Day 2 at Cycling Espania near Jerez

After waking up late for breakfast (we blamed the time difference) we were presented with yet another fabulous array of food from our hosts at Cycling Espania. Although we sat out it was chilly and the clouds looked a bit ominous. With a 4-5hr day ahead of us we were just hoping the rain held off but true to this part of the world the clouds blew away and the sun was shining in no time.

Very quickly we realised the wind in this region of Spain was going to make training tough and after 2.5hrs pushing into a head wind with a couple of climbs we welcomed the lunch stop. The local lunch speciality seems to be a Spanish omelet sandwich which, I believe, is about as perfect as you can get for a mid-ride meal :-)

The route home was a fast descent followed by around 15miles of flat fast road with a tailwind! Perfect to get out legs moving again. Natalie and Lou headed off to do an extra hour accidentally taking the key to our villa which left Phoebe, Emily and I no choice but to spin down to the beach for chocolate 'recovery' milkshakes and a spot of kite surfer watching in the sun... How traumatic

After spending some time in the pool (ice bath) our awesome host Steve and his lovely girlfriend Layla brought over some home made prawn crackers, spring rolls and Bombay mix which went down beautifully with the delicious chilli expertly made by Lou... Now, to bed!

Introducing Abbie Dentus...

We are super excited to welcome the talented Abbie Dentus as a guest rider to the team for the year. Abbie successfully secured herself a spot on the Olympic Development Programme at the end of 2013 and will be racing with us during the Women's Team Series this year.  Here she writes about her first race with the team...

On Saturday 22nd March I raced my first womens team series event, at hog hill. I got given a great opportunity by team MuleBar - Sigma Spor to guest for them for the women's team series. I was really nervous as this was my first big race as a 2nd cat junior as I wasn't sure how I would do, turns out I really enjoyed the racing and even the hill!

As I am not so good with downhill sections and corners I tried to make up places in the bunch on the hills so that when I slowed down for the corners I would still be in the bunch, otherwise I knew if I was at the back going into the corners I would have a lot of work to do to try and get back up to the front again.

Photo: Dawn Fry

I felt pretty good during the race and attacked a couple of times, however our attacks got brought back again, the first attack that was made was to try and get myself and a couple of riders to bridge across to my teammate up the road to try and help her out as much as possible, however the bunch pulled all of us back in the end.

With 5 laps to go I made sure I was positioning myself near the front and on some good wheels so that I didn't need to panic about getting stuck near the back,y teammates Louise, natalie, Emily and Adel helped me throughout the race and getting me to the front of the bunch. Last lap and I was still feeling pretty good, I was starting to get really nervous now as I wanted to keep my position near the front 3rd-4th wheel so that I wouldn't have to try and make up places on the hill. As it came to the hill the pace started to build up and then that's when the sprint started to happen, still at the front I stayed behind the wheel I was on and starting sprinting up the hill, I could feel my legs really starting to hurt but knew I was nearly at the top and didn't want to lose out on places  now, as we got to the part of the hill where it kicks up again I gave everything I had left for the sprint and got 6th, which I was so pleased with!!

Riding with MuleBar - Sigma Sport helped me get this result as they would always be looking out for me in the bunch and helping me out! They all rode fantasticly and I really appreciate the work they did to help me in the race!

Abbie xxx

Training for Texas

After the cross season, I took a bit of down time before starting my triathlon training. It didn’t really go to plan as I suffered a knee injury, I don’t really know how I did it, but i struggled to run and ride for a few weeks, however on the upside I kept my swimming up maintaining a decent fitness level. My knee has almost recovered and I have been putting in some endurance base work on my new team road bike.

The Cannondale Evo is super smooth and an excellent piece of kit I would highly recommend to any cyclist or triathlete out there.  My first tri race is Ironman 70.3 Texas, it’s a really flat windy course on the coast of Galveston. I normally opt for hilly triathlon, but thought Texas will be a great place to practice some of my weakness, I hope the distance on the flat will help increase my power and TT skills. Running training is ticking over nicely now and am looking forward to doing some open water swimming out in Texas.

Once I’m back me and Phoebe are helping out with some women’s specific coaching sessions for road and circuit racing, it will be great to get involved in increasing participation and hopefully encourage some more events for ladies around the Derbyshire area. I also did a Breeze Leadership the other weekend, so it will be great to get some rides organised to increase participation at grass roots level.

