15 Soundbites from..Jo Rowsell-Shand at the Cycle Show

Last week Joanna Rowsell-Shand was one of the celebrity guests at the Cycle Show held in Birmingham NEC. She appeared at the Total Women's Cycling Stage alongside Downhill mountain biker Manon Carpenter and was interviewed by Annie Emmerson.
I also caught up with Joanna after the Total Women's Cycling Awards. Here are a few words from her.

Jo Rowsell and Manon Carpenter talk to Annie Emmerson at the Cycle Show

I don't go to London much now. My family have moved up to Shropshire and I am based in the North-West. My parents have just bought a house in South-West France and I am looking forward to going there.

My favourite climb is up the Brickworks [near Macclesfield]. It's steep enough to test yourself but you can still power up it and get a good speed going.

My brother [Erick] raced in the Tour of Britain. Ironically I didn't get to see him when they did the stage to Tatton Park as I was down in London!

Rio was a great experience but the way Mark Cavendish described it on the Sunday Brunch show was true! The food was not great. Also we couldn't drink the water or eat any fresh fruit and veg. I ended up living practically on energy bars and protein bars over the 2 weeks!

We also took out loads of wet wipes as we weren't allowed to get water on our faces when showering, in order to avoid the risk of contracting any waterborne diseases. It made showering quite an awkward process!

It was a shock to the system to move from the comfortable surroundings of the Celtic Manor, Newport, to the accommodation in the Olympic village.

The bikes we used for the team pursuit in Rio were only given to us for that race. We used them for the first time when we arrived in Rio. The other bikes we had been using, UKSI bikes with Mavic wheels, were already very light and fast, but the Cervelos with new Campag disc wheels we were given for the Olympics were even better. It was exciting to get new sets of equipment.

We had to pull out all the stops to win as the Rio track had longer straights than other tracks and the air was cooler, which made it a slow track, and a harder task than London 2012. We ended up going faster than we had ever done, and it was great to break the world record.

Some people did question our sudden improvement on our results at the World Championships, but the new equipment we had was a marginal gain. It was not a game changer though. Our achievement was more down to our hard work. 

Anna Meares [Australian track sprinter] made a few comments to the press about our sudden improvement but speaking to her I think that what she said was taken out of context by the media.

I would really like to go to the Tokyo Olympics. I'll be 31 by the time Tokyo comes round, and there are lots of youngsters coming through who are very quick. But I will do my best to get a place.

This is an exciting time for women's cycling with the Women's Tour, the Tour Series, and the Revolution Series. I would encourage women to get out and do track cycling. Find your local track. There are lots of outdoor tracks and they aren't steep so are great for beginners. You can do it over the winter.

I am enjoying my break. It's great to not be feeling tired all the time, which happens on the days when I am in full-on training. I can eat what I want, ride at a leisurely pace and I don't have to be eating 30g of protein every three hours!

Yes, I seem to have started a trend with weddings! Since my wedding [in Summer 2015] there's been Lizzie [Armitstead], Laura [Trott] and Jason [Kenny]. Then there's Dani's [King] and also Andy Tennant will be getting married soon. I love talking about "my husband" rather than just "my boyfriend". 

Finally, my husband and I can now have our honeymoon. We are doing a road-trip around the US and I am really looking forward to it. We'll be there during Thanksgiving so hopefully we can make the most of some Black Friday deals. 

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It was great to catch Chris Froome in person when he recently came over to England for the Ride London Classic.












It was a bit crowded trying to catch him in the mixed zone straight after his ride, but I was glad to say a few words to him, even if they were just your usual finish line platitudes!

As he is the man of the moment though, I still would like to put down a few of the words that he said to me as well as what he said to my fellow journalists at the BBC at the finish line in Rio de Janeiro after the Olympic Road Race.

My mission is to catch him and have a more in-depth interview in the future - Sky permitting!

I am glad that we did not see the return of Crash Froome during the road race given the hazardous nature of the descent, and hope he can get some sort of silverware in the time trial tomorrow.

1. Ride London is amazing. Seeing how many people there were out on the roads shows how far cycle sport has come in Britain in the last few years.

2. The 20-minute break did disrupt the race a little bit as we were in a good group and had got a rhythm going. We completely understand why we had to stop. We didn’t want another Ventoux situation!

[The race was stopped for 20 minutes to allow the road to clear following delays as a result of a couple of serious incidents during the cyclosportive, and a few of the later riders were still out on the race route.]   

3. This is the first time I’ve stopped to pose for pictures mid-race!

4. Some of the difficult moments I had during my early career in Kenya have definitely taught me to be self-sufficient in my approach to racing.

5. I really appreciate the set-up that I am in now in Team Sky and in Team GB. It’s second to none.

6. It [the Olympic road race] was a seriously full on race. Quite a few people have complained how dangerous it was but it was exciting. No one would have predicted that podium. [1, Greg van Avermaert (Bel); 2, Jakob Fuglsang (Den); 3, Rafal Majka (Pol)]

7. I don’t really think I have affected my chances in the time trial I buried myself in London four years ago as well. I was completely spent. And I was fine in the TT a few days later. Three days should be enough time to recover.