Finally, racing season has started!

For some reason this year it felt like I was waiting forever for the first race of the season to start. The first race of the season is always long awaited and is usually a bit of a nerve-wrecking affair. In the past 3 years I tested myself against the best in the world in the Cyprus Sunshine Cup for the season opener and when I returned to Ireland it was all about who has had the better winter of training, Cait or I, leading to another high-pressured first home race.

Since I was not going to Cyprus this year (look at cyclingnews for report of the first race there and the high caliber of racers it has attracted because it's an Olympic year), I needed to find another race to let the pressure off. So it was great that Niall Davis from Biking.ie organized Round 1 of the Biking Blitz Series in Ballinastoe Forest, a forest within riding distance from my home - perfect!

Not only would the course be suitable to me at this stage as it's all man-made trail center singletrack and fireroad and thus doesn't contain any nasty surprises but it would also be a nice, gentle start into the racing season. I had ridden my (training) mountain bike once this year in January which ended in a broken rear hanger and as such has been gathering dust as I'm waiting for the new rear hanger to arrive and I've been doing all of my training on the road bike or on the turbo trainer in the last while. So I took out my racing bike on Saturday, the day before the race to do a practice ride around Ballinastoe, just to see if the bike still works and if I still knew how to ride a mountain bike. It would also be a gentle season opener, as Cait, my biggest competitor here in Ireland, has deserted the Irish MTB scene, having followed the call of the Swiss Alps and moved to Zurich. At least this meant I didn't have to go into the red zone like last year in our first race after winter training.

I really enjoyed this well-run race, loving to push hard but not having to kill myself. Unfortunately the months of hibernation had messed with my brakes and I eventually lost all of my front braking power and some of my rear brake in the first lap, having to take it slow enough on the otherwise super fast descents, which wasn't that much fun. Both came back to some extent later on, so that on the 2nd lap I could really enjoy these descents at speed. I knew I should have bled them after the pre-ride!

It was good to get the first race out of the system in this fun way. Now I'm looking forward to the rest of it!

My excursion into track cycling...

Like that colour!

... was unfortunately short-lived. But I'll start at the beginning:

After my decent performance in the Ras na mBan and the news that I turned Irish, I was approached by the Cunga track team to "test" as a rider for the women's team pursuit. There already was a full team of Irish riders, i.e. 3 riders, that were trying to qualify for the London Olympics next year: Caroline Ryan, Ciara Horne and Sinead Jennings, but their situation was that if any one of them was put out due to injury or sickness, their chances for qualification would be destroyed. Thus, to strengthen the set-up, they were always on the look out for extra riders that could become part of the team and help towards Olympic qualification. And so it was that on a very short notice I joined the girls on their pre-European champs track camp in Newport, Wales, UK (the closest track to me as there is not (yet!) one in Dublin).

Thankfully, I did not have to invest into a track bike right then, and I got a lend of one of theirs, so it was easy to just turn up to Newport. There are frequent and cheap flights to Bristol with Ryanair (less frequent and less cheap to Cardiff with Aer lingus), from where the public transport connection to Newport is also good and frequent (airport bus and then train). But on my first trip I got a lift with the team's coach, Brian Nugent (who in his main job is the Irish Paracycling track coach, at which he has been very successful) and arrived at "track team camp central", better known as the Newport Central Travelodge (right across from Newport train station and near to a Tesco and Starbucks and the main Newport bus station, very convenient).

The next morning it was straight onto the track. I was a little bit intimidated and nervous as I've never been on a proper track before (I did a one-day introductory track session on Sundrive track, Dublin's outdoor concrete track on a crappy old rental track bike), so I had a bit of an idea of what to expect, but in no way it compared to what a real proper wooden indoor track is like, especially not on a much better track bike.

