Helen Wyman

Back in the office

Published:

April 20, 01:44,

Updated:

April 20, 01:49

By:

Helen Wyman

Helen Wyman gets back to work after a long 'cross season

So it’s April and the never ending 'cross season did eventually end. As I’m into fascinating facts I’ll lay one out for you. There are only 4 people in the world who rode the first and last UCI cyclo-cross races of the season; Nittany Lions and the GVA Oostmalle. These 4 hardy souls being Tom Van Den Bosch, Ian Field, Joyce Van der Beker, Gabby Day and me.

It turns out doing this long a season does actually puff a person out just a little. Although further experimentation next season will be needed in order to quantify exact 'puffed outness' on a grading scale that 'crossers could use in the future to gauge the best start time for a season. I may even turn it into an iPhone app, make millions and buy the biggest pimped up motor home to park in front of Sven Nys at every race.

Anyway back to the point. After the last few races of the season I treated myself to what I would call a truly deserved month off with exciting non-bike-rider-related things. The very next day after my last race I went to the Utrecht motor bike show to see a friend who races motorbikes professionally, Bradley Smith. I took the chance to point out all the pink moped accessories telling Stef he would look good wearing them whilst motor-pacing. There were also a lot of very 'interesting' typically Dutch key fobs/ornaments that most Brits point and giggle at, which we obviously did.

I managed to fill a lot of the time eating cake, cleaning my house and visiting my family. In cleaning my house I mean a Monica from Friends style cleaning job, including window cleaning, something I have never done before in my life. It took a ridiculous amount of time and even I was getting bored of it by the end but wow my house is shiny clean now.

As it’s the thing to do on twitter I'm also going to try to start a hash tagging trend across all social media including blogs. So as to the cleaning statement #eatyourheartoutagifromcleanhouse.

Apart from the cake eating, the most exciting thing I get to do on my time off is catch up with all the family. This in itself can be more exhausting than training, although probably a good thing to wear off some of the excess cake. My sister-in-law came over to Belgium with her husband and 3 delightful children. I call them many other things when they wake me up at 6am, however after 8am they are actually quite fun.

Stef did manage to convince the oldest one that the toy shop was magic and got bigger the longer they stayed in bed; this helped for at least 2 days. We even managed to get Ian playing football which made it a very competitive affair eventually leading to a hand injury and the subbing of the goal keeper (me) following a rather violent goal attempt.

Back in England with my brother and his children we took the annual trip to bewilderment world; a huge kids adventure playground in the woods which you take a short boat trip to past a crocodile, called Matilda the crocklebog that sprays water at you. It’s in Norfolk which probably explains a lot! My parents seem to eat less as they have aged which is good for them however sometimes when visiting we get a little hungry. We have a secret code, when we say 'oh I really want a newspaper' this means we can go to the corner shop and buy more food. This code has only failed me once where Stef actually only wanted a newspaper, to my disappointment. Turns out my 10 year old nephew has a similar code meaning when grandma says can you get me milk he jumps at the chance coming back with a secret stash of Haribo, which he generously shared with his little sister later in the day #proudaunt.

I got to catch up with my university friends which this year included a rocking bake off. At this point you have to look at the picture of my amazing cup cakes. They are cookie monster blue cakes with fluffy fur style butter icing and actual cookies in their mouths. My friend may have won on taste but I won on style and ability to make children high from food colouring.

So after the cake eating it was time to get back on the bike. Much harder than you would think maybe due to the cake and starting running and the gym at the same time. But I did manage, in the first week back, to do the last 30 minutes of a 2hour ride with a 180bpm heart rate thanks to Bradley (Aforementioned motorbike rider) putting me in a hurt locker. Gotta love being unfit. Bradley has since been repaid so fear not friends equilibrium is restored in the world again.

As I don’t like to stay in one place for longer than 56 hours we headed off to Limoux in the South of France for the Matrix Fitness – Prendas team training camp, which I managed to tag along with, perks of being married to the team director. It has to be one of my favourite places to train. It’s so pretty, you can ride for hours without seeing a car and the weather is always warm and sunny. This year being no exception, with the first 5 days reaching 24°c. I may have become addicted to a sweet champagne style wine called Blanquette, however if rumours are true Phillip Gilbert doesn’t mind champagne after training. If it’s good enough for him......

