One day one photo - 7: Bike Review: Laura Trott's bike on tour!

So in between Laura Trott's training for more Olympic glory in Rio she managed to launch a range of women's road bikes earlier this summer. Halfords, who are marketing the range of three road bikes and a hybrid have provided one for me to review, the RD2.

Quick photo opp on Blackfriars Bridge en route to work

In summary, the bike has been made with a women's geometry in mind and from that point of view it feels comfortable. It's not too heavy, though it's not super speedy either. I like the colour and the finish, including the fact that the cables are routed inside the tubes of the frame. As the bike is a reasonably priced entry level you can't expect superslickness and the main areas where you notice this is in the finish of the welds, which can look a bit coarse. That won't hold you back too much though if you want to put in a quick training ride though! 

My first impressions of the Trott RD2 are detailed in full on the Total Women's Cycling website.

I have ridden this bike around quite a lot - mainly on my local country lanes in Kent and Surrey and it's not been a bad ride at all. I have also used it to commute to work with, and on one of my sunny commutes I couldn't help to stop and take a few photos as I crossed Blackfriars Bridge - my favourite section of the ride. I got a few friendly passers-by to stop and snap me with the bike (I don't do selfies.) and I also snapped the steed too. 

It's not what I usually do on a commute, but I was feeling in a great mood and just wanted to savour the day. I think the passers-by must have been feeling the same too as they willingly stopped to photograph me, and some even offered to do so without being asked - who says Londoners are an unfriendly lot?! And while they were at it they asked about the bike - mainly to confirm if this was the same Trott that they see on the telly. When I replied yes, they were quite impressed. The tour continues on a bridge or a road near you!  

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Cyclists' hopes punctured at BBC SPOTY awards

Two cyclists nominated for Sports Personality of the Year but they fail to gain much public support

So it's that time of year when we celebrate sporting achievement (and their personality apparently) at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards (also known as SPOTY) and the public gets to vote for their favourite sportsperson from a list of nominations. This year the twelve nominees, elected from a panel that included olympians, heads of sports organisations, and individuals from sports media outlets came from the following areas: tennis (1), motorsport (1), track and field (3), boxing (1), cycling (2), rugby (1), football (1), gymnastics (1), and swimming (1).

The winner and runner-up were the sole representatives of their sports on the shortlist - tennis and rugby respectively. Third placed Jessica Ennis-Hill was one of three athletes in contention from the world of track and field. So it was good to see someone from that discipline up there in the roll of honour.

However, neither of the cyclists featured highly in the results. It looks even worse when you consider that both of them had achieved historical feats this year. Chris Froome became the first Briton to win the Tour de France twice, while Lizzie Armitstead was crowned World Road Race Champion on the back of a glittering run since the 2012 Olympics.

Andy Murray who was voted the Sports Personality of the Year 2015 did not win any major singles title at all. The closest he got to touching a Grand Slam trophy was during his spectacular defeat by Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open final in January. There then followed the usual British semi-final/quarter-final exit for the remaining Grand Slams. Although Murray won the Davis Cup tournament, that was a team event, and the Great Britain team received an award for that during the SPOTY ceremony on Sunday in Belfast.

Kevin Sinfield, the rugby player who finished second in this public-vote competition, did not win any specific championships during 2015. It appears that he received votes for being a really loyal and consistent athlete who scored loads of points during his career. Well done!

Since the winner is chosen on the basis of the number of on-line and telephone votes received from the public my question is why was there such muted support for Froomey and Lizzie (who finished 6th and 10th respectively in the vote) despite their achievements?

Note that the total number of scores amassed by the two cyclists was less than the number of votes received alone by Tyson Fury, the boxer who many campaigned to have removed from the list of nominations following his misogynistic and homophobic comments. He even finished fourth in the competition - close behind 2012 Olympics poster girl Jessica Ennis-Hill!

Scores on the doors

1st Andy Murray (tennis) - 361,446
2nd Kevin Sinfield (rugby) - 278,353
3rd Jessica Ennis-Hill (heptathlon) - 79,898
4th Tyson Fury (boxing) - 72,330
5th Lewis Hamilton (Formula 1) - 48,379
6th Chris Froome (cycling) - 39,007
7th Mo Farah (athletics) - 31,331
8th Max Whitlock (gymnastics) - 25,952
9th Greg Rutherford (long jump) - 23,492
10th Lizzie Armitstead (cycling) - 22,356
11th Adam Peaty (swimming) - 13,738
12th Lucy Bronze (football) - 13,236

1,009,498 votes cast

Some might argue that the SPOTY public vote throws up lots of anomalies. For instance, if it is also about an individual's personality how has someone who appears so dull and deadpan like Andy Murray managed to win twice? And why didn't Max Whitlock finish higher up in the placings after becoming the first British male gymnast to win a World Championship title?

