Blog number 7 - Belgie

After starting out in Essex at 5 in the morning, arriving in Belgium at 10 we finally had time to just chill and acclimatise after a good few hours of travel.. 6 hours pre race (Zwevezelle De Hille). 

When it eventually came to signing on I had been dozing for the hour beforehand in the car, so got on the rollers half asleep, realising it was now time to wake up!

It was a good thing i did wake up- as with a quick start we were off before we knew it. With everywhere i looked the course was corner corner corner, after sitting on the front for a couple of miles i sat back for a bit, deciding that I'd try to go for a few of the preems. 

After a few miles was feeling strong so looked around for my team mate Bryony, who was nowhere to be seen, at this point I didn't realise she had had a severe mechanical, so i decided to just go for it on my own. after holding off the group for about 2 miles, the Belgian winds took their toll, and I sat back with the group for the remainder of the race. 

Going away with some preem money, tomato sauce, and rolling in at 14th, I was pleased with my first race in Belgium.

On the Sunday in Holland my legs were feeling fine and was ready to go. After a half hour drive from the hotel to the HQ in Holland , we had ample time to ride the course, get changed and warmed up. 

Getting a shout out at the start of the race was a nice introduction to 50km's of spinning our legs, and we were good to go.

After a crash, a mechanical, and my cleat giving, it was a case of, could anything else go wrong?! I ended up in the chasing group for the rest of the race. Was a bit disappointing, but still managed a 2nd in the chasing group sprint which was nice!

Now I'm back in Stoke and looking forward to racing the Nigel Measom memorial this weekend in Lutterworth, and catching up with my bestest pal Keira Mcvitty! 

Ciao Ciao

Blog number 6 - Update

BANG! went my tyre halfway through the second round of the womens team series race in Surrey. Gutted isn't even the word. Being a RR obviously a lap out wasn't aloud, so the day for me was over. Watching the final few miles of the race i saw a familiar two faces coming up the hill, and who was it? Only my two best friends Keira and Lawrence coming to watch me.. had to bite my tongue to  not straight away tell them about their wasted journey!

Long story short i ended up riding home back to London with those two, calling in at Francis Cadeys house on the way home, who unfortunately had been really poorly, aww my poor little Francis!

Just over a week later I'm back in Stoke, rode out today with a guy named Brian Rourkes, who is the owner of all Rourkes bikes and cycles, and who gave multiple world champion Nicole Cooke her winning bikes over the years. Really nice to listen to stories about someone as successful as that, and for him to say i have a few similar characteristics is also pretty cool!

Tomorrow I'm back to London again, then Essex Friday to meet with my team mate and good friend Bryony, before we travel to Belgium on the Saturday for Zwelle De Hille and Holland Sunday for The Valkensburrg!

Time to pack up my stuff again now, brought a new little suitcase so thats given me a slight extra bit of motivation to get ready!

ciao

Blog number 5 - change of scenery

 So.. The 'week or so' more in stoke has ended up being permanent. I've decided that moving here will help me out in the long run, and really looking forward to be starting a northern college in a few months !

Not much else to report other than back to London today for the Dave peck memorial tomorrow, one of the women's national team series in Surrey. Let's hope I'm not half asleep tomorrow after a load of travelling today!

Not looking forward to getting on a tube in about an hour.. But really excited to see my little sister after about 2 months ! Deffiantly going to treat her to a nandos tomorrow !

All 4 now

Blog number 4 - Northern bike riders

Okay so a few days in stoke ended up being a week in stoke, 4 days in Liverpool, and back to stoke now for another week or so.

Yesterday I had my first race of the season, after attempting a few attacks and getting a group away, surprise surprise I got a puncture. For the remainder of the race was just a major chase for me. Finishing just outside the top 5 wasn't the result I wanted but felt good knowing the season was fully back in swing!

Today, I headed out pretty early with one of my friends from Skelmersdale, and spent 4 and a half hours riding round the north with Liverpool Mercury. Proper nice Sunday ride in the unexpected sunshine!

Anyway, only an hour left on trains now, then I'm back in old Stoke-On-Trent for another long while!

Ciao

Blog number 3 - Got my brain back

after a pretty... intense few weeks i decided that it was time to get up and and give everything another good go, hence the extremely late blog!

im currently sitting on a train to stoke to have a few days away from london, with my  brand new team issue Aprire Vincenza as my only company, proper excited to do 4+5 hours on it this weekend :)

In other news, my team mates Julie, Claire, Lucy, Lydia, Jasmine, Anna + Hayley are racing the UCI 1.2 - Omloop van het Hageland and one other this weekend in Belgium, so a big good luck to all of them. TeamReem.

And on an excited note- 3 weeks till our training camp in Italy, looking forward to anything above 5 degrees!

That's all for now :)

Blog number 2 - Training camp in Spain

So after boarding the plane and leaving dreary England at half 7 in the morning on Wednesday, we were on our way to Calpe for two weeks of sun, sea, and a lot of bike riding.

After going through customs, being overcharged by a taxi company, waiting for a bus for an hour, and not a lot of warm weather, we finally arrived at our apartment.

We quickly unpacked and first priority was getting out in the sun, and that we did ! Me and Keira were extremely wary as just a couple of days before we got absolutely ruined on my team launch ride, so out we headed into 18 degrees sun, layered up, leg warmers, thermals, and over shoes, up a 7% climb for about 3 miles. Safe to say we were cooked at the top!

Couple more days down the line trainings going well, you realise how bad it is training in London, or really anywhere in the UK after coming to somewhere like here. I'm finally not a milk bottle either!

Tonight we've been out on the bikes, had a 2 hour sunbathe, demolished a Chinese buffet and walked about 7 miles, pretty productive day I'd say!

Night from Spain ☺️

First post and New Year.

Okay, so although were 25 days in, one of my 'things to do' in 2014 was to create a blog. The reason for only starting it now, is that every post would pretty much be identical 'ride work bed'. But this is the first weekend this year that's had a bit of a twist! So thought I'd finally give this a go.

This weekend was my new teams launch 'Velosport Pasta Montegrappa' , and I finally got to meet my team mates from far and wide! (Belgium and Scotland being the furthest).. And the others just living a few hours from London.

The weekend kicked off on Saturday morning in Putney High Streets 'Velosport', these being our main sponsor for next year, and there we had our bike fits, kit/helmets given, met a few friends of the team, and most importantly had a big glass of PROSECCO!

Shortly after we headed out in our fresh new kit to do a few easy laps of Richmond park, little did we know there was going to be a mental cross wind and Velosport owner Steve was flying from start to Finnish. (Steve lad) so much for the mega easy spin! After the ride we headed into clapham to a Italian restaurant and had an amazing dinner, so nice! Found out that you can have mash potato pizza thanks to Phil Julie and Lydia, which we are all going to be trying next time!

Sunday we had planned a long ride through the surrey hills, ending up at box hill for the final climb. From start to Finnish was torrential rain/hail/wind everything you don't want to come face to face with in the surrey hills. Aprire bikes owner Phil Dempsey happily sat in front of me spraying surreys gravel all up in my eyes, and from then on for the next two hours I was 100% partially blind.


With the weekend over, my kit tumbling in the tumble dryer, me in bed, and with a rest day tomorrow, I can sit back relax, and plan what outfits to take to Spain on Wednesday!

Also would like to say a big thanks to my team manager Mauro Pizzol, for organising our weekend  , velosport for allowing us to have our launch there, radio marsden for coming down to interview and also to Phil Dempsey, who doesn't have a clue how to use a garmin to get from A to B.



#TeamReem