After almost a month off the bike following my last race and barely any road miles in my legs, it was time to ride the National Hill Climb Championships. I was nervous to say the least, particularly given I’d timed myself up the climb the week before and it took me over 23 minutes (which would have got me the lantern rouge this weekend).
Since my big crash I used the Nationals mainly as a goal to work for to make sure I rode the turbo to keep myself fit, but as always I wanted to do well.
Since my big crash I used the Nationals mainly as a goal to work for to make sure I rode the turbo to keep myself fit, but as always I wanted to do well.
The morning before the competition, I rode the hill with the guys from Buxton CC. It was definitely going to be a headwind!! As the hill was only 3% and only 4.5 miles long it was borderline timetrial/hill climb. I decided to opt for my road race bike with tri-bars.
On Saturday evening we (the couch potato and I) went off to Manchester Velodrome to support the Maxgear team at the Revolution Series. It was a great evening for Maxgear with plenty of impressive teamwork from Chris Lawless and the others in the future star boys and a fantastic 2nd place in the points race from Megan Boyd smashing all the competition to take the final lap! She also bagged 3rd places in the other two races – the 6 lap dash and the 20 lap scratch!
As well as the entertaining racing, Mel was riding the rollers (for two hours no less) wearing the new WASP time trial speedsuit - recently developed by Maxgear/Champion Systems, which looked awesome. I really wanted to try one for the nationals and managed to persuade Wayne (@MaxgearRT) to let me have one for the National Hill Climb!
On Saturday evening we (the couch potato and I) went off to Manchester Velodrome to support the Maxgear team at the Revolution Series. It was a great evening for Maxgear with plenty of impressive teamwork from Chris Lawless and the others in the future star boys and a fantastic 2nd place in the points race from Megan Boyd smashing all the competition to take the final lap! She also bagged 3rd places in the other two races – the 6 lap dash and the 20 lap scratch!
As well as the entertaining racing, Mel was riding the rollers (for two hours no less) wearing the new WASP time trial speedsuit - recently developed by Maxgear/Champion Systems, which looked awesome. I really wanted to try one for the nationals and managed to persuade Wayne (@MaxgearRT) to let me have one for the National Hill Climb!
On the day the wind was less strong than it had been the day before, but it was still a headwind. I pulled on my WASP speedsuit (which stands for Wattage saving, Aerodynamic, Speed Products) and it felt like I was putting on a superhero outfit – the perfect mental preparation for a hill climb! The skinsuit was super-fitted and had awesome WASP like abs on the front! It gave me the boost I needed and I was really excited and ready to race!! I got on the turbo to do a proper warm up (although I didn’t have any profiteroles for race fuel unlike new Female Junior HC Champ Eve!) and raced over to the start! The climb was tough – the wind was strong and blowing a cross head in gusts. As I reached the half way point there was a large crowd shouting support which spurred me on just as I hit the mile long straight into a block headwind - ouch. I finished 13th of total 19 ladies and I had beaten the dreaded 23 minutes getting a respectable 18.23. I’ve raced the hill before and it isn’t my PB, but I think given the events of the last few months being less than a minute slower than the ladies I’ve been racing with throughout the year isn’t too shabby! Maybe it was the supersuit that helped?!
Big shout out to my good friend Sarah Byrne who signed with Horizon Fitness for 2012, won the BUCS hill climb and come third in the Nationals - not a bad week!
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