Hayley Simmonds

In all of my years of pro cycling, today’s ride will go down as one of the more entertaining I’ve been part of.

There was everything… from a specialized tarmac with deep carbon wheels, to an old colnago with mechanical shifting and rim brakes. Plus the unrestricted e-bikes ⚡️
Then there was me… the only girl, with 2 bottles, a pocket full of precision and no mitts 👀
However I got a nod, a handshake and a “bon” from one of the guys on the e-bikes and I don’t think I’ve had me or Matt banned from future club rides.

Turns out, when people shout directions in French from the back of the group, I have no clue whether they’re saying “right” or “straight on” 🫣😂

The other thing I learned today… no matter whether they’re 12 or 72 - boys will be boys.

Well... this was a bit of a baptism of fire to be honest!!

Given that TTs is how I got into cycling in the first place, I realised on the drive to Perpignan that it's been almost 2 years since I raced my TT bike. I only entered this event on the train back from Copenhagen after my half marathon, deciding that TT training had gone okay and I fancied a fun, low pressure race to reintroduce myself to the hurt.

I arrived in the region at 15.00 on Wednesday and headed out on the bike to check out the route. The course had a few km of flat at the start and end but otherwise the remaining 19km was effectively climb-descent-climb-descent.

Given the nature of the descents (the first being narrow and twisty, and the second being exposed and windy) I opted to run my zephyr front wheel rather than the deeper, 100mm Titan.
For some reason, despite working perfectly in warm up (and cool down), I started my race effort and looked at my Garmin to discover no power numbers 🙄. I have zero clue why, though with the course not being one for “average power” it allowed my to just ride on feel - pushing the climbs and recovering on the descents.

A lot of people opted for road bikes and honestly I don’t think it was much of a disadvantage, especially with how windy the last descent ended up being.

I’m really happy I chose this as my first TT back because it was a really fun course, very pretty and a low pressure event. I’ve never done a Gran Fondo race before as I’ve always had UCI points but the atmosphere was super friendly and made the whole day very enjoyable.

And, as a bonus, not only did I win my age category but I won the women’s event overall 🥳 so now I just need to decide whether to add the Wolrd Championships in Japan to my race calendar for the year 🙈

(Early?) Mid-life crisis in full swing! 😂
My first ever running event and strangely really enjoyed it. Only goal was to run sub-2 hours and I finished in an official time of 1:52:17. And yep, I've already registered for next year... 🫣

Ripping off the race band-aid is always painful!! Cold day on the bike and didn't eat or drink enough. Chaotic mass-start which has never been a strong point but slugged my way through. Could tell I was underfuelled when I started swearing at the track and the wind (which picked up A LOT) in the second half.
Literally fell up some wooden steps that you had to walk up...did they mention them in the briefing? Probably but my Danish doesn't extend to that. But on the plus side, only one fallen tree to climb over.
Happy enough with 3rd to start the gravel season.

Woke up to snow this morning...in April. Thank god I packed winter kit for this trip, though neglected to bring merino socks or neoprene overshoes as "feels like -8" was not on my bingo card.
Almost blown into a ditch at one point too. 90 minutes of regretting my life choices and praying for better weather tomorrow.