Since it’s launch back in 2011, Cannondale’s Supersix carbon road bike has gained legions of fans, scoring consistently highly when put through it’s paces in numerous publications.

But though light, stiff and well regarded, the barrier to many has always been the price and the lack of a women’s specific model. So this year, Cannondale have launched the more moderately priced Supersix Evo, with both men’s and women’s models coming in well under £2000.

Naturally, I just had to get my hands on one and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed riding it over the last six weeks. I’d have enjoyed riding it even more if it had ever stopped raining, but beggars/choosers and all that.

If you’d like to read my review of the women’s Supersix Evo, head on over to Total Women’s Cycling.

Now which women’s road bike should I go for next?

Last year I entered my first races, having a go at closed road circuit races, fixed gear crits, cyclocross races and cross-country mountain biking.

Now, from reading this blog, and knowing my background as a pro-snowboarder, you’d be forgiven for thinking that I’m incredibly fit and that racing should come easily to me. WRONG! Back at school, I wasn’t particularly into PE, or any of the traditional school sports. And because of that, I didn’t really consider myself sporty; nuts really when I was going to gymnastics, dance classes, swim club and riding horses every day after school.

The main problem was, I struggled with bog-standard/trad/boring fitness stuff. I was useless at running; I kid you not that I could barely manage 800m around the athletics field, and I found hockey annoying as you had to run so far after the ball, only to turn around and run back in the other direction.

The sports I enjoyed then, and continue to enjoy now, have always been those where exercise is an incidental part of what I’m doing. I’ve never made and effort to get fit, and I’ve never enjoyed punishing workouts. I ride my bike a lot but out of pleasure, rather than any desire to get stronger.

But last year, the few races that I tried made me realise how fast, fit and strong my competitors were, and that just riding however and whenever I felt like it, clearly wasn’t enough. I decided after panting my way around the track, that it would be even more fun if I was faster and in slightly less pain when racing. The only way to achieve this was to train with specific goals using a structured approach.

I decided to enlist the help of a coach. For both financial and logistical reasons, my coach and I wouldn’t actually meet up, I’d just be set weekly training plans which I’d complete on my own, giving feedback about how it was going.

After working out my max heart rate, I began to train using a heart rate monitor and my Garmin, duly setting off to complete the appropriate ride on the day marked out on my chart.

The first couple of weeks were quite fun; I really enjoyed the fact that I ‘had’ to ride as it meant I prioritised cycling over other distractions, and I was able to make the excuse, ‘I have to train,’ before disappearing off on my bike without doing the washing up.

But after my first fortnight, I noticed a change, and not a good one: when I went out riding, I couldn’t stop watching the bloody Garmin and seeing how many minutes I’d ridden, or how many I had left to do.

Fairly often, when riding at a challenging pace I’d keep looking at the clock, and thinking ‘god, have I only done 25 minutes?’ Time seemed to go really slowly, cycling began to seem harder and I became fixated by the time and my heart rate to the exclusion of all else. I could be cycling along Devon’s picturesque coast and I wouldn’t be enjoying the sensation of freedom I normally loved, I wouldn’t be enjoying ‘letting go,’ and settling into a hypnotic rhythm.

Normally, when I ride, I set off wherever I fancy, then add in extra bits when I see somewhere I like the look off, sometimes chucking in a few hills just for the sake of a coastal view, often riding for an extra couple of hours just because the sun is shining and I’m enjoying myself. But with a set amount of time that I ‘had’ to log, when I realised that I hadn’t ridden for long enough and had to chuck in an extra loop before home, I’d really resent it.

Setting a goal of riding for say, two hours at a certain intensity was making me feel far less like riding for two hours. If I just set off for a ride and happened to start enjoying pushing myself, I could quite easily ride at an even greater intensity for three hours, just because I felt like it, but tell me I had to, and I just didn’t want to!

The last thing I wanted was to spoil one of my favourite activities, and trying to achieve these goals, was doing just that. So I very quickly threw in the towel in and quit my training regime, almost before it really started.

So now I’m back to riding for pleasure, and without any goals in place, I’m always eager to jump of my bike! I’d quite happily ride my road bike all morning, then jump on my mountain bike or BMX all morning. I just love riding!