Not being used to riding a fixie, the first challenge was to get going and clipped in on one. You either clip in holding onto the railing or manage to clip in while the pedals are turning..... The next challenge was to get onto the track. Oh my god, it was even steeper than I had imagined! I think I almost got a heart attack just riding on the Cote d'Azure (the blue bit that's not even the track proper) and was ecstatic when I dared to make it up onto the black line and around. In no time I was brought up by the very patient resident track coach Chris Davis (who probably had already lost all hope of me as a future track rider at that stage) onto the next line up, the red line. Oh my god - I kinda lost all hope right then. Let's say I was just happy to be off the track again and having even floor under my feet. I was so afraid that I would slide down the track!

The Newport track

Luckily for me there was a short break and I could get onto the track completely by myself, riding around as I liked without endangering any of the other riders that probably wondered who was riding around like a complete fool. Anyhow, I have to say that this time on the track by myself helped me so much, I went completely crazy, riding slaloms up and down the track like a snake and ventured up to the very top so that in the end I was able to ride even to the most steepest bit of the track at the highest point! Wohoo!

But to think that this would be the only fear I had to conquer that day was too early. Next my track bike was equipped with proper team pursuit bars - you know, the type one uses on TT bikes. Apart from a 5min stint on Ryan's TT bike at home before, I have never ridden TT bars - let alone on a fixie around a steep track! Again my heart rate soared when I transitioned from the outside bars onto the TT extension bits (I'm sure there's a proper name for these things too). At least now I wasn't afraid of riding the black line any more. I learned a few technical things about pursuit line and position on the bike, looking into the corners etc. and had a few laps around the track, doing up and over changes too.

So I had conquered the fixie, the steepness of the track and the TT bars, but my last fear to conquer was to get closer to the riders in front of me. And while I was inching closer each time out on the track, I was still very scared to trust the person in front. I know, the person in front also does not have breaks and thus cannot come to a sudden stop, and thus my fear of riding into him/her was mostly irrational, but I just couldn't let go and get closer. Well, another day for that I thought.

The second day I was meant to try and hang on with the girls (talking about jumping in the deep end) but couldn't - they were flying!!! - but mainly also because again I just couldn't get close enough onto their wheel to get the full advantage of the draft. With a final session on how to do a standing start I had learned all the basics needed for team pursuit. In the afternoon I watched the girls do some bunch racing with the Vets while I wondered what I had got myself in for....

Lucky for me I could combine this trip with some family time and I made my way over to Swansea to visit my little sister and my brother in law where we spent a short night and watched the Wales vs. Ireland (Wales won) and then the England vs. France (France won) rugby games in the morning before taking a train back to Bristol and flying home.

Back in Ireland I thought about this opportunity of supporting the track team and decided to go for it. Such a chance seldom comes your way and it would be a dream come true. The chance for Olympic qualification for the team would be so tight that there would be many stages on the way that would decide if they are still in the running for an Olympic spot, so every race would count and I knew that this adventure could be over for me before it even started, I was just hoping that the decision either way would be obvious! After some serious talks with my husband and my supervisor we came to a solution on how I could work around the finances and time investment (since I'm still a full-time PhD student) and so I signed up for the next track camp.

In the mean-time the girls had finished 7th in the European champs, a decent result, but not quite indicative of the improvement that they have undoubtedly made since they've started training for this season.

Inching closer :)

After a few days visiting my family in Germany (this is off-season, the only time I am not bound by strict training and eating regimes!), a few hours back in Ireland (the night Dublin got flooded) to see our apartment block and car park under water and therefore a very short night I was back on my way to the airport again heading to the Newport track for a second time.