The team had contacted university of Hertfordshire physiotherapy department to find a couple of physio students who wanted to work with the team to learn how to be a soigneur. So every evening they led different structured sessions, like stretching, core stability and Bosu ball work. I helped in these in my role as a team mentor and was able to pass on some bike specific knowledge to the young riders. If you’re not sure what it is, the Bosu is like half a gym ball mounted on a plastic board. It is really lots of fun except that the first time we did it turns out Stef has more balance than me #notimpressed. So I haven’t let him use it since and I have been practising like a mo-fo until I have the balance and grace of Darcey Bussell during a Swan Lake performance, and the endurance of Mo Farah. Needless to say I'm not quite ready for a rematch yet.

So this brings us neatly up to date. Back in training and looking forward to the races starting in may. It’s been a great break, as per usual I’m a little sad to put the cakes back on the shelf again for another 11 months but equally as excited to start racing. I promise to update again very soon.

Training, Training, Training

Published:

December 31, 2011, 18:12,

Updated:

December 31, 2011, 18:16

By:

Helen Wyman

Helen avoids the bad weather in Belgium

So it's been a while since my last blog. I would say this relates to my life just being non-stop. However as I am a full time bike rider I realise you would find that statement hard to believe (I did once have a real job so have the vaguest of memories of what it is to actually be busy). Well at least I have been travelling a lot around Europe.

After the European championships we set off to Monaco for some training and to get the Kona van re-registered in its native land. If you ever want to make a Belgian stare to the point they will walk into things, then get a Monaco number plate, set the video camera up, sit back and chuckle.

I tried my hardest to find Philip Gilbert when we were there but he just didn't seem to be doing my routes. Monaco is a very cool place with an obviously extreme amount of wealth mixed up with an extreme number of house cleaners. The coolest things about the place were the millions of flights of steps and public lifts (that's an elevator to our north American cousins). You could cover a 1 km walk in 3 lifts, genius! Oh and the training was amazing too.

After we got back from Monaco I did a couple of races including the Koksijde World Cup, which as we all know will be worlds this year too. I do really like the course, had a satisfactory result and am getting more and more excited by the minute.

With only 10 days back in Belgium it was time to go training again. This time last year the weather was atrocious in Belgium, freezing cold and damp which ultimately led to an extraordinarily amount of time training on a turbo. So this year we planned ahead and had found a cheap place to stay in the south of Spain between Malaga and Marbella, also loving renamed as little Essex within our first day there.

We had all of the four standard British TV channels on our TV, the local shopping precinct had a supermarket with British foods, the hairdressers was called 'the English cut' and there was a British fish and chip shop, complete with Pukka pies. The weather was outstandingly good, it rained once in 18 days and on the coldest day was 'knee warmers'.

One of my cycling friends once named me 'Dora the explorer', the well known childrens cartoon character based on my ability to discover new roads while training and inability to turn around when aforementioned roads turn into gravel tracks/single track/muddy fields. I will say that 99% of the time they do turn back into road eventually.

A few years ago I tried one of these roads which turned into a single track small mud bath/river crossing and back into a proper road. Unfortunately at the time I had Speedplay pedals which lock up with a spek of dust so weren't conducive to stepping into the mud bath. I got my foot back in but couldn't unclip until I got home, took my shoe off and got Stef to use brute strength to yank the shoe out of the pedal.

So while in Spain, for the above mentioned reason I found myself in the middle of a golf course being chased by a cigar-wielding English man in a golf buggy trying to tell me I shouldn't be there. Eventually when he caught me, I was very surprised how quick buggies go uphill, he stated the obvious. 'You shouldn't be here', to which I replied 'I realise that, I don't know how I got into here and so can't find a way out'.

This may have been a slight exaggeration of the truth as I had actually dropped down a steep hill onto the course and had little intention of going back up it to get home. After giving me a slight look of 'argh poor little women no good with directions' he softened slightly and showed me the way out, instructing me to be careful as I wouldn't want my pretty face hit by a golf ball as I would have to cross the 10th hole. After five minutes and a short pause for a group of slightly bemused Italian golfers on the 10th hole and I was back on a proper road and on my way home.