So, sure, I could be much faster if I’d stuck with my training plan, but it takes a certain kind of person to enjoy heart rate training/torture and I’m not one of them. Secretly, I’d like to be stronger, but it seems like the only way to get there is to knuckle down and do stuff that I don’t like doing. So I’ll remain slower than I could have been, but I’ll remain happy and keep smiling every time I go for a ride.

Fixed Days started off as a few fixed gear shenanigans over at Eurobike in 2010. Now bigger and better, Fixed Days is an event in it’s own right, and takes place annually in Berlin.

I’ve never been, so I’m not saying this with much authority, but I think the weekend pretty much revolves around all sorts of fairly lighthearted, fun, fixed gear races, rides and events. I’m super pleased that this year, I’m travelling over to Berlin with Mr Bikes-N-Stuff to find out for myself.

According to the website, this year Fixed Days will host a Minidrome, Junkyard Race, Bikepolo (not strictly fixed), Parties and a Sunday Brunch for all riders. But there will also be a Cityride, FGFS Best Trick contest (indoor), FGFS Trick Tour (outdoor), Alleycat and more.The only shame is, that as I can only travel with one kind of bike, I might not be best placed to enter all the events!

I’m Facebook pals with a lot of female fixed gear riders, some of whom travelled to the Red Hook Crit in Barcelona, and we’ve long been talking about meeting up and racing. I’ve just found out that the fixed gear crit, Rad Rad Race will have a stand alone women’s race, so it looks like we’re on. From what I understand, it’s a knock out race on a go-kart course, the slowest of each group being eliminated until only the winner remains. Can’t wait to meet y’all! I might be the first one out thanks to my lack of training, haha.

A couple of weeks back, a plan was hatched – myself, Anna Glowinski, Manon Carpenter and Suzanne Lacey decided on a Welsh adventure, taking in Bike Park Wales and the brand new Rampworks skatepark in Cardiff.

I’ve been trying out Orange Bikes’ new female specific Alpine 160 Diva, so I chucked her in the car, along with my BMX and began the long drive up to Wales’ newest mountain bike trail centre, over excited as I’d wanted to ride BPW ever since it opened last year.

There were a few problems once I arrived – due to a glitch in the system my payment hadn’t gone though and I wasn’t booked on the uplift with the others, but thankfully all was sorted just as I became teary eyed, so we jumped in the bus and headed up to check out the first of BPW’s many trails.

The trails, built and maintained by a professional crew were full of superb, swooping berms, step – downs, rock gardens and muddy, rooty sections with plenty to keep us entertained. We blasted off straight down a red run, before returning to tackle a black, then shot down a blue trail that was so well shaped and cared for that you could just hammer it! The day was amazing, I was in heaven!

So why is riding with women awesome? Well lets be honest; sometimes, as a lone women in either mountain biking, BMX, skateboarding or similar sports, the mere fact that you’re riding is impressive enough – people still don’t really expect it, so just hit a jump or a gnarly section and folks think, ‘fair play!’ Unfortunately that attitude can rub off on you, and as expectations are so low, you end up having low standards yourself, thinking, ‘at least I’m hitting this, that’s pretty cool for a girl.’

Riding with Manon and Anna, that went out the window. Good enough was not good enough. The bar was raised and I wanted to ride as well as they did. But it wasn’t about competition, riding with these ladies just normalised being a really strong, fast (female) rider and that stopped me nibbling around and thinking ‘at least I’m getting down this.’ Watching the girls boosted my confidence, it made me feel strong, and competent too, dispelling the myth that as women, we’d naturally be slower than the boys.

After a full day of riding at Bike Park Wales, we headed back to Manon’s for some food, before going to Rampworld Cardiff, a huge new skatepark owned by Manon’s dad, who is totally awesome! The place isn’t entirely finished, but the rhythm section/jump boxes were good to go, as was the bowl, the foam pit and resi. I loved the bowled section at the end of the jump boxes which span you around and sent you back towards a step-up, a step-down, and another step up.

Suzanne had to head back home, but Jess Greaves joined us for a shred, and before long we were filming trains over the boxes, not content just to air them, but chucking in a bit of style and some tweaks as well. Like before, riding with these ladies made me ride better too; by seeing what’s possible, you believe it’s possible for you too. Plus I couldn’t get away with just half-heartedly hitting a box and being ‘good for a girl’ -when riding with these ladies, ‘good for a girl,’ is very good indeed!

