For me July looked a little bit like this:

Elite Women’s National Series – Otley GP, Scarborough National Series, a team camp, Elite Women’s National Series – Barnsley and the National Road Champs as well as 3 PB’s and 1 club record in my local club TT’s.

Because it’s been such a busy month and I love the sound of my own keyboard this could be a long one so I hope you’re sitting comfortably…

Otley

So July kicked off with the Elite Women’s National Series race in Otley. Last year I rode in the youth girls race and managed to win in a sprint finish against one other rider, this was one of my best races last year. Whilst the weather resembled the same sunny skies we had in Otley last year I knew my result wasn’t going to, in fact I wasn’t even expecting to finish the race…

(For those of you that maybe aren’t sure, I didn’t expect to finish the race because in elite races near the end of the race, usually with 3-5 laps to go riders that are lapped or beyond a certain amount of time behind the main group (outside the time cut) of the race are pulled from the race to ensure they don’t interfere with the finish).

And indeed I didn’t, despite this I was pleased with my race and the company I found myself riding in. I stayed with the main bunch of riders for 4 1/2 laps before I found myself slipping back through the group until I was no longer in it. I then rode with one other rider for a couple of laps before joining a group and staying with them until we were pulled from the race with 4 to go.

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One of my favourite things about all the town centre races is the atmosphere, it’s always encouraging to have a big crowd making noise and for it to seem like everyone’s enjoying themselves!

Scarborough

Ahhh, Scarborough, the word that fills some with dread and others with excitement.

For me it was a mixture of dread and excitement, last year I had raced at Scarborough for the very first time and actually had a very good day coming 6th in the Youth National Championships. However I knew this year the competition was that little bit tougher and the race was going to be longer.

Our race was scheduled for 90 minutes and we were told it was 2 laps around the top circuit and the remainder of the race on the full circuit. I estimated that this meant 10-12 times up the hill for us. Sure enough we ended up completing 10 laps of the full circuit.

Again I started off with the main bunch but the first time up the hill it all kicked off, I had assumed this was what was going to happen, I had prepared for this by positioning myself near the front of the bunch coming into the hill. However I simply didn’t have the strength to go with it and so ended up with another group of about 7 riders behind the front group which later splintered. Our group split up as well and I ended up riding with one other rider, Sarah Briggs, a rider I’ve known and raced with since U12’s. I finished with her, crossing the line in 14th.

Team Camp

The following weekend CPS had a one day team camp at derby arena which was completely track focussed. We had a workshop on nutrition in the morning which was, as always, very helpful and interesting, nutrition is something I’ve worked on this year. This was followed by a track session focussing on madison and IP in preparation for track nationals. As always the camp was great fun.

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Barnsley

Next up was another Elite Women’s National Series race in the form of Barnsley town centre race. I had never raced this race before and was excited to find out what it was like.

We arrived and went to walk the course, I immediately discovered that the course was more technical than either of the other two town centre races, this was a good thing for me as technical suits me due to my cyclocross and MTB background. Happy with the course I headed back for warm up.

Unfortunately we weren’t as lucky with the weather at Barnsley as we had been a couple of weeks earlier in Otley. It was raining which made for some slippery corners and exciting racing, there was one section of the course in particular which was a paved surface where the effects of the rain were amplified.

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From the start I managed to move up through the group to be near the front. At the bottom of the paved section there was a 90 degree right hand bend and then the road narrowed, on this narrow section the group thinned out causing it to split. I once again ended up in a smaller group behind the main bunch which again split into smaller groups. Our group stayed together for the majority of the race until nearer the end it split. Me and Sarah were together again until going into the last lap when I went with an acceleration from a pair of riders that had just lapped us. I crossed the line in 31st and 5th junior.

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National Road Championships

Now then, this isn’t a race I wish to waste too much detail on. The short version is, it was crap.

The slightly longer version is as follows…

Due to the early race start me and dad headed up the night before and stayed in the luxurious comfort of a travelodge (just kidding, a travelodge is of course the land of 30 minutes of wifi, beige carpets and rooms hotter than hell itself).

The course was pan flat and the weather was miserable, a true reflection of my race.

Once again I started off in the main bunch, I stayed here for 1 1/2 laps before finding myself too far back coming out of one of the corners and ending up out the back with one other rider for company, we pretty much caught the group again but weren’t quite there and ended up out the back for the second time, we were later joined by another rider. We took it in turns to the end of that lap before all 3 of us decided to retire from the race early despite being within the time cut as none of us fancied enduring another 10 miles of flat roads and rain only to be pulled from the race next lap.

