Wow it’s been a while since I’ve done a blog! So much has happened! The National Road Race went well and I was pleased to finish in the front main group especially given how hilly it was early on. I attacked before the climbs which gave me plenty of sliding room and after that it was just about getting through the race and seeing where I could get in the sprint as there was still an U23 jersey up for grabs! In the last lap I was cramping up and getting out of the saddle was almost impossible, so I had to sprint for the line in the saddle! I ended up coming 12th which wasn’t too bad and it was good to be back road racing.

After the National RR I returned home for a week of training in the Yorkshire hills. It was good to get a change of scenery and enjoy a bit of home cooking whilst training hard. After that it was back to Manchester for a block of track work leading up to the U23 Europeans in Portugal.

I enjoyed being back on the track and definitely saw an improvement on the training I’d done in June. All of the sessions were focused on team pursuit and I was desperately hoping to make the team for the Euros. In the end I didn’t make the line up for the team pursuit which was disappointing but the other girls were in great shape too and were simply better at holding pace.

GB ended up winning the U23 European title in Portugal, smashing it through the heats by 9 seconds and catching the other team in the final. Hopefully with more time I can become part of the line up, as the gap is closing slowly but surely. The next event to aim for in terms of the team pursuit is the first UCI World Cup in Kazakhstan in early November.

With the team pursuit now not an option I only had one event which was the 3k individual pursuit.  I’d raced over this distance a few times before, but not since the Track Nationals in October 2009 where I’d come away with a new PB of 3.43 and a silver medal.

Going from team pursuit at 16.4 second lap pace to pursuit on my own at 18.4 pace it was hard to judge and although I qualified 3rd with 3.44.8, it wasn’t a very good ride pace wise (I did the 13th slowest first kilo and was 9th fastest at 2k!) so I felt there was more to give in the final.

However, my legs struggled to find pace in the second ride and although I gave it everything I was beaten to the bronze medal by less than a second. I was gutted not to come away with a medal but that’s sport and it’s onwards and upwards from here.

I enjoyed a lovely break in the sunshine after the individual pursuit, staying with my family in Portugal for 4 days then returned to Manchester to get back into training.

It’s been a pretty good month and I’ve been building on my form really well. The National 10 mile TT Champs went a lot better than I expected as I came 3rd behind Julia Shaw, Commonwealth Games medallist from last year and Laura Trott who recently won the Team Pursuit at the World Championships in March.

I was feeling pretty good leading into the race as myself and some of the other GB squad riders; Jo Rowsell, Dani King and Sarah Storey had all done a local ’10 a few days previous and it’d gone well so that gave me confidence.

The National 10 course was a pretty straightforward out-and-back and took place on the A19 in Hartlepool. I set off into a massive headwind and worked hard into the turn, although the split times show that I probably should have gone out a bit harder.

On the way back the tailwind was amazing and I found myself spinning away in my biggest gear. I crossed the line having really emptied the tank and was about to roll back to the race HQ when I punctured….luckily it wasn’t any earlier!

After walking back to the HQ, I warmed down with Dani and Laura then we went to get the results. I was really surprised to see my name right up there and so happy to finally see a bit of a reward for the hard work. It was also good to be able to email the result to my sponsor, Madison, who had sent me new Shimano shoes, swanky white Giro TT gloves and overshoes for the event.

After the ’10 I got back into training with another strength and power block, this time incorporating some more track work. It was good to be back in a team pursuit line with the other girls and recently I’ve really been able to feel the strength from all the gym work coming through on to the track…hopefully I’ll be flying in a few weeks time.

It’s now just over four weeks until the U23 European’s and training will involve a mix of endurance work on the road and an intense track block in the final lead up to the Championships. I’ll also be riding the National Road Race this weekend up in Newcastle as part of my endurance training.

I’ll let you know how I get on.

Finally, good news – the form is returning and I actually feel like myself again. The training blocks of strength and power work which I started earlier this year, followed by time on the road and turbo have left me fitter, faster and stronger than I’ve ever been before.

I had a lab test a few weeks back to monitor the progress I’ve made since coming back from last year’s injuries and I got a new personal best for my max minute power! This was really important as the lab tests are a really good indicator of fitness so it really gave me a confidence boost.

