Hey team so here is a quick update of what has been an epic start to 2015.

Bicycle racing for 2015 started off with a bang for me taking the win at home in the hub tour around my now much loved Apley circuit and from there been getting better and better… our newly formed Ramblers women’s cycling team got me into position to take home the green sprint ace jersey in the UCI (world cup) women’s tour of New Zealand, winning the women’s section of the ‘hardest race in NZ’ the Gentle Annie, recently travelling to Thailand to race in the tour of Thailand and finally finishing off with a double gold in the club nationals.

In Thailand I was racing for an Australian based team Eurego/ Energy HR.  Although we were labelled to be Australian the team consisted of Malaysian, Australia, Japanese and me the NZ rider, and the managers were Dutch so a very international team and an awesome bunch of riders and support crew.

The racing in Thailand was like nothing I have ever experienced before; first up there was the heat reaching up to the 40s and consistently up in the high 30s but nothing a few ice cubes down your back and water over the head couldn’t fix!  Then there was the style of racing fast and more aggressive than I am used to here in little NZ, I learnt how to get the elbows out in the sprint although when the Asia pro girls wanted my spot 9 times out of 10 they got it and my heart rate went through the roof!  Still some room for improvement there.  My job in the team was 2^nd to last rider in the sprint train meaning that I was able to be in a good position at the end of the race in the sprint to the line, this meant that I was able to get my highest ever overall finish in a UCI event 18^th out of 60 giving me my first ever UCI point.

For me this tour was an awesome challenge and opportunity I learnt a lot!  The most challenging aspect for me was travelling internationally by myself for the first time, going to meet with the team for the first time and racing in such different conditions, all of which turned out to be not as big and scary as I had imagined and I have been able to gain a lot of confidence and experience out of the whole trip.

When I arrived home I had a day to get myself ready for the club national time trial and with some careful planning from coach, Ivar Hopman and a quick session on the bike I was ready.  Lucky my time trial start was early afternoon so running on Thai time (5 hours behind was not an issue) and I managed to stop the clock just 3 sec off the winner of the elite women’s time to finish 2^nd overall and pick up a gold in the under 23 category.

My club national’s road race was 3 days after the time trial so fortunately I had time to mentally come back to NZ before the race and come race day the sun was shining, Hawkes Bay at its best!

I lined up for the 4 lap 105km race with 4 other Ramblers all willing to help me defend my title from last year.  The race went almost according to plan and I was able to come into the last lap with only 6 other riders including my team mate Nat.  I then went on to finish 2^nd in the final sprint and take the under 23 category completing the dream of double gold in the club nationals, must have been those borrowed lucky wheels from Oli at the Hub Cycle Centre Hastings.  Huge ups to the Ramblers crew who raced over the weekend and everyone who stood at the top of the climb to cheer us on the atmosphere was amazing.

Come the completion of nationals I was supposed to be joining a team of NZ university athletes travelling to racing in the Gallipoli games alongside the Anzac commemorations however unfortunately due to political unrest in Turkey the games were forced to be cancelled or hopefully postponed, time will tell.

So that’s me for now time to buckle down and focus on study and of course more bicycle racing to come.