Omloop Van Borsele - Holland

Last weekend I travelled to Holland for my first international Junior Womens stage race. The race was 3 stages over 3 days, a 13.2 km time trial and 2 72 km road stages. Because it was such a big race all the riders had to enter in teams, unfortunately I didn't have a team to enter with so we wrote to the organiser and he wrote to some dutch teams to ask if they would let me ride with them. Luckily some came back saying they would and I chose to ride with the RWC Ahoy team from Rotterdam.

So me and my mum set off on Thursday to get the ferry from Hull, this bit all went smoothly, the issues started when we got off the ferry in Belgium to get lost almost immediately. The Belgian road signs made things more difficult than they should've been but after a few detours and a tour of a town we didn't need to do we final made it into Holland. The drive seemed much easier after this and we made it to the place we were staying. Just as we were arriving a team car with RWC Ahoy written on it pulled up and I got my first chance to meet the girls I would be riding with for the weekend. They all seemed very nice and invited me to stay in their room with them. This was quite an experience, 6 of us in quite a small room with bunk beds, safe to say there wasn't much floor space.

Once we'd unpacked a bit and had lunch we headed down to the time trial course for a ride round it. It was pan flat, with a good tail wind section but then, obviously, a hard head wind section and some good corners. I was happy with how my bike felt and settled nicely into my tt bars. We rode back to the place we were staying and changed before getting in the van and heading to the start of the TT. I pretty much went straight to warm up because I only had half an hour till my start time. I headed to the start and soon I was at the top of the start ramp ready to go. I had the count down in dutch (vaguely understood) and I was off and immediately being battered by the cross winds, I tried to get the bike into as big a gear I could manage and just hold it. Soon I made the turn into the tail wind section and a quick glance at my garmin showed I was going at nearly 50 km/h, at the top of my junior gears, and I could see the team car behind the girl in front. I found a nice rhythm and held it down the turn before I was into the head wind and just trying to keep a high enough gear turning over. My legs were seriously hurting by now but I could still see the girl in front so I kept pushing. I didn't quite manage to catch her but I finished in a time of 21.02.22, which was 2.24.16 down on the winner who was Nicky Zijlaard, whose team I was on! Nicky was over the moon with her win and it gave me a purpose on the team, I had to help keep the red jersey.

So onto the first road stage and after a mental ride out to the start behind the team car I was feeling a bit nervous. We lined up half an hour before the start but were still nearly at the back of the 92 girls in the race. I then got very confused as a commissar started telling us all to move back and everyone started turning their bikes around, I thought we were starting in the other direction or something but it turned out everyone was checking their gears. So after that and signing on I made it to the start line, quite near the back. I knew I would have to move up on the first bit of wide road before we turned onto the super narrow ones where the crashes would happen. Eventually we were off and almost immediately there was a crash to my left, I just managed to avoid it but had to come almost to a stop and sprint to get going again. This happened a few more times and sometimes I would just have to slam on my brakes for no reason and then go again. It was mental, but eventually it settled down a bit and I tried to move up, the issue was the bunch was covering the width of the road. I decided I had to do something so went up the bit of rough track just off the road, I got a few funny looks but it worked. I just kept trying to move up but always seemed to be nowhere near the front. It was really hard to be near the front and on the right side of the bunch in the cross winds, I often found myself struggling for shelter just getting battered, but we had 3 laps of the same course so I learnt where the wind was coming from in each bit of road and tried to move so i wouldn't be in it but it was really difficult! Coming into the final 2km stretch on the last lap I was way too far back and almost got dropped as the whole bunch strung out but luckily they eased up a bit and I got back on and finished somewhere towards the back of the bunch. Nicky still had the leaders jersey though so we were happy with that.