I also got back on the track last week for the first time since January and again, it was a really positive start. I can’t wait to really get stuck into a good bit of track at the end of the month, which will begin the lead up to the U23 European Track Championships at the end of July.

Before that, I’ve entered the National 10 Mile Time Trial Champs which aren’t too far away on 21 May. It will be good to test myself against the other girls again and see if I can come up with a decent result. Although I haven’t specifically prepared for time trialling, the endurance work in my training at the moment should stand me in good stead and it’ll just be a case of gritting the teeth and digging in.

It’s now been a year since the accident in Belgium which left me with a broken leg and wrist, and I’m so proud of the progress I’ve made. I’ve dealt with a lot of frustration and disappointment but now I’m on the up I’m going to make sure it stays that way and hopefully I’ll reap the rewards by the end of the summer.

Training has been pretty frustrating recently as I’ve started to put a watch on sessions and I can’t believe how slow I am! Obviously it’s great that I can do those types of track sessions again and I can’t just bury my head in the sand but it can be a bit disheartening…

I’ve started my work in the gym and on the ERG machine to improve my power but I think I’ll just have to be patient with this as it’ll take a while for my body to adapt and for me then to see improvement. It’s a really interesting training programme though and if I can back up week upon week I should have moved on a lot in six weeks time.

I went for my first mountain bike ride in years last Friday. It was actually really fun and a good workout and I’m proud to say I managed to stay upright for the whole two hours.

I’ve just got back from a training camp in Majorca and it’s the best I’ve felt in a long time. A change of scenery is always good and the week was good for my head as well as the legs.

I was sharing a flat in Port de Pollenca with Joanna Rowsell and Claire Galloway, Claire being a recent addition to the training group. She’s come from a rowing background and was in the middle of a medical degree at Oxford which she’s having a break from whilst she gives the team pursuit a go. It’s pretty handy having her around, whenever anyone wants to know something science or health related it’s like “Ask Claire!”

It was a pretty relaxed atmosphere but we did a good week of training on decent roads and I surprised myself at how much training I could cope with. It’s definitely the best week I’ve put together since my accident so that’s a good sign!

My leg is bearing up ok too and since I got orthotics for my shoes to compensate for the slight leg length difference I’ve had no back or knee pain…happy days. The weather wasn’t amazing, although a lot better than when we went in March and we did have a couple of days where it was clear skies and 28 degrees so not bad for October.

Now it’s coming to November it’s time for the Academy to start again so riders have started moving in already. I’m looking forward to the winter training and getting in a good routine again of track and road and this year, gym too.

I always enjoyed the gym as a junior rider and loved circuit training when I was a runner so it’ll definitely be a session to look forward to. We’re also doing skills rides on mountain bikes which should be um…interesting.

The less said about my skills on a mountain bike the better but I agree it’ll be a good way of improving bike handling skills and shifting a heavy mountain bike around trails won’t be bad for the fitness either. Fingers crossed I stay healthy and injury free then it’ll be a great winter!

Well, I haven’t done a blog for a few months and a lot has happened. Drentse 8 back in April was followed by Drenthe World Cup, where I placed 36th – a result that I was pleased with. Various other bits of racing followed including a four-day stage race in Czech, Gracia Orlova.

It was after we got back from this race when my season took a disappointing turn. We had a couple of easy days to allow the legs to recover after racing, then on the morning of Friday 7th May we set out on a normal training ride of three hours when our group was involved in an accident with a car. Basically, to cut the long story short, the car hit me directly and the outcome was a broken femur and wrist. Obviously I was absolutely gutted, but three months on it’s time to get over it and now I’m back on the bike!

The past three months have been quite difficult, both mentally and physically but I’ve come a long way in terms of getting flexibility back in the leg. The broken wrist didn’t prove too much of a problem – I was in a cast for four weeks so struggled as it was my left leg and right wrist – but it’s been a longer job with the leg.

There was a lot of muscle damage in my upper leg, probably best shown in the first two weeks after the accident when my leg was absolutely huge! Plus I struggled for a while with quads lag – basically I couldn’t contract my quadricep properly.

