Team presentation before the start of Fleche Wallone

I have never ridden this race before but was looking forward to seeing how I would go on the hilly terrain. No one thinks of me as a climber but I actually quite enjoy hills usually! This was also the first road race that Dani, Laura and I would ride together. I had seen the famous Mur on TV but it was definitely tougher in real life. We rode 2 laps of a 65 km circuit, starting at the top of the Mur. After 1 lap I got myself onto the back of the front bunch, which was just behind a small break going over the Mur. Head down and gritting my teeth I also managed to miss the feed zone in the process! This was particularly annoying as I’d already given a bottle to Laura earlier in the race when she crashed, plus the temperature was over 20 degrees. Fortunately later in the race my team mate Anna went back to the car and got me a bottle. I hung on to the front group over the remaining climbs until 15 km to go, when my legs finally gave up! Those last 15 km seemed to last forever but I got myself to the finish in 46^th place, overall really pleased with my ride given I was injured the week before and came to the race with no idea how I would be climbing. I really enjoyed the race; the crowds were fantastic giving so much encouragement up the Mur which was really needed!

Climbing the Mur de Huy

A 2 hour easy ride in Belgium the next day with Laura turned out to be more eventful that we imagined. After getting lost we ended up riding around in a loop to find ourselves back where we started, still with no clue of the direction of home! We then followed a cycle path, which turned into a dirt track through some woods before re-appearing on a road again. All good fun!

The next day we headed to Holland for a time trial in the Borsele region. There was a strong field of riders entered and I was looking forward to seeing how I would compare. The course was flat except for a couple of bridges, with the main challenge being the wind. The time trial was 19 km and it was a tailwind for about the first 5 km, and was then either cross or headwinds for the rest of the ride.

Feeling more at home on the low pro racing the Borsele TT

I finished in 12^th place which I was quite pleased with. Definitely some room for improvement though but good to know where I’m at. Unfortunately that night I got the dreaded sore throat and swollen glands which signaled the start of an illness. This meant I didn’t race Saturday or Sunday and returned home gutted to miss out on two races, but I am a firm believer in you shouldn’t train or race when you’re ill.

Fortunately within a few days I was well enough to ride again and I raced last weekend in two local time trials. The first was a 10 mile time trial on Saturday evening run by Hampshire RC and although weather conditions were less than ideal I was pleased with 21:39, my best time for a 10 this year so far. The challenge was then the early start the following morning for a 25 mile time trial run by Addiscombe CC near Horsham. I had an alarm set for 5 am ready for my start time of 7:40am. When I got out the car for my turbo warm up the temperature was reading -1 degrees! I thought I’d seen the end of sub zero temperatures for this season! The course was a combination of rolling single carriageway roads and dual carriageway towards the end. I was pleasantly surprised with a time of 55:57, nearly 7 minutes off my previous personal best from about 6 years ago, and I finished in 9^th place overall.

Next up for me is a trip to Belgium this weekend for the UCI 1.2 Knokke-Heist Bredene race.

All photos are by our team photographer Bart Hazen

I am a columnist for the Daily Mail and here is my column about my day at the Palace.

Here are some pictures from the day:

With the Beefeaters!

Outside with my MBE

Comparing medals!

The race the following morning was always going to be tough in these conditions and I raced in a thermal undervest, thermal windtex long sleeved jersey and a thermal windtex gillet and I was still cold! I was impressed with the quality of our kit but it was just such a cold day, I should have worn even more layers! As the race split over the climbs I found myself the wrong side of the splits having been riding too far back. I managed to ride from group to group and had the peloton in sight but didn’t quite make it. Overall it was a good learning experience and I was pleased it showed my fitness was good as I was going past other riders on the climbs, which is always a good sign. By the time I finished my hands and feet were numb and even my lips and cheeks meaning I couldn’t speak properly, which was a very strange feeling!

After a warmish shower back at the HQ it was a quick dash to the airport for a flight back to Manchester as on Sunday morning I was in the BBC Sport studio at Media City in Salford as a pundit for the coverage of the Track World Championships. Jonathan Edwards was presenting and I was there along with Craig Maclean. It was a pleasure to watch Laura Trott win a silver medal after a tough two days of racing in the Omnium and Becky James win her second gold medal of the week in the keirin. Overall Great Britain had an incredible week, topping the medal table with 5 gold medals. I am already excited to get back on the track with the girls next winter!