Having decided that maybe the road pros have the right idea in living in places with guaranteed better weather than Belgium for their winter training it was time to pack up the suitcases and head on home to our beloved Belgium where the water table had been getting higher and higher in our absence. Since our return I have actually seen little streams, that I didn't even remember being by the side of the road, full to bursting with lying water.

Back in Belgium it was pretty much straight in with three races in four days, Christmas followed by another block of racing. Unfortunately the worst possible time to get sick, which I, along with a lot of other riders judging by the mens pre-race interviews, have done. After unsuccessfully trying to compete at the top level with half a lung I've decided to get healthy instead.

So my next blog will be with much better news as I will be healthy and back to the top level taking advantage of the great training I have been able to do. So till then

Living in a suitcase

Published:

November 8, 2011, 17:45,

Updated:

November 8, 2011, 17:46

By:

Helen Wyman

Road trips galore in Helen's 'cross season thus far

This not literal, obviously. It would be a little uncomfortable and lacking in certain things, living in a suitcase. However I have spent the time from my last blog pretty much on the road.

As most people would fall asleep if my blog described in detail everything from the last 6 weeks I will summarise for you. From my last blog I was in Baltimore. Well I won both days there, travelled up to Vermont, won there, then Rochester, won there, same old, then Gloucester where I won twice then flew home. Oh there was also an evening race somewhere in there, won that too. Then drove back to Belgium, raced Ruddervoorde, won that, drove to the Czech Republic, raced the World Cups, didn't win them damn it, drove back to Holland, raced there got 2nd and more cheese, then Koppenberg, 2nd again, then drove to Italy where I am now. Succinct enough?

At this point I want you all to take the time to pinpoint on a world map all those places so you can appreciate the local culture in the next stories I'll be telling you. I highly recommend Google, who it turns out covers 2/3rds of all internet searches (When in countries who dub their TV programs you end up watching a lot of documentaries on BBC world!).

So after our great experience in Baltimore we went on to New York with our good friend Mike Garrigan who had picked us up in his A-Team style van, also known as a paedophile van by most of the American public and Wezley by those that loved him like we did. Not only did Wezley have enough room for all our bikes and stuff but Mike had taken the middle row of seats out so me and Ian [Field] could totally relax in the back.

Three days in the New York area, including a trip to the Big Apple itself, and it was time to board Wezley again for the next leg of the trip to Vermont. Having driven for a few hours we decided it was time to stop for some food, only to find there were no services before our turn off, so we took our chances in a local village off the motorway (or freeway to my USA friends).

We set off down a little road in the middle of nowhere and this tiny little petrol station (gas stop) appeared in what can only be described as the desolated village from The Hills Have Eyes. It didn't have a toilet so me and Ian were sent to the village store that apparently had one. After about 100 metres we both chickened out as it was just too dark and scary, although we did think we would return to the van to find Mike and Stef's bodies massacred with their heads speared on the pump nozzles.

If it was a horror movie you would be shouting at the TV, "Don't separate you're safer as a group". Fortunately it was ok, although we did leave in a hurry after checking the van hadn't been infiltrated by any mad axe people.

Vermont was cool. I think it could best be described as ‘vegan'. Take your own interpretation from that but it was a cool, relaxed place and the race was fun in a beautiful spot on the edge of a lake. We only stayed a couple of days as straight after the race we hit the road again for a six-hour drive to Rochester for the next day's race. If that wasn't tough enough after Saturday's mud-fest, Rochester was on the side of a wacking great big hill and in 32°c heat. I've never fed in a 'cross race before so I did it every lap cause I could!

Our next stop and final destination of the trip was Gloucester. Once again we were staying in host housing, this time from a lovely couple called Dave and Christie, in another spectacular house on the coast road to Gloucester. We went to Salem in the hope of spying some witches but turns out they were busy and the town looks just like any other so just did another non-violent drive by.

At the race we got to hook up with Dave, the Kona mechanic and Barry, who was doing the race too. The crowd there was really enthusiastic and as always without prejudice so they cheered just as hard for me as their own which was very cool. That night we flew home arriving the next morning in England.

