Onwards and upwards.

Not sure where the time is going at the moment, I'm sure I meant to blog again in between the last post and now, but anyway here it is the next update in the continuing cycling saga!

Here we are - the jerseys have arrived!

Since the last post I've had a few more races, another edition at Rhyl, which turned out to be the best of the lot - stayed with the bunch for the ENTIRE race! Right up to the sprint finish which was slightly hampered by some guy crashing on the final corner and almost causing a pile up. Another 2nd place, and a bonus haul of points as the race organiser upgraded the race to a higher category!

The following day was round 2 of the CDNW Women's series at Nateby/Piling - it was a bit of a damp start to the day but an afternoon kick off was ideal. 4 of the women’s squad were riding, Nicky, Lizzie, Heather and myself. Our race was over 4 laps of the course and we set off at a good speed. I have to admit I was suffering a bit on the first lap, but not Lizzie who was off the front with the eventual winner of the race, looking strong. In fact, she was looking strong throughout staying usually close to the front. The laps counted down and with a slight interlude due to a horse-box which essentially neutralised the race for a couple of kilometers, the pace was generally high, with many attacks going off the front from most of the teams, but always being brought back. As we approached the end of lap 3 and the bell, I started to feel stronger and moved up nearer the front, Lizzie attacked off the front and I went along with her. Of course, being team jersey-ed up was a slight disadvantage here and we were soon pulled back. I dropped back for a while with Lizzie, Heather and Nicky taking up spaces at the front of the group. After a brief rest I headed back up to the front and after a slightly wayward move from one of the other riders ended up on the front and decided I might as well have a dig!

Inevitably I got brought back and decided I’d stay tucked in and try and get in a good position for the finish. Coming into the final straight I moved back up to the front and just as I reached it Jo Street from Manchester Wheelers attacked – perfect, I jumped straight on her wheel and dug in. It’s a long straight to the line and as the 200m banner came into view the peleton began to swamp past. I dug in again and continued to accelerate passing a good few people as I got closer to the line, which I then totally misjudged and got squeezed out into 11th place – damn!



Following this race I had a brief moment of coming out of climbing retirement! The winter conditions in North Wales were "in" and Cascade the classic icefall in the Llanberis Pass was rumoured to be in condition (the Oracle aka Tim Neill - had spoken!). Now there are 3 classic ice routes in N.Wales, Cascade, Central Ice Fall and The Devil's Appendix - a couple of years ago Andy and I had ticked off Central and Appendix so I really couldn't pass up the opportunity to finish off the trilogy. It was a chilly day but amazing blue skies to look at from the shade of the crag! We had a quite a wait for the only other team to get out of the way - it's not a good idea climbing underneath folk when they are showering lumps of ice down. But after some hanging around we finally got on the route - all I can say is that my arms are not what they used to be - I am so weak! I got pumped out of my mind in about 10 seconds and proceeded to squeak and wail and grunt my way up the rest of the first pitch, repeated the performance on the next pitch and managed to look slightly more competent on the top-out pitch - it was very short and considerably easier!
Luckily I was then due to work for the next few days so that was the end of my ice climbing renaissance.



I'm going to end this post here and start a new one for the next installment - The City of Perth Grand Prix!

So far so good.....

Warming Up - photo Ed Rollason

So the racing season is well and truly underway and my first 3 races have come off without a hitch! No broken bones, no tears and no damage to bike - so that's a success already!

The first race was at Rhyl's Marsh Tracks circuit and it was FREEZING, quite literally, there were snowflakes blowing around in the air - brrrrrr. This was the first outing for the full Biketreks Women's Development Squad and it was great to see everyone and get on our bikes. There were 3 other women entered, so it was decided to run the women's race at the same time as the 4th Cat Men's race, with a minute or so headstart for us ladies.
All went well, and I managed to stay in with the blokes for quite a decent portion of the race, and my garmin gadget  reckoned I managed a top speed of nearly 29mph, which on a completely flat circuit with corners, wasn't too bad.
The women's race was spread out around the course by the end of the race with our Lizzie almost hanging with the bunch the whole way round - strong girl! And getting a brilliant 2nd place. Heather was next in 3rd then me with 4th, Nicky with 6th and Nic battling round for 8th in her very first ever race. More pics on Ed's facebook page here

In with the bunch

Ooo look at our lovely Torq bottles!