That took a long time to get right again, and quite a few painful hours of work with a Compex machine (a horrible device that sends electrical impulses to the muscle to help it contract, but feels like you’re being continually stabbed with needles) I struggled with walking too and only just got rid of my crutches completely a month ago.

But now I can get back on the bike and begin the journey back to fitness again. I’ve started off slowly, doing 8.5 hours last week and 11 this week. It does feel like I’m completely starting from scratch again, but I’m hoping that once I’ve done a few more weeks at least I’ll feel like more of an athlete again.

I got passed by a guy in trainers and riding an ancient mountain bike on Monday… not a proud moment especially as I was in the usual GB kit! Training has been based around work on the turbo and rollers, riding my road bike on the treadmill and road rides. The latter was a big step for me, there’s the old saying ‘if you fall off a horse get back on’ but obviously for me there was a three month gap between having the accident and getting back on the road so it was pretty scary at first.

I’m getting better though and I’m just trying to get on with it because obviously I recognise the need to have that confidence back if I’m to get on with my training. I’m in the process now too of looking for car sponsorship, as being able to drive out of Fallowfield in Manchester where I’m now based, to quieter roads around Wilmslow and the Peak District will be a lot better and hopefully, much safer.

It’s strange being back in Manchester as opposed to Belgium as the other Academy girls are still based out there. I’ve been keeping in contact with them and both Katie and Lucy have had great results recently.

I just wish I could be racing too. I’m not sure when my next race will be, the National Track Champs, U23 Europeans and Commonwealth Games are definitely out – a huge disappointment – but maybe the World Cup season in the winter will provide an opportunity to race again.

Anyway, I will keep my blog more up to date now I’m back in the saddle. And thanks to everyone who has supported me since the accident… it’s definitely helped me to keep my chin up.

April brought the second World Cup to Belgium! The 118km course for Tour of Flanders looped in and around the Oudenaarde area for the first half of the race, then ended up in Ninove. Again, it was a tough course but in a completely different way to Binda.

There were lots of long, flat cobbled sections, ranging from about 500m to 2000m and also nine climbs. However, none resembled the climbs from the first World Cup in any way shape or form! Some were cobbled, such as the Bosburg and the Muur – the last two climbs – and others were on normal roads but ranged in distance and gradient.

The race started off well and I fulfilled my role for the team which was to be active at the front of the bunch for the first 26km before the first cobbled section, then lead Nicole into the cobbles as far up in the group as possible. I managed to take her into the cobbles in the top ten so was pleased to have got my job done, but keen to stay in the top group as long as possible.

I got over the first climb, the Kluisberg, in the main bunch, which showed a definite improvement in my climbing, but on the flat roads after the climb, misfortune struck as my chain snapped in two! We race with radios so that we can have contact with our manager and coach, Simon and the mechanic, Martyn who ride in the convoy of cars that follow the race. I called over the radio that my chain had snapped so that they could give me a spare bike.

Unfortunately, as my teammate Lucy had crashed a little while earlier, the car was at the back of the convoy so it took quite a long time to actually reach me. By that point, not only had the first group completely gone past, but the second, third and fourth group, as well as other small groups of riders… so it was pretty much race over by then.

I wanted to finish as far up as possible though, so I kept moving myself up and finished 108th. I was pleased to have made it to the finish of such a tough course but disappointed that my chain had snapped on a day when I had good legs.

The day after Flanders was GP Dottingies, which was again quite local to our Oudenaarde base. The field contained a lot of riders from the World Cup so that fact, combined with a race distance of 121km, cross winds and tired legs meant that it was to be another hard day in the saddle!

I made a lot of stupid mistakes, such as getting caught near the back in the cross wind section and starting the climb at the back of the bunch, meaning that fairly soon I was gritting my teeth and struggling to stay with the race! I didn’t end up finishing the full race distance, as I ended up too far back so consequently was pulled out. Again, it was disappointing, but not really that surprising considering my bad positioning and fatigue from the previous days efforts.

After a recovery ride on Tuesday and a four-hour drive to Holland, the next race was Drentse 8, a 141km race in the Drenthe region of Holland. With the next World Cup, Ronde van Drenthe taking place two days later, the field contained most of the World Cup riders, plus a few others from Dutch teams.