Back in Belgium I spent the first week with a bit of a glazed look until I finally came around enough to race in Ruddervoorde. I don't know how the American 'crossers do it all the time, just flying in for a race then back. It was for them that I had to get my arse in gear and win so the world can see the level of competition is high across the whole country. It's not just Compton and Nash, there is a whole heap of cyclo-cross talent in the races I did, biting at their muddy heals.

Next road trip for us was the Czech Republic. We had booked a place to stay for the week in between races just inside the Czech border. As much as the country has changed since joining the EU, the road network is still not always great so by being there we were able to train in Germany if needed.

The house was lovely and the local town in Germany was equally as lovely. It wasn't until the last training ride where me and Ian rode up to the village 800 metres away that we realised how nice our house was. It was very strange, just like this small village had been stopped in time, every road turned into a dirt track and there were just wild animals and people sitting on the streets next to houses that hadn't been touched since the early 1900s. Very bizarre.

After the Czech Republic we were back in Belgium for another week to race Nacht Van Woerden in Holland followed by the infamous Koppenberg cyclo-cross, which this year was disappointingly like a bumpy road race, although it still makes for great photos.

The next day I set off for Italy. The boys (Stef and Jamie) left directly from the Koppenberg 'cross to drive there so they'd be there ready to pick me up. We were based in a lovely house on the side of a hill down a tiny little steep road that I don't think Stef enjoyed riding up at the start of our ride. Having said that, during the 900 metres of climbing in 2 hours on a ‘flat' route he didn't complain once! I should say thanks here to Jamie's mum for putting up with us.

We are now down in Lucca for the European championships. Having ridden the course today I would say its going to be rather fast and furious with no much stopping. By the time you read this I will have finished in 8th place. From here we are off to Monaco for our Kona van to have a service ready to take it driving again. My next race will be Aspere-Gavere where I'll be looking to put right the mistakes I made last year.

Till then.

La la la la la America

Published:

September 19, 2011, 05:36,

Updated:

September 19, 2011, 06:06

By:

Helen Wyman

Starting the cross season in style

Sitting here in the biggest ‘normal’ sized house in the beautiful suburbs of Baltimore, looking out onto parkland and a ‘studio’ at the bottom of the garden which is larger than our Belgian home. I’m definitely very happy that I’ve started my cross season here in America.

Having raced a few races here two years ago, this year we decided to plan a longer stay incorporating 9 races but all on the east side of the country. Starting in Allentown, 2 hours West of New York and ending in Gloucester, 1 hours north of Boston, we are here living the American dream for the whole of September.

So to a Brit what is living the American dream? Well it mostly relates to food, a common topic in all my blogs. Firstly the hotel ‘all you can eat’ breakfast was just heaven. Not only do they have already made porridge (oatmeal to a US citizen), fruit, bread and cooked normal English stuff, they also have pancakes, bagels and a waffle making machine. Then for lunch you can get ‘all you can eat’ salad buffet, again including salad, soup, breads and pasta for around 6 euros per person in a local restaurant. They also had mini speakers at the tables where you could pick which big screen you listened too while eating. Luckily we were only in a hotel for 3 nights or we would definitely have contributed another 3 people to the growing world obesity problem.

We raced Saturday and Sunday in the Nittany lions cross on a grass based course with a swamp style mud pit on one section of the course created by the storms and excessive rain the area has suffered from over the last 2 weeks. It was great fun and I won both days so was really happy. America also has this thing called ‘equality’ going on when setting their prize funds giving top three men and women equal prize money. It’s an unusual concept to many Europeans I’m sure, but ‘way to go’ America, you rock.

After leaving that race Kris from Twenty20 Cycles, the organiser of this weekends Charm City races took us onto Baltimore to the most unbelievable host house ever. I grant you this is also my first host house, however Suzy and Jo are amazing. Not only are they incredible hospitable but their house is beautiful and they have the biggest washing machine I have ever seen in my life, I could quite easily fit in it! They also have a Whole food market shop within walking distance of their house, another experience that if you are ever in America you have to visit. It’s a supermarket that only sells organic, whole grain type produce. They have food we haven’t even heard of and everything is fresh organic and expensive, but worth it just to visit the pick and mix nuts section!

