National Closed Road Time Trial Championship 2020. On Saturday the 10th of October 2020 (last week), my dad and I went to ‘Premier Inn’ at Thruxton in Hampshire for the race the next day.

We went with Jack (10yrs) and Edith (13yrs), all of us are members of Suffolk Youth Race Team (SYRT). We had dinner together that night and then went to bed. The hotel let us down a bit with breakfast, so we had to find some in another place.

In the morning, we woke up and packed our things away. I got ready in my kit, then we packed the car and checked out of the hotel. We then went to McDonald’s and bought pancakes, but didn’t eat them in the end as we didn’t really like them, so I had a banana instead. When we got to the race, I signed on and got my numbers and timing chip and took them back to the car.

Edith, jack and I rode around a bit to keep warm and at 8:00, we did a few laps of the course together to practice our lines and position.

With about 30 minutes to the race, I got on the rollers and did a few minutes on there. I finished my drink, got back on the rollers and did a few harder bursts. With about 10 minutes to go to my start, I went over and started riding around the square warm up area near the start line.

At the start line, I had to think about my gears and where my pedal was in order to get a fast start. Although I was ready, I still had quite a bad start, only getting clipped in at the end of the pit lane.

I was on the tri-bars as soon as i could have and about 1 minute into the race, I went around a corner and someone came past me on the inside of the track, but there was not much space, maybe 40 cms, so it was very close. They made me lose control of the bike whilst I was on the tri-bars, and I almost fell off. I recovered and settled back into the race without losing too much time.

There is a hill on the course near the end of the lap. After a few laps riding the hill seated, I decided to test out which one was faster, “out of the saddle” or “on the tri-bars seated” for the hill. I figured out that I was much faster out of the saddle when going up the hill and still recovered in time to push onto the finish straight.

I forgot my inhaler before the race, so I was struggling a bit with my breathing for the whole race, but at the end of the race I gave all my remaining energy away by giving a sprint to the finish line. I was so tired and out of energy when I finished, that after I signed out, I could barely stand and had to sit on the ground whilst we were talking to team mates.

I was quite happy with my result and I came 1st (I was the only one in my category ). Although I did beat a 13,14 and 15 year old which I think is quite good.

It was great fun and I’m glad I could race there this year. Well done to everyone who raced.It was about 4 hours to get home, so I was quite tired when we arrived to see my mum and our dog.

Thank you again to Angus for lending me his disc wheel. I looked after it very well and It made me feel very fast.

Thank you to Stonham Barns for their support this year (Alan and Terri Forward, Keith etc), you make a big difference, especially for the opportunities you make available to me.. Its never forgotten.

Today I went to Milton Keynes to ride with the UCI road team, Cams Tifosi.

When we arrived, we met Keith the photographer who works with my sponsors Stonham Barns and we went to the area where the team were getting ready.

A few minutes later, I talked to Clover Murray, who came from Colchester and rode for Braintree velo (who my dad used to ride with, and they both knew Chris Broadway). She was very kind and supportive.

There were two choices of course, 20 miles or 40 miles and I chose the 40 miles one.

We had to ride in groups of six because of coronavirus and our group was with Megan Barker (Professional cyclist who won a gold medal at the European games). It was a very nice course and lovely weather. I used my cyclo-cross bike which is a bit heavier than my road bike. The course was quite hilly but also had lots of long downhills.

We rolled out from the café but our group split up quite quickly so Megan and I rode together almost all of the way. I managed to ask a lot of questions and I now know a bit more about how professional riders work.

Everybody was very friendly. The photographer and my dad came past quite a lot and got hundreds of pictures of Megan and I. Megan said “it’s like were celebrities.” It was very windy which affected our speed a bit but we still got round with a 16 mph average.

When we got back to the café me and my dad got a drink and something to eat. I got the biggest bit of Victoria sponge cake in the world! The wasps were attacking us and they wanted my dad’s Danish whirl. After that the team had a quick Q&A session, but we had to leave a bit early, so we could only see half of it.It was a wonderful experience and a very inspiring ride and I’m glad I got this opportunity.