The 2nd time round was a lot less scary. Getting onto the bike and onto the track was fine, this time no nervousness was involved. I had a nice morning session with Chris and rode with the group on the track, returning to watch the evening races as I was too tired to race myself. Then the next three days I did some of the same training as the girls, watching them do their efforts, trying out Caroline's super cool TT bars (more expensive than I thought was ever possible - and I thought I was used to the cost of high end equipment), trying to hang on to them in their efforts (without much luck, dying after about a kilometer - after 4 weeks of off-season my legs just didn't want to follow). On the last day I also learned how to do standing starts out of the machine and was happy that my start times were fast enough to be able to slot in with the girls. Personally, my greatest achievement was when we did our final effort, with all of us doing a half a lap each and I was happy to be able to do a good change-over (in my opinion) - at that moment I knew I had taken the right decision to do this! It just felt so good how it all came together in this effort for us. Then, in the evening I did the Vet session, which included a lot of riding around in circles (as you do on a track) with a large group, with some pursuiting work and a final 10mile TT. This one finally felt like a real work-out after the very short but full-out pursuit and standing start efforts.

Now it was just time to go back to Ireland to actual training after the off-season and to wait and see how the girls would do in the first of four World Cups. There are only 6 events (Continental Champs, 4 World Cups, World Champs) in this qualification period, and for the girls to have a chance every world cup would count as they urgently needed those points. I tentatively booked my flight for the next track camp that would be on just after the girls' first world cup in in Astana, Kazakhstan, hoping the girls would do well.

On the day of the competition I was crossing both my fingers and my toes and my eyes for the girls to do well - they had to come at least 7th to realistically stay in contention. Excitedly I followed the live-timing and live-twitter feeds, but huh, what is that? The girls are down as DNF??? After some waiting, exchange of text messages and some more waiting there was clarity, the girls had DNF'd after a puncture (and a false start before that, thus using up their two allowed starts).

This meant the girls were most effectively out of reach for a spot for London (bar some highly unlikely scenarios). I was sad, because I really started enjoying the track cycling and it was a very exciting and interesting experience, but I can only imagine what a blow it must have been for the girls who had already invested so much of their time, money and energy into this adventure (here's a link to Ciara Horne's blog recounting the scenes of the event).

Given the same situation I would take the chance again in an instant. As I was only very shortly involved with the track team, it was all gain and very little loss for me (a bit of money spent and time lost on PhD), so all in all a great experience. And who knows - maybe I'll give track a proper try at a later stage... :)

I am still cycling!

There's been a yawning absence of posts recently, I know. I even have a list of unwritten race reports about races that happened long ago that I am meant to catch up on, such as my experience of the London Olympics test event and the Czech and Italian World Cups, which were all a lot of fun.

I have been cycling since and there's been a lot of cycling related adventures: I've had a stint in track cycling (there's an unfinished post somewhere in the pipeline), I've been cycling in California, while there I raced and won the Hamilton Low Key Hill Climb again (thus again breaking the female Strava record), gone mountain biking with Klaus, gotten a Retul bikefit and ridden the beautiful roads of California (I love California).

MTBing in California

But, I'm also a student, and right now writing code takes priority to writing blog posts. On the upside, training is going well, I am on a recovery week now and I'm looking forward to a nice Xmas. Not looking forward to training in this freezing cold weather though!

My first real CX race

After my excursion into track cycling had come to such a sudden end and I was not going to be going to Newport to another track camp, I was eager to do something else that weekend. Ryan was doing 2 CX races, one in Corkagh Park in Dublin and one in Moira, Ulster and I so wanted to do one too! The problem is that I don't have a track bike (my college stipend doesn't extend to biking equipment....), but Morty was so nice to lend me his bike for the Sunday race in Moira.

I watched the end of the Saturday CX race in Corkagh Park (Ryan came 3rd!) under blue skies and was hoping for the same weather and a dry course in Moira, for starters. I was not disappointed, on another blue skied day (is this really Ireland) Ryan and I made our way up to Moira and signed up for the senior race. Although the sky was blue and the sun was beaming down, the course in the park was surprisingly muddy and slippery. But no problem for Ryan's Schwalbe tires that I was using on Morty's bike. After two practice laps I was ready to go.