We have seen some interesting wildlife since we have been here including a racoon, sunbathing turtles and a ground hog all in the space of 3 days. Last night Suzy took us into a really nice area of Baltimore called Fells Point in the Inner Harbour. We did a (non violent) drive by through the city then stopped for Stef to try the best ice cream in Baltimore, which I may have helped him with especially the best pistachio gelato I have ever tasted. Sat on a park bench outside it was just like a scene from an American movie with a guy showing people the stars through his telescope, an old man playing a violin and groups of people sat chatting together, very surreal. To top of the evening visit we stopped the most incredible smelling bakery where you could buy the croissants they were making for the morning straight from the oven trays, at 10pm. This is where scratch and sniff blogging should be invented cause I’ve never smelt anything so good in my life, obviously I couldn’t tell you what they tasted like as I am an athlete and my body is a temple etc, etc.

On that note, Americans do speak a form of English but we have had a few translation issues. It turns out potato chips are actually crisps not chips and a truck is a lorry and despite me wanting a Nissan titan apparently it’s not the done thing for people who care about the environment. American cars have engines with at least 3 litres more than the rest of the world to power their huge vehicles which we believe leads to the biggest road kill you have ever seen, ie the racoon. To be fair if they parked a fiat punto outside their humungous houses it would look like a go kart, so I guess everything is correctly proportioned.

Anyway at this point I’ve raved enough about how strange but wonderful this country is so will finish for now. Plus you will need to google a Nissan Titan and how big a racoon is so I will stop here. As we are here for another 2 weeks I’m sure I will get another blog in about food and a little bit of bike racing in that time. Till then.

An extended trip in the UK

Published:

July 5, 2011, 01:00,

Updated:

July 5, 2011, 02:53

By:

Helen Wyman

Five crits and the road nationals, and a little bit of family time

The title pretty much sums up my recent trip to England. Having only returned to England for a maximum of 2 week stints over the last 6 years, this year we tried something new. I think most people call it spending time with their families, quite an unusual concept for a travelling type, such as myself but equally very rewarding. When I say ‘spending time with family’ I obviously mean doing that along with driving the length of the country to knock out a variety of races and interesting places to train - so potentially not that long with the family after all.

In the UK we have a series of criteriums for men in different city centres called the Tour Series. They are fast 1 hour races made into an interesting TV program shown the next night on ITV, our channel 3. Last year they ran one test event for women and due to the success launched a 4 round women’s series sponsored by Johnsons Health Tech. It’s pretty exciting for women’s racing in the UK to have this window of opportunity to promote our sport to the general public. Unlike Holland, women’s racing is not televised at all, we have a minimal professional team structure and little chance of developing our sport through media promotion, making this opportunity something pretty special.

So my first set of races was these races in Peterborough, Stoke, Oldham and Woking. The effort required to ride flat out and attack for 40minutes did seem vaguely familiar to me, although I’m not used to having to end it with a Cavendish style sprint like I needed at these races. However I managed to pick up 2nd, 2nd, 3rd and 4th to win the overall individual series. The TV coverage was great, the racing looked as exciting as it was at the events and overall I think with the Motorpoint and Horizon Fitness Prendas team battles it was really good fun racing.

At the other end of the enjoyment spectrum I also got conned into riding a couple of time trials! The first one I turned up to was cancelled due to a car being in the ditch next to the road, to my slight relief. The second one I turned up to was oversubscribed, unfortunately they let me in (did I just say that out loud?). However I rocked in a very smug 3rd place out of 67 mainly male riders. As I once told my house mate ‘time is irrelevant’ so for this blog that statement stands and times will not be discussed. The final time trial was near my parent’s house in Norfolk on a Sunday morning on a main road. It’s probably the main reason why I don’t like testing. However just to make things ‘more’ interesting they set the riders off in a carefully planned handicap, so basically all the riders would have someone to catch and finish roughly together (Or a peloton as nearly happened). I caught 3 people so once again happy to end my time trialling career on a high but just off the podium in 4th place.

Just because I hadn’t done enough criterium racing we also managed to drop in to the Smithfield Nocturne, in central London. They run an entire evening of racing with a twist. Alongside the usual elite races they popped in some penny farthing races, folding bike races and my favourite, the longest skid competition. Unfortunately you had to have a fixed bike to take part otherwise that would have been my target for the road season! Instead I had to settle for 3rd (Mrs Consistency if nothing else) and a really beautiful set of cappuccino mugs for the most aggressive rider.

