Photo of the day - 29: As featured in Cycling Weekly magazine

Quelle surprise: My review feature in Cycling Weekly magazine

I regularly write articles for different cycling publications. Sometimes it's on-line, other times it's for print magazines. Some are feature interviews, some are short news pieces, long form stories about people or places, and then I review gear and bicycles. This was a review I did on the Boardman SLR 8.9 women's road bike. I saw it go to Cycling Weekly on-line shortly after I wrote the piece, and then I forgot about it and focussed on the next item I was writing. So it was a nice surprise to open the magazine today and see the review in the printed version of Cycling Weekly. Even though the magazine only has a week's longevity before folks go out and buy the next issue, I get more excited to see my article in the magazine, than I do when it is on-line. I think it's related to the fact that the magazine is available in WH Smiths and Tesco, where folks can go out and buy it. There's something quite satisfying about a piece of work that you did being on a shelf in a shop. And today it was even nicer to just suddenly see my words and my photo shining off the page back at me as I thumbed through Cycling Weekly. It's the sort of thing that makes my day! By the way, the Boardman SLR is a good ride and I definitely recommend it.

Cyclists battle through the lockdown

I recently worked on an article for Cycling Weekly about cycling during lockdown, and how professional cycle racers are managing to stay fit and healthy during this period.

Opening pages of the Cycling Weekly feature I co-wrote with Rebecca Charlton

There's nothing more frustrating than not being able to do the sport you love. But spare a thought for those who cycle train and race for a living - those whose lives are dominated by a timetable of races, and a training schedule plus lifestyle based on being on top form for your next race.

Imaging you are all set to thrash it out on the roads of Belgium or Italy at the Spring Classics races, then suddenly you are told that you have to stop everything and staying indoors for the foreseeable future. That has been the case for those professional cycle racers living in Italy, Spain and France. Strictly speaking, it's possible to cycle outdoors in France but given the rules only one hour of exercise within a 1km-radius of home, biking options outdoors are quite limited.

Attilo Viviani, the younger brother of World Track Cycling Champion Elia Viviani had endured a 10-day lockdown in Abu Dhabi when the United Arab Emirates Tour was abruptly ended after some team members tested positive for Coronavirus. He then returned to his home in Verona, only to be enter into another lockdown throughout Italy the following week.


"This is my first season as a pro so it is strange for me, but also for guys aged 35 as well - no one has ever lived through a season like this. To stay motivated, I speak to our Italian Director Sportive, Roberto Damiani every couple of days."


Then Elisa Longo Borghini didn't even get to race at all. After overcoming an early-season flu which precluded her from competing in the Omloop Het Niewsblad race, she was all set to do the Strade Bianche a race where she has previously performed well. But the computer said no, and she has had to stay at home.


"I had been really in shape for the Spring Classics. So now it's like starting winter training again; I have space in my house to do gym work and the rollers. Using Zwift helps, as the time passes faster than with just music. [....] I just have to believe things will come good. I need to do what my trainer says and what my country says, to protect the weakest. My motivation to train is knowing that once I am able to wear an Italian jersey, I will wear it with pride." 


For new rider, Teniel Campbell she has had a lot to process. In this, her first year as professional, after arriving from Trinidad and Tobago and completing the UCI training course in Switzerland, Campbell was all set to make her mark. She became the first woman from Trinidad and Tobago to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics cycle road race, and with her Valcar-Travel & Service Team she had finished in the top five in a few races.

Based in Bergamo, the epicentre of the pandemic in Italy, and for a time in Europe, Campbell has had to deal not just with being unable to ride as normal, but also living alone through the angst, anxiety and ambulance sirens far away from her family.


"Initially professional riders could train on the roads, and my coach told me I must always cycling in the company of another rider, which was safer because some drivers got angry at us when they saw us on the roads and would honk their horns a lot more. But now under complete quarantine, the only time I go outdoors is to the supermarket or to take out the garbage.