The advice I was given was basically to go full out from the start, and so I did. We had 9 laps to go and after about 3 laps I felt I was running out of steam, but I kept the pressure on. After my 4th lap I was lapped by a flying Roger Aiken, so I knew Ryan couldn't be far either. But he never came along - Ryan had snapped his rear mech! Either way I knew it could be tight to not be lapped TWICE, so I kept the pressure on, really enjoying sliding around the slippery corners and cutting through ankle deep mud and grass. I came down once in a slight off-camber corner, but it was more of a comical moment rather than a real crash at my slow speed. I had fun catching all the people that came into my sight and made up more and more places each lap. Unfortunately I kept loosing a few places again each time I came to the boards and my very non-elegant technique of getting over them cost me dearly, so that I had to chase back on and overtake those people each time again. In the end I had worked my way up from 25th position in my first lap to 16th in my last. Not bad for my first CX race!

Thanks to Morty for giving me a lend of his nice CX bike!

Full results are online here.

Reports on www.UlsterCyclocross.com and www.Stickybottle.com.

British Mountain Bike Series Round 5, Newnham Park, Plympton, Plymouth, UK

The last Round of the British Series was held in Newnham Park, near Plymouth, and is one of my favourites of the series. I've raced here a number of times, as part of the series and as part of the Bontrager 24/12 and I've never been disappointed with the course. This year Jay and Maddie Horten pulled out all the stops and created the best course I've ridden so far there and in the whole series this year.

Taking out the notorious grassy climb and replacing it with short sharp climbs and tons of rooty singletrack, combined with a new steep, technical and very slippery, slidery descent, plus the existing swoopy fast descents really made the course a winner for me. Every painful climb was rewarded with a great challenging or fun descent, I really really loved the course.

After the 5-day stage race the week before and relaxing the training and eating regime slightly over the last while and my head already in off-season, I wasn't sure how my legs would respond in the race. Thankfully I didn't need to worry too much, as I was leading the series and had pretty much bagged the title, bar some unlikely scenarios.

British Series podium: l-r: Maddie Horton (4th), Melanie Spath (2nd), Annie Last (1st), Lee Craigie (3rd), Cait Elliott (5th) (photo courtesy of Bob Bogdan Williams)

The weather was nice and at race start I lined up next to Annie Last, British national champ and silver-medalist in the U23 World Champs. We went off and let Annie set the pace, which was fairly relaxed at the start. The group in sight of each other for the first lap, and I settled into 3rd position after Annie Last and Lee Craigie. While Annie pulled away at the front and slowly got out of sight, I was battling with Lee. In the 2nd out of 4 laps I tried to get ahead of Lee on the climb, but she caught me again on the off-camber descent (I defo need to work on those this winter!). Then, on the 3rd lap I attacked on the short climb before the long technical and slippery descent. But Lee wasn't giving up and I could see her closing in on me again on the last steep climb in the lap. I kept the fire lit for the last lap and stayed clear until the finish, bagging a 2nd place behind Annie and sealing my overall series win. What a great way to end the season!



Full results are available on timelaps.co.uk and a report is up on britishCycling.co.uk.

Thanks to Conor for the support in the feedzone.

2011 An Post Ras na mBan

I am primarily a mountain biker who does a bit of road racing. But there is one road race a year that I make sure I am around for and in good form, the women's only international stage race "Ras na mBan".

This year the format has increased to 6 races in 5 days (from 4 races in 3 days), to celebrate 25 years of women's stage racing in Ireland. More than 50 riders from as far as the USA had signed up for it this year. I had the honour to be riding for the Womenscycling.ie team, a very strong team as it turned out that had all the bases covered.

Our team!

Day 1: Molls Gap (57.4km)

This stage always acts as a great test of legs and opens them up well for the next days to come. There was less attacks this year, but nonetheless the bunch broke up over Molls Gap with 18 riders in the front bunch sprinting for the line. I'm proud of my pocket rocket sprinter teammate to take the sprint.