Lastly, I’d like to thank Allan, Keith Suffling (amazing), Simon and Cams Tifosi but especially Megan Barker for looking after me around the course today.

Some great photos from Keith Stuffling of Megan and I during the ride.

Massive thank you to Megan for buddying me around the 40 miles, Clover for being so kind before the ride, Keith for helping to organise the ride and taking all of the photos and of course, Alan Forward of Stonham Barns Park for his support, as ever.

This took a while to get right. We went through a few weeks of how to get an 11yr old girl, me, to beat some of the fastest male senior riders around the showground. I know if they came back, they would beat me, but that’s not too surprising.

We worked on all sorts of positional optimisation, corner exit speed etc to be in with a shot. A local coach tried to tell me I was not riding correctly, which confused me a bit for one week, but w got back on track and the results are below.

It was great to be on my own pushing out a good few lap times that equalled the record, but I was over the moon to see two laps that were quicker. I did have a few laps out on each attempt and the fastest time same from 3 laps in a row attempts with the middle lap being the hardest push.

Thank you again to Stonham Barns for their support and use of the show ground.

6th of September 2010

Goodwood, allowed to race up an age group today. Happy with ride, it looks like I’m on target. Trying to average 23mph for 11.7 miles. It was windy and a bit colder than the last time we went to Goodwood.

I came 3rd, riding in U16s. It was really good fun and have to thank the race organiser David Collard-Berry of 3crg for letting me race in an older age group and most importantly the same distance as i would need to ride in the National Championships in a few weeks time.

11th of August 2020

Wednesday the 5th of August 2020 in Derbyshire

We arrived at Great Longstone in the middle of the afternoon. When we got there we had to find the start place. Then we drove the course so I could understand where to go. We also found the road leading to the start line from the finish/sign-on area.

We drove the course a few times to get used to it. We stopped at a couple of places, I did a practice start and I also rode up the steepest section of the hill to get a feeling for it, and to know if my gears were right.

After waiting at the car park near the top of the hill for a few hours, we decided that I wouldn’t ride the full distance down to the start because it was a very long way to ride on open roads on my own. We stopped around a mile from the start, where I got out and rode to the start. I warmed up near the start on the closed road.

I was number 5, so I needed to be at the start-line quite early. I started at 18:35, but at the start I couldn’t get clipped in, although I had practiced lots. Around half way through the race I ran out of breath and I think it slowed me down a bit. I have sports induced Asthma. I did use my inhaler, but I still had breathing problems.

As I got further up the hill, some people who I did not know were shouting my name out, which made me go a little faster. I had never ridden the hill before, so it was not easy to know how much effort to put in or when to push harder. At the end I was so warn out, I couldn’t even sprint.

If I did it again, I think I would try to clip in a bit faster and try to sprint at the end no matter how much pain I was in. I would also understand it better and I would know where to push.

I really enjoyed this hill climb and it was a great experience.

I came 3rd in the under 16s/Juvenile female category. I am not really built for hill climbs, as I am really more muscular in my legs and more of a sprinter. Whereas most of the other competitors looked very light.

https://www.facebook.com/Veloshooter/photos/?tab=album&album_id=3144325655621867

Lovely steady ride around Wetheringset with Edith

Saturday Ride – 1st of August 2020.
Still no racing due to Corona Virus.

I went for a tail wind ride out for once, with a head wind home. I rode past my sponsors “Stonham Barns” which always brings a smile to my face and reminds me of when I first met Alan, his team and the residents of the holiday holes when I rode 121 miles to raise money for Great Ormond Street.

Ride details below:

Whether Abbey ever repeats this years feat of being undefeated at home or in Europe is hard to know, but to do that again would be equally amazing. There are some very talented girls racing against Abbey who were so close to beating her on road and beat her in other disciplines, such as Orla and Melanie. In years to come the girls will battle away and all win, I am sure. New girls will come into the mix and make the races as exciting as they have been this year. A massive well-done to all of the girls.

Rather than go into detail of every one of Abbeys wins, here’s a montage of Photographs from this year.

A massive thank you to Stonham Barns and Gibbons Plant Hire for their support.