"It has become a mental challenge. I am alone in the house and I am also now training alone indoors. However, I have the necessary support both in Trinidad and Tobago and from my team here in Italy. I have realised I do not know how not to be an athlete. For two years, I have been a full-time elite athlete 24 hours a day - training, stressing my body, coming home tired, eating, sleeping.[....] Now there is more free time, I must find a way to make the most of my time and be productive. It's not easy, but this too shall pass." 


No doubt turbo trainers and Zwift apps are getting used to the maximum right now, and I guess there's a lot of discipline and self-control needed to avoid the biscuit tin or the wine rack.
In addition, team support has become ever more important, with sports directors, coaches, and other team mates having to look out for one another, as the mental health is just important, if not more important than the physical health of the riders.

It is not clear how long the lockdown will continue for, or when this dreaded disease will subside, but we can only hope that riders and teams will come out on the other side of this scourge without long-lasting scars.

Here is the full article on the Cycling Weekly website


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Coronavirus Lockdown

Catching up with Groupama-FDJ

Sport after a life-changing injury

Retiring from cycle racing and coping with it

52 Cycling Voices: Rebecca Charlton

Daily photo - 12: Liv Avail Review published

My review of Liv Avail as seen on the front page of Cyclist magazine

My review of the Liv Avail women-specific road bike has gone live on the Cyclist website, so all can now read my thoughts on it when I tested it.

It's always get a warm feeling when I see my work published to a wider audience. There's something quite satisfying about how something that just started as a few words on a Word document eventually comes to life in a magazine online or in print.

It is something that I have done for 10 years and something that I don't get tired of. Some years ago I wrote articles and reviews for Cycling Active (an old IPC Media/Time Inc magazine) and Cycling Weekly regularly. Sadly Cycling Active closed, so I just do the occasional article for Cycling Weekly. Recently I have written for Rouleur online and Velovixen women's blog. Sadly, other women's publications I have written for have not worked out so well. Sportsister hardly had any budget, and Total Women's Cycling folded when its parent company went into administration.

Maybe it works out better if women's cycling articles are included within a unisex cycling magazine, given that women's publications have not had the best track record.
That is a debate for another day, but for now I want to soak up the satisfaction of having produced something that can hopefully inform, educate and/or entertain a reader.


Related posts
Freelancing

The Frontline Club

Bye bye Factory Media

One day one photo - 10: Ride with Yorkshire Lass CC

Photo: Andy Jones

Today was a whistle-stop trip up to North Yorkshire, where I met with a club to do a Ride With feature for Cycling Weekly magazine. Today I was up with the Yorkshire Lass Cycling Club. I have been in touch with the founder members of the club for about a year now, for different quotes for articles I've done, as well as to do a feature on their women-only charity cyclosportive.

It was great to finally meet Judith and Kate, plus a number of the other women in the club. The club only formed in 2015, but they have a very good membership base, and are a well-known club in the area.

I found their club run to be very well organised. The roads that we went on around Wetherby and the Vale of York, were pleasant and quiet. Also they weren't too challenging for me given that I was feeling a little tired after my 5am start from London!

It was good to catch up with Andy Jones, the photographer, a Yorkshireman himself - and someone who I have worked with for a few years now, on many projects. As ever, he was very efficient at getting us organised and taking candid photos that showed the riders in a good light. I am a bit embarrassed to have been on the front in this picture he took. The journalist is not meant to be so prominent. Sorry for photo-bombing, Andy! But hey, it does look good if you don't mind me saying!

One day one photo - 4: Editorial fail!

One of the magazines I write for, Cycling Weekly suffered an almighty blunder last week when a photo was published that had a sexist caption. I only knew about the controversy when I saw the apology published on Twitter by the editor Simon Richardson. At first I thought it was a spoof.

Sadly, it wasn't. The photo was part of a regular feature in the magazine known as Ride With in which a journalist rides with a cycling club and talks about the club's history, its riders, and its mission.

 This photo with the caption did the rounds on all the social media and mainstream print media, stirring the wrath of cyclists (and non-cyclists) the world over, with some people saying that they will no longer by the magazine. I must mention, as someone who writes for the magazine, that it is sub-editors and not journalists that write captions on photos, particularly as some writers, myself included, are not in the office at the time that the final version goes to print, and so don't even know what photos will be used, let alone what captions will be written.