I travelled back to London Sunday evening and had a much needed lie in on Monday. After riding my bike I had a National Lottery event in the evening with the Wheels for Wellbeing charity based in Croydon and also met with some members of Alopecia UK. Wheels for Wellbeing aim to make cycling accessible to people of all abilities and have a variety of different adapted bikes including tricycles and handcycles in order to achieve this. I quite enjoyed trying the handcycling but the less said about me riding the tricycle the better…! The steering was completely different to a bicycle so I kept veering off in the wrong direction when we were trying to ride in a straight line for photos! How embarrassing. (Picture below)

I also met with a group from Alopecia UK and some other people with alopecia who had never met anyone else with the condition. Before the Olympics I wasn’t involved with any alopecia charities and had always shied away from speaking about the condition. I now feel a lot more able to give advice and if I can make a small difference then that is fantastic.

To round off a busy week, tomorrow I am off to Buckingham Palace to receive my MBE, I am very excited!!

Joanna x

After an early morning flight I arrived at lunchtime to a beautifully refurbished apartment with views out towards Caleta de Famara and the dramatic cliffs. There were clear blue skies and low winds for my first ride of the camp which was a 2 hour spin to make my legs feel better ready for training hard the next day. I love the roads in Lanzarote which are mainly rolling but also some longer climbs and that combined with the wind makes for good hard training.

Keen to make use of the fantastic facilities available at Club la Santa I ventured into the Wellness Centre for the first time to try out their hot and cold hydrotherapy pools for recovery. I had never tried this before but the process seemed to be surprisingly popular! There was a large hot pool at about 38 degrees and a small cold plunge pool at about 10 degrees. The recommended length of time was 3 mins in the hot pool and 30-60 sec in the cold pool. It’s hard to tell what sort of effect this recovery technique had but overall throughout my camp I felt I was recovering well and able to train hard right up until the last day.

Another aspect of Club la Santa I like is the variety of group exercise classes available. On my last trip in November I tried “Ab-Attack”, a short but grueling core workout. This time I tried the Fitball class which challenged my balance as well as my core stability. Core work is an important part of my training and it’s fun to try a class like this and try exercises I wouldn’t usually do. It also highlights my weak and strong areas. Worryingly the balance aspect of the Fitball class was definitely my weakest area!

The classes were fun but most days were spent doing 4-5 hrs on the bike choosing different routes to allow me to complete my training efforts either on flatter roads or on the climbs. The main long climb on the island is Tabayesco and there are three different ways up this climb – from Haria, Tabeyesco or Los Valles. Here are some pictures of me on various stages of the climb completing some threshold efforts.

I got in over 36 hours and over 1000 km of riding during my stay, but today it was time to fly back to the UK for one night only. Tomorrow I fly to Brussels to meet up with my new team and collect my new racing bike ready for the first race of the season on Saturday – Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. At 123 km, weather forecast of -2 degrees, and with plenty of cobbled roads and steep climbs it’s going to be a tough race to start in but I am keen to get stuck in, get some experience and test my fitness.

Views out towards Famara

Climbing from Haria

Club la Santa

]]> http://www.joannarowsell.com/final-training-camp-racing-begins/feed/ 0 http://www.joannarowsell.com/blogwiggle-hondateamlaunch/ http://www.joannarowsell.com/blogwiggle-hondateamlaunch/#comments Mon, 28 Jan 2013 13:19:57 +0000 Daniel http://www.joannarowsell.com/?p=1141 On Friday 25th January it was the team launch of my new team Wiggle Honda Women’s Procycling Team in London. Myself, Laura and Dani had just returned from a training camp in Majorca the night before and we travelled straight from Gatwick to a hotel in Croydon where the team were staying. It was like Christmas as I went into my room to find kit bags full of new cycling kit and accessories! We had dinner as a team and it was great to meet all the new riders but then it was an early night due to an early start the next morning ready for the launch.

The day began with getting our make up done and then some filming at the hotel with Global Cycling Network before setting off to the station to get the train into London. Fortunately we managed to board a train with space for all 12 riders plus staff to find seats, quite a luxury on a rush hour train into London!

The venue for the launch was Millbank Media Centre where we arrived to see a smart looking new Honda team car with team bikes on the roof as well as lots of people already gathering for the launch due to start at 10am. We began with team photos before getting ready for the launch hosted by David Harmon.

David spoke on stage and interviewed the team owner Rochelle Gilmore, the sponsors and our DS Simon Cope and then some of the riders. Afterwards there were plenty more interviews to do individually including one with the BBC which can be found here.

It was then time for myself, Laura and Dani to leave as we had another event at the O2 where we were speaking at a conference in front of 3500 people. The event was hosted by Clare Balding and the other guest speakers were Katherine Grainger, David Weir, Ellie Simmonds and Jessica Ennis. I enjoy the buzz of public speaking and it was great to be able to speak about the news of the Wiggle Honda team and the new challenges of road racing in 2013.

My first race for Wiggle Honda will be Het Nieuwsblad on 23rd February in Belgium. This is a cobbled classic race of 123km taking in some of the famous stretches of cobbles and steep bergs of Flanders. I am looking forward to racing with my new team mates and getting stuck in to the challenge!