I’ve been harping on for years now about positive role models for women, the importance of female only events, and creating bespoke initiatives for encouraging women to get involved in sports, and I’ve always known it makes sense, but the couple of days I spent in Wales showed what riding with other women could do for me, someone who is already involved and already passionate about bikes. There’s just something about hitting up parks with a gang of girls, I always have the best time, and it’s a shame we don’t get to do it that much – groups of lads have the luxury of always having a crew to ride with.

I so desperately wish it was something that happened more often. Because riding with women is awesome!!!

I’ve been meaning to post a little about my Charge Ti Plug for absolutely ages, but you know how it is; I just ended up riding it instead.

The Plug was one of the first affordable fixed gear bikes on the market, with Charge being at the forefront of the new trend for consumer friendly, off-the-peg, fixed gear city bikes, as opposed to fixed gear bikes designed for the track.

Charge don’t fuss about with carbon or aluminium, and alongside their iconic steel frames, one thing that they do amazingly well is produce high-end titanium frames, such as this one, and the Freezer Ti cyclocross machine.

This is my favourite bike for riding in London, and the one which I used for the Nocturne Fixed Gear Crit last year. It’s a custom machine, with some rather sweet parts. Quite frankly, I shit myself every time I lock it up in London, as it looks so damn nice!

So here’s what makes it so nice:

Frame: Charge ‘Ti Plug’
Fork: Renolds ‘Ouzo Pro Track’
Rims: Velocity ‘Deep V’
Hubs: Phil Wood
Seatpost: Thomson
Saddle: Brooks ‘Cambium’
Stem: Cinelli ‘Vai’
Bars: Cinelli ‘Lola’
Headset: Chris King
Tape: Brooks
Seatpost clamp: Hope
Cranks: Sugino 75
Pedals: Something or other – depend on what I’m riding – Time Atac, Look Keos, or generic flat pedals
Tyres: Freedom (WTB) ‘Thickslick’

I was dead chuffed to find out that I’m a finalist in this year’s Total Womens Cycling Awards! Yep, I do actually write for Total Women’s Cycling, but there’s been strictly no insider trading or fishy business, as the awards have been voted for by the general public.

Nonetheless, I had to quiz my boyfriend, asking him whether he’s nominated me, or asked any of his friends to do so. Turns out, he hadn’t even voted at all – charming! Ditto, Mum and Dad!

Anyway, Bikes n’ Stuff is in the running for Best Women’s Cycling Blog Of The Year, thanks to you, my sneaky readers, who voted me in without me knowing anything about it. Voting has now closed, so if you could all follow up on your good deed by crossing fingers and toes for the win, that would be very nice. See you at the London Bike Show where the winners will be announced.

T H A N K  Y O U !

Going on a bike tour? Alongside planning your route, carefully selecting your cycle touring kit is one of the most important parts of preparing for a two-wheeled adventure.

It sounds obvious, but you’ll have to carry whatever you bring so it’s worth selecting well thought out, lightweight essentials and doing away with any unnecessary items. That being said, you don’t want to find yourself in the middle of nowhere, underprepared and miserable, so be sure to include a few basics to make your journey run smoothly.

I recently penned a piece detailing the best bits of  kit for a cycle touring trip, the ones that I love and wouldn’t want to leave behind. Head on over to Total Women’s Cycling to find out what makes it into my panniers when I head off on an adventure.

And stay tuned for a closer look at some of my equipment, ahead of my trip to Japan and a review of the Ortlieb Bikepacker Plus panniers and Tubus rack shown on my Charge Plug in the picture above. I’ll be making a few excursions the UK just as soon as the weather improves!

I recently tried out one of Orange Bikes’ brand new women’s specific models, an all mountain machine full of fun which quite frankly, I wish I could have kept for longer!

After taking it out round Devon, and to Bike Park Wales, I reviewed the Orange Alpine 160 Diva for Total Women’s Cycling. Check out the full review here.

I am super duper beyond totally amazingly over exited to be a finalist in Road.cc and Trek’s design a bike contest!

The contest invited readers to design their dream machine using Trek’s Project One custom bike designer, so I began with the Domane WSD then maxed out on day-glo colours to make something totally badass and unique.

25 finallists have been chosen from the 6000 entries and now it’s down to readers to vote for which one they’d like to see made.