It is clear that it was a pretty poor piece of copy to put. The caption was apparently written by the sub-editor, possiby as their idea of a joke, with the intention of changing it later. Sadly, the change wasn't made, it slipped through the editorial net, and the offensive caption went to print.

An apology was issued by the editor, and as Simon said, this is not representative of Cycling Weekly or its editorial policy. It was down to the action of one individual.

I absolutely agree with the fact that this is not the editorial direction of Cycling Weekly. The magazine isn't a sexist publication, and the staff are not sexist either.

I must say that while people are rightly annoyed at the caption, I don't see why they should brand Cycling Weekly as a publication that doesn't care about women's cycling. As someone who has contributed to Cycling Weekly and other cycling publications within the Time Inc group since 2009 I would say that they are anything but sexist! The magazine employs many women on its editorial team as well as commissioning pieces from female contributors like myself. Also, wherever possible I have covered women's cycling events and profiled female cyclists. Certainly when I have pitched ideas relating to women's cycling they have never been rejected. This week I am due to do a Ride With feature with an all-women's cycling club, something that had been scheduled some time ago, and this is on the back of a feature in which Cycling Weekly profiled the club's all-women's cyclosportive that was held a few weeks ago.

I have other features on women's cycling in the pipeline to write for Cycling Weekly, and I intend to continue submitting such articles to the magazine in the same way I have done for the last eight years.

So while I agree that this was a sexist comment and a massive editorial fail on the part of Cycling Weekly, something that has never happened since 1891 when it was launched, I don't believe for one minute that the magazine is not interested in covering women's cycling, or is sexist. I simply wouldn't write for them if that were the case!

52 Cycling Voices - 5: Hannah Bussey

This week's Cycling Voice comes from Hannah Bussey, previously a civil servant in the South-east, and now a journalist and mother in the North-west. Hannah talks about dealing with the lifestyle change, and how being in the cycling community really is like being in a supportive family.

Hannah Bussey, aged 37

Lives: Stockport

From: Catford, London

Cycling journalist and mother

Hannah in North Yorkshire on the Specialized Ruby  (Photo credit: Andy Jones)

"I've been cycling since forever, but I have been riding seriously for about 17 years. I got into cycling when I started working in an office in Guildford at the same time as a guy called Tim Morley, the then National Cyclocross Champion. He was very handy on a mountain bike too, so as we got on well, he helped me build a mountain bike from old parts of his bike. 

Then Tim left the company to join British Cycling, before moving to Australia. We stayed in touch for a bit and he encouraged me to ride more. Eventually, I got into triathlons, racing for Farnham Tri Club, and even qualifying for the World Age Groups Championships along with Emma Pooley [Olympic road time trial silver medallist]! 

My now partner realised I was better at bike riding than swimming or running, so I decided to stay with just cycling. They were great times and I met lots of cycle racers in the various events I did - criterium races and road races around the country as part of the women's team series and national series, and I raced abroad too. 

I stopped road racing five or six years ago when I broke my pelvis in a bad crash in China, during the Tour of Chongming Island, and seemed to lose my edge after that. I did try and make a comeback on zero training at the Tour Series, but quickly realised a) you can't blag a criterium race and b) I wasn't hungry enough for a win to go out and train!

Then I found cross-country mountain bike racing, which I totally loved. It was local, which is always handy, and every race was like going to a festival. It was so different from road racing. The atmosphere was laid back, there was music on a sound system, a compere, there was a vibrant, trendy feel about the events.

My favourite bike ride is going to Majorca in early spring. We usually go there every year, but for the first time in 13 years we won't be going this year. 

Since having my daughter, Kodi I have tried to race again, but it requires too much time with training and admin so have decided to let it take the back seat while she's still little.

Nowadays, I ride mainly for my job as a technical writer for 'Cycling Weekly' magazine. I get to test anything bike-related, and then write about them. This includes different bikes, so at the moment I am testing a Specialized Ruby. I also meet up with cycling clubs for a ride, and check out the routes for cyclosportives. It sounds like I do loads of riding, but I have to squeeze this all into one day a week!