Di xxx

Introducing New MuleBar Girl... Emily Barnes

After having a fantastic time guesting for the MuleBar Girls last year, I am on the team for 2014 and really looking to the season ahead - it is sure to be an exciting one! 

On Saturday both Lou and I lined up to race the women's race at Cyclopark. A strong 20+ women field were there and the wind was going to make sure it would be a tough race. Lou got away in an early break which did a great job of building a strong lead and I finished in the main bunch. 

Photo: Dawn Fry

Next up we have a race in Belgium... 

Natalie, Louise, Clem, Adel and I will be making our way over there with Daddy Barnes as driver and swanny. I'm not sure how my legs will cope, but hopefully I'll be able to hang on. I'm really looking forward to my first big race on my new Cannondale. Sigma Sport and Cannondale have kindly supported the team with a Cannondale Supersix Evo Red road bike each. They look awesome and ride so well, hopefully we can do them justice and kick off the season well. 

When we get home from Belgium, we have a couple of weekends of the Women's Team Series, at Hog Hill and the Dave Peck Memorial Road Race in Twickenham... Then we are off to the 2014 MBG TRAINING CAMP!!! 😃 I am really looking forward to a week in sunny Spain ☀️ with my awesome teamies, riding up hills (I might regret saying that), training and chilling. We will be staying with Cycling Espana in Jerez, where we have access to road, track and MTB training, to facilitate the whole team. A week of getting some good, sunny miles and laughter in before it's back to the UK for more racing!

A quick summary of planned racing for the team up until the Road Champs is...
12th April - Tour of Reservoir
19/20th April - Nigel Measom 2-day
27th April - Cheshire Classic 
3/4/5th May - Bedford 3-day
13th May - Tour Series (Stoke-on-Trent)
18th May - CiCLE Classic
20th May - Tour Series (Peterborough)
24th May - The Milk Race
29th May - Tour Series (Edinburgh)
1st June - Hillingdon GP
3rd June - Tour Series (Redditch)
7th June - London Nocturne 
10th June - Tour Series (Woking)
22nd June - Curlew Cup
26-29th June - National Road Race Championships

Thank you to all the sponsors and people that support us. With all of the girls in full time jobs or education, it would be difficult to manage without such dedicated support. We are as motivated as ever and can't wait to get pedalling... 

Emily xxx

A week in the sun ...

After 3 cancelled holiday's in 2013 and two separated shoulders, I finally made it away with my bike for a week in Fuerteventura - boom!

My training partner for the week was Rebecca, having both been completely off the bike Dec/Jan due to injury and illness we were eager to head to the sunshine and clock up some well deserved winter miles.

I was blown away by how beautiful and dramatic the landscape is in Fuerteventura. The weather was between 20 -24 degrees, making it a perfect destination for a winter training camp. We stayed in Costa Calma, which is in the South of the island, although Fuerteventura does not have the large network of roads like Majorca, as soon as we escaped off of the main road airport road we found ourself pedaling up into the mountains with hardly a car in sight.

Goal for the week - to ride! No set mileage, no set distance to just ride and to try and stay away from the bar!

As the road network is fairly limited our routes out and back were the same each day, and we would just vary the middle section. You do not have the luxury of cafes in every town, so we had to plan our routes through larger towns to ensure we had somewhere to stop for lunch.

The first section of our route each day took us from the East to the West of the island where we had to battle the evil Fuerteventua headwind. We were warned by the locals that this section was a battle of the mind as much as the legs and they certainly were right. I don't think we uttered a word to each other in these first few miles as we battled the wind and our own gremlins - at one point after looking down at my speedo I think I cried when I realised we were going 14km/hr. We both reached some pretty dark places and wondered why we hadn't opted to head to the beack and drink mojitos.

After reaching Pared our route then turned North and headed up into the mountains, although still battling a bit of a headwind the amazing scenery helped lift our spirits.  The climbs in the region - although not as longs as you would find in the Alps - were tasty and often enough for it always to be a hard day in the saddle. There were plenty of other cyclist climbing in the mountains and keen to race up the hills, one day we were even joined by an elderly man from Luxembourg who apparently used to coach the Schleck brothers as juniors.