Day 2: Valentia Island (90km)

I knew this stage from the Ras Mumhan earlier this year. Two good climbs and a lot of dead, windy and exposed roads. My strong teammate time trial specialist broke up the bunch over the first climb, but the bunch stalled at the bottom, so it all came back together. There were attacks all the way up the 2nd climb on Valentia Island and my pain threshold was really being tested when Olivia Dillon attacked over the top of the climb. I started to chase her, accompanied by 3 more strong riders and it took us a good while to reel her back in. We only got back to her after we had long gotten off Valentia Island. The breakaway bunch worked together and increased the lead all the way back to the finish, where I managed to place 3rd. There was now 5 riders well ahead of the rest of the field in general classification.

Day 3: Healy Pass (80.5km)

My favourite new stage, 3 big and a small hill. I was meant to take it easy. I think I took it a bit too easy at the start and was too far back when the bunch started to fracture on the windy roads down the first descent. I worked my way back up to the front and went over the top of the legendary Healy Pass just after the leaders. The technical descent was savage and I chased and chased and chased and found myself eventually with the same 3 riders +1 as yesterday, trying to chase down Olivia Dillon and Linda Ringlever. Just when we were close to them Olivia attacked Linda. When we caught Linda, none of us were in the mood of putting in a chase effort and so the time gap to Olivia kept growing, giving her a safe lead over the rest of us.

Day 4: AM: Gortagowan Circuit (66km)

One of my other favourite stages in this race: 4 laps of a tough little energy sucking circuit, including a potholed windy and tight climb. I tried to control the speed at the front as much as possible in each lap, as our plan was to give our pocket rocket sprinter another chance for a stage win. Only for she was boxed in she would have had it in her, having to be happy with 3rd. On the other hand, a gap opened in front of me, so I sprinted too and got 5th place.

Day 4: PM: Time Trial (3.1km)

Well, I made a few rookie mistakes (for example starting in the small ring....) and was not at all happy with my performance afterwards, thinking I had completely embarrassed myself. But Ryan's super skinsuit, shoecovers, aero wheel and pointy helmet must have made up for my mistakes so that I still managed to come a surprising 3rd, moving myself up into 2nd on GC with a lead of 12 seconds. My time trial champ teammate won it with a 4 second lead over 2nd and me.

Day 5: Coomaciste (93.5km)

The last stage was all about making sure I stayed with the front people and followed any dangerous attacks. Nobody worried too much when several people low on GC got away at the front and the bunch was enjoying a leisurely pace. Until we found out that the gap had grown to over 4min! Then even Olivia was getting worried and the Irish team and my team were made to work in front to reduce the time gap. Linda, 12sec down on GC on me attacked towards the top of the hill, but I made sure she didn't get far. My team mates did an absolutely fantastic job, killing themselves in front to bring the breakaway back eventually, sacrificing their own chances for a stage win. The bunch stayed together so that I maintained my 2nd place overall, my best result in the Ras na mBan so far. Next year I'm gonna get that leader's jersey!


Better support than in the men's Ras!

My team really did an amazing job, especially on the last day and I am grateful for it. You might not believe it, but I actually had the easiest ride that day, staying out of the wind and using up my teammates' strength to keep me protected and bring back the break. Thanks to the Pocket Rocket sprinter for sacrificing her chances for winning the sprint, thanks to the TT champ for sacrificing a possible solo breakaway, thanks to world champ pilot for a super domestique ride to the bottom of the mountain, congrats also to our newest rider for riding such a strong race, thanks to our mechanic for reading my wishes from my eyes and giving my bike more love than it has ever experienced, thanks to our manager for keeping us happy before, during and after the race, and thanks to the magic hands on my tired legs and knot in my back.

Results, reports and pictures can all be found on www.rasnamban.com.