Think this gives some idea of the size of the bunch

The next day and the last stage, I was determined to do everything better today. So that started with getting to the start earlier, which I did meaning I was on the 2nd row. Going into the first tight corner I was in the top 10 and although I slipped back a bit on the big 40km loop we were doing as we came into the last 3 finishing loops I moved up and helped Nicky chase down some attacks. We were soon on the last lap and the girl who was in 2nd overall, only 14 seconds behind Nicky, had attacked. I did my best to try and pull her back but my legs were just giving in by that point. Luckily Nicky is an insanely strong rider and even though no one wanted to help her she managed to keep the gap down and take the overall win by 1 second. She was overjoyed by this, as was I and the rest of the team. It was a great feeling to know I'd contributed a bit and the whole team had our photos taken with Nicky in her red jersey and it was great!

4th in line with Eline from my team at the front

I ended up in 47th place overall but it didn't really matter, I'd learnt a lot and had a really good time with all the girls on the team. Really wish I could go back every weekend!

The team at the end of the last stage

 On Tuesday I was straight back into the racing at the first ERC Ingliston crit, a 3rd place was all I could manage with my tired legs but I hope they have recovered by Sunday when I've got the next round of the British Series down in Cheshire.

Some more photos from the weekend..

Thanks for reading and thanks to the RWC Ahoy team for looking after me all weekend!

City of Perth GP

This weekend was the first round of the British Womens Road Race Series which took place up in Perthshire, so not too far to travel which was nice!
Accomodation and meals for the race were provided at Strathallan School so I headed up there on Friday night. Dinner was served in the large dinning hall and I made sure to eat at much as I could because I knew I had a hard day of racing ahead of me on Saturday. The tour consisted of 3 stages over 2 days. First off on Saturday morning there was a road stage, relatively short at 10 laps of a 6.6km circuit. Then on Saturday evening there was a very short TT around the grounds of the school. The final stage was a crit in the centre of Perth on the Sunday morning.

I had been up to the road race course a few times before the race so knew what to expect, there was a climb, which was steep in parts and then it flattened out a bit before climbing a bit more and then heading downwards on a long, straight descent. I was worried about the hill, before the race I was just hoping to stick in for 5 laps at the most.

We all lined up and there was a short neutralised section before we were set off racing on the descent, I tried to move up but was having a bit of an issue changing gear because my hands were so cold I actually couldn't push the lever properly! I eventually got it to work and managed to move up before the first accent of the hill, I managed to hold my position quite well and as we came over the top I was thinking "1 down 9 to go." and straight away I was focussing on moving up the bunch again on the descent. It was the easiest place to move up so I decided to make a bit more of an effort there rather than the flat bit before the hill which was very open with strong cross winds at points which was making it difficult. I made it up the hill the next few laps but soon the attacks started to come, I managed alright just keeping to my favourite line on the left and climbing as fast as I could which kept me up there. At one point I hit a bit of a bad spot and found myself right at the back of the bunch at the top of the climb, luckily I had started at the front or I would have been out the back. It was quite difficult to make sure I was getting enough water into me as well as trying to go as fast as I could down the descent on my junior gears and move up the bunch, but soon enough we were on the last lap. I was expecting it all to kick off on the last lap up the hill and just be flat out to the finish but in the end 2 girls from the Breast Cancer Care Team attacked and were let away and the bunch didn't respond too much up the hill so I managed to hang in. The finish was down at the bottom of the descent so it was a very, very nervous, fast and scary run down the hill. We hit the flat at about 750m to the line and I couldn't see a way round the wall of riders in front of me, I was worried about being boxed in and knew I had to commit to one side of the bunch and try and find a way out. I went left and managed to get into a gap and then a big space opened up on my left and Hannah Barnes, who was in front of me, went for the sprint through it. I tried to follow her but unfortunately didn't quite have the legs so got on some other wheels and finished 6th in the sprint, so 8th overall as the 2 girls out front had stayed away with Anne Ewing taking the win. I was really happy with this as it was my highest finish in a British Series race ever, but it was straight back to the room for a quick shower and as much recovery as possible before my time trial came round.

The TT course was really narrow, tight and technical and should have suited me perfectly but I didn't get myself round it enough times beforehand and could have gone round the corners faster. The start was straight up into a short but steep hill and I felt I could have got a bit more out there as well so all in all wasn't 100% happy with my ride, but I definitely need to practise my time trials anyway. I was quite worried about seeing the results because I thought I'd lost a lot of time but in the end it wasn't too bad, I was equal 16th on the stage which dropped me to 13th on the general classification.