I have two weeks training in the UK now before heading off to Club la Santa in Lanzarote for my final training block before racing begins.

Joanna x

Behind the scenes at the Wiggle Honda team launch from GCN:

Children’s charity Action Medical Research is pleased to announce that Joanna Rowsell MBE, Olympic cycling gold medallist, continues her role as ambassador for its programme of cycling events – and accepts her mission to get more women on bikes!

Joanna, who received an MBE in the 2013 New Year’s honours list, won GOLD for Team GB in the Women’s Team Pursuit in last summer’s Olympics. For 2013 Joanna will be riding for the new Wiggle Honda Women’s Pro Cycling Team to compete on the road in both the UK and Europe.

Action Medical Research has established an impressive reputation for its programme of cycling events. The charity’s 2013 ride portfolio features 23 rides, including the three Action DIVA women only rides, as well as the RIDE100 series of one-day regional UK rides and the UK’s original 24 hour relay race – RIDE24.

There are also a number of longer-distance challenges including Action 3 Cities (London, Amsterdam, Brussels), UK End2End (taking on the iconic Land’s End to John o’Groats route over nine days), and the biggest London to Paris ride in the charity sector.

Joanna said: “I am delighted to be an ambassador for children’s charity Action Medical Research again this year. After the huge success of the London Olympics I hope many people have been inspired to get on their bikes. Riding for Action Medical Research is a great way to raise money as well as get fit and the charity has a wide variety of different events, including some women’s only events, which suit both beginners as well as experienced cyclists.”

Watch a video interview with Joanna at the 2012 Champions of CycleSport Dinner for Action Medical Research:

David Graham, Head of Fundraising at Action Medical Research, said: “We are proud to be associated with an inspirational champion of Joanna’s calibre and to have her as Cycling Ambassador for Action Medical Research is very special. Cycling is such an important part of our fundraising and Joanna’s involvement will encourage even more people to jump in the saddle to raise vital funds for our important work to help sick babies and children.”

Action Medical Research has been funding medical breakthroughs since it began in 1952. The charity is currently supporting work around Down syndrome, epilepsy, sickle cell disease, and diabetes, as well as some rare and distressing conditions that severely affect children.

For more information about the Action Medical Research cycling programme visit the website www.action.org.uk/cycling

Joanna has a regular column for Cycling Weekly. Here is her latest column for the 10th January issue:

Joanna said “I feel so honoured to be receiving an MBE. It is an amazing way to finish an incredible year. Huge congratulations to everyone else also receiving an honour!”

The full New Year Honours list for 2013 can be found here.

I flew to Lanzarote the following afternoon and stayed in Club la Santa which is a resort built for sporty people who want to train in the warm weather. I had not stayed here before but really liked the resort and how it was set up for athletes, although it did leave me a little tempted to try a triathlon after watching the participants in the Wednesday morning mini triathlon! It is in a great location to be based for cycle training on the North West coast of the island, so I could head out North or South to go out training on a variety of different routes. There is also a gym, group exercise classes and a Wellness centre where it was possible to book massages which came in very useful.

I travelled out with my brother Erick, with Sarah and Barney Storey arriving the next day, so I had some good company on the long training rides. It was a challenge to make sure I didn’t get the usual cycling tan lines on my arms and legs as I headed out in shorts and short sleeved jersey every day, although this was a nice problem to have in November! The roads in Lanzarote are quite rolling, with a few longer climbs. The wind also provided another challenge which meant all my training rides had some good quality blocks of effort whilst riding into the headwind. It was also fun descending back to Club la Santa when the wind was behind me, trying to see how fast I could go with the tailwind!

Whilst staying at the resort I also had a go at some of the exercise classes which focussed on core work which is an important area to work on as a bike rider. I have definitely got more work to do in this area though as my abs were in pieces after one session of ‘AB-Attack’!!

I flew back to the UK in the evening on Friday 30^th November so there was time for a final ride before heading to the airport. On Saturday 1^st December I drove up to Manchester to race in the elite women’s races at Revolution. There hasn’t been elite women’s racing at Revolution for the last few rounds so it was good to support the racing and I enjoyed riding in front of the crowd, even if I did have road legs. There was a strong Dutch team riding, including Olympic and World Road Race Champion Marianne Vos, so it was awesome to race against them and the racing was all fast and aggressive. I was pleased to get a win in the team pursuit against the Dutch team with Lizzie Armitstead and Elinor Barker. We kept the crowd on the edges of their seats though and sneaked the win by just 1 tenth of a second!

I am back in the UK for just 1 week before going away for another training camp next week. But before that on Friday 7^th I will be turning on the Christmas lights in Cheam Village at about 6pm, so if you are local come along and say hi!