The cycle journalism is something I totally fell in to! I was previously working as a policy advisor in a Government department, and this involved writing policy documents and speeches for ministers.

I got to know a few of the guys from 'Cycling Weekly' through racing. My mate James Millard, a recently retired professional cyclist who I knew through racing and training camps, invited me to join him on a photo shoot. This coincided with our whole office at the Government department being made redundant, so I said yes to more photo shoots and started doing a bit of writing for the magazine, then eventually I was offered a full-time job at 'Cycling Weekly'.

The transition was bloody hard though. It was a totally alien environment that tested me so much, and it still does! Basically, I went from rules, regulations, policy and procedures of government, to journalism - which was the total opposite! 

I've also got dyslexia, which means it takes me longer than most to write things. I have no idea how sub-editors do their job! They are like gods to me! I must say it was my days of suffering in tough cycle races in the gutter in Belgium that made me persevere with it!

In fact, although it doesn't seem like there is any connection between my work in the Civil Service and what I do at the magazine, the common thing is that both roles involve translating complex information into bite-size, easy-to-understand articles for the lay person. 

In those days I lived in the South of England, near Aldershot. Now I am based in Hazel Grove, near Stockport. The South-East and North-west are mega different!

I totally loved riding down South, but coming up here has made me fall in love with road cycling all over again. The hills and vistas are huge up here. It's more like cycling used to be, with proper club runs and mud guards etc.

Although I've got the best mountain biking on my doorstep, I do find it restrictive as I just don't know where to ride off-road and don't have anyone to ride with. Where I used to live, in Hampshire, there were trails from my back door for miles. I've lost confidence since having Kodi, and up here it seems to be a case of go big or do nothing! I need to find my off-road mojo again!

Kodi will be three in May, and has just started riding an Islabikes balance bike. She's going great guns, though we’re just letting her dictate the pace right now. We're really trying hard not to pressure her into bikes, but as cycling is such a big part of our lives, we hope she'll gravitate towards it! 

I've also just started cycling with Kodi in a trailer. I've always been apprehensive about being on the road with her, so we stay on traffic-free routes. Kodi's a spirited child, so has only just decided that she likes sitting down occasionally. I would never have got her into the trailer as a baby as she hated being put down - until she learned to walk! 

Kodi in her trailer

I didn't cycle much during my first four months of pregnancy as I'm prone to injury and didn't want to get into changing positions. Instead, stuck to running and doing a work-out until Kodi was born. A few months off the bike after over a decade of cycling wasn't a big deal for me.

Juggling cycling and motherhood is not easy at the moment. I'm an attachment parent, so don't like to leave Kodi for long. Not having childcare and working two days a week is a constant juggle. Some weeks I do six hours of cycling, but there are other weeks when I don't ride at all.  It's a far cry from when I was training 15 hours week. 

Motherhood has made me become acutely aware of my responsibility now, so I'm not willing to take risks. I get scared on the road occasionally, so stick to quiet lanes. 

Despite not riding much, cycling is still the backbone of our lives. It's how I met my partner so we’ll always have riding in our lives. I love cycling because of the freedom and head space it brings. It can give you space to think or space to forget. 

Cycling really is everything to me. I have a handful of friends I met when having Kodi, who don't ride. Also my best friend is a school friend who doesn't ride either. After them, I would consider my cycling friends as family. You go through so much together and even if you no longer race together now, you're still in contact, and grow old together. 

The cycling scene is so close that you really feel each other's joy and sadness. When Charlie Craig [2016 Under-16 cyclocross national trophy winner and son of Nick Craig, multiple national mountain bike and cyclocross champion] suddenly died recently we were more than heartbroken. It rocked the cycling community to the core. I can't describe the feeling of losing him. The whole Craig family have been a huge role model for us, even before we had Kodi. In fact, seeing their lifestyle of combining family with bikes was the catalyst for us to start our own family. Charlie will never be forgotten, he really is the golden thread that runs through us all. 