Going into the crit I was hoping to maybe get into the top 10 but wasn't really sure how it would go. It turned out to be a horrible day, there was actually snow before the start and sleet/ rain throughout the race. It was very cold and this made the already technical course even harder. There were manhole covers and white lines all over the place which were just treacherous if hit. I was again having issues with my gears because my hands were so cold but this time they didn't warm up for the whole race. The total length was 50 minutes plus 5 laps and I can honestly say it was one of the hardest crit I think I've ever done. I literally couldn't relax for a second because I had to think so hard about every corner, about actually being able to change gear and break and get the right line and get on the wheels coming out the corner. It was really mentally tiring as well as being physically really hard and fast too. I kept up the front as much as possible, my legs weren't feeling great and I seemed to forget how to go round corners for the first half of the race but that improved and I was in a good position for the last few laps. I managed to move up a few places coming round the last few corners and couldn't quite come past the girl in front of me going up the finishing straight but finished in 6th place. I was really, really happy with that, again a best at a British Series. But I wasn't sure what it had done to the GC because I had no idea how many people were in the front group or anything. It turns out the race had split up quite a bit and due to this and some crashes (I hope everyone involved in crashes over the weekend is alright) I had moved into the top 10 on GC and actually finished 7th. Super happy with this result and hope I can maintain this kind of level of racing throughout the season!

Don't think this photo quite shows how cold and wet the crit was!

Full results for the weekends racing are here: http://www.bicycles.org.uk/copgp/results/
Congrats to Anne for a great win!

I'd like to say thanks to everyone in ERC who was out in Mallorca with me a week before the race, I think riding with you guys really made a difference and definitely helped me get the results I got so thanks for an awesome week with a great group of people!

Also to the Tri Centre who for all their help getting my new Scott Foil 15 bike with Bontrager Aura 5 wheels set up in time for the race, it felt amazing so thanks very much to the guys at the shop for sorting it out for me, really appreciate it!

Thanks for reading, next British Series is Cheshire Classic in 3 weeks time and I'm looking forward to seeing how I can get on!

Early Season Races, Exciting News and Plans for April

It's been a wee while since my last post so I thought I'd write a summary of what I've been up to. First up, my first race of the season, way back at the end of February was the ERC Season Starter races where the junior girls were racing with the youth A boys. There was a time trial and a crit race on, for one reason or another I wasn't going well and was 1st Junior girl in the TT but Rhona Callander did a time much fast than mine and shes only 15 so one to watch for the future! Luckily I still managed to beat my sister or I would have never heard the end of it, but I'm sure I won't be staying in front of her for long! In the crit race I again wasn't feeling great but I don't think that affected the result too much as it came down to a sprint and Flora flew past me in the final straight.

But first races done, if slightly disappointing, so a few days off to recover from whatever was wrong and onto the next race which was a team time trial down in the south west of Scotland. Me and Flora were riding together so we warmed up and did the race, I don't really know what else to say about a time trial! Turns out we went pretty quick because we won the womens race by 6 minutes, which was good because it meant I was over whatever I was suffering from the week before.

After a bit of illness the week after I was headed south again on Saturday morning to Lancaster for the Bradley Wiggins Foundation Series Race 1. These are a series of crits around the Salt Ayre circuit in Lancaster, sponsored by the Bradley Wiggins Foundation, so some good prize money! The race went well, feeling much better than the week before and despite trying to get into a few moves nothing stuck so it came down to a sprint. Pretty happy to get 3rd in the sprint, with Flora taking the win. Unfortunately after the race the illness I'd had the week before came back so I couldn't do the race I was planning to do the next day and had to stay off the bike till the Thursday.

When I finally got back on the bike it felt great and I was happy enough that I was recovered to head to Bradleys Wiggins round 2 on the Saturday. The race was a bit more savage this week with Katie Archibald down racing and constantly attacking, she was super strong and constantly on the front. With nothing sticking down to the last lap it looked like it was going to come down to a sprint but with half a lap to go Katie launched herself off the front, I was in the right place and managed to get onto her wheel, I dug deep to hold it and had a quick look back to see we had a gap! I sat behind Katie, hoping to come round her in the last 100 metres or so but it was not to be, as soon as I moved out the slipstream I was going nowhere and Katie managed to stay in front of me with her insane strength. So a second place, but pleased with how I was feeling.