After so much short racing it was time to set off to a caravan in Somerset and a men’s 2 day stage race. Our caravan was actually rather nice with 3 bedrooms and an open plan living area, best described as compact and bijous. It’s a pretty good job we are all athletes as its fair to say the rooms were on the smaller side of mini. In fact Annie fell out of her bed 3 times on the first night just by rolling over. However it was in a lovely location near Taunton which made for some great training, when it wasn’t raining!

I haven’t raced against men in such a long time and they are so much more polite than women. They gave us loads of room and even apologised when they slightly cut you up. They also ride very fast when they want to which really did hurt a lot during the 4 stages, in particular the 120km road stage. About half way through the road stage just after the race has split in two on the main climb one of the riders left started chatting to me. He said "oh this must be easier for you than me you weigh a good 25kilos less than me". "Yes", I replied, "but you have a ‘male specific organ’" (or in a shortened more descriptive single word).

Having spent the week in the far southwest of the country we headed off up to the far north of England to the spectacular and cold Northumberland national park. We were staying in a gorgeous farm house in the middle of absolutely no where less than 80kms short of the Scottish border very close to Hadrians Wall. For anyone who doesn’t know what Hadrians wall is. Basically it was built by the Romans a very long time ago once they had taken the best bits of Britain to keep the Scottish people in the cold wet northern wilderness that they enjoy so much. (Disclaimer; I have both friends and relatives from this area of Northumberland and as such am only playing on the stereotypical views of the area for comedy value and love people from Newcastle and Scotland. In fact I love MacDonalds!)

So back to the house, it even had a waterfall at the bottom of the garden and was in such amazing countryside, so open and vast but stunning. We were there to ride the national road race championships on the Sunday. From the day we arrived to the morning we left it only stopped raining for 5 minutes every day which allowed for us to just get out training into the valleys where it seemed to be sunnier and warm. Fortunately on the day of the race it was really nice weather and made for a great race. Lizzie Armitstead took a very deserving title in style, the girl has some serious talent.

In between all the racing and travel I did managed to squeeze in a chocolate cake date with my university friends, seeing all the family and watching Bradley Smith in the Moto GP Moto2 race at Silverstone, which was the most amazing thing ever. The noise is just something else entirely and if you think Sven Nys has a big motor home you should see these boys set ups its unreal. Plus now I’m an expert on reading the screens in the pits as I was too afraid to watch some of the deathly manoeuvres Bradley was making in the driving rain to move from 28th on the grid to 3rd in the race. I’m pretty sure I can now tick motorbike racing off my future career list.

We are now back in Belgium ready for the finally racing block of the road season. In the next month I have a 4-day stage race in the Czech Republic followed by a 7 day stage race in Germany. I do enjoy stage racing but one thing I am really not looking forward to is the team time trial with Hanka Kupfernagel and Sarah Storey, wish me luck!
 

What does a bike rider do on holiday?

Published:

March 11, 2011, 19:47,

Updated:

March 11, 2011, 19:59

By:

Helen Wyman

Plenty of family time and publicity events for Helen

So it's holiday and what does a bike rider do on holiday? Well, plenty of things if you are based in a foreign country and have a lot of people you 'promised' to visit in your home country on the three weeks you have free once a year. Although it never quite runs as smoothly as you want it to and you end up scheduling for a good month before hand (I have previously mentioned my slight...let’s call it...organised side) it’s always good to catch up with the real world.

As all good bike riders should, I started my time off the bike with a little bike race two days in at the indoor race in Hasselt. It's a really fun race so we couldn't not go plus Stef’s sister and family were out visiting us so it was good for their boys to see what 'auntie Helen' does without the usual distractions. Yes, I did say boys. Stef’s sister and her husband have three boys: a six year old, a four year old and a one year old.

When the Sporza commentator suggested that the Koppenberg cyclo-cross was 'too hard' for women he clearly hadn't factored in just how tough women are. Having to give birth and then look after three boys all under the age of six, I could only imagine that would easily make a little bike race a walk in the park...or a cow dung-covered hilly meadow in the Koppenberg’s case!