I suffered two miscarriages last year, the second one happening just before Christmas, and I struggled with starting to ride again. The Craig's words of celebrating life have really emotionally moved me to start riding again and be joyful for all the small things. I could go on and don't think I've really done it justice as to what cycling means, but without bike riding we wouldn't have that almost spiritual feeling for being."  

Twitter: @Hannah_Bussey       Instagram: hannah_bussey 

Other Cycling Voices
Carolyn Hewett-Maessen

Caroline Martinez

Niusha Doyom

Maria David

Can-do Girls! - Women's World Hour Record Breakers

Bridie O'Donnell - record breaker!

In the current issue of Cycling Weekly is my feature on the women's World Hour Record. I'm not mentioning this purely as a shameless plug, but I guess there's no harm in spreading the word!

The main reason why I give a call-out to this piece I wrote is because I was genuinely really impressed at the efforts that the different women made in their preparation for the event.

Of course, in history many women have attempted this feat, some of them, including current record holder, Evelyn Stevens had the backing of their professional team.

However, I wanted to give particular mention to the two women who broke the hour record in this recently - Molly Shaffer Van Houweling and Bridie O'Donnell.

Molly, a Dean and Senior law lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley broke the record in September of last year, and the record stayed until it was broken by Bridie O'Donnell, a doctor from Melbourne, in January during the Tour Down Under.

Although they are both very strong athletes at masters level in their respective countries, they are amateur athletes who had to juggle full time jobs, training for their regular local competitions, go round knocking on doors to obtain funding for the challenge, as well as live a home-life with their families.

Molly Van Houweling and husband Rob, set up a Kickstarter crowd-funding scheme to raise funds to carry out the project, which involved several trips to their temporary mountain base to acclimatise, and a few trips to the velodrome in Aguascalientes to do dry runs and attempt the pan-American record along the way. Even with financial help from friends and family they still had to use a large chunk of their own funds.

As for Bridie O'Donnell, she didn't do crowd funding but went round knocking on doors of local businesses and her bank to help with the cost to register with the biological passport scheme. As well as that, she spent valuable training time chasing up equipment suppliers around the world for the various components she needed - something that you would never imagine Bradley Wiggins doing in the run-up to his preparation to break the record last year. As for going up to a mountain base? Travelling from Australia up to a mountain base in the US or in Mexico was completely out of the question. So her attempt was done at sea level in a more local setting of Adelaide where she let the crowd, enthused already by the Tour Down Under, be her performance enhancer! She had to hope for the best as there had been no dry run, and her own coach had initially thought the odds were stacked against her.

Molly Van Houweling with Rob

There is always so much pressure on any athlete when they are attempting such a feat - particularly with the eyes of the world on them. But knowing that you got there by the good grace of friends and family and many other generous people who have given their free time to help you along the way, that must give an extra sense of motivation, but an even greater onus not to fail.

So I admire the fact that these two women were able to break the World Hour Record and get their name into the history books.

It just goes to show, it can be done even if you are not Bradley Wiggins or Jens Voigt!
  







Related Posts

10 fast facts on women's World Hour Record Holder, Evelyn Stevens

Bridie O'Donnell - Another inspirational women's World Hour Record

Molly Van Houweling breaks the women's World Hour Record

10 soundbites from Dame Sarah Storey

Can-do Girls - Annaleena does Paris-Roubaix...in mid-winter!

Milton Keynes goes cross crazy!



The tough run up

So Milton Keynes World Cup was a success. It was a great day out. The sun even shone and there were loads of cycling bods that I bumped into on the day. Around 10,000 people turned out for the event - which is amazing. That has never happened at all in the UK - not even when cyclo cross World Championships were held in Roundhay Park, Leeds over 20 years ago.

It was just great to be able to walk around the different team camper vans and talk to the elite riders. They all seemed so amenable and friendly.

Helen Wyman loved it

For me, the highpoint was the women's race. I have to say it was a really momentous occasion standing on the long run-up watching women I knew battling it out against the world's elite. It seemed quite surreal.

I have written a few accounts of the event for Sportsister and for Cycling Weekly on-line and in the magazine, but I would just like to share other thoughts.