It was quite windy again with cobbles and crosswinds to catch you out but this time I was prepared! Having learnt from my mistakes on Monday in Dottingies I fought my way to the front of the bunch and managed to stay there – finding that it makes life a whole lot easier being in the shelter of the top 20 rather than hanging on at the back as there is a lot less physical effort required!

It was a good race and I was pleased with how I rode, keeping a good position, going with attacks and even picking up 3rd place in one of the ‘primes’ (sprints within the race, usually for points or money).

With around 25km to go, a group of 11 riders, including GB rider Lucy Martin, attacked and gained a 15-second advantage on the main bunch. This gap fluctuated between 10-20 seconds but was still maintained until the finish. I was hoping to be competitive in the bunch sprint, but with around 15km to go the effort of the race really caught up with me and I was cramping up big style!

There was no way I could do more than two pedal revs out of the saddle, so tried to sprint in the saddle and rolled in at the finish for 49th place. However, this was the best race I have ridden so far this year so was really happy and also chuffed to bits for Lucy who came 8th and got the prize for the best young rider.

The end of March saw me enter the start of a huge block of racing, starting on 28th with the first World Cup of the road season, Trofeo Binda in Varese, Italy. Being my second World Cup on the road, in addition to Plouay GP at the end of last season, I knew what sort of standard to expect, as all of the big hitters would be there!

As there isn’t an under-23 category on the road for females, all of the road racing we do is senior women’s so the standard is always pretty high. Basically I knew it was going to be a tough race! Situated in northern Italy, it meant that we were surrounded by beautiful scenery and good weather – but also a lot of hills!

The race included a large lap of about 60km with two nasty, steep climbs and a long dragging ascent, then continued on to an 18km finishing circuit with more climbs to complete the race distance of 136km!

After the first steep climb the race split into about five groups and I ended up in the third group of about 20 along with my team-mate Katie. From this point we rode on towards the finish circuit, keeping the pressure on along the flat to try and catch the group in front but the group was simply too big to work together and there were only about five of us doing any turns on the front, so we never made contact with the main bunch again.

When we entered the finish circuit we were told we had to stop and were pulled out of the race. This can sometimes happen in road racing, as the commissaries (race organisers) have to stop the traffic for the race, so if the race is too split up then this makes it difficult. So, in the name of safety anyone who is too far back has to stop. In fact, over half of the field didn’t finish. However, Nicole finished in sixth which was a good start to her World Cup campaign.

I’ve been in Belgium for almost a month now and I feel so much better than when I first got out here. We had a 10-day training camp in Majorca last week which was tough but so beneficial. The training camp was like nothing I’ve done before. 10 days of solid, quality training; most of it consisting of climbing and occasionally doing sprint efforts, up mountains!

It was strange getting back into the rhythm of climbing up longer hills after the short sharp hills of Belgium, as the longer climbs took up to 50 minutes and then there was also the problem of going down the other side! At first I was descending down the hairpins of the mountains like an absolute granny as I was so nervous, but by the end of the camp I had become a lot more confident and actually started to relax and enjoy the descents.

The team morale was also really good, as well as myself and Academy team mate Lucy, there was Olympic champion Nicole Cooke, double Paralympic champion Sarah Storey and two riders from the mountain bike Academy, Annie and Lily, who were on a break from mountain biking to do a road block with us.

The only bad thing about the camp was the weather. It was really disappointing to say it was March! With two days of the camp left it had started snowing so we did a double day on the turbo and for the last day of the camp the first major climb had a no entry sign at the bottom so we decided to give the hills a miss! We still had a hard ride though, five hours and 149km on the flatter roads where most of the snow had cleared.

Over the weekend we then had chance to recover before hitting the training hard again this week. Yesterday was another good ride of five and a half hours around the course of the Tour of Flanders, a World Cup race in April, then tomorrow we have a power session on the turbo in the morning and an afternoon ride with some Zone 3 efforts (Zone 3 being a heart rate of 147-160bpm, so just out of your comfort zone!)

I’m really enjoying training at the moment and enjoying the feeling of getting fitter, we have quite a lot of racing coming up too so that’s obviously good motivation.