I was angry at myself for the stupid mistake for being too far back out of the corner but I knew this wasn’t really the reason for my poor performance, I knew that it was psychological and not physical nor tactical.

To top off the day I had to wait around for several hours before getting my licence back and being able to go home, this was however made ever so slightly better by the cup of tea I got from the HQ.

TT’s

This year I have done a lot more time trialling and have discovered that actually I quite like this branch of the sport. In the past I had believed that I hated time trials, however I now see that this was because the time trials I was doing were 2 minute prologue’s and not real TT’s.

This year I have done my first 10mile, 25mile and 30mile TT’s. I’ve competed in club and open events and even did the National Team Time Trial Championships on my own due to my teammates both being injured!

Recently I set a new PB and club record by over 1 minute for the local hilly 5 mile TT and two new PB’s for the local club 10 mile TT on consecutive weeks. Improving my TT’s was a goal of mine for this year and I’m really pleased to say that I feel I’ve achieved it.

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I’m not going to be racing again now until the start of the cross season in early September as I need a break and have some psychological things I need to sort out, mainly motivation which is something I’ve been lacking a bit recently. I plan to take a quick break from structured training.

I do plan in the future to write a blog post all about the psychological aspect of the sport and my experience in that department.

I’m impressed at you guys that made it all the way through!

That’s it for now fellas!

Amo 🙂

Me

Hello.

I’ve decide that as part of my maturation as a rider and athlete I’m going to start writing a blog all about the sport that takes up a large part of my life – cycling.

So first of all I guess I should write a bit about myself, and so that’s what this blog post is.

My name is Amelie Wayte, or ‘Amo’ for short, I’m 17 and am approaching the end of year 12 at Anthony Gell School.

I am also currently in my first year as a junior rider on the road and track. I ride for a mixed boys and girls cycling team called Cycling Performance Squad (CPS). This year has been the first year for CPS and it currently consists of 3 junior girls, 3 youth (U16) girls and 5 junior boys.

I have really enjoyed riding with this team for the year, I’ve made some great friends and memories with the people I have met, whilst training hard and making progressions as a rider at the same time.

CPS has regular weekend camps every month, these will usually consist of road sessions and track sessions but will sometimes be just one or the other.

Before going any further let’s do a quick recce of memory lane…

So little me started cycling from about the age of 6, my earliest riding didn’t exactly promise a successful future in cycling, in fact my first memory of riding a bike is of little me at a local club coaching session down at the park where I fell in the big pond and mum had to dive in and rescue both me and the bike, whoops.

After I had established the difference between cycling and swimming I became very eager in becoming more involved in the former. So I did. As a youngster I started dragging mum or dad out of bed early on a Saturday morning to attend the local club coaching down at the park.

Moving on a few years and I started cyclocross as a first year U12, it was love at first race as I instantly fell under the spell of this ridiculous discipline of cycling.

I still love cyclocross and race it through the winter, I race both in my local league and the national trophy series all around the country.

Last year I was invited to join the Apprentice scheme with British Cycling. This is the second tier of the Olympic pathway in British Cycling after RSR’s (regional school of Racing) of which I have attended countless over the years. Upon receiving the invitation I was very excited and immediately started practicing my olympic winning celebrations in my head. The year I spent as an apprentice rider I made massive improvements and started to believe that actually, I could be quite good at this cycling thing. I immensely enjoyed my year on the programme and approached it with 110% enthusiasm. Being an apprentice rider and doing my GCSE’s at the same time was a test for me and wasn’t at all easy but I made it through alive to junior racing and A levels.

At the end of the apprentice year I was invited to ‘confirmation camp’, this is where the top few riders from the apprentice scheme (and a few from outside it) are invited to come and display their riding to the Junior Academy coach as well as undergoing testing. At the end of this camp 3-4 riders are selected to move onto the Junior Academy (the third tier in the olympic pathway).

As you have probably already deduced, I wasn’t selected and while disappointment crashed down at the time looking back now I realise that actually, I’m glad that I wasn’t selected, hindsight is a wonderful thing after all. I have enjoyed my year on CPS more than I believe I would’ve on Junior Academy and I have met some people I never would’ve met, shouldn’t enjoyment be the reason we participate in sport after all?

And so that brings us to here. I look forward to what remains of my road and track season for 2019 and begin to think about my second year as a junior in cyclocross, starting in September.

I hope you enjoyed my first ever blog post and will read the ones to come.

Amo 🙂