LWCR Round 3 - Rule #5 in large quantities!

Saturday 28^th April and it was still raining in London! Three wet members of Team Pink met at Victoria station travel to Gravesend for the next round of the London Women’s League at Cyclopark. We sat on the train wondering if it could possibly be called off, or whether people would be put off by the weather and not turn up. I seriously doubted this – there were 43 pre-entries for the race, and if 31 girls showed up midweek for a wet race at Hillingdon, I suspected that the same hardcore girls would be there today… and they were.

We arrived at Cyclopark to be greeted by pissing rain, a mud-bog trackside, and a circuit that looked like an ice-skating rink. We met with our team mate Coralie, who is infamous for her dislike of riding in the cold and wet, and was quite keen to call the “Cambridge rule”. I didn’t want to race either. Having spent the week with a dysfunctional thumb, stinging road rash and sticking to my clothes and bedsheets after hitting the tarmac fairly heavily at Hillingdon, I was nervous enough as it was. However, a quick chat to the commissaire gave me no joy and I was assured the race would go ahead. Ok girls, rule number 5, let’s get our kit on and out onto the circuit to warm-up!

The track surface was actually pretty good, despite looking slippery, which reassured me a little. There was some confusion at the start of the race, with a last minute organisation of a handicap start. Cat 4’s were supposed to go off first, followed by Cat 3 then 2, although some Cat 2/3’s ended up going off with the first lot. Nevertheless, the field was strung out right from the gun, with girls having to chase hard from the outset. I had a terrible race - my head just wasn’t in it today, and I didn’t chase hard enough at the beginning. I ended up in the back chasing pack, which I subsequently got dropped from after doing a little too much work. I rolled past the start line with the lap board reading 11 to go, and my heart sank when I realised my afternoon would consist of a 40km time trial in the wind and rain! At least I got to practice cornering in the wet, and the only thing that was going to knock me off today was my own stupidity. 

For all that effort, I was able to pull back about 4 places, and after being lapped by the front bunch, finish a lap early. I watched from the sideline as Karla Boddy outsprinted everyone again to take the victory, and my team mates finish in their respective groups – Helen 8^th, Nikki 15^th, and Coralie 19^th. We were all particularly excited for Nikki, who deservedly gained her best ever result, and did her early birthday present of new Dura Ace wheels justice!

We were all semi-hypothermic after the race, and crowded into Coralie and Kate’s cars for shelter (Kate couldn’t race due to an injury, but stood on the sideline and cheered us on). We were eventually revived by warm dry clothes, hot drinks and cake, before the truly hard-core (Nikki and Helen) got back on their bikes to ride back to Meopham station to get the train home. I thankfully, got a lift from Coralie. Well done girls. Whatever doesn’t kill you…

Nicole

Team Pink's epic training ride

With a week's break in our race calender, 7 members of Team Pink (Nikki, Nicole, Debs, Helen K, Helen R, Steph and Kate) and Nellie gathered at the Pearson Sutton Shop at 9.30am on Saturday to head out for a little ride to Ditchling and a bit of team bonding. Nerves about the weather meant jersey pockets were bulging with waterproofs, but the morning proved warm-ish and sunny. We headed out from Sutton, vaguely following the Pearson 150 route.

Spirits were high and we made quick progress, helped by the rowers amongst us setting a good pace on the front – occasionally too good a pace, causing them to be called back into line to a more chatty speed!! As we approached Ditchling the weather broke, with a sudden hailstorm. We paused to don waterproofs and check Nellie was kept dry (nobody likes a mouldy Nellie), had a few stern reminders about rule #5, then pushed on to Ditchling. As we rolled into the village, the tearoom beckoned, but like the committed team we are, we headed first up Ditchling Beacon. The weather rewarded our efforts with more sun, and we all dried out as we pushed up the climb (with relatively minimal swearing). After a photoshoot at the top, we descended, dodging the potholes, gravel and cars, to the village.

The tearoom owners welcomed us warmly, which is more than can be said for our fellow diners, who seemed slightly put out by a bunch of wet, sweaty, noisy cyclists with a pink toy joining them for lunch! Due to the excellent quality of the cakes, and the Team Chat, lunch was longer than expected. Warm and full, we steeled ourselves to get back out on the bikes and head for home.

The route home was slightly more challenging than the route out, with more hills, which prompted the rowers to have little hill sprinting competitions amongst themselves, whilst the rest of us spun up at a more leisurely, sociable speed. We finally rolled back into Sheen at about 5.15pm, with 175k on the clock and smiles still in place.