I can’t even put into words how over the moon I’d be to win this bike! Would you consider voting for me so this dream can come a reality? Just click on the link and ‘like’ my design. I’ll probably cry happy tears if I win, I kid you not, it would make my decade!!!! http://road.cc/content/news/110710-trek-project-one-competition-voting-now-open

I’m having one of those days. Those days hit me like a sock in the face, sending me spinning and tumbling like a leaf in storm before I settle exhausted at the bottom of a pit. I’ve had days like these since I was a teenager, dipping in and out of brief, or sometimes extended periods of feeling very, very down. From what I know, it’s pretty common amongst action sports athletes and enthusiasts, with many using the all-consuming nature of these sports to distract them, and it’s also why many cyclists enjoy the release of zipping through the countryside on their bikes.

When I was younger, not only was I less aware of what was going on, I was also a bit of a goth, so stewing in a heap of doom was almost a rite of passage. These days, I actively make an event to stave off feelings of (often quite extreme) negativity, and If I find myself slipping, I do my upmost to halt the slide down the slippery slope.

The number one best thing in the world to life my mood is cycling. I never, ever regret riding my bike, even if I’m not sure I want to do it when I’m setting off, but cycling has been pretty challenging this winter – most of Devon is flooded and it never stops raining. The other thing I like to do is to take a moment to think about all the great stuff in my life, and all the cool things I have planned for the year. Making an effort to appreciate the good is a winning and  well-known exercise in adjusting your mood. Depression isn’t linked to a lack of gratitude about your life and your loved ones, (I never doubt that I’m a very fortunate person) but the act of listing the good tops up your brain with positive thoughts, helping to redress the balance. So here’s what amazing, wonderful, brilliant stuff I have coming up this year.

• First up, Fixed Days in Berlin – a weekend of fixed gear shenanigans in one of the coolest cities in the world. AND I’m hoping to meet lots of the fixed gear ladies I’ve been chatting to on the ‘net.

• Later in March, I’m doing my level 2 British Cycling coaching training, which is superb as a closed road circuit and outdoor velodrome is due to open in Torbay later this year, and I plan on running some women’s sessions.

• In May, myself and Dave Noakes are off to Japan, for three weeks cycle touring. I’ve wanted to visit Japan for so many years, and to do so with my fiancé and my bike… well, how wonderful is that. We’ve been learning Japanese, planning a route taking in mountains, coast and cities and countryside and testing out lots of kit in advance of departure. I’m so excited!

• June brings the first ever Eroica Britannia, and it’s taking place in the beautiful Peak District where I grew up. I’ll be part of the Coven Magazine team, and we’re going to run a competition to win a place and join us. I’m really looking forward to this event; I’ve heard that you receive a Bakewell Pudding when you cross the finish line, and the size of your pudding depends which length ride you completed!

• July, well that’s the big one; I’m getting married. I’ve put in an official request for sunshine, so if the weather could just play ball whilst we say our vows, that would be lovely! And if the cats could stop nesting in my wedding dress, I’d appreciate it – I had to hide it from Dave, but the pesky felines found it and covered it in fur. Bah! I can’t wait to see all my family and friends, drink lots of ales, and kiss my husband.

• August, well I’ve nothing in particular planned, but I live near some of the best spots for swimming in the UK – the River Dart is dotted with natural plunge pools, with rope swings slung up along it’s banks. Then there’s the sea just down the road, so yep, August should be nice, particularly if the weather is anything like last year. And summer means surfing too!

• Actually, I tell a lie, in August I’m going to Dublin to ride one of the Bluegrass Enduro events, and I think my pal Anna Glowinksi will be joining me too – she’ll be battling it out for top place, I’ll be battling it out for last, as I’ve never done an Enduro competition before!

• Which brings me to September….In September, I’ll be joining Ride Across Britain, a nine day, 969 mile bike ride from one end of Britain to the other. With an average of 108 miles per day and 15,000 metres of climbing, this is going to be really, really hard and there’s no way I can do it without riding A LOT beforehand. I’m be posting details of how I’m getting on it the run up to the event, and if anyone has any pointers, I’d love to hear them. This will be the furthest I’ve ever ridden.

So with my mind awash with exciting plans. What have you got in store for 2014? Is there anything else I should squeeze in? Do you find cycling helps you manage your mood too? Leave me a comment below!