The following weekend saw the start of the CDNW Women's Road Race League - Heather's brainchild and something she's been working really hard to get off the ground. It couldn't have been a better start - not only was the sun shining but there was an amazing 37 ladies riding - lots of whom had never ridden a bike race before. Heather was understandably a little emotional and proud to see so many women taking part. The race was held in Pimbo, on a small industrial estate. The lap was a touch over 2 miles and the traffic is one way, so the perfect setting for a race, and especially a first race. We still had full commissaire car and motorbike escort - brilliant fun. A good race which saw a frankly amazing/bonkers solo attack from Jo Blakeley she went off the front and stayed out there for 8 laps, I think, of the 15 lap race before eventually being swallowed back up by the peleton. I was happy to stay with the bunch for the whole race, and even have a little sprint at one of the intermediates. A few errors of positioning and choosing the wrong wheel on the last lap left me a bit short for the finishing sprint so it was an 18th place finish - not too bad, but think I can manage a better result at some point in the season. The rest of the girls put in good efforts with Nicky 13th, Heather 14th and Lizzie 20th. Another first for Nic, a road race, only her second race ever and another finish. 

Super cheesy picture from the Liverpool Echo just about sums the day up! 

Frankie, me and Heather on the start line!

The season was on a roll, so it was back to Rhyl on Saturday for the second of the Race to the Spring Series - hmmmm well after the freezing edition, we were hoping for something a little warmer. It was a bit warmer, you could tell that by the fact that the stuff falling out of the sky was most definitely liquid! A wet and chilly race. Now, I'm not about to pretend that I'm some super tough belgian classics rider, but I think that the many years of being out on the hill in all weathers looking after not just myself but groups of people whilst trying to teach them useful stuff , might have given me a strange resilience to what can only be described as a "ming-fest"!!

Yes, it was unpleasant, yes I was cold at the end, but in a slightly sick and twisted way it was still quite fun! Bad weather doesn't seem to knock the fight out of me, so fight I did! Once again we rode with the blokes, but I stayed in for much longer, and when I got back in a few laps later I stayed with until the pace went up at the end of the race. 

I was pretty happy to come away with 2nd place and 8 points, which means I already have the same number of points that I gained in the whole of last season. Looking forward to the next lot of races next weekend - the final one at Rhyl and then the second CDNW - more open roads and lots of women riding - can't wait!

Season starting soon.

The fact is I'm starting to get quite excited! The race season is nearly upon us, the Pro-peleton is already off and there is a certain buzz in the cycling world.
Racing starts for me on the 23rd February in Rhyl and I really can't wait to get going, and get an idea of where I'm up to. Am I ready? Well, probably not as ready as I could be if I'm totally honest, but ready to give it a go.





















My trip to the Costa Blanca at the beginning of January was absolutely AMAZING! I loved it, despite the fact that I was utterly exhausted by the end. 6 days in Spain, 6 days out riding. Total of about 250miles and a massive approx 40,000ft of climbing! I don't think I've ridden up so many hills ever!
But the hills out there are not like ours, they go on forever - bad, but are never super steep - good!
(That's a bit of a sweeping generalisation!)
The first day after arriving from the airport was a gentle introduction - day 2 was anything but! 70miles and almost 4000 metres of climbing, I was ruined. But no rest for the wicked and I rode somewhere everyday. By the last couple of days the motivation was tough to summon up in the morning but once my kit was on, the decision was made and I only had to suffer through the first half hour of riding. It felt like I had bandages tied round my thighs until I'd warmed up - a strange sensation!

