Cavedine I caught my 60s girl, and had my 90s girl in sight.  I made the next catch on the lower slopes of the climb, but was also caught by the girl who had started 90s behind me - yikes!  The temptation to dig in and sit on her wheel was huge as we were on the climb, but as soon as I did it, I realised that I could not, and dropped back.  I kept pushing hard all the way to the finish, completing the course in 44mins, and feeling pleased with my performance.  Watching the others arriving at the finish, I realised that I had likely beaten all but 2 or 3 of the other girls in my class.  Unfortunately, problems with the results software, combined with a lot of riders not wearing their transponders meant that results were not available for hours after we all finished.  We took a punt on not attending the prizegiving that evening, which was a good decision, as I finished a very proud 4th (although not finding out for definite until 24hrs after I had finished!).

The big race for me was the road race on the Sunday.  Now, this isn't your typical British multi-loop road race on a flattish course with possibly a short hill coming up to the finish line.  The road race is billed as a Gran Fondo - similar to a sportive in nature, with the added fun of a mass start, and even better, closed roads.  And of course, Gran Fondo means hills, BIG hills.  This route took in 3000m of ascent in 112km, with the final climb of Monte Bondone being 21km long and 6.8% average gradient.

I was in the first group off, and we dawdled along the road until the rest of the girls caught us up, then the hammer went down up the first short climb.  None of the other girls were really doing anything that scared me on that climb and I kept pace with the leaders well.  By the time we were heading back south down the valley, groups were catching from behind all the time, creating what must have been a peloton of close to 1000 riders – it must have been some sight, and only a little terrifying.  It was also a real challenge to keep an eye on where your competitors were – thank goodness for different coloured numbers.  I was amazed that there were no crashes at sharp corners and roundabouts, and soon enough we arrived at the bottom of the second climb (of about 10km) up to Lago di Cei.  I had worked hard to keep a good position in the huge peloton coming down the valley, and I may have paid for this on the climb, as several pink numbers cycled past and away from me.  I just kept telling myself not to panic, that the peloton would regroup heading back up the valley, and Monte Bondone was the real test.

            The descent from Lago di Cei back down to the valley floor is probably one of the fastest I have ever ridden, hitting a speed in excess of 100km/h.  Once back in the valley, another large group of riders formed to take us back through Trento for a 3^rd time before hitting the slopes of Monte Bondone.  I was relieved to see two of the pink numbers that had ridden away from me earlier in the group.  Then it was back into your own little world of pain for the next 21km.  Pacing was critical – set off up this climb too fast and you paid later on. I climbed the first half of it with a Norwegian girl in the 40-44 age group, but she chose to push on as she could see some of her rivals catching her.  I didn't want to go with her, so continued on at my own pace.  Slowly the kilometers ticked down, and I did as much catching of people who had set off too fast as were catching me.  I recaught the Norwegian girl about 2km from the top which was satisfying but unimportant.  Then, I was there, cheering crowds, commentary and the finish line, and of course Chris on the side of the road cheering me on and confirming what I already knew, that I was 5th in my age group. Whilst I hadn't achieved my target of a podium, I knew that I had ridden to the best of my ability on the day, and couldn't expect more than that.

We found some of the other Brits at the finish, which was welcoming, and I also managed to have a bit of a chat with the girl who had finished 2nd, who had also finished 3rd at the Marmotte earlier in the year.

This was a great end to a season that has had me grinning from ear to ear at times, crying my eyes out at others, cursing my own bad luck and the poor quality of other riders who cause crashes, and most importantly, laughing SO much with my brilliant team mates.  Thanks GB Cycles, Steve Wright, Chris (my husband), Garry Palmer (my coach) and my teamies (and guests).  Roll on 2014 - a season for Gran Fondos!

Track Nationals...Jumping in at the deep end

Track Nationals

So I entered the track nationals this year…just to see what was out there. Being completely under prepared I was soon to find out having the correct kit and having practiced on it makes a big difference! So opening my track tt bars the night before my individual pursuit was probably not the best of preparations!

Day one started with the 500m TT, I was up pretty soon so having never even seen a 500m TT being performed let alone competing in one I was really throwing myself in at the deep end entering 3 events over the next 3 days at nationals level having never even practiced these events in training! This is down to not being able to get track time as im not accredited… a strange system which allows me to compete at national level yet not be able to access training at the veledrome :/. I clocked a pretty slow time in comparison to the others girls but that is to be expected on my first attempt when the other girls have been doing it for years, had lots of specific training and the right kit!

Next was the IP, again my lack of experience showed with my poor pace judgement setting off far to reserved after everyone had been warning me not to blow and work into it…next year im smashing it from the start! Some specific practise and I will definitely get sub 4 minutes next year as I was just over that at 4.02 this year.

