2009 Recap.... (9th, December 2009)
Hello !! Welcome to my new website.
Thanks to Matt Roach who offered to re-do it for me, it was much needed and I really like the new design…I hope you do too.
A lot has happened over the last few months, I had a great summer of racing on the road, it went much better than I had expected it to do. I experienced stage racing for the first time, I had picked up a few good results and got given the opportunity to ride with Professional team Flexpoint and with the GB girls again for a lot of the major races which was great. By the time the end of the season came round I had been selected for the Road world championships in Mendrisio.
My form was good, I was fully ready to play a support role at the world championships and couldn’t wait for the Cyclo cross season to start the following week with the first round of the world cup in Treviso……This got put on hold after crashing in Mendrisio on the first lap leading down the decent I took a corner just that bit to fast and ended up spending the rest of the day in hospital with a broken Collarbone.
This really wasn’t how I had planned the start of my cyclo-cross season but that’s what happened and after a few weeks off the bike…..a lot of turbo work and waiting for my bone to heal I finally got to start my cross season.
I was thinking of starting off with a small race but then I thought I may as well through myself straight back into the top competition to see where I was at. So I travelled to France for round 2 of the world cup in Nommay.
Nommay was a race to see where i was at and a starting point. It was a very nice course which I had never been to before, it was very fast and a course which normally would suit my style of riding. I had a good start but couldn’t hold on to the fast pace of the other riders and was left to race by myself. I finished 26th which i really wasn’t happy with but it was a start and after only riding on my cyclo-cross bike 2 times before the race I was sure it could only get better from here.
I had no time to get down about that result as 2 days later I was racing at Niel in Belgium, again I had never ridden there before and its an event which normally is just held for the men but this year they had put a race on for us women too. I had a much better race and felt like I could get all the effort out today, I felt better on the technical sections and finished in 8th Position.
The following week I got sick which meant I had to have a few days off the bike, I wasn’t to worried about it, I had just done 2 races that week and my immune system was low, after a few days taking it easy I managed to get some good training in the week before the next world cup, Koksijde.
I love the course at Koksijde its something very special to race there, so many people come to watch, a lot of English people come over that weekend with gent 6 day being on the week before they all come to support us on the Saturday too which is fantastic.
The course was very different from the previous year, there had been a lot of rain the week before which had made the sand very compact and much easier to ride than it normally is. I felt confident wit the course and was looking forward to the race. I had to start on the back row again due to me having hardly any uci points, this is always a problem as it becomes more risky, when you start at the back your constantly trying to move up which means there is more chance of you getting caught in a crash…and that’s exactly what happened to me, I had a brilliant start and was in about 15th, 3 girls came down in front of me on the 2nd corner and I had no-where to go but straight into the back of them I lost time and ended up being right at the back again, I got myself together and concentrated on picking off the girls in front every lap I felt stronger and eventually I finished in 12th place!! I was made up and after looking at my lap times which apart from the first lap crash they were very consistent. It was a really good confidence boost for me and it was even better that my family and matt were all there to help and support me.
Two days later and I was in Benicassim Spain for a training camp I went with Nicolle de Bie and the Fidea guys, I had a fantastic week of training with the guys…its always good being able to train hard with them, they really do push me but also there all very friendly and its good fun.
It also gives me the chance to brush up on a few Flemish words too….although most of the words they teach me aren’t really the ones I would teach others!
After a flight back from sunny Spain on the Saturday I finished the week off with a local race just five minutes from where I live in Averbode. I raced with the junior boys, I finished in 16th and won some flowers for finishing first girl. It was my best result to date with the junior boys and a really good way to finish off the hard weeks training.
I’m pretty tired now so I will take this week a little lighter before racing twice this weekend coming in Holland, I will let you know how I get on………
Thank you for everyone’s support over the last couple of months I’m really motivated at the moment and I hope I can start to get a few good results over the next few weeks .
Nikki x