English
Introducing Nikki Wheeler to Team Wiggle, Nikki has been cycling for about 8 years at a competitive level racing both local and national events. Nikki is also a 1st category rider with her preferred style of racing being road and crit events rather than time trialling or Sportive events.
She also competes in the National Women’s Team Series and usually rides for the Surrey League Women’s Team, which is the case for 2010. She trains very hard during the Winter months and spends many hours turbo’ing during the cold dark and wet evenings and many hours in the saddle over the weekend with the local cycling club (i-team.cc). We’ll keep you posted on Nikki’s 2010 season in the saddle via the Wiggle Blog.
I always aim to make my first race the Mountbatten Centre Circuit race with the 3rd category men towards the end of February, as I use it to see how my training is going and to help me establish what areas I need to concentrate on. I also had another reason – I wanted to try out my new bike as I’ve treated myself to a Felt ZW1. Considering I had only ridden it for an hour the day before it felt great and extremely comfortable to race on.
Now I don’t know what it is about the first race of the season, but I’m always really nervous until I am actually on the bike ready for the off. I suppose it has something to do with being a lot closer to riders than I have been used to over the past 5 months, as well as the thought of having to exert myself and push my body much more than I would probably like – especially at this time of the year because it is cold and the weather is still fairly miserable.
Let’s face it when us ladies are in with the men and the season hasn’t really even got off the ground yet, it can be quite a daunting prospect. I ask myself the same questions and, as I never really know how well my training is going, self-doubt tends to kick in – how fast is it going to be, will I be able to stay with them, and will I get dropped? My partner, Rich, just thinks I’m mad and laughs at me, but I know I’m not the only one going through this very same process before a race – it’s just not that many will actually admit it.
After all that worrying, and my nerves getting the better of me before the race started, I was actually fine during the race itself. It was very fast for me at times, which was really good practise training for the many races to come, and I could begin to feel the positive effects of the turbo training sessions falling into place. Several times I had to dig deep, grit my teeth, and ignore the fact that my legs were screaming at me, but it was good to get my heart and lungs used to responding to the faster speeds. There were quite a few attacks, but the strong wind meant that the breaks were brought back each time finishing in a bunch sprint.
I’ve got used to riding on the outside edge of the race so that I am able to move up whenever I can, but I do tend to ride in the wind more than I should, which I actually prefer, as I like to be able to take evasive action when necessary!, but a strong wind takes its toll on me and wears me out more than I would want. I guess I’d like to think of myself as superwoman every now and again, but in reality it just knackers me out far too quickly, and as I’m a Vet that’s far quicker than I’d like to admit!
The race lasted for about an hour, which was probably just as well as towards the end of the race my legs were definitely starting to feel it. I stayed at the back of the bunch as I didn’t want to get involved in the inevitable ‘argy bargy’ of an early season race and ended up off the back when they all sprinted to the finish line – my legs just didn’t have anything left at that point. Like everyone else, the extreme weather conditions we have had since the beginning of January have played havoc with my training.
Well, that’s the first one out of the way, with the next ones probably being at Thruxton Motor Circuit. No doubt it will be extremely windy with the possibility of rain – like it normally is.