The next day was my first road race of the season at the CDNW road race series, this is the first year CDNW has run womens races in its series and it certainly seems to have been successful with 31 women in the race. Driving the course before the I was happy to see it was pan flat, but strong winds were likely to affect the race. After rolling out from the race HQ the race was immediately into the left hand gutter with cross winds blowing. I tried to keep up the front of the bunch but didn't get involved in any of the many attacks pinging off the front in the first lap of the race. On the second lap I saw Katie get up the road and once she had a bit of a gap I tried to bridge across with 2 other riders, we made it across but unfortunately the bunch wasn't far behind us. Not much further up the road and another attack was away so I decided to follow it as well, again it was brought back and I was feeling fairly tired by this point! I decided to hide in the wheels for a bit and sat in for the next lap to recover. Coming into the last lap I was running a bit low on fuel so had to stuff some gels down me to get me round but in the end it came down to a sprint and I didn't position myself greatly which meant I got a bit caught between people and ended up having to freewheel at 150 metres to go which wasn't ideal but still managed to take 3rd, rounding out an all scottish podium with Katie winning again and Flora taking second!

And after all that racing I've gained a fair few ranking points and am currently sitting at the top of the 2nd category womens rankings! I'm headed to Mallorca for a week on Saturday which means I'll miss some races and probably slip down but its a nice place to be at the moment, and to make it better my sister is leading the Youth A girls rankings too!

So, the exciting news, well I've managed to get myself a ride for a dutch team at the 3 day Junior stage race at the Omloop Van Borsele in Holland in April. Needless to say I am very excited! I know it will be a BIG learning experience but I can't wait to go. The team I'm riding for is RWC Ahoy and I really hope I can be a useful part of the team. The website for the race is here, have a wee look if you want to find out more! http://wielercomite-sheerenhoek.nl/junior-dames.html

Also coming up in April I've got the 2 day womens tour of Perth at the start, its the first round of the British Womens Series, so it'll be a good indication of form. The course for the road race will make it fairly hard but I'm looking forward to getting stuck in and seeing how I can get on.

Again thanks for reading, I'll be back with an update soon! Sorry for the lack of pictures (blame the parents!)

Scottish Cyclocross Champs

I had my first big race of the year last weekend in the Scottish Cyclocross Champs at Strathclyde Country Park. These were originally scheduled for December last year but got cancelled due to icy conditions. The weather on the rescheduled date wasn't much better, the sleet and freezing conditions made me seriously consider my decision to do the race. But eventually I manned up and got out the car to go and sign on.

Think its fair to say I wasn't exactly looking
forward to the race with a forecast like this

After doing a quick practice lap I concluded this was going to be a very hard race, there was a horrible fire road section followed by mud which was near impossible to ride through and a muddy, technical bit. I wasn't feeling great about it but I would just have to ride it as well as I could, so I got on my turbo to warm up.

I finished my warm up and congratulated my sister on winning the under 16 girls race before getting a quick update on the course conditions and best lines to take from her and heading down to the start. Waiting at the start line was absolutely freezing, even with all my layers on and a short delay in the start time meant I had to wait even longer. Eventually we got lined up, the women were racing with the junior boys so luckily it wasn't too big a field. We got the count down and we were off.

Mud was the order of the day

Everyone went shooting off down the road and then slowed and went all over the place as they hit the first mud section, I was well positioned as 4th woman but was having slight issues with changing my gears because my hands were so cold. Through the section with the chicanes and I was right up on 3rd placed Maddy Robinson's wheel, but at the same time watching Eileen Roe and Genevieve Whitson disappear off to claim 1st and 2nd placed women. I managed to stick with Maddy for most of the race, I would usually loose her through the muddy technical section and up the fire road climb, at the top of which I was seeing stars and feeling extremely sick every lap. But I would make it back up to her on the flat muddy sections. I had a chance to attack early on as she crashed on the technical section but being the terrible cyclocross racer that I am I got all excited and promptly crashed as well, actually leaving me further behind than I had been before. I pushed as hard as I could but unfortunately it wasn't to be and I finished in 4th place. Major congrats to Maddy for a top race!