The course looked pretty mean as well. People described it as a more challenging World Cup course - more like a World Championship course. It's only when you see it for real that you get a full perspective of just how tough these courses are, how steep the hills are, and how muddy it can get. Even just walking around the course was challenging at times - I was worried I would slip and fall on the bankings!

The following day the National Trophy race was held on the same course, which meant us mortals could have a go on it. I had hummed and haa'ed about whether or not to enter it - then 5 minutes before the deadline a couple of weeks before I started my on-line entry. I typed in personal details, then I proceeded to the payment page and typed in those details. Suddenly I got a message saying "payment unsuccessful" - I was 30 seconds passed the midnight deadline and the system had rejected my entry. I don't think that was a bad thing!

As a spectator to the race last Saturday, judging by the looks on the faces of the junior men, who looked at times like they were going to cry, and even some of the women who looked exhausted going round, it was a good job I spared myself the humiliation and also the potential waste of £25 and the cost of a night in a hotel. I am not sure I would have got in even one lap before being pulled out of the race!

I have lots of quotes from riders that have not been used in my write-ups so I will put them out in future posts.


An exciting finale to a great race to the women's race

In the mean time what I have seen, which looks fun though is a clip of the race from Katie Compton's on-bike camera. She narrowly missed out on winning when Belgium's Sanne Cant pipped her on the line. Still, I think she did very well and was very brave to carry a camera on her bike in those slippery conditions!

(Photo: Bart Hazen)

 

Interviewing a few good women

Things have been a little different in the last few months so I have not been able to write my blog as usual....

I am slowly getting back into a "normal" cycle but it isn't always easy. I am not sure if I can smile quite as brightly as I used to, or if humour is felt as deeply as before, knowing that someone who was such a bedrock in my life is no longer here.

Thankfully, I have had good support around me, and I have done a few things that have provided moments of pleasantness and positivity.

Among these moments have been the times when I interviewed some of the best female cycle racers in the world.

Photo by Andy Jones (Cycling Weekly)

Last weekend, I spoke to a few heavyweights of women's cycle racing for Cycling Weekly magazine - Britain's Olympic Silver Medallist, Lizzie Armitstead, Current World Road Race Champion, Marianne Vos, whose list of palmares extends as long as your arm, and Giorgia Bronzini, two-time World Road Race Champion.

They were both in London to compete in the Prudential RideLondon women's criterium race on The Mall. Laura Trott was the defending champion of this race, but the tactic was for her and the rest of Wiggle Honda to work for Giorgia Bronzini to get the win. The plan certainly worked, as the feisty Italian spectacularly got past the mighty Vos in the dash for the finish line.

 I think this race was a great advert for women's cycle racing because it was an active race with an exciting finish, all in an iconic location. I hope we can have more such races, and also longer races in Britain (to add to the Women's Tour).

Photo by Andy Jones (Cycling Weekly)

And I must say, both Vos and Bronzini were very amenable, nice girls to talk to. It was a real pleasure to meet them.

On the same weekend I was very pleased to interview Laura Trott - Olympic and Commonwealth champion - for Sportsister magazine. She was down in London for the RideLondon events in her role as Prudential ambassador.

Photo from Prudential RideLondon

I remember Laura Trott racing in a couple of London Women's Cycle Racing league events a few years ago, representing Welwyn Cycling Club. So it was quite surreal seeing her photo splashed on the front of the national papers after clinching gold in the Commonwealth Games.

Also in March, I interviewed another "local" for Sportsister magazine - Olympic, World and Commonwealth track pursuit champion, Joanna Rowsell. (This took place shortly before I was told my mum had fallen seriously ill.)
Joanna was at the Manchester Bike and Tri show fresh from gaining her World Championship title, and was promoting the benefits of training on a Wattbike. It was great to interview someone I had seen as a schoolgirl racing in the same local races as me. Of course, she was always way up at the front where I was at the other end of proceedings!

Photo by Aodan Higgins

That aside, I am very happy to have had the opportunity to interview a few of the most respected women in sport, and look forward to meeting others in future.