The Match sprint on Friday was…interesting to say the least and quite amusing really.

My flying 200m was off the pace at 13 seconds however this was due lack of experience as I dropped down off the banks far too early and after watching afew girls after my attempt I realised where I had lost seconds. This will be an easy time to beat next year with abit of practice now that I am currently in the process of getting my accreditation. As a consequence I didn’t get through to the heats which wasn’t a surprise! I didn’t find this out however until I had taken up at least 10 minutes of a very kind man’s time who was part of the Scottish development team who was explaining what a match sprint is looking abit bewildered why I had entered this event at a national level not even knowing what the rules where or having ever done one…iv got to admit I do seem to run before I can walk sometimes! With Nicola soden giggling next to me at my embarrassing confession that in fact I wasn’t even through to the heats I moved on to concentrate on my next and final race, the points race.

This race I felt abit more prepared for as I have competed in the Friday night track league the past 2 years which incorporates points races so I had some idea what I was letting myself in for and for a change I wasn’t the odd one out without an aero helmet! Hayley kindly offered for me to borrow her disc wheel which would have made me on equal terms for equipment unlike all the other races but I was abit scared as I have only tried a disc wheel for about 5 minutes and felt I wasn’t comfortable enough with such an expensive piece of equipment so I opted for my whopper wheels. So the whistle blew and we were off, 6 laps in and the first sprint in coming up 4 laps and something of a red mist comes over me and I decide it would be a good idea to attack some Olympic Champions for the first set of points. Taking a long one 4 laps out I got a considerable gap before being gloriously swallowed 1 lap to go.  A glorious failure! But for a moment I was off the front of a world class field and felt like a champion. The rest of the race consisted of hanging on for dear life which is what I was expecting, but I kept my position and felt really strong. I finished the race with the bunch very happy to have stuck in there with a world class field…it looks good for next years elite crits which I fluffed this year due to lack of form.

All in all an eye opening experience with A LOT to learn in terms of rules, tactics, equipment, positioning and training but looking forward to smashing my times I have now set as my own benchmarks J

By Brit 

My National Circuit TT Preparation – reaching goals and breaking records

In addition to winning a National TT medal, another of my late season aims was to break the female course record on my local 10 course at Bottisham.  When I first started cycling I hated this course; despite living in one of the flattest parts of the country, there is a steep bridge about 2.5 miles in which makes the course quite slow.  Believe me, when you weight 90kgs+ as I did when I started cycling, that bridge is really tough going! I seemed to “crack it” last year though when I finished 2^nd in the University Championship (BUCS) 10 – now I love the course and use it to judge my form and how well I’m TT-ing.  The record that I wanted to beat was 23.12, set in 2010 by Mathilde Matthijsse at the BUCS 10 mile Championship.  Mathilde has since gone on to finish in the top 10 at the Dutch National TT Championships and also won the Tour Ta Malta this year so she is a very strong rider.  I had 3 opportunities in August to beat her record and so was hoping for good conditions on at least one of these occasions! The first was at a Team Cambridge 10 on Wednesday 14^th August.  I had a slightly stressful hour before heading over to the event, having to “Un-UCI” my P4 by changing the seatpost and putting the bottle cage back on.  Although these sound like simple tasks, no job on the P4 ends up being simple and changing the seatpost was no exception! Despite this, I got to the event with some time to spare for a warm up and although the wind was a little higher than had been predicted, it was still relatively low for Bottisham.  I felt good in warm up and was confident of putting in a good performance in my first TT in 2 months.  Sure enough, with about 2 miles to go I checked my garmin and found that I was on track for a short-23.  I gave it everything I had and crossed the line in 23.07, having beaten the previous record by 5 seconds!

Another local club was holding a TT on the same course the following day, which I opted to forego in favour of training.  However, I returned to Bottisham the next Wednesday, 21^st August, to see if I could better my record in the last evening 10 of the season.  Unfortunately, when I arrived at the course I discovered that I had left the arm pads from my tribars at home, having taken them off to dry-out after a particularly sweaty turbo session.  With no time to retrieve them, I decided to toughen up and race without them, hoping that the pain in my legs would mask any pain in my arms! When I was getting ready to race, Laura Massey turned up to sign on.  Massey has been TT-ing a lot more this season and is a really strong rider who is well suited to the Bottisham 10 course so I knew I would have to ride hard to defend my record.  The first 5 miles of the course is much slower than the return 5 and so when I reached the turn in just over 12 minutes I knew I was riding well.  Unfortunately, I then discovered that the return leg would be into a fairly brisk headwind – time to toughen up! I forgot all about my lack of arm pads and pushed as hard as I could to the finish…and was rewarded with a 22.54.  Massey crossed the line in 23.02, beating the record I had set the previous week so it was a good job I turned up to race!