Maddy pushing me all the way!

However because I'm still a junior I didn't go away empty handed and I actually won the Junior Women's Championship, I think it might actually be the first time theres been one in cross racing, but I was really pleased with how I did considering I don't usually race cross. And after how cold, muddy and horrible that experience was I think I'll be sticking to the velodrome from now on!

Thanks very much to EKRC for putting on the race and everyone that helped out. I've got a few crit races coming up at the end of February and start of March and my first road race on the 17th of March at the new CDNW series. I'm interested to see how my form is after doing so much training over the winter so hopefully I'll get some good results!

Thanks for reading!

Summary of 2012

Before I get into what I'm doing this year I thought it would be good to do a quick write up on what I did last year (ok its actually quite long). The inspiration for this came on Friday night when I went to my club dinner and was really pleased to receive the Women's Championship Cup for most points/placings throughout last season, so I thought I'd give wee review of what I did to get those points and placings.

My sister and me with our awards from the club dinner

Last year I moved up to Junior category and started racing in Junior and Senior Women’s races, this change in racing is usually difficult enough but I decided to make it harder by breaking my wrist in a crash at the Revolution series at the start of the winter. So that meant turbo, turbo and more turbo. I started my season in March when I travelled to the North of England for some crits. I learned a lot over the 6 crits I raced at and scored numerous podium places and eventually a win at the final race. I was very happy to get my first win of the season and even had the attached article on British Cycling written about me! 

http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/road/article/roa20120325-road-Road--Borthwick-dominates-Tameside-Series-0

I was pretty happy with how the start of the season went, but my biggest test was yet to come. I travelled to the first round of the British Womens Series knowing it was going to be hard, but wow it was harder than I had even had nightmares about. With basically no base miles in my legs from a winter on the turbo and very little experience of any race over 40km, I was in a race 75km long and totally out of my depth. The race was 10 laps of a circuit, I was lapped twice and 2nd last finisher. As you can imagine I was pretty gutted about that, but my coach Brynley was really supportive and I was straight back to training and basically building up my base throughout April and May, which isn't what you're supposed to do, but it had to be done.

So my season could only improve from there! In May I raced the British Junior and Scottish Road Race Championships, I felt my riding improved a lot for both these races and I finished 13th in the Junior Champs and 9th overall in the Scottish Champs, that was really frustrating though because I was caught behind a crash and could definitely have done better! Throughout the year I also competed in the Scottish Crtiterium, Pursuit and Scratch Champs. I won my first senior championship medal, taking bronze, in the Crit Champs which I was very happy with. I then won another 2 bronzes in the Womens Pursuit and Scratch.

In July I was back at the British Womens Series, with a whole lot more experience and ready to turn around my 2nd last placing from the first round.  The race was a 2 day stage race in Blackpool, I finished 12th in the timetrial and finished the race in 11th place overall which I was overjoyed with considering how badly the first round had gone! This also meant I was 3rd Junior, only behind the 2 riders selected to go to the European Championships for Great Britain, Lucy Garner and Emily Kay. Needless to say I was extremely happy!

In the summer I travelled to the Basque Country in the north of Spain to stay and train with a Spanish Cyclist. I competed in 2 races while there and was very happy to finish first girl in the first one and receive a big cup and bunch of flowers on the podium! The standard of competition was much higher in the second race as it was the final round of the Spanish Womens Series and members of the Spanish World Champs team were competing, I ended up 13th after a very long, hard race in the sun.

Big cup and flowers from the Basque Country

Towards the end of the season I travelled to Holland to do some Junior races because I plan to race there next year. The racing was very, very hard with all the girls wanting to attack or be at the front, it was insane, you've got to execute all the skills you've got to the top of your ability at the same time as learning a load of other things, all while trying to ride your bike really fast. It was mental but I absolutely loved it! I came away with a 13th and a 25th (after a puncture) but learnt so much that will be very useful for when I go back next year. Again the level of competition was very high with Dutch, Belgium and German Junior national team members racing.