Legendary British saddle makers, Brooks have a long heritage of producing a large range of beautifully crafted leather saddles, so it came as a surprise to everyone when they announced the launch of a brand new vegan offering made from an unusual material for a saddle – rubber.

I was lucky enough to try one of these recently, and wrote a few short words about it for my pals over at Kinoko Custom Cycles. Head on over to their blog for a couple more snaps.

I can’t lie – getting to grips with riding a velodrome is tricky. No, not because it’s actually hard to pedal continuous anti-clockwise circles, it’s just hard to get on the bloody thing.

Myself and Dave have both spent many hours, well, years in fact, pedalling around on fixed gear bikes, but it was only last year that we finally had the chance to ride our bikes on an indoor track as there just aren’t that many in the UK, and we never had a car before. As we’re down in the South West these days, we decided to take the plunge and head over to Newport, our nearest velodrome, which is just over two hours away, but just wanting to go isn’t enough; oh no, it’s by no means that simple.

The problem is, you can’t just rock up and give it a go whenever you please, and rightly so, as riding with untrained novices can be pretty sketchy, so if you want to get into riding velodromes you need to either sign up for a beginners course or sneak in by attending a private session. As the beginner’s course are always totally over-subsribed with huge waiting lists, myself and Dave have been attending private sessions for a while, but that means that we we’re still not accredited and therefore not allowed to attend any of the open drop in sessions or the track league.

So, we had to go right back to the start and begin the process of accreditation by attending one of Newport’s beginner’s courses. These are SO much more terrifying than the private sessions we’ve been attending as many people are extremely nervous about when taking their first steps, or pedals on the track, with many people struggling to hold a line or keep a constant speed. I kid you not when, the last session I attended was one of the most frightening things I’ve ever done – who’d have thought that riding incredibly slowly could be so scary…. my wheel slipped out twice because we were going at about one mile an hour.

Anyway, it’s done now, so next step is accreditation and after that we’ll be able to go to the open sessions, well at least when we can afford the petrol for a four hour round trip. And then I’ll be scared but for another reason! Ah man, I love it though, I wish the track was closer, I swear I could just pedal round and around for hours on end, there’s something incredibly soothing about it, eyes fixed on the wheel in front, the whirr of the wheels like a metronome…bliss.

What a should be doing:

writing a shed load of articles I have stacked up, finishing laying out the next issue of Coven, emailing councillors about the skatepark and youth cafe we’re developing in Newton Abbot, having two Skype meetings, juggling money between credit cards, sending some invoices, shooting some photos.

What I’ve actually been doing is trying out my new Evoc bike bag… well, I just wanted to check whether it suits my track bike because I’m going to Berlin next month, and the answer is a resounding yes. Awesome, as I’ve had some pretty crumby bags in the past!

I wanted to try out a new lens for my camera (in case you’re interested, I’m not convinced it’s any good), so Dave and I snapped a few pictures of him wearing one of his many Velodeath shirts.

So who are Velodeath? Well, they’re based in San Paulo and make awesome t-shirts, such as the one I’m wearing below, other than that, well all I know is that they ride bikes, listen to good music and generally seem like the kind of people I’d really get on with. Shame then, that they’re way over the other side of the planet. Anyhoo, if you want to find out more and VLDT, then check out their website here or take a look at their Facebook page here.

It was all worth it! The sleepless nights wondering whether my design would be picked, the ceaseless pestering of friends and family…. I won the Road CC x Trek Project One competition! Thanks so much to everyone that voted for my design!

To recap on what the competition entailed – Entrants were asked to design their dream bike using Trek’s Project One bike builder, which could be anything using a variety of frames, wheels, components and colours. I decided to go for the most garish colour scheme I could think of, the reasoning being that I should take the opportunity to design something totally unique. I tinkered around with combinations until my bike came in under budget, which meant going for the cheapest bars and stem in order to save money for the wheel set.

From a total of 6000 entries, Trek and Road CC picked 25 finalists whose designs were then put up for public vote. And thanks too everyone that voted, mine came out on top, which means I get to have my bike built! I’m so excited about riding this awesome looking machine; I’ve heard it’s at the painters as we speak, so fingers crossed I’ll be getting it soon. So just as soon as it’s here and I’ve recovered from a bout of some annoying and mysterious illness that’s stopped me riding since last week, I’ll be putting in a lot of miles on this machine, not least as I’m doing Ride Across Britain this year. Whoop!

