Heading to Bedford this year as the defending Champion for the past two editions of the event it was always going to be a tough ask to defend the race again but with a strong team willing to bury themselves for me for the weekend, I knew we would take the race to the rest of the peloton.

On the eve of what is arguably the UK’s biggest women’s race of the season, the Bedford 2 Day, with Sarah Storey the defending champion of the past two editions on the team, looking to make it a clean hat trick , the For VioRed women’s Racing Team is delighted to announce a whole host of new backers and suppliers, helping the team to grow even further and fulfil its potential and ambitions.

 

If there is one race that is on my calendar every year, it’s the Cheshire Classic, as you can always count on the fantastic Weaver Valley Cycling Club to put on a great event. In fact it was a member of the Weaver Valley Cycling Club that got me riding the track seven years ago, Paul West, and their road race was the first ever Road Race I entered outside of Para-cycling events.

The closer we get to the Games the greater the interest in the athletes bidding for places and of course one of the biggest sources of interest is in the support network around the athletes.

So the story goes; March winds, April showers….. and with the weather this past week it has certainly made up for the unseasonably warm end to March! After an easier week following the big miles of Mallorca, this past week saw me back up to full gas and with a new introduction to training, the use of an altitude chamber courtesy of a brand new facility at Manchester Metropolitan University’s Cheshire Campus in Crewe.

With over 30 hours of training under my belt after our first week in Mallorca, our second week saw us transfer from Alcudia to Santa Maria for the second part of the camp and this gave a slightly different angle for training rides. With my Time Trial bike arriving on the team van, I headed out for several sessions getting back into the TT groove ahead of my first race, and For VioRed racing debut, on Sunday 1^st April.

It has been a while since I blogged anything so I thought it was time to get typing!

A brief rest from training after the success of the Track Worlds saw me busy as a labourer for my Builder extraordinaire husband who has been masterminding the extension on our home and has needed someone with the patience required to cut and hold plasterboard while he works out where to attach it to the studwork and batons! I also spent some time in London with Links of London working on some media related promotion of the latest items to hit their London 2012 range and a photo shoot for the Guardian alongside team mate Jon-Allan Butterworth, this should appear in May. A quick trip to Edinburgh to see Scottish Widows was also fitted in and a chance to speak at an Intermediary Sales conference. It was fun to do so many different things in a short space of time, but for the past couple of weeks it has been all about getting back into training and hitting the roads for a block of long miles.

Saturday 11th and Sunday 12th February saw the conclusion of the Paracycling Track Worlds and for me it was a mixture of defending my Individual Pursuit title for the 5th successive time and debuting in the Team Sprint event.

With no racing for me on the second day of competition it was time to turn myself into team cheerleader as all the other 13 riders on the team had either Individual Pursuit or Kilometre Time Trial titles to contest.

Having flown into Los Angeles five days ago, the start of competition soon came round and after 3 track sessions to warm up the legs and work out strategies for each of the races, it was time to get the show on the road on Thursday 9th February.

It has been a couple of months since my last blog and that has largely been down to the fact everything has been full on with training and the preparation for the Track World Championships being held in Los Angeles from 8-12^th February. Sarah and I are also having some work done on our house and since my previous working life was in the building industry, I have been leading the project which has been brilliant to get my brain active in the area I used to work in everyday prior to becoming a full time cyclist.

With just over two weeks to go before the start of competition at the 2012 Para-cycling Track World Championships, the final selections for the GB team were made this week after Trials for the Team Sprint team.

Having spent much of the end of 2011 out of the country, it meant I couldn’t get down to the Children’s Adventure Farm to visit the Christmas Party season and was also unable to see some of the activities happening with Boot Out Breast Cancer.

After returning from gold at the Columbia World Cup and the change of direction for me with my training and racing after the Team Pursuit was removed from my schedule, it was time to make a quick and decisive change to the plan that would lead me into the Para-Cycling World Championships in February 2012.

Shortly after returning to Manchester from her second appearance for the Women's Team Pursuit squad in a World Cup, Sarah Storey was informed her association with the squad would no longer be continuing and she would now not be considered for the London World Cup in February, the Track World Championships in Melbourne in April and ultimately the Olympic Games next summer.

After a brief visit to London, the Team Pursuit girls headed to the airport to fly via Madrid to Cali, Columbia for Round 2 of this Olympic season’s World Cup Classics. Our flight had riders from France, USA and Ireland on it but the majority of the passengers were Columbian and you could have been mistaken for thinking that everyone on the plane knew each other! There was a great deal of singing going on at various times and then a huge round of applause as the pilot landed the plane on their home turf.

I've been on the Great Britain Cycling team as a full time athlete for 10 years and always feel privileged to be in this position. The last 10 years has really given me different challenges to deal with and one of these challenges is operating within British sport with diabetes. It is something I have never let get in the way of my performances.

Following a short break after the National Track Champs it was time to get back into training. With the Paracycling World Track Champs in February it was time to review the training carried out before the National Track Champs and come up with the new plan, that would take us to the Worlds. Planning these changes and identifying them can be tricky, but with a few years experience on the tandems we knew what needed tweaking and what we should repeat for the new phase. Our GB Paracycling coach Chris Furber is always a help when planning the new phases, as you can rely on him for honest feedback and helpful suggestions. It never gets away from the fact that you have to work on your weaknesses! Plus with my very own Sports Science genius (the wife!) I was able to come up with a good new phase to the training! Its also important to look at the main goal which is the Paralympic Games 2012, to ensure any changes are also considering the peak of big training cycle.

It has been quiet few weeks for me on the blog front, but that is not because there has been a lack action or cycling!

National Track Championships provided some exciting results, a couple of PB’s and also a successful defence of the Team Pursuit title. It was a good finish in my last race for the Horizon Fitness Prendas team, and since then I have been looking at the final build up to the London Games next year and looking at the various options I have in preparing for what will be a double road and track summer in 2012.

The National Track Championships in Manchester have just finished and I'm sure most people would agree it was a fantastic championships with some excellent racing, with some new faces coming through plus the more established riders again producing fast times.