Racing in Holland in the worst rain I've ever raced in -
living in Scotland thats saying something!

I finished off my season on the track, first off I had the British Junior Champs which didn't go as well as I had hoped, I didn't really have my track legs on at all. On the way home from that I went to the Newport Nocturne Crit race, I wasn't really expecting much because I had done a pursuit in the morning. The race started insanely fast and with a cobbled section and a few dead turns I was struggling from the off but moving up the group, my legs seemed to find themselves and by a lap to go I was ready to go go go for the sprint. I'm so annoyed at myself though because I totally messed up the sprint and ended up getting boxed in and finished 8th, however still a good result in a top quality field.

So finally the British Senior Track champs, I was just there for experience really but it was a hard and frustrating 2 days, with a 30km (thats 120 laps!) points race where I finished 9th and then a slow puncture in the scratch race meaning I didn't finish, annoyed but lesson learnt! Then at the end of October the Scottish Track Champs at the brand new and lovely Sir Chris Hoy velodrome. There was 3 junior womens races on and a grand total of 2 junior women racing. I really hope to see this situation improve in the future but we had to make what we could of it and I can away with 2 silvers and a gold. Winning the gold in the 500m TT was pretty special, it was the first time I'd been awarded a jersey and it just felt so good to be up on the massive podium, exciting!

I also got to meet David Millar at the
Thunderdrome at the Scottish Track Champs

So that was 2012 and theres a load of people to thank for it, but specifically Scottish Sports Aid and The Robertson Trust, my coach Brynley Davies, Graeme Herd, Alan Denman and the Performance Program at Scottish Cycling, the ERC Race Team, Bicycleworks and Alpine Bikes. And all the Scottish Women who have been really supportive, and Laura especially for taking me with her to lots of races, I really need to learn to drive! And my friends Claire and Shona, who are amazingly still my friends despite the fact I'm forever away at races and training.

Thanks for reading if you've got this far and if you want to keep up with me between posts then follow me on twitter - @louiseb95

First Post - A bit about me

Right so I've decided to start a blog, might take me a wee while to get my head around this so my posts will probably improve, so stick with me!

First off a bit about me:
Coming from a cycling family I've been on a bike for as long as I can remember, I started off on the back of my parents bikes, then made it to my first proper bike and I used to just love riding my bike. But then in 2007 I discovered racing at the Peebles CC Dirt Crit Series at Glentress and I was hooked, vowing to come back the next year. So in 2008 I was back and I had multiple 2nd place finishes before finally getting my first race win - wooo! That was a long time ago and it has been a steep, steep upward curve of learning from then on.

On the way to my first race win

I raced on the mountain bike for the 2009 season with my best placing 2nd in a round of the British Series, but then I discovered road racing (much, much better) I decided it was definitely for me so stuck with it. I won the Scottish Youth Crit Champs from 2009 - 2011 and gained some good positions in British Races. I also started racing on the track and loved that too, that took a lot longer to make it anywhere in but I've improved a lot from when I started, mainly with a lot of work, and commitment driving up and down to Manchester (I owe a lot to my parents!). Thankfully since October we've got a nice new track in Glasgow, which just makes such a difference and is amazing to have just an hour away!

Racing can in Britain can be really horrible sometimes!

That pretty sums up my youth years and last year was my first year as a junior, racing in the Womens races. Again, a lot of learning (theres always something to learn) but I think I'm getting my head round it all and I'm so so ready to give it my all in 2013.

In the Scottish Womens Crit Champs last year

Training for next season is going really well, I'm just back from a weekend Scottish Cycling Junior training camp which was very tiring, with plenty of efforts and lot of good work done. We also had a really good self massage class and I will definitely be putting what I've learnt into practice to help my recovery. The races I'll be doing in March and April have been decided so thats really good and adds a lot of motivation to my training, exciting stuff!


So thats my first post, thanks for reading and I'll be back soon with something new, would be much appreciated if you could share this around