Starving again, we regrouped at Vikki’s boathouse for much needed pizza, wine, desserts and more Team Chat. Vikki had kindly brought out the wattbike, track bikes and rollers, in case some of us felt the need to ride more bikes! All in all, another brilliant day out for Team Pink.

Quotes of the day:

"Debs, are you from Scotland?" (Helen Ralston, trying to guess Debs accent)

"Maybe we should touch each other more in races" (Vikki) 

Nikki: "Do you think they know how steep the climb is?"

Nicole: "Don't worry, they're rowers. They will keep pushing until they either vomit or fall off their bikes"

Women's Team Series Round 2 – Twickenham road race

After missing Round 1 due to me gallivanting around Mallorca, I (Nicole) was quite nervous about making my Team Series debut in Round 2 at the Twickenham road race. The start list was daunting to say the least – World Junior Road Race champion, British Track champion, 3 elites, girls half our age in the Olympic development squad. At least I had 5 of my pink team mates on the line with me, plus a couple of other Pearson supporters, and the ever-present Nellie our mascot.

While some of the other teams arrived at race HQ in their team cars, complete with support crew, spare wheels and rollers/turbos, Team Pink rolled in, as per usual, from the train station, backpacks in situ. We did a quick warm-up on the road and discovered a biting wind had emerged for the morning, then headed over to the race briefing. The roll-out was from a grassed carpark, over some gravel, onto some side streets, then on to the race course proper. 60 tightly-bunched girls clipping in whilst trying to negotiate grass and gravel was surely a recipe for disaster, although everyone seemed to get through unscathed.

My goal for today was to hold on to the bunch as long as possible. It was quite a fast moving one. I had reccy’ed the course on Friday night with Vikki and felt it was quite slow and “sticky” and constantly dragging uphill. I hardly noticed the inclinations in this bunch. Everytime I looked at my bike computer (not very often) it said something around the 40km/h mark. Being only my second road race ever, I had to concentrate really hard to hold my position. It did feel like I gave up my wheel a little too easily at times, as younger, more experienced and confident riders seemed to slot through gaps that I didn’t think were there! I tried to stay in the first half of the bunch to decrease the likelihood of falling off the back, and as the race progressed and I continued to feel good, move towards the front in case a break went that I could jump on the back of. I didn’t even realise that a couple of girls had gone off the front on the first lap, not that it mattered to me, I certainly didn’t have the fire-power to go off with them or chase them down.

The course transitioned onto a smaller hillier loop for the final 5 laps and I was still with the main pack feeling good. Everyone by now seemed to be racing for second place, which meant the bunch crawled up Staple Hill each time rather than attacking as I thought might happen. I positioned myself nearer to the front thinking there was one lap to go, when in fact there was two! Oh well. I wasn’t in such good position on the actual last lap, and was halfway back when the sprint started with 200m to go. However, everyone seemed to go backwards up the last little incline and I managed to sneak into 13^th place!! Super excited about that.

Natalie Creswick from Mule Bar Girls won by a mile, soloing the last 5 laps, with Lucy Garner in her Rainbow stripes winning the bunch gallop for second. Two of my pink team mates also finished in the main pack, with the others not far behind, placing us 7^th in the Team points for this race and 9^th overall. So proud of Team Pink! Bring on Bedford.

Pearson boys doing the Rondes

The big day crept up for likely lads James Waite (aka Kranky) and David Sidgwick (aka Whisk) and me, Guy Pearson, who, to the best of their knowledge, were the only Pearsonites doing the full 244kms of the Tour of Flanders Sportive event. Supposedly joined by 4000 others at the start in a rather cold and damp Bruges (more like 2000 on the day) we got off to a brisk start with a group that swelled quickly to around 200 strong. This bowled along into the cross wind to the sleepy town of Gistel where a sharp left turn put the wind behind us and a rocket in our chuffs, heading to the first feed at a 40kph pace. Even after an impromptu wee stop we soon nailed it back and rejoined the oversized peloton, taking over the pace setting on the front. Kranky and his Belgian mate Nico took us speedily into the feed station where Denis, our driver for the day, was handed the first layers of clothing before embarking on the next leg. A very brief stop at the next feed just to fill bottles got us ready for the first sections of cobbles that were as always unimaginably harder than you remember. Kranky complained of blurred vision and Nico lost both his bottles while I enjoyed the relative comfort of 28mm tubulars run at 80psi on classic handbuilts which we all agreed was the best choice for the day (the worst being my training frame that's made out of melted down saucepans).