Bottisham 10 results from the final evening TT of the season:

Massey and I had a rematch scheduled for the August bank holiday when we were both racing the VC10 event on the F11/10.  When I first raced this course in June I recorded a PB of 21.02 in driving rain and fairly strong crosswinds so I was looking forward to seeing what I could do in better weather.  The F11 is a favourite of time triallists, being a very fast but relatively safe course on the A41.  As a result, events on the course are always oversubscribed and there is a lot of pre-race chat about them on the timetrialling forum.  The VC10 event was no exception.  First, there were complaints about the fact that all (24) female entries had been accepted, regardless of previous time, whilst the men’s cut-off time was a long-21.  I am proud to say that my PB would have guaranteed me entry into the event, female or not.  Secondly, lots of people were talking about the road surface.  The course is on a border between two different counties, one of which is good at maintaining its road and the other of which is not.  As a result, the first 2 miles is terrible, with numerous potholes and cracks in the tarmac spreading across both carriageways.  Since June, the fast, smooth section of the course has been (unnecessarily) resurfaced with chippings, deadening the surface, whilst the awful section at the start remains untouched.  Thirdly, and finally, there was a lot of talk about wind direction.  When I rode the course in June the wind was strong, but in the “right direction”.  Although the forecast for wind speed for the bank holiday was low, it was in the “wrong direction”.  I thought about it and decided that low wind would surely be better than high wind from a certain direction – bring on a fast ride!

The conditions on the day were lovely – bright and sunny (if anything perhaps a little too warm) with fairly low wind (only about 9 mph).  I had a good long warm-up and arrived at the start, the last of the women to go off, feeling ready to race.  I thought I was going quite well and pushing myself hard but when I looked down at my garmin for time checks I found that I was actually going slower than in June! The newly chipped section of road felt dead and draggy under my wheels and the head-wind for the final 2 miles, although not actually that strong, made life really tough.  I was gutted when I crossed the line in 21.49, convincing myself that there was no way I could win the women’s event with that time and that I had somehow lost form.  Of course I was just being pessimistic and it turned out that I was the only woman on the day to ride sub-22 (Massey finished 2^nd, 12 seconds behind me).  So it seems that sometimes the TT forum does speak the truth – that course is actually much faster with a strong wind than a low one, provided it is in the correct direction.

Photo from the VC10 event on the F11/10:

Some good TT-ing results for the month, proving that I was on good form - bring on the final few races of the season!

Ras Na Mban Stage 3 The Team Time Trial

Friday the 13th started with a Team Time Trial, 13.8Km in the village of Barefield, just an out and back, fairly flattish course. The weather was perfect, no strong winds, no rain.

We arrived to the tunes of Lady Ga Ga , but she was not to be the song in my head for the time trial, this was reserved for none other than Paul Wheller and the Jam with "A Town Called Mallice" or if your slightly younger, the  tune that Billy Elliot taps along to.

We got the bikes off the roof, Steve gave us our instructions and off we went for our warm up, practicing. All was going well, and smooth.

Iona was first leg, followed by Karen, myself, Michelle and then Nicola!!

Lining up , it was too late for a wee, but I needed one. Once in the cleats, being held up, this was it, the town called Mallice starting to beat, or , was that my heart??? We were off, we very soon got organised, and the communication between us all , was perfect, we all worked like Trojans , fly over bridge done, roundabout done, fly over bridge and just under 2km to go, we could now see the village sign, and you always manage to squeeze that little bit more out......

Over the line, all of us, what a great feeling and the best TTT I've experienced, now resting up having had a feast in the pub here at Dromoland, ready for tonight's, sunny crit 

Sandra

Stag 2 The Beast of Burran

Stage 2 saw us once again roll out from Ennis, the song for today was Mr Bubble himself, and I just haven't met you yet...? Over and over , again, only certain words I can remember, amongst concentrating on the bunch and what's happening and making sure I'm NOT drifting to the back.!!!

It was a nice slow roll out, although sometimes I prefer it to be a tad faster, staying with the main bunch until the first real climb of the day, and putting everything into it, I was finding myself just loosing touch, however this was with  a good number of other girls and it was with these that I spent the rest of the journey with.

The corkscrew climb wasn't as bad as I had geared it up to be, and it seemed over before it had begun, we had really started to form a nice good number of girls in our group

Past the lovely coast line, which was at this point completely fogged out, and it was really starting to rain. Strangely by now for a small while, I was singing in my head, "it's a beautiful day"  and oddly enough, until I had , had the conversation with my best room Karen Poole back at the hotel I didn't realise that the song was sung by The Levellers, but it's one that does pop into my head when perhaps the sun isn't shining as much as I believe it should be.