 But it was hard to complain when the sun was shining, we were being looked after by the guys at Cycling Holidays Spain (Nozad and Russ) and all I had to worry about was turning the pedals and staying upright on the incredible descents - I knew there was a benefit for cycling up all those hills!



Since arriving back from Spain, things haven't quite gone to plan. Firstly the weather has been pretty unhelpful with quite a lot of snow and rain, and then Andy managed to bring back some highly effective germs from Switzerland. Said germs decided that filling half my lungs with gunk was the way forward, it's taken a couple of weeks and a weeks worth of antibiotics to get it shifted to a point where riding became sensible again. So a bit of a hole in the pre-season training - I guess the way to look at it is that it's better now than in the middle of the season.

Back to nearly full lung capacity, training has begun again, and has taken the form of several entertaining outings with the Biketreks ladies and boys. We had a training day up near Lancaster which also involved a photoshoot with Spin Cycle Magazine (online, North West cycling mag - really classy publication www.spincyclemag.com) which should go live in the next day or two.
Good to meet some more of the team members.

Track riding also continues, I managed to get my full accreditation sorted the night before I flew out to Spain, so I've been to a few of the training sessions and loving it, quite psyched for trying some racing next winter......

All over bar the shouting....

2012 that is!
It's been an interesting year...I started the year as a climber again and I've finished the year as a bike racer. The conversion was gradual but the effect is quite far reaching. Not only have I changed pastimes but according to my friend Steve Yeoman I've also changed shape!
I quote "Taylor, you've changed! What's happened to your arms? They've gone!"
I hadn't really noticed as I guess it's happened slowly but he's right the biceps and shoulders have all  but disappeared. I had to check whether I could still actually do a pull-up - it's alright folks I've still got a couple in me! (My all time record was 8, so that's not a disaster!)

This was probably the last time I touched rock.....sometime in September!

Getting a spot on the Biketreks Women's Development Squad has had 2 effects:
1. About a million more Facebook messages/tweets/forms to fill in etc.... where do they all come from?!
2. I've definitely been more serious about how much riding I am doing over the last couple of months.

Where last year I was content to go out when it was sunny and maybe go on the turbo trainer occasionally (to be honest I spent quite a lot of time climbing), I can honestly say I didn't do a great deal of riding in November/December.
I have been keeping a diary of my riding for about the last year (anyone who knows of my climbing logbook geekery will see this as no surprise!), it was actually Andy's idea and I'm now really glad I've done it. Aside from the world of strava and garmin connect it has given me a whole bunch of information about what I've done and how I've felt about it. Simply looking at mileage alone over the course of each month has shown me that December 2012 was a bigger month than June 2012 (and that's not counting turbo miles!). I'm hoping that putting a bit of work in now is going to stand me in good stead for next season. I look back on how much I improved between April and September and that was without having been training over the winter months.....surely 2013 can only be better??

So, 2013, what am I expecting? Looking forward too? Well, I'm off to the Costa Blanca on 7th Jan. After I don't know how many trips out climbing and working over the last 15 years, I'm actually taking my bike and no rock shoes! A little training camp for 6 days. It's a special deal for the Biketreks teams, so I'll be riding out with some of the Under 23/Youth lads ....... yeah OK I'll be setting off with them and then hoping they leave a trail of breadcrumbs or something so that I know which way they've gone! So I'll report back when I've survived! We are going here http://www.cyclingholidayspain.co.uk/
Fingers crossed for some sunshine.



Finally a few words about something different:

For the last week there has been a Strava/Rapha Festive 500 challenge been going on - people registered and then logged their rides to try and get in 500km between Christmas Eve and New Years Eve. Now sounds like a pretty good challenge for anyone but  a friend of mine decided he was going to give it a go despite the fact that he's currently battling cancer. There has been a great team of people who have been out with him on some or all of the rides, I've only made it along on a couple of days. But I'm inspired by Chris's fighting spirit, he had a full day of Chemotherapy infusion on Saturday which unfortunately finished his chances as he's been feeling pretty rough since then - I can't believe how well he's done and if anyone would like to support him he's set up a just giving page in aid of Beechwood - check it out here and his blog here
Keep fighting Chris!