My questions come against the backdrop that cycling is constantly being talked about as a sport that has garnered a phenomenal increase in interest from the public. Look at the crowds that turned out on the streets of Yorkshire and London for the Grand Depart last year. Furthermore, cyclists have had a track record for winning SPOTY - from Tom Simpson in 1965, Chris Hoy in 2008, Mark Cavendish in 2011 and Bradley Wiggins in 2012.

Perhaps the fact that Chris Froome's achievement at this year's Tour de France occurred under a cloud of scepticism and suspicion over doping. As for Lizzie Armitstead's outstanding season and her win at the World Road Race Championships, this seems largely to have slipped underneath everything!

I guess for Tyson Fury, whatever you think about him everybody knew his name by the time the SPOTY awards ceremony took place. And for him and his PR team they probably stuck firmly to the adage "there is no such thing as bad publicity"!

Perhaps next year the cyclists will be back. After all, in the last two Olympic years it was a cyclist who won the BBC award. Maybe Rio will bring good fortune to our pedal-powered heroes, and who knows we might see people ringing in or clicking their mouse in favour of Laura Trott or perhaps even Wiggo again!


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10 soundbites from.....the Aviva Women's Tour

So the Women's Tour has been and gone. I wasn't able to follow the first edition of the race last year, but I managed to follow the different stages this year. Trying to second guess how the race would unfold each day, and who would be the overall winner was pretty exciting, and there was some exciting racing throughout the week. This has become a great event on the women's pro cycling calendar. I caught up with some of the riders and they were very positive about how their week had been.


Stefan Wyman (Director Sportive, Matrix Pro Cycling): "We had a few goals in the race and to be in the feature break was one of them, and to be on the podium either with a stage or a jersey was the key goal for us, so we did it. Elinor [Barker] is an unsung hero, and it is really difficult to transition from the track to the road so it was nice that she had the best British rider jersey for a time. It wasn’t all Laura [Trott] and it took the pressure off Laura. I think they did really well as a team so they should be really happy."



Dame Sarah Storey: "The first four stages were very samey, but the last stage was a lot more interesting. We need to get to a point where we don’t have five bunch sprints. It’s quite exciting potentially for watching, but as riders it’s nice to have another opportunity to put other types of riders up to win a stage. I would have liked to have seen long hilly climbs. They are the races I tend to target. The support we got from the side of the road was absolutely phenomenal, so to the people who supported us, I can’t thank them enough."


Lisa Brennauer (Yellow Jersey): "This is the biggest victory of my career so far. I have really enjoyed the racing here in the UK and it was great to see so many crowds when we were racing."


Melissa Hoskins (Queen of the Mountains): "I came into the QOM competition for a bit of fun and something for the team to do, but then I decided to do everything I could to defend it. It was something unexpected, even for myself. It’s been brilliant racing in England. The crowds have been fantastic.  I was overwhelmed with how many people were so interested in what we are doing. We don’t get that anywhere else in Europe. It’s a nice change to feel important for what you are doing, and inspiring young kids to do cycling."


Helen Wyman: "I have found the week fun, with really safe riding. There’s not been very many crashes. This is fantastic training for the 'cross season. You need to be as fit as you can be to train hard for 'cross. These are just really great base miles."   


Hannah Barnes (Best British Rider/Stage 5 winner): "In America we are one of the biggest teams, but here we are one of the small teams so we wanted to get stuck in and not be afraid to show our face. I’ve been focussing on my climbing this winter and my coach Jenny Gretton has helped me improve a lot this year. I always made sure I was in a good position when going into the bottom of the climb and I was on the right side of the split. In the last stage I just stayed near the front and hoped for it to come down to a sprint. I love following Alexis’s [Ryan] wheel during the race. She’s really nice to follow. I call her the Alexis bubble! The roads are wider in the States. So in terms of positioning you get a bit lazy because you know that in two seconds you can be at the front, whereas here it can take you an hour to get to the front, and less than a minute to drop to the back!"



Rachel Heal (Director Sportive, UnitedHealthcare Procycling): "With Hannah being at home and with the race being local to her she has had a lot of other pressures to deal with so the last couple of days we tried to kind of relax Hannah so she could be able to just focus on bike racing. Hannah has been sprinting really well all week and she had got top 5 a few times so we knew that she was fast enough
to get a win. To put it all together, and to be in the right place and to sprint at the right time, is just fantastic, especially on the last day." 