I'm pretty sure iPhones are a wonderful invention, however I don't like them. More specifically, I dislike the application where you can press random buttons to create repetitive noises such as ‘no way’, or ‘shut up’, or my particular favourite ‘bingooooo’. Whoever invented the application clearly hates children and feels people who decide to have them should suffer the consequences.

I don't have children, however I still had the pleasure of being woken up at 7:30 a.m. every morning by the b...b...b...bingooo button under my adorable nephew's little fingers for the entire week. Lack of sleep aside we did have a really fun week with visits to the aqua park, atomium, a million parks and football grounds and plenty of panokoeken before we headed back to the motherland a few well-rested days later.

Back in England we had a few publicity things planned. First off was at Look Mum No Hands, a really cool cafe in central London. It’s a bike cafe where you can have your bike fixed while you eat/drink and look at arty bike things.

Last week we had a specific night for me and Ian Field (my housemate). It was really interesting to chat to people who love 'cross as much as we do and we raised over 400 pounds for World Bike Relief from a raffle and eBay auction of prizes donated by our very generous sponsors. Everyone seemed to have a good night. It’s always good to just hang out not having to think about tomorrow's training and everything that goes with that such as what you have for dinner and when you go to sleep. Plus, I was able to wear my new birthday shoes which were stunning.

The next day we headed off to Norfolk, where my parents live, for my 30th birthday party and another bike ride. This time the ride was to publicise Black Bikes, a very cool bike shop in Sheringham run by my brother. Despite the slight drizzle 25 people turned out for the 50km ride, although the bribery of cake and tea at the end may have countered the weather. Thankfully, being on holiday I was able to try all of the cakes on offer alongside copious amounts of coffee completely guilt-free.

When I was kid we used to go on holiday all the time in VW camper vans. I remember they were massive and there was always so much room to run around. I realise now size is purely a perception as we had to stay in my parents' camper which turns out is smaller than a child’s bed. The only upside being with the temperature dropping just below zero each night the close proximity kept us warm!

Another great ‘Saunders’ (that’s my maiden name BTW) tradition was that my poor dad had to make me a birthday cake in the shape of whatever I requested every year. Potentially the best cake ever made was the tiger head while the fairy castle finishes a close second. This year, after cake decorating semi-retirement, dad was re-employed by yours truly to create a Ratatouille (from the Disney movie) and Harry cat (my mascot) cake back in January. I thought having given him time to create the masterpiece it would be spectacular. I was not disappointed although a little freaked out when he had taken the cat's body and the rat's head to create a sweet and sticky mush of calories. It was truly amazing and tasted like heaven. Even my brother’s children found it so sweet they couldn't eat a full piece.

While in Norfolk we visited the dinosaur park. Obviously this was purely for my nephew and nieces' benefit. As unbelievable as it may sound Norfolk still has dinosaurs although now they are all kept in captivity for their own safety! We spent hours running around in the woods with the dinosaurs and the neanderthals (locals) and even managed a game of crazy dino golf before we had to leave.

The highlight of the trip by far was racing my brother to the top slide of the life size Dicraeosaurus (yes I Googled its name) with my little niece Millie shouting 'come on auntie Helen there’s loads of room' and my brother wedged against the smallest of the 4 ladders in the legs.

Now we are back to civilisation (down south) at Stef’s parents' house (and real beds) for the rest of the week before heading off to Italy to start training and being a bike rider again. They live near Hitchin so I've had my hair cut, teeth pulled out and eyes tested all in the town. Turns out the manager of the hairdresser's has eight Konas and keeps his body armour at work for inspiration in the coat cupboard. The dentist has done the Cape Argus and my optician rides a Kona to the pub. Genius.

I've still got some friends to visit and being close to the previously mentioned nephews I have a lot of auntie Helen duties to carry out including building a Lego castle so I will be busy. My road season starts on the 24th of April and already I can't wait to start racing again, sad as that may seem.

It feels good to really want to get back on the bike although some of the desire may come from the anticipated sunshine in Riccione. I promise to update throughout the summer with tales from the Horizon Fitness road team as when you put together 12 girls in a team in a foreign country there’s always carnage.

Till then.