Our ride home every day was aided by a super strong tail wind which literally took us over the climbs enabling us to pick up the pace and get the legs spinning and leaving us grinning from ear to ear.

We achieved our goal and only got drunk once - impressive I know! The riding was certainly a lot tougher than I expected, but it was amazing and I will definitely head back to Fuerteventura next winter as there is so much more of the island I would like to explore.

xxx

Phoebe's Cyclocross round up

Best pal, pit king and
technical coach Lawrence Frost
working out

I cannot believe the season is drawing to a close so soon. It feels like only yesterday I was battling nerves and panic before the start of the 3 peaks. Like all bike seasons there have been highs and lows.  Thankfully the most noticeable aspect of this cross season compared to last is how much I’ve enjoyed it - not just the racing but the training as well. Last season I was averaging 50-60h a week in the hospital, I was shattered and completely emotionally drained before the training and racing even began. Despite all that I tried my best to at least tread water in terms of fitness, skills and results. This I just about managed but I paid for it over the summer when the hours at work went up again and the racing began I hadn’t got much left to give.

Thankfully this season I’ve managed to cut down at work a bit doing on average 30-40h a week life has been so much sweeter. It has been lovely to plan races and train for them and to have to the time to add in gym work and skills sessions. My trusty training partner and all-round fitness nazi Diane lee has been on my case each week ensuring I’m not slacking off. It even got to the point where I was dragging her out training – a never before seen phenomena.

Racing the NDCXL league 

The cyclocross season started with the build up to the 3 peaks, I won’t dwell too much on the day it still holds such painful and terrifying memories. Needless to say I finished with a fractured right elbow and very low self esteem, there was a lot of work to do. I’m used to feeling tired in fact I’m used to functioning in some ridiculous states as an A&E doctor however it took some getting used to balancing a reduced work load and a far increased training load. I was impatient (I’m always impatient it one of my many terrible personality traits). Despite advice from the sports medicine consultant at work I continued to ride my bike with the dodgy elbow. I couldn’t really get out of the saddle and I certainly didn’t like bumps. The guys at work were constantly on my back about not making a bad situation worse but as I mentioned I’m impatient, stubborn and a doctor so I am also the world’s worst patient. 

I could not understand why I was struggling so much with recovery when I was working less and supposedly resting more. I roped in Diane and Gary to see if it was just me worrying for nothing, they very sensibly suggested looking at my diet. It soon became apparent that there was a large gap between what I was energy intake and energy expended. (I thought it was normal to go to bed absolutely starving). Concerned with being healthy and trying to avoid that every increasing fear of being fat I tend to eat 3 meals a day and not much else. Although on the food diary there was a week where a lot of wotsits were eaten (for which I was heavily ridiculed). Looking at an average day I was going for 8-9hours at work without eating and drinking very little. I told you guys I might be a doctor but I am totally unable to apply science to my own well being. I few tweeks and lots of texts from Di reminding me to eat and drink (Mule bars not wotsits) and I was back on the straight and narrow feeling much better.

One of our sponsors Saddleback kindly asked Di and I if we would race on their elite team at the rapha supercross races. I really wanted to race and I certainly didn’t want to miss out but I was a bit worried that I shouldn’t really be in the elite category (I’ve certainly never felt very elite at anything). I shouldn’t have worried, loaded up with pain killers I slipped into the very pro looking saddleback skinsuit and swore my way round the course. Ok I was last I know but I don’t think anyone noticed and I had lots of cheers. I was racing some of the best girls in the country and it certainly helped me improve.

I wouldn't have survived
Shrewsbury trophy without
Emily's help

By Christmas the elbow was healed and back to almost full range of movement. Christmas is sometimes a tricky time to maintain momentum with the training. I had no problem with this as Diane Lee was there ready cracking her chain whip whilst I baked hundreds of mince pies as erm festive cycling fuel. Christmas day was spent cycling round the peaks with my dad, Chris and the Last family (including Adge last, Olympian Annie last and her brother Tom all decked out in tinsel). The racing continued and as the weather got wetter I got faster. This is because I love the mud but only a very specific mud that is exceptionally wet. I don’t like the mud you can only run through (please bear that it mind if you are organising a cross race next season!).