Roll on Ras na mBan 2012!

3 wins in 3 races in 3 days!

Well, last weekend was a very successful weekend, racing-wise. Here is a short run-down of the events:

Friday: Irish Hill Climb Championships

It's not really an official championships for us women, only for men, but we can do it anyway. My husband Ryan won the title last year, so he was under pressure to defend his title (here's his report on how it went). I thought I'd give him some company, seeing that this time the course was literally around the corner from us, not in the furthest parts of the country as the last three years. The climb was a 2.3km stretch up Kilmashogue Lane, starting off softly, but becoming bloody steep before giving some respite on a false flat before turning into a horribly steep wall before flattening out again at the top. I never really go higher than the Kilmashogue car park in training, it's just too steep!

The evening of the hill climb was lovely after the rain had vanished and a huge crowd was out on the climb (thanks to all our friends who came out and cheered - it felt like an Irish Alpe d'Huez in parts and added a great atmosphere to the event! I even saw a "Go Mel" written on the road!!!). I went too hard at the start (even with my powermeter), averaging over 380W for the first 3min, then died a slow death on the flat part, trying to recover somewhat, then really suffered on the "wall" and the last flatter bit to the finish. Then I collapsed into a heap. It took me 9min and 8secs to cover the climb - first girl by over a minute and a half. My overall wattage was only 326W, a sign of my bad pacing. I believe I could break the 9min if I paced myself better.

Results here.

Fist one done!

Photo courtesy of Max Power

Saturday: Lakeland GP in Enniskillen/Last Round of the Women's League Race

After a very unrestful night - I was way too wired after the coffee, caffeinated ZipVit Gel and Hill Climb race adrenaline to be able to sleep. I actually got back up at 1am to do some computer programming until 3am, then lied back down, tossing and turning and waiting for dawn. Ryan and I had to get up early to leave for Enniskillen anyway, so the wait wasn't too long.

The race was a 70km mostly flat lollipop loop, with a 5km drag around the 35km turn-around mark.We girls were sent off with the over 50 men. I was tired and happy to sit in (I actually didn't really have a plan and decided to play this race by ear, seeing how I feel). The pace was steady and I followed any attacks, but nothing stuck and it was into a headwind anyway. Once on the drag a few of the men attacked. I wasn't that concerned, but decided to up the pace a bit and see what happens. The next time I turned around, only Sandra Fitzgerald was on my wheel and we had a sizeable gap! I kept up the speed and dragged us up the incline. Once over the top we worked together - I knew Sandra to be a good time trialist, so it was good to have her with me. We had a gap of over 1.5min after the climb, so it was about keeping up the speed, in case the bunch got themselves organized on the descent and flat towards the finish. At about 5km to go, just when I was thinking of how to play the finish - I didn't know if Sandra would be a good sprinter or not - Sandra punctured. So I soloed easily into the finish. Sandra was able to get a quick wheel-change and held off the bunch for 2nd place.

2 out of 2, I'm on a roll!

Results and report on www.cyclingulster.com and www.womenscycling.ie.

Podium pic

Sunday: Lakeland Warrior 100km MTB Race

When you're tired from racing and it's raining and you still got to do more training, there's nothing better than another race. So Ryan and I decided to do the first installment of the 100km Lakeland Warrior 100km MTB race, organized by www.26extreme.com. The race was mostly on forest roads, so great for a tired mind and a great test of endurance. I tried to stick with the lead group of men, but I was still feeling yesterday's race in the legs, so dropped back after about 5km after which I was mostly on my own until the finish. At 50km we popped out at a beautiful viewpoint over what looked like hobbit land with lots of lakes and wild landscape - I wish I had had my camera with me!

I had a great endurance session and finished in 4h 33min, just half an hour behind Ryan, who won the race. I was 6th overall. This is defo one I'd go back to! Results here.

So I'm one up on the win-count on Ryan this weekend - hehe!