Sue Barnes (Hannah Barnes's mum): "It was so close, and I didn’t realise Hannah had won until they said so on the tannoy, and I was just jumping up and down. I am very proud of her right now. I work in a stationery shop – Colemans in Arundel. I did a Hannah window in the shop. It’s gone a bit viral on Twitter and the takings have gone up massively this week! I am keeping it there until the end of the National Championships where my other daughter, Alice will be racing too. We all do a bit of cycling but the girls' granddad was a very good time triallist in his day so they must get that from him as well. I have been to all the stages, and Hannah's gran, who is 87,
has been to three of the stages with me. We were at the start, the finish and lots of different parts of he course. It has meant a lot to Hannah to have her family there."


Will Mangar (Race doctor): "I have felt the racing has been faster this year and more flowing and more seamless. There's been a palpable shift in quality and skill level with the ladies' riding this year. It was difficult last year, with the rain. We had so many girls spinning off and there was lots and lots of road rash, This year everyone's been good. What I've noticed is there's less injuries but to be honest, these girls are tough. They are really made of strong stuff and it takes a lot for them to not want to get back on the bike."





Marianne Vos: "The crowd support has been fantastic! It's really cool to see all the schoolkids around and coming out of their schools, supporting, cheering for the riders and cheering for the Tour. You really feel that cycling is really popular in Britain."




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10 soundbites from.... Dani King

London 2012 team pursuit gold medallist and Wiggle Honda rider Dani King is getting back in the swing of things after her terrible accident at the end of last year.


Photo from www.wigglehonda.com

Having to overcome the physical injuries was bad enough, but getting over the mental hurdle was a greater challenge.
But now following her 10-week rehabilitation Dani is back in the saddle and racing.
 She has also been busy on training camps, supporting her Wiggle Honda team mates on the side lines at some early European road races, and appearing at Bike Expo, Manchester. I caught up with Dani King at the team launch in Ghent. Here are a few things she had to say.


"I was lucky to get a break last October – I hadn’t had that in about 3 years, which was good but unfortunately I had another forced break with the crash in November."

"I can still feel pain in my ribs every now and again but it’s more of a mental battle for me now, but I’m getting there."

"My first race will be in the UK, the Tour of the Reservoir, then I’ll do a few time trials. My first race with my team will be the Omloop van Borsele, which is towards the end of April. It’s a classics type race."

"I’d like to target the Women's Tour. That’ll be a major goal of mine."

"Rochelle [Gilmore] has done a great job in putting some great personalities together [in Wiggle Honda], so I’m really excited about racing with them this year."

"I took my health for granted before the accident but I’ve found a lot of perspective since."

"It is a shame they [Joanna Rowsell and Laura Trott] are not riding in this team but I’ll still see them out on the road. We communicate on social media most days. It’s not like their completely out of my life – and I’m going to Jo’s wedding this year."

"Getting into the pursuit team for Rio [2016] is gonna be a massive deal for me. It’s not gonna be easy, that’s for sure. What I was lacking for the four kilometres was strength so this road season’s about developing myself as an athlete."

"I really enjoyed my presenting role on the BBC. Who knows, a future career in broadcasting would be nice. But I’ll stick to cycling for now."

"My dad is my biggest role model. He competed in the winter Olympics in biathlon.  After him, Chris Hoy is a cycling role model. He is such a genuinely nice guy who is always there for me to offer advice." 

The full interview with Dani is now up on the Cycling Weekly website.         


 

One Day One Photo - 1

I normally have one month where I put in a photo of what I'm doing over a one month period. I should have started on 1st September, so apologies for the delay. (The missing 10 days will be included as well.)

Wednesday 10th September

So the dates of the Revolution Track Cycling series have been announced and the line-up, at least for the Lee Valley VeloPark London round on 24th/25th October, looks quite appealing. With the likes of Ed Clancy and Adam Blythe, plus my personal favourites, Laura Trott and Marianne Vos competing in this UCI points event it will make for an exciting couple of days of racing. I am particularly pleased to be able to get a media pass for the event. So I plan to do some reporting for Sportsister on-line magazine and any other outlet that wants me to! Media passes don't always come that easily - especially as I am not an employee of any particular media organisation so I always like to make the most of these opportunities. So, with a little luck and creativity I, and the people I interview will have interesting things to say over that weekend!

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.