Conversion complete - a bona fida bike racer.

It's been a strange few weeks here in the Taylor world. The world is definitely changing - some kind of seismic shift has occurred! Last time I wrote I was talking about no longer feeling like a climber, well it looks as though the transition is now complete.........
Over the last few months there has been a whole lot going on in the northwest with regards to womens' cycling, the Cycling Development North West agreed have thrown themselves in to running a womens' road race league alongside their existing programme. It may only be 5 races - but it's a major step forward - no longer will the girls have to enter mixed races and get dropped and demoralised - we can race against each other (and still get dropped!!). Manchester Wheelers were a part of this process as we run one of the CDNW races and after I asked people and they all agreed that the Wheelers would be psyched to have a womens race in our event - brilliant! Luckily some of the other events also agreed.

The other thing that happened was a new Womens Race Development Squad was announced, as part of the BikeTreks Race Team. (BikeTreks already have a junior squad and a senior mens team.) My first reaction was - that's brilliant - a womens team based in the North West - looking for people to develop rather than be wads already.....I'm sure loads of people will apply and it'll be great.
The team  (and the CDNW league) is the brainchild of Heather Bamforth, who I met at my first road race in Hull - the one where there were 59 blokes and me, and I basically rode round on my own for a while. Heather was there supporting her husband and riding around the course in the opposite direction and giving me a big cheer every time we crossed. Since then we've been in touch over the CDNW stuff and we raced together at our last race of the season - this time 58 blokes plus we 2 girls! We ended up riding together for quite a lot of the race - the marshals did mention that they knew we were coming because they could hear the talking!

So anyway, the team was announced and I thought nothing more of it for a few days. I'm a Manchester Wheeler......I don't need a team. But then I thought some more. I've loved being part of the Wheelers this year, it's been great I've proudly sported my jersey at all the races I've attended. But I have been ploughing a lonely furrow - none of the other Wheeler women have been getting involved in bunch racing at all. Viv has been AMAZING at time trialling - not sure how she does it?! Very impressive.
But the thing in bike racing is it's about being part of a team - you watch the professionals and it becomes more and more apparent that without team support the lead rider won't win. Now I don't see myself as being a lead rider or winning but I felt like I want to give it a try - this whole racing as a team thing. So feeling brave and with some encouragement from Andy I decided I had nothing to lose - I applied. So what if I didn't get in? It wouldn't matter I could carry on with what I've been doing this year and improve, but I realised that I shouldn't let the opportunity pass without trying - I'm way too old to ever be any good at this cycling lark but I can give it my best shot!

So, I waited.......... didn't actually know how long I would need to wait so I kind of put it all to the back of my mind and carried on with the rest of life - working, riding, trying to get through the endless velodrome accreditation system!

Then I got a message from Heather - "Read your email" it said.

Flipping Heck - I got onto the squad!! I could hardly believe it! I was jubilant and then I was terrified (what if I was rubbish and didn't do the team proud?? what if..???) and then I was sad! What about Manchester Wheelers? Well no I won't be racing in a Manchester Wheelers jersey next year, I'll be in a BikeTreksRT jersey - which is really exciting!
But will I disappear from the world of the Wheelers? I doubt that very much, I still need people to ride with, I'm still going to want to help encourage the women in the club to get out and ride (and race - although not too quickly ;) ) and I'm still going to the club dinner this weekend!

So it's Hello to my new BikeTreks Team - we are 5 women - Heather, me, Nic Fox (also a Manchester Wheeler), Nicky Shaw and Lizzie Waterhouse - we haven't all met yet and I'm not even sure what's going to happen other than doing our best and enjoying it!
Thanks for having me!

p.s. I'll post a picture of the new jersey when I've got one!