Cobbles led to climbs and the first few of the 14 'bergs we would tackle had few riders on them, the only problem was the cars blocking the steep and bumpy thoroughfare of the infamous Molenberg where some swift off-road action was called for, together with some excited shouting from Kranky, something which he rather enjoyed doing on every subsequent climb whether there was anyone in his way or not. Whisk began to falter on the climbs and cobbles and we left him behind at about the halfway point from where he rode at a steady but strong pace with various other companions of various different nationalities to the end.

Nico and Kranky rode harder and harder as the day went on, racing up every climb and eventually dropping me with about 15kms to go. I finished a few minutes behind them after the brutal last 10 clics into a headwind - I was toast by then. We finished in about seven and a half hours with Whisk not to far behind and I must say that looking back it was fantastic, just a little testing at the time. Our average speed was impressive at just under 20mph and managed to burn around 7000 calories, replaced with the help of lovely Belgian beer. I just want to do it again now!

Other known Pearsons to have done the event were Steve Wood, David Clinton, Graham Berridge, Barry Clarke and John Brameld, while two Pearson more associates, Michael VanDerBugel and Thomas Credland also rode the 140km and were last seen getting trashed in a bar near the finish at Oudenarde.

Flanders, Roubaix and other northern European sportives are great events to do, really because they are so easy to get to. The Dover-Dunkirk ferry is 2 hours which give you time for the compulsory full English and a Costa, the drive to Bruges is just over an hour while the drive back from the finish at Oudenarde is little over an hour and a half, even with Denis driving (he's called Rumblestrip because he complains that they keep waking him up).

Tour ta Malta

Vikki Filsell was unable to come to the Ladies training camp in sunny Spain earlier in the year, so headed off to Malta instead to do the 4 day Stage race, with Nellie in hand. Here is her report...


36 girls were on the start line for the Tour ta Malta. I was in the programme as Wyndy Milla although I entered as Pearson CC and raced in the Pearson kit! They became my pink cousins and were very supportive, as I was to them. 

Day 1: 25km TT

Not a lover of TTs these days, I had a go and gave it my best shot on the back of the Hog Hill/Fleet half weekend. 23rd, a bit disappointing, but fair. One of the Mule Bar girls couldn't count laps and ended up with a very slow time, that had to stick since she only went through the finish line on her final lap. Glad I can count! Eliena Eggl won from Rachel Armitage. (London Dynamo!)

Day 2: 60km, hilly road race. (6 laps, 6 climbs.)

Nothing to lose and Julie, my American Wyndy Milla cousin (very experienced road racer in the US), suggested we own the race and attack and counter attack. Julie attacked first, didn't get a huge gap, was brought back. I decided to attack as soon as she was caught. Massive gap, out of sight, had lead car, motor bikes, very exciting. Tried not to try too hard but after a few minutes (5?) I was back in the bunch and struggling a little. Tanya Hunt attacked a little later (another cousin), she stayed away for two and a half laps with another rider.

Each lap the hill separated everyone out. I lost contact with the stronger riders but had my own little group. 23rd again. Diane Lee (Mule Bar) won from Rachel Armitage.

Day 3: 50km, hilly circuit race on a by pass. (8 laps)

My aim today was to stay in. I was in the bunch for half the race. The pro men (Stefan Schumacher et al) overtook us and the front of my bunch jumped on to the back of them. I hung on for dear life but it was unsustainable for me....... the womens' race blew apart and I was amazed at just how quickly the train ahead of me moved away once I could no longer hang on.

After that it was no longer a proper race really. People stopped, people were lapped and as it happened I ended up being the last finisher on the road due to the drop outs etc. I was gutted to discover that everyone after me was given my finish time, no penalty etc. Some of them had dropped out after 45mins of racing and were given my time. That did not help my GC........ but what fantastic training! 

Day 4: 12km, TT

My legs were shattered, worked my socks off. Was not particularly impressive but did my best.

Overall: Officially 23rd on GC. Actually 20th or 21st if the stage 3 results had not been so wrong........

Rachel Armitage was the overall winner, very impressive. Emily Bagnall was the best of my pink cousins, 5th. Catherine Hills, another pink cousin, 25th. Rachel P, who comes out on chain gang with us, 15th. 

A great training camp for me, new friends made, let's go next year?