Ok, so we’re not Italians, but Met Helmets are, and last year they were kind enough to invite Dave Noakes and I to visit the beautiful area that they call home.

Lake Como is not only home to the mega rich, but also can in some ways be described as the spiritual home of cycling, well in Italy at least. The area is a road cyclist’s dream, with landmarks such as Madonna Del Ghisallo, ‘the church of cycling,’ the legendary Muro Di Sormano and a little further away from the Lake, the Splugen Pass.

The trip was an absolute blast, and we had a great time riding around the region, me on my Charge ‘Filter,’ and Dave on a Moda Stretto. Take a look at the video here, or read a little more about the trip here.

As always, a massive thanks to Jean-Pierre from Met, and our cinematographer Gian Luca, both of whom are awesome human beings and made sure we had a brilliant time.

Last summer was so goddam amazing that we were forced to pay for its radness by enduring a shitty winter. Ok, so it never really got cold, but it began raining before Christmas and truly didn’t stop until the end of February. I’m not even kidding, the BBC recently confirmed that this winter was the wettest since records began. It was also one of the stormiest winters in many years, in fact so stormy that the main railway line in and out of Devon was washed away entirely. And no, it’s not been fixed yet.

But joy! Just this weekend, the sun blessed us with her shiny face and everyone jumped on their bikes, myself included. Dave and I had been dying to try out some of the gear we might be using cycle touring, so we loaded up the bikes with beer, a BBQ and Linda McCartney burgers and headed along the coast to see how our bikes and gear performed.

I’ll be posting reviews of some of the gear we try out along the way, both here and on Total Women’s Cycling, as well as explaining more about what we’re packing for our cycle tour of Japan and what bikes we’ll be riding, so stay tuned for that.

But for now, here are a few pics of Dave on his Charge Plug 4, with a fresh Brooks ‘swift’ saddle, Ortlieb ‘Bikepacker Plus’ panniers and a Tubus rack. He’s also giving the new PEdALED kit a first outing, to check whether it’s going to be comfortable once we’re on the road. We’re both planning on packing extremely lightly, hence the need to test all of our kit thoroughly beforehand to ensure everything works perfectly.

Long may this wonderful weather last. I love Devon in the sunshine!

Wow, my life is pretty mental sometimes. I’m in Austria at the moment shooting snowboard photos for Redbull, and just last weekend I was in Berlin riding, racing and being photographed by Met Helmets. I’ve been dying to write something about the Berlin trip all week long as it was just so awesome, but I’ve literally not had a spare second!

So, last week I went over to Fixed Days, a fixed gear event (funnily enough!) that runs alongside the Berlin Bike Show. I always love visiting Berlin, it’s a great city to ride in, although you have to be careful if riding fixed brakeless – the cops are pretty on it and could nab your bike and fine you if they manage to catch you. Anyway, the first night, Dave and I decided to have a bash at the sprints that were taking place in a secret tunnel around the back of the show. There was a really good turn out so I was pretty chuffed to come second, and also to meet some of the other European fixed gear ladies who I’ve been in touch with over Facebook. On Saturday, Dave and I were up and at it really early to get cracking on Met Helmets catalogue shoot. The guys wanted to get a variety of shots on different bikes, so we ended up hiring some city bikes from the hotel to go for a cruise Later that afternoon, we headed down to the fixed gear crit, Rad Race. The guys at Rad Race have a few crits lined up this summer, but this was their first one and it was great to meet them and be involved from the start. They did such a superb job! My only complaint would be the fact we had to wear these really awful coloured ‘buffs’ on our helmets when we raced, so we all looked quite stupid! The race itself took place on a go kart course, and as enough of us ladies had entered, we had our own women’s category – thank god, because it sucks racing with the lads, and we don’t like being an after thought! The format saw eight riders go head to head on the course, with the last rider to cross the line being pulled out each lap. From there, the top four went through to the next round where they raced again under the same conditions. Despite the fact I was quite nervous – I’m not a natural racer – I made it through to the finals and lined up against the other seven qualifiers. You had to start with one foot on the ground, rather than trackstanding and my first concern was that I’d fail to get my foot clicked in first time. As the organisers counted down, we readied ourselves in anticipation, and then ‘boom,’ we were off! Only I wasn’t off, because I was knocked straight to the ground as everyone hustled to get going. As I hit the deck, I was absolutely gutted – the final was at 11pm and I’d been waiting all day, having arrived at 4pm so that Dave could have his practice laps. For one brief moment I thought, ‘balls! It’s all over!’ and felt really pissed off, but in a split second I’d changed my mind, thinking instead, ‘no it’s bloody well not!’ Though I was in eight/last place, I scrambled back on to my bike and blasted off in pursuit of the other riders. I knew that I had to overtake one rider in order to avoid being knocked out at the end of the first lap for crossing the line last. I just felt a huge surge of determination and knew that I was not going to allow myself to fail immediately.

