Round up of July racing

So as I said in my last blog, during July I had the hard task of completing 3 4 day stage races within the space of 3 weeks. First up I had the Tour of Krasna Lipa in the Czech Republic, a tour which I have done twice before. I competed in this tour with my team from last year, Team Ibis Cycles. This is a very difficult tour, not only because of the constant hills, but also because of the extremely hot temperatures. For some reason, I seem to have a real problem with the heat. Last year, I had one occasion when I collapsed during a race due to heat stroke, and since then I haven’t really coped well with really hot weather. Unfortunately, during the first stage of this tour, the heat stroke struck again, and feeling as though I was going to faint, I had to let go of the front group, and ended up finishing in the 2nd peloton. After the first day, the heat didn’t die down, but I started feeling a lot better. Strangely, although it was so hot in the mornings while we were racing, every afternoon, there would be a huge thunderstorm! On the 3rd day, we had a double day, so this meant racing in the thunder storm for the afternoon stage, and this just happened to be the most technical stage of the tour, with descents filled with potholes and sharp corners. While most of the peloton were dreading this stage in the rain, I was loving it- a break from the heat!! I had a really good stage, managing to stay right near the front for the whole race and finishing in the front group. I again finished in the front peloton on the last day, and ended the tour in 40th place- unfortunately I had not been able to move any further up after such a bad first day.

Next, I was off to France for the tour of Bretagne, which started 3 days later. Although this was the tour I had not really wanted to do, it ended up being my favourite of the 3 races. The terrain in Bretange is constantly rolling, but with no really big hills to split up the peloton. Therefore all the road stages ended in big bunch sprints. One thing that I have noticed this year is that I have got a lot better at riding and sprinting in a bunch, and that really showed during this tour. Whereas last year I would just roll in at the back of a big bunch for the finish, during this tour I finished in the top 25 out of around 150 girls in each stage of this tour. So that was a really positive thing for me, and showed me that all the flat races in Holland and Belgium over the last few years.

By the time the final tour, the tour of Limousin, started, I was absolutely exhausted! This had originally been the tour that I had wanted to get a good result in. However, after having to do 2 tours before this, it was obvious that this was not going to happen! On top of the tiredness, this was an extremely hard tour, with big hills everyday, and the Olympic champion, Marianne Vos, using it as her final Olympic preparation. The highlight of the tour had to be following Vos in the car while she was warming up for her time trial- over an extremely technical and hilly course, she was going at an average speed of about 40km/hr..and this was her warm up! She was definitely in a class of her own during the tour, winning by around 40minutes over the next rider! For me, the tour was just a matter of getting through it. However I did have a really good last stage, finishing in the front group of 40.

After the tour was over, I travelled back to Holland, where I have been staying for the last couple of weeks, having a much needed break. I am staying with a group of Scottish and British cyclists, and am enjoying being able to speak some english for a while!! I am now getting back into training, to get back into form for the trophee d’Or at the end of the month.

I have also recently received the good news that I am on the long list for the road world championships at the end of september. My main goal for the year is to race at these championships, so I am very happy to be a step closer to achieving this goal.