We rolled on, and eventually passed the sign for 20km to go, and we were working all together well. Then 5km to go, and I guess on tired legs, it was ts that I found more testing, but again, 100m was in sight, and I was so pleased, it was a good hard day, testing, I came in 74th which put me back a few platings to 64th on GC, but still happy with personal performance.

Sandra

Ras na m'Ban Stage 2 - the Corkscrew (by Karen)

This morning dawned in the traditional Irish way - very dreich and drizzly.  Just perfect for an epic bike race! Things didn't really improve as we headed from our hotel down to the start in Ennis (although at least no punctures en route this morning).
We rolled away from the start just after 10:45, for a 3km neutralised section through the streets on Ennis and out towards the Burren. Just as I had done yesterday, I used the neutralised section to move up as close to the front as I could, which sounded like it had been a good idea as the crashes started even before neutral was over.
Racing at the front of a peloton always feels like a pretty amazing place to me.  I look around and see not just the best UK riders, but also national champions and riders who have raced for their country and world championships.  But today was not a day for doubting that I belonged there, today was going to be my day!

We quickly rolled over 2 small bumps that were categorised climbs and were heading up onto the Burren when two crashes in close succession split the peloton into smithereens.  I was in front of the first one, and despite carnage all around me managed to stay upright approaching the second one, and watching a DN Bretagne girl careering into the pile of mashed up carbon and bodies at full speed.  Then it was a quick chase back on to reach the leading group of probably about 30 riders.  The carnage had allowed a few riders to slip off the front, but no one seemed all that interested in chasing them at this stage.  There was a fun descent off the first of the Burren climbs where I discovered that many girls cannot descend in wet conditions, then a switchback at the bottom to take us into the first 2nd cat climb of the day, the Corkscrew.  I had positioned myself well (about 5th wheel), and kept pace when the Canadian girl riding for DID put the hammer down.  That shed a lot of people, and over the top there were only about 15 of us left in the lead group including UK riders Hannah Barnes, Julie Erskine, Laura Massey, Liz Malins and Lydia Boylan.  Suddenly all the hard work felt as if it had paid off, as I sat in and enjoyed the ride with quality riders.  We were eventually caught back up by a second group of about 15 riders so the run in to the bottom of the final climb of the day got a bit nervy as the weaker climbers in the group tried to jostle for position to minimise their loss.  In the end it didn't matter as the same group of riders who had broke away up the Corkscrew got away again.  I didn't quite manage to hold their wheels this time, so sat close to the front of the next group, whilst letting others do the work.  That too paid off as I had plenty of legs left for the final uphill sprint, finishing 3rd out of my group, and a brilliant 14th overall.  I got my High 5 and congratulatory cuddle from Steve, then we went to the line to cheer in the others.  Nicola was in next, and had clearly had a hard day.  Then came Sandra, and finally Iona and Michelle.

It had rained all race, but to me it hadn't mattered at all.  The sheer pleasure of having a great race when it mattered and the stunning Burren scenery overshadowed the weather by a very long way.

Ras Na Mban stage 1

Stage 1 arrived sooner than I thought, given the fact that the race didn't start until 5, before I knew it we were all assembled at the start, nervous faces, smiley faces for the camera.

We had a gentle ride down from our accomodation at the Inn at Dromond, a slight panic as one of our girls in the group punctured on route, but very quickly sorted, and we arrived in good time.

Another warm up before the start, and we we off. The song for the start of the race in my head was, 'This is it, I know the tune, but this is it are all the words I remember, so kilometer after kilometer 'this is it still is in my head.......followed by what ever I make up, until the repeat chorus!!

We hit the first little stinger, up and over with that, and still in the main bunch, happy, the sound of the bunch now whooshing in my ears, watching making sure of what's happening in front and behind, making sure I'm not drifting too far to the back, which after all is my favorite position....

We hit the 2 Nd climb of the day, this is where I along with quite a few others started to loose touch with the main bunch, Iona, Laren and Nicola stayed up in the main bunch for the climb, that said, they were still in view, and we started to form a good chasing group as we started the decent!!
There had been a crash a few 100 meters before the QOM finish, which we avoided.

I think our group was 20 ish strong, really working hard, and starting to see the main bunch, at times I was thinking , tomorrow is a tough one  do I want to really want to work this hard, but it just seemed to roll, and eventually we caught the main bunch, it was excallent work, and the girls were all working hard, and encouraging each other as we grew closer and closer to the main bunch!!

Signs for Ennis, were in sight, I was elated, to be still in the main bunch, I suspect tomorrow will be a lot different, a much tougher day, although I still for me found today tough, but tomorrow will be tough in a different way,

4 Gb Cycles girls finished in the main bunch which is great, and Michelle came through shortly after, so a good day for us girls, I'm happy, but now tired as I need to rest up for an early start!,

Thank you for a great start to the Ras Na Mban, and this, you for the great food tonight....

Sandra