Am I a climber??

I never thought that anything would captivate me in the same way as climbing, never believed that there was anything I would enjoy as much and be as motivated to spend my time doing. I have  identified myself as a climber since I was a teenager and spent my entire adult life totally surrounded by climbers,  my friends, my job, my family - my world has been a kind of bubble. A very lovely bubble which has given me everything I could ever want - amazing friends, adventures all over the world, experiences I'd never have had in a different life, ones that many people could only dream about and for all those things I can only be extraordinarily happy. Then I got a road bike.

I learned through being injured for so long that I need something, to focus my attention on. It's always been climbing and during my recovery phase getting back to climbing was always the thing that drove me on, believing that I could reach the level that'd I'd previously attained. Last summer I'd been climbing a bit waiting for my body to sort itself out, and cycling quite a lot. I enjoyed it, enjoyed getting fitter, having something to do instead of climbing. During the winter I was feeling healed and started climbing regularly, training at the wall, and getting stronger. It felt good, really good. Spring came around and I had the trip to Majorca for work and play lined up. The month before saw unprecedented good weather and getting out on the bike was fun so I missed it in Majorca. But I was climbing well, I was loving the feeling of moving on rock and being smooth and comfortable. I had the focus back, the upwards thrusters were very much firing. I climbed routes back at the level I had been climbing before I was under the cosh of the sore back. I was prepared for a summer of quality climbing and then it rained!!
For the first time ever, I just gave up on climbing, I gave up trying to find the dry rock and the motivation, stopped fretting when I wasn't getting out, or going to the wall. I just stopped. Yes, I've still been climbing a bit, but I've chosen to go riding instead on more occasions, the sun has been out and what I've wanted to do is get on my bike and try hard. I've been loving challenging myself to get faster and stronger, been in turns terrified and jubilant when I've put myself into a race. I can see improvement  and it's been great. I don't think I've been getting that from climbing for such a long time, I haven't been able to see improvement I've been playing catch up, trying to get back to how I was and maybe once I'd proved to myself that I can climb pretty well the motivation seemed to evaporate.

What I have come to realise over the last few months, and even years is that my bubble has been burst, or at least severely stretched!

I've punched out through the irridescent film, out into the world beyond climbing and what have I discovered?? That I've slipped inside another bubble - the cycling bubble! Once again I've found myself engrossed in a life that demands my attention, my energy and my drive to be better at something.

Will I go back to climbing? Is this a temporary phase? Maybe I'll get to a happy balance point where riding and climbing are equally important - or maybe I won't. Either way I'm sure I'll be focused on something that I'm trying to get better at.....

Legwork, Laps and Lundy

Once again it's been a few weeks since my last post, I'm not exactly a dedicated blogger!
Anyway, what been going on? Well, mostly bike riding which I imagine is getting pretty predictable these days. I have been continuing my run of improvement in the Ashton Crit Races, and getting involved in some proper in the bunch racing. And I LOVE IT!!!


When I think back to the start of the season when I was getting shot out the back of the group almost from the start it seems like a million miles away. The last few races I've done have been brilliant, it started with a couple of damp races where there were only a few riders and we all stayed together and I thought it was just because there weren't many people and the races were slow. Then came a sunny week and a field of about 30 and somehow there I was, still with the group, making my way in the bunch, hemmed in on all sides and although not exactly relaxed handling it OK. In fact I was even giving other people a hard time for wobbling and doing random manoeuvres.
The not so great thing about there being a bigger field is it's harder to score any points. I was particularly gutted a couple of weeks ago to finish 11th when points go down to 10th! Bugger!! Still I never thought I'd score a single point at the beginning of the season so have to be pretty pleased.

Check out the new wheels - defo go faster!