Mud at the nationsl

My confidence was slowly improving and things were on the up. All the racing over Christmas is to build for the national champs, held this year in our home town of Derby which meant a lovely night in my own bed and not a dodgy travel lodge. Unfortunately due to some crazy A&E shifts I didn’t get chance to practise the course much but it was the same as the trophy last year so I wasn’t too stressed. It’s a twisty course with lots of off camber and corners. Sunday arrived, Di was all set, Nat and her boyfriend came up to support and ease the tension in the Sneddon Metcalfe household. Before the race I nipped on to the course to test the conditions I’m not sure this was the best idea it pretty much shattered my confidence when I realised how bloody hard it was going to be to get round. It was either so muddy you had to run or so slippery you had to run. Di was there with words of encouragement. Gridded on the back row the start was going to be tricky but I gave it my best shot and ploughed in to the bottom bracket deep mud on the first corner and plugged away at the course. I had some fantastic support from our local league riders all round the course, plus my grandparents, my dad, my team mates and Di’s parents. My running was good my riding not so the legs were there but every time I really tried to put the power down the bike went sideways and I ended up on my arse. I wasn’t the only person having this problem. Everyone appeared to be having a lie down at some point. Di was smashing it up at the front. Lucky for me the commentator thought that was me so I kept hearing “Phoebe Sneddon is having an absolutely fantastic ride” well thanks very much but I think I’m scrabbling around at about 20^th! I was hoping to be in the top 20 but it wasn’t to be, having fallen off more times than I care to remember I made it to finish 23^rd. Many aspects of the race were good but I am never happy so plenty to work on for next season.

Getting my frozen feet going at the nationals

I’m now having a little rest before I think about a bit of mountain biking and road racing. Back at work A&E is a pretty grim place to be in January with lots of suicide attempts and heart breaking stories so I’ve booked to go skiing for a week off. Then it’s back home to ride my shiny new Cannondale bike (thank you so much Sigma Sport) and hopefully join the rest of the MGB at our team training camp in the spring.  

Di and I testing out our new team bikes

Di Lee becomes Midland CX Champ!

The last 2 weeks have been a bit up and down for me and Sneddon, I don’t like to moan about illness but we really haven’t been on top form. Both of us have been full of colds and working silly hours at work so our training has not been up to our normal standard. We both planned to do Milton Keynes National Trophy, but on the Friday morning I was cleaning my bike and managed to get chain cleaner in my eye. I gained an attractive eye infection and I couldn't face racing at the weekend - well actually I couldn't see and would have been a total liability. However Phoebe battled on and went to race, completing a good performance, considering she didn’t have the best gridding (I will leave her to tell you about the race). While I sulked at home I learnt that my Oakley glasses are not only amazing for riding but a good health and safety accessory for when cleaning my bike. I can hear you saying how the hell did, you manage to get chain cleaner in your eye, but using a toothbrush on a windy day is not advisable. You’d think having a best mate as a doctor, phoebe would give me some sympathy. Oh no she just said Di you look like you have a hangover, and only you could miss a race due to cleaning your bike. 

So we had one week to one of our main target race of the CX season, both still feeling ill we motivated each other to a turbo on Monday evening however it possibly was not the best thing. One day we will learn, when you are ill - rest. Training didn’t do us much good so Tuesday was spent lay on the sofa, we like to look at this as optimal resting. I felt a bit better toward the end of the week and I was pretty excited about the Midlands. Sunday morning came and I did a practice lap and found Phoebe coughing on the side of the course and told her not to race, quickly promoting her to chief cheerer. Phoebe then ensured I was well looked after she made me wear ever piece of kit I owned to keep warm pre-race – she bought her new puppy over to distract the nerves and generally nagged me J in a good way - of course she was very motivational. The race was very bumpy and hard going, but I held a good lead from the start and took the win becoming Midland Champion. There were some bonuses too with Phoebe not racing I was well looked after and I stole her picnic afterwards. So this week we are going to focus on getting back into training and ponder over how many Christmas trees we can get in Phoebe’s new house. Mule Bar Girl Louise also won her regional Champs which was great news. 

One last thanks and recommendation, we are loving our new Ana Nichoola Snowcat jackets, they definitely helped cheer us up.