by Jonas Klock

As I blasted around the first corner, I realised my saddle had moved and was now pointing 90 degrees to the right which was making it nearly impossible to ride. Still in pursuit of the other riders, I kept sprinting whilst whacking my saddle back towards the centre with one hand. Once it was sort of back in the middle, I made it my mission to pick off a few of the riders in front of me. And I did! Sprinting my guts out, I managed to pass all the riders except for the first two, going from eight to third place. When I had the first and second riders in my sights, I was so winded from sprinting so hard after my fall that I didn’t have it in me to try and pass them as well, so I cruised round for my last lap, just super, super happy that I’d done as well as I did. So I came third! I could hardly speak afterwards I felt so done in, but I managed to regain my breath just enough to smile and say thank you for some AWESOME prizes, including a really nice cycle kit from eight bar and a jacket from Iriedaily. SWEET! The following day, it was back to shooting with Met Helmets. As I’d fallen to the right in the Rad Race, Dave took upon himself to knock me off to the left, just to even out my whiplash. God job I was wearing a helmet, as I didn’t have whack my head! After another full day of shooting, we headed up to Berlin velodrome for a few last shots before Jean Pierre from Met took us out to a restaurant, and a vegan one no less; I was pretty amped on that and really appreciated the gesture. On Monday, we went for bit of a cruise before flying home, and I couldn’t resist wearing my new absolutely fantastic favourite jacket of all time that Neza from Blind Chic gave me at the Berlin Bike Show. Thank you, I love it!

I recently reviewed the Ortlieb Bike Packer Plus panniers for Total Women’s Cycling. They’re some of the nicest I’ve tried, and some of the best looking too.

Head on over there to see why I like them, or if you can’t be bothered, I’ll tell you why right now – they have pockets. Simple, huh? I can’t fathom why some don’t.

Finally, I have time for another update and can share the next instalment in my European work/fun/happy time fortnight!

After a hectic weekend in Berlin I had a teeny weeny stopover chez moi; just long enough to cuddle our four cats, have a proper cuppa and feast on toast and marmite. About eight hours later, I headed out to Austria for my next adventure, in Kaprun.

Zell Am See. © Juliet Elliott

Red Bull Shr3d is a three day snowboarding event which sees teams of three riders go head to head to produce an edit and a collection of photos. Each team is headed up by a pro, ours being Aimee Fuller. Alongside the two amateur riders that made up our team of shredders, I was joined by Hannah Bailey who was tasked with filming and editing the video.

Aimee Fuller © Juliet Elliott & Red Bull Content Pool

Aimee Fuller © Juliet Elliott & Red Bull Content Pool

Shooting up on the Kitzsteihorn was absolutely brilliant, not least as I’d hired some extra lenses to play with, one of which which totally superb. I had to edit and upload my best shots daily to Red Bull Content Pool, so I was pretty much working from 8am – 10pm daily, but hey, at least I was basking in the sun whilst doing it!

Me & one of my pics. Photo by Aimee Fuller

Shooting on Kitzsteinhorn – Pic by Hannah Bailey

My getting my shred on – Pic By Aimee Fuller

On the final day of the trip, I managed to squeeze in a quick half day of snowboarding with Aimee and Stef, which was so much fun that I can’t actually find words to describe it. Kitzsteinhorn was really good, with a 22ft pipe, loads of boxes, rails and kickers; I’m definitely planning to go again. On my last run down the hill I felt a real stab of sadness knowing that I might not get to go snowboarding again this season.

If you’d like to check out more of the pictures that I took, head on over to Coven Magazine and check ‘em out.