Thanks for photography Mike Hutton who decided he'd come along for a laugh having been a keen cyclist himself a few years ago....I think he might be psyched for another road bike.

Next on the agenda was my first road race, now I realise that I've once again gotten myself involved in a completely male dominated sport - but really, 59 blokes and me - is that right??? No, would be the short answer. I'm a bit disappointed that there aren't more girls around who are willing to give this racing lark a go. Anyway, the 59 chaps and I set off on what I had assumed would be a flat circuit just outside Hull ( good opportunity to go and visit my sister!). Firstly the 7mile circuit was not flat and secondly it was helluva windy out there! The loop started with a short downhill and then turned onto the main drag, not super steep, but a headwind and uphill enough to make it hard work. After feeling quite chuffed to stay with the group on the uphill section I was somewhat disappointed to loose contact on the not very steep but very fast downhill half of the course. Anyway, so the short of it being I didn't last long with the 59 blokes, but at least I kept riding around in splendid isolation. I eventually got lapped as I was losing heaps of time on the headwindy uphill section as I couldn't hide behind anyone, but still I carried on and only when I got back to the start finish knowing that the peleton would be finishing shortly after did I stop to wait and watch the finish - imagine my surprise when only half the field finished.....where did they all go? Why would you just stop riding as soon as you got dropped - surely that's a waste of good training time?? I was bemused to say the least.
So hardly a lightning start to my road race career - still hopefully it'll get better?

Dan on Double Diamond

Back from our jaunt to the east coast and we had to prepare to pootle off down to the south west and the fabled isle of Lundy. Now this was to be my third visit.....the first one in 2007 was sunny and lovely, but half the large team came down with the Lundy plague as did most of the people on the island so we were chucked off. The second in 2009 was windy,wet and utterly miserable in terms of back pain so we left early. I was hoping for a repeat of the 1st trip but without the plague. We set off from Ilfracombe and after a brief spell attempting the watch Olympic action, then trying to go to sleep the only other available course of action was to spend the rest of the journey vomiting up the chips I'd eaten before getting on the boat. Grim! Now I have a question, why would you have a boat designed for cruising along the rivers of Germany and then use it as a sea-going vessel? The bottom os too flat, the rolling and general up and down-ness it particularly seasick causing - and frankly the Bristol Channel is not the place for the MS Oldenberg - dear Lundy please get a better boat!! It would save your poor staff for a whole heap of cleaning duties and stop them from getting sick themselves.
Andy and Dan were made of sterner stuff than me although a high degree of concentration was required.

Me on Albion

Once we arrived on the island things looked better, the sun was shining, the crags were dry and there was no sign of the plague. The next morning I awoke to find that the old back had decided that camping is really not what it was keen for and a protest should be staged, this protest lasted for 5 days and left me hobbling around and moaning! 2 of the days were wet and foggy so on those at least I had someone to talk too. I read a LOT of books. By the thursday I decided that I was mobile enough to give a bit of gentle climbing a go, so we headed off to the Devil's Slide for Albion which was very pleasant, followed by an alternative to Satan's Slip called Fear of Faust - that was me done for the day. On the positive side the skies had cleared and the sun was beating down so the suntan has been massively increased from the previous pasty white - now slightly off-white! Thanks Dan for the photos on the Slide.

Andy on Fear of Faust

The last climbing day brought even hotter weather and after Dan had managed to tick Indy 500 (after having been to do it several times on other trips and been forced back by dampness) we headed for the Marisco Tavern and an afternoon of paying cards in the beer garden.
Then it was time for the dreaded boat return journey - but by some fluke it was almost calm and sunny and an altogether pleasant experience.

Our constant campsite companion - never gave up on the possibility of food!

I think I can safely say that I will not be going back to Lundy and camping, I think those days are over!! Maybe if we stayed in the bunk house or one of the houses.........but with so many other places to go I think my next island might be Lewis.....check out Climb for Mike Hutton's article with loads of pictures of Andy.